Much like the regular world, the sports world is constantly changing. Players and coaches often leave and change programs. The boy’s soccer team is the newest example as Head Coach Nate Wragge is becoming one of the assistant principals at Millard North High School next year after coaching the boy’s soccer team for three years.
“As a coach, you love to see your players develop in their sport,” Wragge said. “But, my favorite part of coaching has been watching the players develop as a person. Even over the course of a season you get to see them change and improve and become leaders themselves,” he said.
The role and school will change for Wragge as he prepares to switch over to MNHS to be one of the assistant principals next year. However, he said he still believes that he can carry many lessons that he learned from his players during his tenure.
“They taught me how to be a more productive leader, how to be a good communicator and how to persevere when you get knocked down and get back up,” Wragge said. “But this year especially, I have had to learn how to be more positive than I’ve ever had to be. Everything that I have learned, I attribute to those boys so coaches get a lot out of their players and players may not realize it, but it is true.”
Even with the difficulties that the team faced this season as they suffered a record of 7-11, Wragge still emphasized the importance of the lessons he left the team with.
“Coming out of this year, I think the most important thing was being able to persevere and get up when you get knocked down,” Wragge said. “I don’t think a lot of guys realized how hard it is but with this season, it came into fruition for a lot of them. There were a lot of times when we got knocked down but there was nothing to do but get back up and that is a lot easier when you have a group to do that with.”
Looking back on the three years under Coach Wragge, there were a lot of successes for the program to take pride in.
“The obvious one is qualifying for the state tournament in 2022,” Wragge said. “In 2023, we won 13 games which is a big accomplishment because it is something that the program hasn’t done in a while. This year, while our record wasn’t quite as good, seeing the boys change and come together as a team is a huge accomplishment.”
While coaching the program may be over for Coach Wragge, he said he still leaves advice for current and future players that will go through the boy’s soccer program.
“The biggest thing is just don’t ever give up,” Wragge said. “I think giving up is an easy thing to do but nothing worth fighting for is easy. You know that the work is going to be hard but that makes the payoff so much better.”
