Life After College Soccer

There is no me without soccer, that much is for sure. Nearly all of the close friendships and incredible memories that pepper my past have a deep tie to the sport I love. It’s no wonder then that when the time came to hang up my cleats and gloves (reluctantly I might add), there was no doubt about the next step in my career, college coaching.

I’ve been in the college game now in a coaching capacity for about three years, and there are still some days it feels surreal. I wonder how I got so lucky to continue to be a part of the incredible development platform college athletics provides. More so than anything, the transition has granted me an amazing opportunity to reflect, to dissect and to share what it can be like when you get your head above the tumultuous water that is college life and see clearly on the other side.

College soccer can feel all encompassing. It can feel as though it and it alone will dictate the trajectory of your life. It is with great joy I reveal to you that in fact the lessons you learn from your college career, the ways in which you handle difficult times and the mistakes you make, will much more accurately paint the picture of your life to come than the goals you score and the games you win (or lose in my case).

Reread that sentence. You are not your wins and losses. You are not your all-conference accolades (or lack thereof). You are not your missed goals, missed tackles or missed fitness requirements. You are the person who emerges from these moments. You are the product of a once-in-a-lifetime experience that has molded and shaped the person you will be in this world, and what a great privilege that is.

I can look back now and appreciate the many adventures I experienced with teammates, the heartbreaks of defeat, the late night bus ride karaoke battles and the numerous (yes, numerous) times I wish I had done this instead of that and value each for what they have given my life: Fun. Laughter. Disappointment. Frustration. Hardship. Friendship. Leadership.

My college experience gave me a true scope of life in four short years and four quick seasons. Victory and defeat. Right and wrong. Life: in all its beauty and all its tribulation.

These moments, and the lessons they granted me, endure far past the conceded goals or petty arguments with teammates. Now, as a coach, I enjoy the reality that hindsight is 20/20. I am granted the opportunity to share with my players the happy truth that these are moments they will not want to let pass by. Rather than just seizing them, to put them into perspective. To enjoy them and learn from them. To be reminded that this beautiful sport gives more than it takes.

These days, instead of preparing for my fitness test, I’m preparing the fitness test. Instead of getting the gear, I’m separating and distributing it. Instead of preparing to “get on the line!” I’m painting it. My how things change, but what this sport gives me, the vitality it brings to my time on this earth, that sure does not. I am incredibly thankful that life’s roads have taken me on this path of coaching so that I can continue to remind and be reminded of what this great game can mean in our lives.