Pre-K to varsity — and back again.

I'm Coach KW. I've coached at every level youth soccer offers — town rec and travel teams from Pre-K through U14, an 8th–10th grade travel team, and a stint as head coach of a varsity girls high-school program. Off the field I'm currently player development director / technical director for my town's soccer organization, after serving as a board member, registrar, and webmaster/communications director along the way. I'm a USSF referee too — so I've argued with myself from both sides of the touchline.

Before all this, I spent 34 years as a percussion instructor and arranger — competitive marching bands, drum corps, percussion ensembles. At some point I traded throwing drumsticks at kids for kicking soccer balls at them. Different equipment, same job: teaching kids to love the reps.

That teaching thread isn't an accident. My degree is in education and I'm a certified teacher in my state — so I know how kids learn at a fundamental level, not just how they play. It shapes everything on this channel: I believe coaches need to become teachers, and that understanding child development is how you get the best out of the limited time you have with your players.