During this past Spring season, we had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with the team of coaches from our Friends Select site. Coach Linda, Heidi, Soniya, Suzanne, and Fatouma are the five coaches of a team with 17 participants in Center City. Coach Linda joined the team in 2017 when teachers at the school needed volunteers to take over the program, and she has worked tirelessly to keep that team going for all of these years!

     This team is remarkably close knit as a whole. Fatouma, who coached her first season this Spring, can already see the value that this program brings to the community. She noted how important it is to provide extra support during the most important years of childhood, especially going into middle school when confidence is at its lowest. The program prepares them to get through those difficult and complicated feelings. They also shared that the team unexpectedly gets into some really heavy topics but every participant sees practice as a safe space to learn how to process those feelings.

     It is also a program that is beneficial to the coaches. Suzanne mentioned during her coach training that she was moved by the lessons and thought training was really valuable as a parent. Heidi also mentioned that these lessons weren’t something that she was taught growing up, mentioning a lesson that discusses how to choose your friends with examples that both coaches and participants can use outside of practice.

     Every coach on this team loves the community and friendship that they found with each other. Fatouma became a coach because she is new to Philadelphia and wanted to find a community which is definitely present with this team. Soniya joined the team in Fall of 2022 for similar reasons to Fatouma, and makes practice a priority with her busy schedule because of her love for this team. They find time to get together outside of practice before their end of season celebration and are all looking forward to coaching again. Each of them enjoys watching their participants grow over the ten week season, building a safe space for themselves and their participants, and looking forward to the celebratory 5K!

     Thank you again to Linda, Heidi, Soniya, Suzanne and Fatouma for taking the time to discuss all things coaching at Friends Select!