would be able to understand the weight of their shift from participant to employee.While it was Coach Matt’s first experience training, he knew he had to keep thingsdynamic to best benefit the young people he was working with. “There were timesduring the summer where I had to realize, like, I needed to pull back or draw backsome on being so vocal, and challenging them, but also giving them that opportunityto implement the things that they’re trying to work on”. Giving young people the spaceto try things on seems to be consistent in Matt’s approach as not only a coach but as amentor as well.This approach really paid off for Matt and the relationships he was able to build withthe youth coaches. Two participants in particular seemed to gravitate towards hiscoaching style, as did he to their curiosity: Javonn and Sharron. “From the very firsttime meeting Javonn, I quickly saw just how much potential he has, like how unafraidto speak he is. He’s, you know, confident. He’s the one that will volunteer to speak orvolunteer to go first. So that always made a strong impression on me.”“Sharron and me really, really clicked, and I think I’ve been more of a mentor for himin a personal way more than maybe just a professional [way]. Over the summer, a fewtimes, Javon and Sharon, they would come in for private runs with me, like my weeklyruns that I would go to and play. So that was a great time for us to, you know, to justkind of hang out and play ball together where it wasn’t the typical dynamic of mebeing Coach Matt, and them being my kids. We were teammates.”“They also got an opportunity to meet some of my close friends and some of my pastathletes that I’ve coached. And like these are some kids that have been where they-)PEACEPLAYERS UNITED STATES STORYBOOK
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