First off, this isn't one of those typical articles where you rip on your high school coach for ruining your favorite sport for you. It's actually the exact opposite. My high school coach made my love for the game stronger than I could ever imagine. Coming into freshman year, obviously I had heard the horror stories about high school coaches, and naturally I was terrified. I quickly came to realization that my worries were pointless.

From the very start my coach did everything in his power to ease us into the transition, and make us feel apart of the team. Preseason sucked obviously, but not a day went by where my coach didn't try and incorporate some kind of bonding to help us feel more welcome. Team bonding was a must where I come from, and I couldn't be more thankful to have a coach who pushed so hard for a team who always would have each others backs.

Not only did my coach want us to always be there for one another, he himself wanted to be there for us as well. There were numerous times when my coach and I had to have a chat about my attitude, my laziness or the fact that I was literally as slow as a turtle. But these weren't the only chats we had, obviously we had talks about the things I was doing well. The thing that left the biggest impact on me was not the conversations we had about soccer though. My coach always made the effort to find out how my day went, and to make it known to me that he genuinely cared. I had never found that in a coach before.

My coach was someone who not only wanted to further my knowledge of soccer, but he also wanted to make me and every other player a better person. He wasn't just there for the paycheck, and that was obvious by his many jokes about how little they were haha. He was the first person who could tell when there was something off about me. He was also was the first person who would tell me when I was out of line, and how we could go about fixing it. Throughout my four years of high school I found my mentor, and role model, while also getting to fall more in love with the sport I grew up with.

So no, this is not one of those typical articles where people explain how their coaches made them hate their favorite sport. This is a thank you to someone who helped me prepare for my future, and become a better person. This is a thank you to the coach who taught me more than just the fundamentals of soccer, but also many of the fundamentals of life. This is a thank you to the coach who made it clear that I matter not just on the field, but also off. This is a thank you to you for everything over the past four years, Coach.