Needham (Mass.) High players and coaches before the MIAA Division 1 state championship game. (Brian Kelly/NESJ)
Someone recently asked me how I got into coaching high school soccer.
My answer was a quick and easy one.
“Because of my high school coach and the experiences that I had as a high school player.”
I’ve been at the helm for Pembroke (Mass.) High School for nine years now. We have had our ups and downs. We have grown as a program in the way that we play, the way that we train and in the development of our culture and level of overall standards. We have not grown in the size of our program, unfortunately, as we have moved from MIAA Division 2 to Division 3 and have not been able to field a freshman team for the last handful of seasons.