It wasn’t until she started coaching soccer that Catherine Davis realized her inner teacher.
A forester by trade, Davis has coached her daughter Macy Cunnigham, 8, for the past five years, and plans to start with her other son, Bo Nash, 3, next year. In doing so, she has found the patience and passion for passing on a love of sports and active living to the next generation.
“You have to have high energy and be extremely focused. You almost have to prepare like a player would prepare,” said Davis. “You don’t just show up at the field.”
Davis knows of what she teaches. She began playing soccer at the age of four in North Vancouver, following up with rep soccer for the North Shore Phoneix and for the Argyle Pipers at Argyle Secondary School, where she helped them win three provincial championships.
During that time she developed a deep love for the sport that stays with her to this day.
“Soccer is such an easy game to set up, you don’t need much and I think that’s why it’s the world’s game. You get a ball, throw up some goalposts and you’ve got a game,” she said. “You have a group of people you have to work with to achieve this goal. You have to be fit, you have to be aware and it’s a good game to get to know people too.”
Davis maintains different positions in soccer often coincide with certain personality traits. Defenders, for example, tend to have stubborn personalities, while a forward tends to be more confident and adaptable, always focused on getting a goal.
As a midfielder, Davis said her job was to get the ball to her teammates and away from her opponents. To do this she said she was always looking to the next step in a game to make things happen. This mindset has pared extremely well with her new role as coach.
When she came to 100 Mile House 15 years ago to work for West Fraser, Davis got involved with a local women’s rec team. It was there she met her best friend Amanda Bird, who later got her interested in the idea of coaching when her eldest son Own Cunnigham, 10, started playing soccer.
Davis figured that because someone did it for her when she was a child, she ought to do it for her own children. Besides, she wanted to model for them how volunteer work and a commitment to staying active is important. At the same time, she also joined the 100 Mile House Soccer Association’s executive and is currently their treasurer.
READ MORE: Soccer practice set to resume, play suspended
Working closely with 100 Mile House Soccer Association president Werner Heine has been inspiring, Davis said, and really illustrates the need for dedicated volunteers to make the league happen.
She said coaching her daughter Macy’s U10 Kal-Tire Team has been really important to her, as the association is co-ed. While the boys she plays against are tough, Davis said Macy has proved just as tough in her role as a defender.
“She’s a force out there. She’s a stubborn one, she’s my tough one and out on the field she doesn’t let anyone push her around,” Davis said. “I see a lot of the way I used to play in her.”
During practices and before every game, Davis said she’s always thinking about ways to improve her players’ skills and use them on the field. This year has brought its own unique challenges, especially when they began the season, Davis said. Having her players practice their foot skills in little rectangles required a completely different approach to coaching and the game as a whole.
“At first it was really sad. I was questioning why we were even doing this because it was so disappointing to have to keep them in these boxes but now that we’re wide open it feels like the rest of the world. We’re starting to open up again, we’re all working together (to make it happen) and it’s a relief.”
Davis is hopeful Macy will keep playing through high school and intends to keep coaching her. Next year, meanwhile, her youngest son Bo is also excited to take to the field.
”My husband Bob Nash is amazing. There’s a lot of commitment with the soccer association and he picks up the slack at home. When I’m on the fields or at meetings, he’s there with the kids.”
patrick.davies@100milefreepress.net
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.