Photo By Staff Sgt. Ryan Rayno | Sgt. 1st Class Nicholas Huebbe, the senior paralegal noncommissioned officer for the...... read more read more
HHC Soldiers share love of soccer with Tomah youth
By Staff Sgt. Ryan Rayno, 181st Multifunctional Training Brigade
Two Soldiers from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 181st Multifunctional Training Brigade, wrapped up their season as soccer coaches for the Tomah Youth Soccer Association June 5, 2021, in Tomah, Wis.
Sgt. 1st Class Nicholas Huebbe, the senior paralegal noncommissioned officer for the 181st MFTB, and Sgt. 1st Class Francisco Marquezpalmas, the equal opportunity advisor for the 181st MFTB, both volunteered over 50 hours each to their teams.
“The part of coaching that I enjoy the most is passing the love for the game on to the kids,” Huebbe said. “This season I have had players talk about YouTube videos they have watched, playing the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) video games, dribbling the soccer ball at home, and watching and going to professional soccer games. I have coached these same boys for the past two-and-a-half years and this is the first year they have been this interested.”
Sharing the love of the game was a similar goal for Marquezpalmas.
“I decided to coach because I wanted to share my love and passion of the sport with my daughter and all the players that I coached,” he said. “I also wanted to give back to the community that surrounds the installation.”
Much like being an observer coach/trainer in the 181st MFTB, one of the biggest rewards of being a soccer coach is seeing the growth of the team.
“The part of coaching that I enjoy the most is watching the team develop their skills and love of the sport,” Marquezpalmas said. “Every time we had a game or practice, the players would be extremely excited to be out there kicking a ball around. When they scored, they would have a big smile on their faces and would run to the coaches and give us a high five. It was very exciting to watch throughout the season.”
For Huebbe, the desire to coach started while watching his son learn to play the game.
“Prior to that I was not a big soccer fan,” he said. “As I watched more of his games I started to enjoy soccer more and more. I thought about coaching but I didn’t want to coach unless I had more knowledge of the game. I would watch my son’s games and practices, and then I read books and articles and watched videos on different aspects of the game to help him with the areas he was struggling with. Shortly after we moved to Tomah, I was asked to coach a team.”
Since moving to Tomah in 2017, Huebbe has been a coach for seven seasons, as well as serving as the TYSA president since June 2019.
The end of this season wrapped up the third season of coaching here in Wisconsin for Marquezpalmas.
Just like the desire to share their love of the game, both also echoed the need for more coaches.
“All of the sports programs in the area are always looking for coaches and other volunteers,” Huebbe said. “The best way to get involved is to contact the organizations and tell them you’re interested.”
“Even if you don’t have any experience coaching, or coaching a particular sport, you can still volunteer,” Marquezpalmas said. “The different organizations can help with coaching education or pair you with a more experienced coach.”
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| Date Taken: | 06.05.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 06.15.2021 10:36 |
| Story ID: | 398954 |
| Location: | TOMAH, WI, US |
| Web Views: | 48 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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