Jan DePuy/Courtesy photo
Steamboat Soccer Club had four of its coaches nominated for the Colorado Soccer Association Coach of the Year awards on Saturday, Jan. 21.
Coaches Sean Benderly, Rusty Davison, Jonah Lotz and Nate Trussell all received recognition for their incredible coaching efforts in 2022, with Trussell winning coach of the year in the Recreational Boys division.
Club director Fields Brown says the ceremony was a great opportunity to celebrate all four coaches and having one of them win a coaching award is exciting for the club.
“All four of those guys do a fantastic job for our club and even to nominate those four was hard given the quality of the people we have involved in our club,” Brown said. “It says a lot about the people we nominated and says a lot about the opportunity to win a state award.”
The celebration was part of the Colorado Soccer Association’s annual general meeting in Denver which took place over the course of a couple of days, ending with the award ceremony on Saturday night.
What impressed Brown the most in 2022 was the devotion the club’s coaches showed to the young athletes and growing the sport in a ski town. All four of the nominated coaches have children in the club, and are willing to spend hours each week developing all of Steamboat’s youth soccer players.
Brown says it’s special to him because it gives legitimacy to the hard work the club has put into providing a strong coaching culture for the young athletes.
“We’re really fortunate to have people who are great stewards of the community and people who care about kids,” Brown said. “As a staff and a club, we prioritize providing education and support and mentorship to our coaches. This says a lot about the environment we have created within the club for coaching and says a lot about the people who live in our town and are part of our organization.”
To reach Tom Skulski, call 970-871-4240, email [email protected].