Right now, many youngsters are likely fiddling on their smart tablets or glaring at the TV a little bit more than usual. If Iola resident Brandon Thomas were in a similar predicament during his childhood, he’d probably be shooting hoops.
Thomas is an avid youth sports coach, ranging from recreation football, soccer, and baseball, to his 8U Iola Mustangs travel baseball team. His motivation to be involved in youth sports comes from childhood, but what makes Thomas’ case more peculiar is that he discovered sports on his own.
“I remember watching sports when my parents would let me, and one year my parents brought me a basketball goal that I played with all the time,” Thomas said. “We lived way out in the country, so I didn’t have kids I could go play with at the ball field. I had to do it all by myself. Sports just kind of overtook me, and everything I played, I gave 100%.”
From there, Thomas competed in baseball, football, basketball, baseball, and soccer. While he developed a love for playing, Thomas earned a passion for coaching. Thomas coached his little sister’s softball team when he was 14, and also spent time coaching a travel soccer team when he resided in Burlington.
Thomas first entered the coaching scene in Iola in the spring of 2016 when he started a t-ball team with his youngest son, Ty. As one would expect, teaching tons of antsy kids on the diamond for possibly the first time was a bit of a challenge.
“I hadn’t really coached little kids by myself for a full season, so it was pretty nerve-racking trying to teach them how to understand how to field a ground ball, field a baseball, throw a baseball, and how to catch,” Thomas said. “I also was careful not to overload them with too much information that would leave them confused.”
That season was a learning curve for Thomas, but since then, he has gotten the hang of not only coaching, but helping kids improve on their game.
“I learned how to connect with the kids to where they could understand what I was trying to tell them, and form a relationship with them. With some kids, you have to form a friendship sort of relationship before they listen to you. They are usually listening to their parents, so it takes some time before you build that trust so they take in what you are trying to tell them.”
A natural competitor, Thomas admits it is possible to get caught up in the heat of the moment coaching kids.
“The more I have coached, I have learned it is a very fine line,” Thomas said about wanting too much from his kids. “There are times where I have pushed too hard, and have had to back off a kid. I was pushing them too much about giving, so it is a line you have to balance. My main goal when I’m coaching is that they know something more about the game, and they want to play again next year.”
This spring, Thomas would be coaching as many as five different teams ranging across baseball and soccer. Due to the spread of COVID-10, soccer has been canceled and rec baseball is in limbo. As of now, practices would start May 1, but only time will tell if Thomas gets to coach his favorite season of the year.
“As of right now, it doesn’t look good,” Thomas said. “My travel team has canceled all tournaments, basically until the end of May. Obviously rec ball starts in May, so I hope we can possibly have something. I hope the kids don’t lose out on a year of baseball, because they have already lost a year of soccer.”
