Sunday, November 30, 2008

Goodbye Coach Hutchison

Sadly one of the first posts on this blog will be to say goodbye to Coach Russell Hutchison. Russell has coached our boys for the past year and a half and we have all seen the progress they have made under his tutelage. We wish Russell all the best with his new career and happily, since he is not leaving the Rush, we will be seeing him around the pitch again.
I am sure the boys know that Russell played professionally with the Virginia Beach Mariners but I wonder how many of them have seen the coach during his playing days. Our family were season ticket holders to the Mariners for a number of years and saw them play at the Sportsplex regularly during the summer months. While sorting out some old VHS tapes recently (you all remember VHS, right?) I found a Mariners game I had taped from a game shown on Fox Sports Channel (now Fox Soccer Channel). The game was between the Mariners and the Milwaukee Wave on Friday, June 18, 2004. The Wave took an early 1-0 lead and a 2-1 halftime lead. It was all Mariners in the second half though as they came back to win 5-2. Brett was at the game that night although he was probably playing soccer in the grassy area at the end of the playing field with a bunch of other kids and not paying any attention to the game or his future coach. I made a short clip from the first half of that game to give his players a chance to see Coach Hutchison in action. From the players and parents of the VA Rush U-14 Nike team, best of luck Russell in the future and we will all miss having you coaching the team.