We Are Knox...

Reprinted with Permission from The Register-Mail

At six-foot-four, Brendan Todt stands a foot taller than any player on his
soccer team. At 21, he is seven years older than his 29 teammates. Todt is a senior at Knox College. His teammates are in middle school.

Todt is the coach of Galesburg's Lombard Middle School sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade soccer team. After a knee injury ended his own Knox soccer career during his junior year, Todt found a new way to enjoy the sport. "I've wanted to coach since I was a freshman," says Todt, who started working at the Galesburg YMCA during his first year at Knox. "I worked as a referee, but I also expressed an interest in coaching."

In spring 2005, Todt got his first chance to try his hand at coaching with a fourth- and fifth-grade YMCA league team. In July, the YMCA liaison for youth soccer contacted Todt with an offer to coach at Lombard.

"I was told there would be a lot of kids," he said. "I didn't really know what to expect, but luckily last year's coaches left notes on how things were run and which players were strong. I wanted to introduce myself and make clear the rules and style of soccer we were going to play," he says.

Todt said he was a pushover at first, but now he has better control over the team and has learned to be more authoritative. "I've learned a lot from being a coach," he says. "Sometimes you've got to be hard-nosed."

Todt says the kids on the team are improving their soccer skills and learning a lot from a younger coach. "With kids, there are little things that you have to deal with," he says. "I think our biggest problem is attitude. One time a kid took his jersey off in a game and walked off. Another kid refused to come off the field for a substitution."

"But the most rewarding thing for me is when a player, instead of turning to the goal, makes a pass and creates a better opportunity," says Todt. "It's great to see the selflessness . . . for [the kids] to recognize how to play, pass, and spread the field instead of just playing kickball."

With his background as a YMCA referee, Todt has watched many of his players grow. "Kids I'm coaching now I've seen play at out-of-state tournaments," says Todt. "I've got some very talented players that I think could do well in the coming years at the high school level."

Todt, a creative writing major at Knox, would like to attend graduate school. But for now, he's happy to stick around Galesburg and coach. "If I were to stay in town, I would like to coach at Lombard," he said. "These kids have had three different coaches in three years, and I think they need stability in the program."