What does the KRA mean to you / why is the KRA important to you?
The KRA is important to me to help kids stay active and involved in their community.
Hillary became a coach to help out in the community and encourage a passion for sports at a young age. She loves to help others and even specializes in rehab therapy and long term disability, but this is Hillary’s first year coaching such young players! She loves to watch the U4 children learn while they’re playing.
What does the KRA mean to you / why is the KRA important to you?
KRA is important to me as it brings the community together and provides an amazing experience for our young children! I truly believe sports make communities strong.
This is Jeremy’s second year coaching soccer with the KRA, but he has been coaching various other sports for the past 14 years as a teacher at the school level. Jeremy decided to coach again this year because of his two boys. He loves being able to coach them!
He loves watching the players interact with each other, learn/develop new skills, and the endless games the can all play together.
Fun fact: Jeremy used to live in a community of only 500 people that was accessible by plane only.
What does the KRA mean to you / why is the KRA important to you?
The KRA is giving kids the opportunity to be active, create relationships, learn about team building and hopefully have some fun along the way.
While in Ryan's spare time you can usually find him and his family at the motocross track, he decided to volunteer as a coach this year to coach U4 soccer. This is Ryan’s first year coaching! He decided to coach to spend quality time with his son and create ever-lasting memories. He loves being able to spend time in the community and of course seeing those smiles!
What does the KRA mean to you / why is the KRA important to you?
The KRA is giving kids the opportunity to be active, create relationships, learn about team building and hopefully have some fun along the way.
Emily decided to coach this year to spend time with her boyfriend’s son and watch him make new memories. She has been coaching since 2018, and has coached all ages and skill levels. When asked what her favorite part of coaching she says she loves watching the players learn a new skill and make new friends “it makes every hour on the pitch worth it.”
Fun fact: Emily has competed in two national tournaments with a local team and has been to 5 Atlantic region provincials with team NB!
What does the KRA mean to you / why is the KRA important to you?
I love being able to be a part of the KRA as a coach so that I can meet other families in the community and to connect with the kids to inspire a love for sport and the outdoors.
Stephanie has been a coach & leader for various school sports teams and local organizations over the years. She feels that giving back to the community that provides such a wonderful place for her to live and raise her children is crucial. She decided to become a coach with the KRA for the first time this year primarily because there was a need for volunteers so that the kids can get outside and play. Although soccer is not a sport that she has coached before, she says “having twin 3-year old girls allows her to have some degree of insight on the importance of letting the kids learn teamwork, camaraderie and a love for outdoor play”.
Stephanie loves all animals, though she says she is quite partial to dogs. Stephanie also supports her family with her pet care business and as an international consultant/public speaker.
What does the KRA mean to you / why is the KRA important to you?
I love that our community has programs (like soccer) available locally.
This is Renata's second year coaching U6 soccer for the KRA. She is a firm believer that if you want programs to exist in the community, that you must be willing to volunteer your time occasionally.
Her favorite part of coaching is getting to know more people in the community and listening to all the stories the kids want to tell her.
A fun fact about Renata is that she grew up on a dairy farm!
What does the KRA mean to you / why is the KRA important to you?
The KRA means so much to me and what they do is so amazing to many people. The KRA is where I started my sports career about 14 years ago and it has also been a big impact to me, so helping out with them brings me much joy!
Hannah has been coaching sports for the past 2 years. She decided to become a coach this year because she adores helping with sports and giving chances to as many kids as possible to play a sport as it creates so many precious memories and stories to tell.
What Hannah loves most about what she does is that she gets to not only help kids learn about sports, but when they learn from a sport the players also learn a bit about life. No matter what age it is, there is an opportunity in sports to learn the fundamentals about many things.
Fun Fact: Hannah recently returned from Regina, Saskatchewan where she played tackle football with the first ever U18 Female Team New Brunswick team, where they took 3rd place in the whole country and was the first ever tackle team to receive a medal at nationals.
What does the KRA mean to you / why is the KRA important to you?
Having the KRA means allowing kids, including my own, to develop new skills and have fun while staying active in our own community.
Jennine is helping coach the U6 team this year and it’s her first time coaching & being involved with KRA. While this is her first year as a coach, she’s played sports her entire life. Jennine loves to watch the players develop new skills and have fun while being active. This season, she is hoping to watch her daughter and all of the other players have fun and develop new skills.
What does the KRA mean to you / why is the KRA important to you?
Keswick is a small community, so it’s important to stay connected and be involved. It’s such a privilege to have a sports program that doesn’t require a 20-minute drive.
Kailie has wanted to get more involved with the community since the pandemic has isolated many of us. While she has never coached soccer before, she has coached cheerleading for more years than she can count! She loves watching the kids learn new skills and joining in herself to play games with the players.
Fun fact: Kailie ran a marathon! She also started working at a dairy farm to cross it off her bucket list
What does the KRA mean to you / why is the KRA important to you?
Having community-based recreation organizations, such as the KRA, are important. They help build connections within the community and provide a safe environment for people to be healthy and active.
Melodie returned this year for her 6th season of coaching soccer.
She never wants to see kids miss an opportunity to be active due to a lack of volunteers, so she decided to coach her son’s team after the KRA was short a coach.
Melodie loves introducing sports to people and helping people connect with each other through sport. She’s been involved with fencing for 17 years, participating in almost every volunteer role, including coaching.
What does the KRA mean to you / why is the KRA important to you?
I grew up playing in a local community soccer association, and it's where I met my best friends! Being so close to Fredericton and bigger programs, I think it is pretty special KRA can offer high caliber programming right in our own neighborhood! It is a chance to meet your neighbors, play with classmates and not have to travel into town for practice!
Brittany has been coaching in various sports since she was in high school, starting with soccer. She studied sport and recreation in university and has mostly coached basketball, at a competitive and recreational level. She decided to coach this year as a way to support her community and because it is something she loves doing! Brittany also really missed being involved with the sport of soccer.
Brittany played a variety of sports growing up (including Soccer) and enjoys passing along the joy of being active. She has learned many things through sport and believes it makes all of us a little more resilient. She does not expect every player to be a superstar, but loves helping them achieve small goals, whether it is to score their first goal, make a perfect pass, or just make a new friend!
Although Brittany is not playing any human sports right now, she has a Chesapeake Bay Retriever and they train and compete in harness sports, dock diving, tracking, agility and frisbee! You'll probably see her running around the field after Monday night soccer practices working on her skills!
While this is Melyssa’s first year coaching softball, she coached soccer in her early 20’s. She’s also coached U4 with FDSA, and U7 indoor soccer with the YMCA. This year, Melyssa’s daughter wanted to try softball, so she volunteered to coach as something to do together. Her age group already had two coaches, so instead she volunteered to coach U5. Now her daughter helps her coach the younger kids, and Melyssa gets to watch her daughter practice after.
Melyssa is a Business Instructor at NBCC, and loves facilitating a fun, safe, and respectable learning environment for her students. She strives to be flexible in her teaching style and adapts lessons to her students needs. She says the work she does is very rewarding, especially when her students take time out of their day to say how much they enjoyed a class, or to thank her for my support. She finds the same joy in volunteer coaching; helping kids learn something new all while having fun!
Fun Fact: “I was diagnosed with ADHD this year...all thanks to Tik Tok.”
What does the KRA mean to you / why is the KRA important to you?
The KRA is a well-run community sports program and it’s great to have the opportunity to see the kids have fun and develop their skills on the field.
Kent became a coach this year to help kids have low-cost local sports. This is his first year coaching softball, but he coached soccer last year and has been playing softball for over 15 years. Kent loves to see the players have fun and develop their skills.
What does the KRA mean to you / why is the KRA important to you?
It is great to have local sports for kids to participate in. It means meeting neighbors, quick travel to/from the fields, and the kids getting to learn to play sports with school and daycare friends, among other things.
Garth has 3 post-secondary degrees from UNB and a love for sports. He has helped organized softball teams and hockey teams as a player regularly for the past 20 years. He has assisted in coaching minor hockey and softball starting last year and decided to become a coach with KRA this year because there was a need for volunteers and because he prefers to participate in sports as opposed to just watching.
When asked what he loves most about coaching, Garth says he enjoys helping the kids have fun and learn/improve their abilities in sports.
What does the KRA mean to you / why is the KRA important to you?
The KRA gave me an outlet when I was growing up, keeping us out of too much trouble, making life long friends, and playing team sports, it's important when I can, to pass on what was given to me.
This Jeremy’s second year coaching! This year he decided to help out again because he knows how challenging the U7 age group can be, many hands make light work!
When asked what he loves most about coaching, Jeremey says he loves watching the kids have fun and learn the game he loved for many years.
What does the KRA mean to you / why is the KRA important to you?
My wife and I hope to have children who one day will want to join recreational activities close to home, and for that we need the KRA!
While this is his first time coaching, Jon has a passion for working with children. This year, he and his wife Manon, are volunteering to coach the U9 softball team together. When asked what he enjoys most about coaching, he said he loves seeing the team laugh and bond through play.
Fun fact: Jon knows the names of almost all 900 Pokémon!
What does the KRA mean to you / why is the KRA important to you?
KRA has given me an opportunity to coach local children and provided all the resources necessary to do so. I would not be able to do this without their help.
This is Manon’s first year coaching! Sports were a big part of her childhood, and she has many great memories of being on teams. This year, she saw there was a high need for coaches in our area, and having recently found a love for softball, wanted to bring that love for the sport to our community. Knowing most of the children have had to go a few years without sports, Manon wanted to ensure all the teams had coaches so that all the kids can play this summer. She loves being able to give the players an opportunity to work in a team, meet new friends, and play a sport they enjoy!
Fun fact: Manon is also a local volunteer firefighter at the Keswick Ridge Fire Department!
What does the KRA mean to you / why is the KRA important to you?
It's important to have the programs in our area. Without locally run programs, many kids would not have the opportunity to participate in organized sports. Organized sports are an integral part of learning to work collaboratively with a team of peers.
This is Adam’s 2nd year with the KRA but he has been coaching for 25 years across various sports and age groups. He loves seeing the players improve as the season progresses.
He may be coaching softball, but fun fact, his favorite sport is rugby! Adam says he decided to volunteer again this year as there is always a need for coaches in sports. His childhood coaches were terrific mentors and influences so he hopes that the positive experiences they’ll have will keep them in sport not just throughout their childhood years but beyond.