For Eric Hedge, being a head soccer coach has always depended on the timing of the situation. For a long time, the timing has not been quite right but it is now as Hedge assumes the role of the Ravenna Ravens boys’ soccer coach.
“I am super excited,” Hedge told The Weekly Villager on Aug. 5. “It means I get to coach my son is in my senior year and give back to a program that gave me so much. I graduated in 1994 and coming up through the middle school and high school and for me, it was just an opportunity to come back to community that does mean the world to me.”
Hedge replaces longtime Coach Matthew Wunderle, who had been the Raven boys’ coach for 12 seasons. According to Hedge, who had previously coached soccer at Westerville United FC, a travel club, when his son played there, he saw it as his opportunity to get back into the game after stepping away from coaching for several years because of family obligations.
While Ravenna has lost a tenured coach, the Ravens continue to be led by an alumni who donned the blue and red as Hedge did when he played as the goalkeeper for the Ravens during his own high school days.
“I think just from being a local kid and to get a local guide to continue with that tradition at Ravenna. I guess that’s to why I got the job,” he noted. “Like I said it was perfect timing for everyone involved, for the district and the school system and for me.”
Hedge said that his love for soccer started because he wanted to pursue a different sport than the usual youth sports such as baseball and football. He also saw it as an exciting opportunity because most of his friends also competed in soccer.
Hodge became a goalkeeper when he reached junior high, noting that his aggressive nature made him a prime candidate to man the net.
“I have always been a bigger guy and being an aggressive keeper was always key for me and I was also just a cerebral player,” he added. “I was able to cut angles and such. I could not jump out of a building, but I could definitely hold my own.”
During Hedge’s playing days at Ravenna, although the Ravens did not make deep postseason runs, the bond that he and his teammates shared was unbreakable, calling it more of a brotherhood than just a team.
After he graduated, he worked as a soccer coach at Camp Walt Whitman, an overnight and co-educational summer camp in Piermont, NH. In addition to being a cerebral player, Hedge said he also wanted the chance to pass along his love of soccer to a younger generation.
He did so with his son, Lincoln, who serves as Ravenna’s goalkeeper, allowing Hedge to give pointers to his son about a position he had plenty of experience with during his playing days.
“Obviously the goalkeeping game has changed so much from when I played,” he acknowledged. “It is not so much the physical stuff, he is much more gifted athlete than I was but helping him understand that if you give up a goal, it is not just you so I can be there for him just emotionally.”
He continued coaching at the Ravenna Middle School youth level and also coached at Westerville United FC for several years to coach his son. Despite being in and out of coaching, Hedge said his love of the game never wavered.
“It was fun,” he said. “I do wish I was a bit more involved with coaching but it was not good timing for our family. Once you get married and have children, things change and there is some regret in not coaching more but I am super excited to coach now, and I think that for me it is all about good timing in life.”
Although Hedge has the task of filling the shoes of his predecessor Wunderle, one thing he can say for certain is that the culture of the team he is inheriting resembles the same culture that he experienced when he was a student-athlete in the program. He adds that the bond that his team shows does not just appear on the field but off the field as well as the team genuinely enjoys spending time with one another.
“I have known Matt for years so those are huge shoes to fill but it is just continuing here and there and making the program my own but not losing sight,” he said. “More importantly is to teach these kids how to be young men and how to better themselves to move forward in their young life and just teaching just this great game.”
