Team Red Barons,
I wanted to reach out and let everyone know that, after much pondering and discussion with my wife and with my son Evan, I've decided not to coach the Red Barons this Spring. I've been coaching this team for 7 or 8 years now and it's very hard to walk away. This has been an extremely difficult decision to make. I absolutely love coaching, love the kids I've had the opportunity to work with and the friendships and bonds we've been able to cultivate over the years!
This last season was one of my favorites! We had an amazing group of boys (and parents), Leslie DeShazer was awesome as our Team Mom, and I had Don Lowe and Eric Austenfeld helping me out with the coaching. This Fall, we played up a year, so we could keep Tanner and TJ on our team (with the new age restrictions) and unexpectedly got put in the top division, where the most competitive teams were. I was initially concerned that we we'd have some difficulty but the boys worked hard and stepped up their game, winning more than half of them. I couldn't be more proud of them.
I can't say I won't ever coach the Red Barons again but for now I'm going to step away and focus on coaching my 7 year old daughter's soccer team. Evan has talked about wanting to play baseball this Spring as well, so I might help out a little with that if he plays and I'm planning on continuing to coach the 5/6 grade basketball team for the rest of this Winter season and next year as well. I'm also looking forward to having a little more time with my wife and kids. Coaching two teams at once has been as difficult on them than it has me. :-)
Anyway, I hope everyone will stay in contact and keep me posted on how they're doing. If we're not friends on facebook, please reach out, so we can keep in touch. Spring Season Soccer Registration is coming up in a couple days (January 15th) and my hope is that all of the boys will continue to play, even if it's with a different team and coach. Soccer has become one of my favorite sports and it's so good to have the kids out there working hard, exercising, learning teamwork, making decisions, and establishing good friendships!
Please take one last look at our team blog, when you get a chance, and download any pictures you'd like to have from last season or the last few seasons. You don't have to sign up for Dropbox to view or download the pictures, just skip the registration part. www.cwredbarons.blogspot.com
Thanks again everyone!
Coach Ben
