Jason's Gift
By Joe Dalton
Joe Dalton is a noted speaker, consultant and currently the President of Soccer Outreach International, a non-profit organization that utilizes soccer as a platform to reach children and youth around the world.

I'm a coach. I love everything about coaching. I love all the preparation, the hard decision-making, etc. Perhaps most of all, I love the feeling of teaching kids. It is truly exhilarating to watch kids take what you've taught them on the training field and apply it in a game situation. Practices were never long enough for me. I always felt like I still had so much more to teach. I went into every session with my players prepared to devote everything I had into sharing my wealth of soccer knowledge.

We were an awesome team. The previous season we had won five of the six tournaments that we played in, beating the State Cup Champions from four other states. Then came Jason Bill. Jason was 13 years old. He joined our State Cup "Under 14" team in 1992.

I knew of Jason, I had seen him play several times. During that first training session together, I asked him, "Jason, what position do you prefer to play?" "Whichever position you need me to play, coach," was his reply.

I'm always early. In all my years of coaching, I had never had a player that arrived at practice before me, until Jason. Not only did Jason arrive before me, he stayed later than I did. And Jason didn't arrive early to goof around, Jason arrived early to run, or work on his dribbling skills, or shooting skills, etc. Although he was new to our team, I began to notice that many of our players wanted to be around Jason. They sought him out. If a player had a bad practice or game, Jason was the first one there with encouragement. He was a true leader. What I soon realized was that this 13 year old kid knew a lot more than his coach. Jason knew soccer was a game. It was a game and it should be fun. He also knew that it was a platform, a platform from which he could positively influence those around him.

Jason quickly became our team leader and led us to numerous tournament wins. He also helped instill a level of character into our team that I simply could not have done. As that season ended, I was excited about the next year and making a run at a National Championship with Jason leading the way.

It was about 4pm on a summer Sunday when I picked up the message on my home answering machine. The distressed voice was that of our team's "Mom" who said that Jason had been hurt in a boating accident and I should come to the hospital. I arrived to see the distraught faces of Jason's family. As the night wore on, every one of our players arrived as well. Jason had a severe head injury and he would die a few days later. I was with Jason and his family for most of those few days and was in the room when they decided to donate Jason's organs. His parents would later ask me to speak at his funeral.

As I stood up preparing to speak at Jason's funeral, I looked around the overcrowded church at the faces, sad faces, of those in attendance. Whether he knew it or not, Jason had touched the lives of many people, and they had learned from him. They would miss him. They would miss his leadership, his sharing, everything about him. I looked down at the first row which held my players, 17 of Jason's teammates. They looked at me, hoping I could bring some sort of sense to what had happened.

I talked about the impact Jason had had on his teammates, past and present. I talked about the impact Jason had had on players from opposing teams. I talked about the influence that Jason had had on his classmates, parents and most anyone with whom he had come in contact. I then realized that even in his death, Jason was affecting the lives of several young people who were receiving a new liver, or kidney, or heart. These young people would be stronger because of Jason, as is the case with all who knew him.

I'm a coach. I'm a teacher. Yet, Jason Bill made me realize that I am also a student. Somehow I had forgotten that fact. Somehow I had consumed myself in my ability to teach my players and had overlooked the fact that I could learn from them as well. I learned more from Jason than he learned from me and for that, I will be forever grateful to him. Never underestimate the simple wisdom in a child for there is much to learn from them.

<<Back to Archive

View for Printing

Contributors
Staff
Advertising
Internships

Send this Page to a Friend

Add Me to Mailing List