A Decade of Coaching

About 40 miles away from Jacksonville, North Carolina and about an hour away from Wilmington, North Carolina is a town called Beulaville. In August of 1997 I was assigned to serve in this town with only two stop lights. It is likely one of the favorite and most memorable places I served on my two year LDS mission. After a week of being there I became very acquainted with the Batts family. The father was the 2nd counselor in the branch 20 miles away, his wife over young women's a son that had just moved out, a second son that played soccer on the h.s. team and a daughter that was just about a year away from being in h.s. To make a long story a little shorter, the family found out that I played soccer at UVSC. The same day I got a call from Bro. Batt's and he said, "East Duplin High School just announced that they are going to have a high school soccer team, do you want to coach it?" I didn' think there was anyway it was going to happen, "I would love to, but I will have to get my mission presidents approval." My mission president approved after a phone call to the area authorities and got back to me the next day. President Esplin explained to me the cans and can nots of the new service activity and I was allowed to take my companions to the two hour practices and games, both home and away. Now, there was a true head coach, he was the basketball coach. He was a great guy and gave me a lot of responsibilities.

Meanwhile, back in Utah, my oldest brother got the coaching bug as well. Right before I left on my mission my brother Bobby and I were asked by our Aunt Delanie to coach our cousins recreational teams. Bobby enjoyed it so much he found Celtic Storm Soccer Club, a newly established competitive program in Orem and earned his E and D license and coached a team. While he and I were both getting excited about coaching at the same time, I don't think either of us knew what we were getting in to. Bobby was learning how to deal with teenage girls and I was learning how to deal with teenage boys.


I had written my parents to inform them of the new service activity we were participating in. My loving and oh so wise mom replied to me in a letter, "...you let the head coach do all of the yelling at the refereee's, no yellow cards for my Elder...." Sure enough the first yellow card I ever received as a coach was me defending our goal keeper at East Duplin High School. Just think about this; your on a mission representing the Lord and you get called on to a soccer field and are asked your name so the official can book you. I replied my name is "Elder...Elder Ginn." Later that night I broke the mission rules and called my mom and apologized to her. That was the only time I called home when I wasn't supposed to. East Duplin was very memorable and a great introduction to the coaching side of Soccer



OK, So I returned home from my mission in July of 1998. It had been about 9 months since my time in Beulaville. I was home in California with the family for a few weeks and then headed back to UVSC in Orem, Utah. Bobby had arranged for me to take my E license (Got my D 3 months later) and made sure I had a team to coach when I returned. The team was a U17 girls team. I coached them for a year, a year later I was asked by Robyn Bretzing, the club president and founder to coach a u13 girls team and invited me to take over her position at the new high school in Orem, Utah...Timpanogos H.S.

I coached 4 years at Timpanogos and took that u13 girls team until they were U17. I coached with bobby one fall at William Penn University and then 4years with coach Ammon bennett at Iowa Western C.C. where we started the program and took the women's team to nationals two years in a row and were national runners up both years. While in Council Bluffs, Iowa with the IWCC teams I also founded a soccer club: Council Bluffs Futbol Club. My time in Iowa was amazing, I learned a ton and was prepared for my next step in Logan Utah with Infinity Soccer Club.

Anyway in a decade of coaching, I may not be rich in money or making a name for myself at any prestigious level, but I am happy because I have been paid in so many better ways:

Celtic Storm Girls:
Tamika Wilson: Married, Graduating from University of Wyoming. As a Jr. was named Mountain West Conference co-offensive player of the year
Julie and Kellie Hegerhost, married and have families of their own.
Candice Clark Graduating from Utah State, played starting striker for the Aggies, married, coaches for infinity soccer club
Kira Lazenby: Iowa Western CC graduate and Captain of first team to ever play in a national title game for the Reivers. Continued her career at University of Texas El Paso and Northwestern.
Tara Devenish: Married and played for a national title at Iowa Western CC.
Becky Pulham: Played for a national title at IWCC, continued playing for BYU-Hawaii, on an lds mission
Karly Nelson: Played for two national titles at IWCC, continued to play at grand Canyon University in Arizona.
Sutton Cherrington: married, played Goal Keeper for Southern Utah University
Deborah Benson: married, Plays for Mesa State in Colorado and captained for final two seasons
Kirtley Sorenson: attends BYU, does not play soccer
Jana Davis: married and plays for Idaho State
Megan Richardson: plays for BYU
Lil' Bree Robinson: married, plays for Dixie State
Jessica Nelson: married, plays for Dixie State
Shantae Adams: married, plays for Dixie State.
Hannah Silvey: Played for the national title twice at IWCC, captained IWCC and plays for University of Texas El Paso.
Katie Long: First Ever Captain for IWCC, returned from LDS mission, married.
Kiddist Kennard: Played on the inaugural team for IWCC, went on to play for Hastings college in Nebraska
Shayla Adams: Married, Played for UVSC