John has been coaching for 8 years and this will be his last year since been is off to high school football next year. John is calm, fun and a great teacher. He's been such a great influence on Jimmy and he/Ben are the reason Jimmy LOVES football and the Vikings (they introduced Jimmy to the sport when he was 7 and we had just returned from India).
Jim has also coached many of these year and lets just say - he's passionate. He does tend to be the coach that has "words" with the referees and will go down in infamy for actually getting kicked out of a game this year (which the boys used heartily in their roast speech).
Doug has been there through thick and thin as well coaching along with Jon, Jim, Dave and Bob. James, Doug's son was also on everyone of Jimmy's team and would always look to Jimmy for the score, or to find out if we were on offense or defense :). Doug was mild mannered however he was always aware where the refs made a mistake and quick to let he boys know that we can only control what we can control and the ref's are not one of those things.
Bob was a new coach for Jimmy this year but he's also been coaching for years and years, his oldest in on the high school team. Jimmy chose to honor Bob and had the crowd in hysterics. He said "I relate to Bob player to coach, Asian to Asian and football fan to football fan. I admire that he always goes for it, whether 4th and 1 or 4th and 1,000. He's the best Asian coach named Bob that I know"
The coaches also each said something about the boys and of course John covered Jimmy. "Passionate, intense, impactful, supportive of his team mates and a beast on the field" Jimmy basically glowed the whole time.
We are so lucky that Jimmy has had great teams and great coaches, regardless of their win records. Cant wait for 9th grade football next year!!
Billy had his 1st TKD tournament this weekend as a newly minted red belt. He competed in sparring and pomsea (patterns) and took 2nd and 3rd respectively. Not bad considering he's only been a red belt about 2 weeks!
But...the best part of the whole day was ... Billy got to coach Ace in his sparring. As background, when 2 competitors are from the same organization (WTA in this case), their head coaches aren't allowed to coach them during their sparring event. This responsibility then falls to the highest ranked belt in each studio. This tournament, that was Billy. It was so damn cute. AND .. he really does know what he's doing. The coaches sit on a chair during the event and shout instructions to the sparer. There are 2 one minute rounds with a 1 minute break in between. Billy was shouting great advice and during the 1 minute break said ... ok Ace, here's what you have to do, we have to change it up. He's expecting you to come out with the same kicks you've been doing, let's go for something different". Then he proceeded to break down what he thought Ace needed to differently to win. With a hearty back slap and encouragement, Ace was back in the ring and won his match! This meant he was off to compete for 1st and Billy had another coaching opportunity. He came in 2nd overall. Billy's coaches said he really knows what he's doing and made a great coach. When I asked Billy how he liked his 1st coaching experience, he corrected me "it was actually my 2nd coaching experience mom - Ace had 2 matches today ..." I stand corrected
The kid sure does love TKD and has great coaches and besties. We are so lucky are kids are active and supported in what they love.
Ace Esa and Billy - best TKD friends, fierce competitors and all around great kids
Billy coaching Ace on his sparring as his coach looks on (Mr Lemon in the blue )
Bronze for pomsea 
Silver in sparring 
