Coach Terry

The following was written by one of Terry's former soccer players. I believe he wrote it for school. He is now in Junior High. I am posting it as it was sent to me.

You never know when people or kids are watching you. It makes me proud to know that my love has impacted lives in the way that he has. This child has my husband pegged and I am grateful that someone so young understands what Terry is all about.....I must say this brought tears to my eyes.

Battle Wounds

“Don't Worry it's just a ba-el oound”. Coach Terry would say this as we limped off the field with a bloody leg, a black eye, or just an itsy-bitsy mosquito bite. Coach Terry has a strong, sturdy frame boasting broad shoulders. Coach keeps his brown hair short to keep the sweat off his childish, yet experienced facial expressions. Coach Terry has the eyes of a strong leader that give you a sense of strength and security.

Coach Terry's daughter, Bella, is a big part of his life. He used to work at a job downtown and coach our Division 1 soccer team. He's played soccer his whole life. Coach Terry put aside time to coach our youth soccer team. It was his dedication. Coach Terry's life was soccer until he had Bella. Instead of coaching another year, he quit his coaching job and became a dad. Coach Terry treated each one of his kids on the soccer team as individuals. He befriended his team and gained their trust. He gave us all nicknames and learned what we did outside of soccer and just became an important person in his players' lives. He was never our coach after the first week. He was our friend.

He was always frustrated at anyone who did not try and give everything their all. He would get angry and eventually fuming as almost as hot as the devil himself towards the ones who did not try. He often said, “As long as you try and give everything that you have.” Coach Terry wanted everything at top speed. He made us run and run until we had to puke. If you could not run you would try to limp, try to crawl, and try to do anything he said. As long as you tried the devil inside of my coach would not come out.

We threw a surprise baby shower for our coach as sort of joke and for fun. He was very surprised but he quickly accepted himself and his wife as the stars as they were meant to be instead of being shy and leaving quickly. We had a great time and there were many jokes and laughter exchanged. There was cake, tons of presents, and small little booties given to Coach Terry and his wife Emily.

When Coach Terry told us that he was going to not be coming back, our faces turned cold and saddened. It was a heart-wrenching moment, with as many as a few teardrops.

Coach Terry has taught me to always have a strong work ethic. Coach Terry always ran us as hard as he could. He always had a positive attitude while we ran. We were always supposed to give it our all when we were running. During the parts of our practice when we ran, Coach Terry praised the slow kid that was going as fast as he could and you could see the stress on the slow kid's face as he ran. Apposed to the fast kid that went at whatever speed he wanted to and had an attitude of “I am faster then you and you better know it.” He never had a word of praise for the fast kid with the attitude. You will never hear a negative thing coming from his mouth, unless the words are of the necessary kind. When we were running, it would look like he was torturing us and screaming his lungs out. Coach Terry was actually praising us and telling us what a good job.

Once he left the soccer team for his daughter, I asked him if we could do some personal training sessions. He accepted. At the beginning we started to pass the soccer ball around just to warm up. I told him what was going on with our new coach and how our soccer team was doing. We started to joke around and just play with the ball. It was a very humorous first few minutes. After we were warmed up we began to start to get into some more serious work out drills with the ball. We had serious faces but we still were messing around a little bit. Although we were messing around we were also doing lots of sit-ups, running, shooting, and push-ups. During the whole time under Coach Terry my work ethic grew immensely and I learned to give everything my all.

Coach Terry also taught me by example what is meaningful in life. He showed me that family and love was the most important part of the path that we are going to go walk. By choosing Bella over soccer and coaching he showed me how to get my priorities straight in life. By looking at Coach Terry's life, it can help me decide where I want to go in my life.