Long standing volunteer Recreation coach Mike Calabrese is moving to Colorado and we want to thank him for his years of commitment to our players and club! Mike has been coaching youth soccer for 40 years and the MYS Lifetime Achievement Award that he was a recipient of was appropriately renamed the Mike Calabrese Lifetime Achievement Award. Mike’s farewell letter to the club is below. We will miss Mike and wish him the best! In the team photo Mike (bottom right) is pictured with his 2019 All Star U19 team.
“Going into a third season without soccer after coaching youth soccer for 40 yrs has been difficult. I have missed all of you, my fellow coaches, the players who keep me young, the parents, and the game itself. I am happy that the MYS Recreation League was able to continue in the Fall and Spring seasons and hope for a full start in the Fall of 2021.
As our activities diminished in 2020, my wife and I found that we missed our annual winter and summer trips to Colorado to visit our family and enjoy skiing and backpacking in the Rockies. As a result, we have decided to move to Colorado in June where we will be able to spend more time with our family in Denver and enjoy our outdoor activities. Hopefully I can get connected with Skyline Soccer Club in Denver and I hope to restart coaching and possibly some refereeing. I plan to become a Rapids fan, but will always remain a DC United Fan also.
I have fond memories of my years with McLean Soccer watching both the club and the game itself grow at all levels of play. Sports have always been an important part of my life and I hope I was able to convey playing for the love of the game as a passion, and along with it, lessons for life to all the youth I coached. I have shared with all of you the wonderful experience of seeing players and teams develop over the course of training, and playing matches and tournaments.
Hopefully some of my former players are now coaching their children and our traditions will carry on.
I’ll stay in touch and try to visit MYS when we travel to the Washington area.
Warmest regards to all, stay healthy, and I wish McLean Soccer continued success –
Mike Calabrese”