Allyson Moran, the new girls varsity soccer coach, is already steering the team toward success. The varsity girls scrimmaged on March 23Logan Connolly
against Onsted, scoring 2-0, making it their first pre-season win. “I got into coaching because I love soccer,” Moran said. “I want to see the girls succeed in every aspect of their lives and find passion in a sport that I love.” Moran found that passion through the family she grew up with. “My dad and uncles grew up playing soccer when they lived in Europe,” Moran said. Her father passed on that passion of soccer to her. “I grew to love it more as I gained skills and played well in games,” she said. To Moran, it’s more than soccer that is important to her when she coaches. “I love being on the field and being a role model to other girls,” Moran refereed during college and has also assisted practices throughout her life. “This is exemplified in my job as a coach,” Moran said. She hopes this season she will be able to pass on her infatuation and skills to the athletes she coaches. Jeff Trapp, the girls cross-country coach, enjoys his role and can see himself still coaching in the distant future.
“Cross-country was awesome this year,” Trapp said. “ I really learned a lot from Coach Allison and enjoyed becoming part of the cross family.” The girls had some good scores, taking third at the first GLAC Jamboree in Perry with 95 points. But this is not Trapp’s first coaching situation.
“When I took my first teaching job in North Carolina, the principal asked if I would be interested in coaching anything,” Trapp said. “I told them that I played football, basketball and ran track,” Trapp said. The school then made him a coach of quite a few sports. “I never intended on being a coach, but I fell in love with coaching right away.”
Trapp has coached football, track, basketball and currently coaches girls cross-country during his tenure at Stockbridge.
Trapp thinks that if more female athletes tried cross, they would enjoy it as much as he does. “I consider XC the hidden gem of high school sports,” Trapp said. “You really never understand what it is all about until you do it, and once you do, you will never look back.”