This impact story was shared with us by Sarah Stangl, Program Coordinator at Soccer Without Borders Baltimore. She is the supervisor of Coach Luke Frey-Wedeen, an Up2Us Sports Coach serving at SWB Baltimore.
Despite the many challenges that come with 7+ months of virtual coaching, Coach Luke's contagious energy and creative ingenuity has kept Soccer Without Borders Dundalk team happily engaged throughout the year. He effortlessly transitioned the team's field drills and exercises to be "Zoom compatible" and is always coming up with new, fun activities for the 20 middle schoolers on the team.
In particular, Coach Luke has forged a strong bond with 7th grader David, who is very eager to continue improving his technical soccer skills. Each week Coach Luke creates a new skill challenge for David, sends him the video, provides coaching tips over Zoom, and then follows up at the end of the week. And each time without fail, David practices the skill and is able to successfully demonstrate it for Coach Luke by the end of the week. You can see the bright glow of pride and joy on David's face as he's learning and executing a new soccer trick. In addition to the supplemental soccer training that Coach Luke provides for David, he also goes above and beyond to help David with his homework. When recently asked to send a birthday message to Coach Luke, David replied, "You are more than just a coach, you are a true inspiration. I will always remember the things you taught me."
Coach Luke on a Zoom call with David.
Luke has been serving as an Up2Us Sports coach since August 2019 at Soccer Without Borders Baltimore thanks to support from the Baltimore Ravens.
