On The Pitch with Sporting BSC

🔹Field Monitor🔹

Meet Brian McDonald, Brookside Soccer Club’s Field Monitor.

Many people know Brian as “the uniform guy”, but this golf-cart-driving maniac does SO MUCH MORE for the club - like keeping everything behind that snazzy new Soccer for the City shed door [thanks, Challenger Sports!] organized, airing up 600+ soccer balls for our rec. kids (every year), and keeping our fields and their components maintained & in functioning order.

Brian has been coaching youth recreational soccer for 15 years, started coaching for BSC in 2011, and has been our field monitor for the last 3 years! When he’s not at Swope Soccer Village, he runs his own company as a stone mason. He could drive around Kansas City for hours showing you every stone, brick, or concrete structure his hands have had a part in crafting. His work has even been featured in Hearth & Home magazine as well as the Kansas City Parade of Homes! Brian takes extreme pride and care in everything he does, which includes managing our fields on match days and teaching our Brookside Soccer Club players the love of the game!

Fun Fact: Brian’s favorite television series is The Walking Dead.

Be sure to say, “Hello!” (or show your best 🧟‍♂️ impression) to Brian On the Pitch this season! Watch out for that golf cart!!! Thank you all for making Brookside Soccer Club such an outstanding community!

🔹Referee Coordinators🔹

Meet our two Referee Coordinators: Hattie (right) and Sam (left). This means they spend their weekends out at the fields ensuring each Brookside Soccer match has the appropriate referee coverage & each ref is making the right calls. They are an incredible resource for all of our referees – like walking ensoccerlopedias 📖 – and they keep our yellow team rocking! 💪

Hattie has been playing for Brookside Soccer Club since she was 4 years old, started refereeing at age 12, and was promoted to Referee Coordinator in 9th grade. She plays mid-field and goalie for BSC Competitive and her High School Varsity team. In May, Hattie will be wrapping up her 13 years with BSC both playing and working when she graduates high school and ventures off to college, “Hopefully out East”, she says. So this season she’s showing Sam the ref-coordination ropes before they get passed down, as someone did for her four years ago.

Hattie says she’s really going to miss being at the fields with BSC every week, but she hopes to keep playing soccer, whether it’s a pick-up match or for another club team as she continues along her new life path. She’s thankful for the leadership skills the role has taught her, and Hattie’s favorite part about working with Brookside Soccer has been to hang out with her soccer friends who are more like family to her than anything. And maybe the golf cart. 😁

Sam holds the same sentiment for BSC when it comes to his soccer fam and he’s up for his new challenge! He’s played for the club since he was in 2nd grade, started reffing in 7th, and has already hit the ground running this season as our newest Referee Coordinator. When he’s on the field he plays central defense competitively for Brookside Soccer and his High School team.

Fun Facts: Both Sam & Hattie are star students at Lincoln Prep. Hattie speaks French fluently and is interested in going into international affairs & working with non-profit organizations. Sam says he’s not yet sure what he wants to do in the future, but he loves school (with the exception, perhaps, of his Chinese language class), playing the tenor saxophone, and all things tech.

Be sure to say, “Hi!” to Hattie & Sam On the Pitch this season. We wish them both the best in each of their new endeavors! Thank you all for making Brookside Soccer Club such an outstanding community!

🔹Skills Academy Leader🔹

Meet Coach Fernando Rodriguez. Or just "Coach". But he says you can stick a "Rodriguez" on there too if you'd like!

Coach Rodriguez was born in Madrid, Spain🇪🇸, home of the oldest restaurant in the world, and of many wonderful foods just like his mother used to cook. A huge part of his heart still belongs to his beloved Spain, and to his former home in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, where he used to sail, hike, and save lives as a firefighter! Coach Rodriguez has loved soccer since the day he could walk, and he looks forward to sharing his passion and life experiences with our young players at BSC.
"To me the person comes first and the soccer player second. It is a privilege I do not take for granted to be part of the growth of [these] children." - Coach Rodriguez

✅Here are some tips from Coach Rodriguez on what to expect as one of his players:
1. Be happy within.
2. Be self-sufficient.
3. Be on time.
4. Bring the proper equipment.
5. Focus on the game at hand.
6. Be brave enough to confront, with positivity, whatever the game throws at you!

Coach Rodríguez is a National “A” Licensed coach in 3 different countries and has more accolades than we could have ever fit in this post, but you can see many of them on our website (link below)!

Fun Fact: He's a vegetarian!

Be sure to say "Hello!" to Coach Rodriguez On the Pitch this year! Thank you all for making Brookside Soccer Club an outstanding community!

Don't forget to sign up for BSC's Skills Academy to get the most out of your Fall 2019 season! https://brooksidesoccer.org/skills-academy/