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When Tumwater Soccer Club Lions head soccer coach Angela Huber was announced as the recipient of the 2015 US Youth Soccer Coach of the Year Girls Recreation, she was shocked.

Capitol City Honda sponsor“I still can’t believe it. There is a little pressure to do something different now,” Huber said in an interview with US Youth Soccer. “There is a little hype now, which is weird. I keep asking myself, ‘Did this just happen?’ It seems a little over the top. I was a little excited to say the least.”

The award, which honors coaching activities, sportsmanship, player development, personal coaching development and citizenship, was announced at the US Youth Soccer Awards Gala, as a part of the US Youth Soccer Workshop, earlier this year.

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Angela Huber is pictured after receiving her national coach of the year honor at the annual US Youth Soccer Gala.

The US Youth Soccer Coach of the Year program is designed to recognize top coaches throughout the United States in girls and boys programs at the state, regional and national levels.

Huber, a resident of Rochester, has coached youth soccer for nearly two decades. Her first volunteer coaching position was with the Y, when she coached her son. She has coached the TSC Lions, a GU15 team in the Thurston County Youth Soccer Association, for the past four years.

“My players know that everyone isn’t going to win, but that happens in life, and I think the harder you work the farther you are going to get,” Huber said. “I don’t want them to just get together and kick the ball around. It is nice in kindergarten, but when you get a little older it’s different. I tell them if they work hard in soccer then they will work hard in other things later in life to become a better co-worker and a better person.”

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Angela Huber (left) coaches a girls U15 team for Tumwater Soccer Club.

Utilizing a self-described “unconventional” coaching style, Huber stresses equal parts fun and competiveness during practices, while serving as a motivator who possesses the ability to engage on an individual level with each one of her players.

“It isn’t all about winning, but if you get everyone passionate and care about how their teammates feel and have respect for them and me, then you want to win,” Huber said. “They will do anything for me, and I will do anything for them. We have a mutual respect for each other, and they are passionate about making me happy and I am passionate about making them happy.”

So, after 18 plus years of coaching what is her method of keeping her players interested?

“I watch them through drills, and when you see their faces you can tell if they are enjoying it or not. It is important to do certain drills, but then switch it to a drill that makes them laugh,” Huber said.

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Huber has coached the TSC Lions Girls U15 team for four years.

“They have to work hard on drills that they don’t love, but we always end with a game they started when they were 10,” she says. “They lay on the ground in pairs, and it is a tag game, and we do it at the end of every practice. It is muddy a lot around here, and by the end they are covered in mud and are laughing.”

“At the end of practice I throw Dum Dums suckers to them,” she adds. “I never give them. I just kind of toss it to them. It isn’t fair to be honest. Sometimes they get 10 or sometimes they get none. If they don’t get one, then I tell them to be faster.”

“We have a ton of fun, but we work hard and play hard,” Huber added. “We concentrate on what we need to improve on, and then we will go dive in the mud or go get a Slurpee. We break it up, and having a balance is good.”

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Huber and the TSC Lions are quite muddy following a practice.

Huber is the first Washington resident to earn the award, which was inaugurated in 1992, in the girls recreation category. She joins Seattle’s Jean Robinson, who was named coach of the year for boys recreation in 2011, as the only Washingtonians to receive the national honor.

“It seems like no matter what happens in my life, if bad things happen, no matter what team I am coaching, they can be a light in my world,” Huber said. “There are days where I will think I am in a terrible mood, and I can’t coach them, but as soon as I get there they put a smile on my face.”

Costello Named Girls Competitive Coach of the Year

Blackhills FC’s Jessica Costello was named Region IV Girls Competitive Coach of the Year.

Costello, who began coaching for the Blackhills FC in 2013, is the head coach for the girls U12 and U16 teams. She was one of four finalist for US Youth Soccer national coach of the year. Region IV is comprised of 13 states. Award winners are nominated through Washington Youth Soccer by parents, coaches, administrators and others in their community, in appreciation of their ongoing commitment and dedication to growing the game of soccer.

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