Drills and keep-away aren’t the only activities preparing soccer players for their time on the field. Kelly Barah, the new head coach of the soccer program, is making some important additions to what it means to be a soccer player at our school.

Barah started coaching to be a positive influence on kids. Currently in his sixth year of coaching overall, he was an assistant coach under Jason Pendleton last year for the soccer program. While he enjoyed his time as assistant coach, Barah is looking forward to being in more of a leadership position.

“It’s awesome because now it’s my voice and I can do things a little differently.”

One way Barah is doing things a little differently is in how he prepares his teams for practice with a whole new method of warming up for soccer practice: yoga.

“I started thinking what better way to make my players work harder, than to make them stretch more?”

By doing yoga prior to a workout, he personally could do more in the following days after the workout. Barah then applied this to the soccer program with the help of a team parent in the process of becoming a certified yoga instructor.

The coaching structure for the Free State soccer program gives Barah the freedom to work with three assistant coaches, each with the responsibility of either c-team, junior varsity or varsity.

“I have them all still participating in some form on the varsity team.”

Barah also asserted coaching the soccer program is identical for both genders.

“The expectations are going to be the same across the board.”

Even with the change in coaching styles, most players are taking it in stride.

“Barah has some good ideas, I think it’s gonna be a good year,” senior Nathan Bowman said, who is in his fourth year in the Free State Soccer program.

“Barah definitely knows what he’s doing on the fitness and soccer sides, I think we’ll all benefit from him,” senior Rachael Hodison said.

Soccer players take on a model set by Barah by garnering leadership amongst the more senior members of the teams and mentoring younger members to help them develop important skills to play well. This intermingling of different age levels brings cohesion among team members.

“The camaraderie that we have I think is what keeps us together … if we did not have that, that would tear us apart really soon, really quickly,” Barah said.

But Barah feels what soccer players do off the field is more important. This season, each member of the program must participate in a community service project.

“My whole philosophy is, you don’t just make players. What we’re trying to do is get better people coming out of our soccer program. I think once people start realizing that there’s a bigger thing than just themselves around the community and the world at large, I think they will learn a whole lot more and become better people for that.”