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07/27/2016 08:30 AMAn Englishman, an Irishman, and a Scotsman walk into a bar...to watch Wales play in the quarterfinals.
Ba-dum-tsh!
Jokes like these, along with #Brexit2 and memes depicting recycling bins marked “England shirts” and “England flags,” lit up Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook feeds June 27, when Iceland—in its first major international tournament—made European football history by knocking England out of the Euro 2016 finals.
“Ouch,” says Ken Skidmore, who was rooting for the Brits and who supports the New England Revolution, Manchester City, and the U.S. National Team.
“They got bounced early against Iceland, which was a major underdog—a Cinderella story for Iceland but a huge upset for England, which was predicted to do well.”
Of course, England wasn’t the only team having trouble finding the back of the net. Out of 51 Euro matches, 22 were deadlocked at 0-0 at half-time, with goals scored in the last moments of the game.
Ken has been a soccer fan all his life, and as director of coaching for Clinton Youth Soccer (CYS), he shares his love for the sport with athletes ranging from preschool through high school.
“About 11 years ago, Pat Healey, the former Clinton Youth Soccer president, invited me to join the CYS Board,” he recalls. “Soccer is a big passion of mine. My involvement in the sport is an outlet for my passion and a way for me to give back to kids in Clinton.”
Over the years, when he’s not working (his day job is director of market access for Alexion Pharmaceuticals), Ken has volunteered his time coaching Clinton Parks & Recreation soccer and developing the CYS Travel Program, which includes bringing in coaches and clinicians to work with different ages and teams.
“I identify coaches who can develop age-appropriate skills and tactics in individual players and in our travel teams,” he explains.
He also works on curriculum to improve players’ skills, and he recruits instructors for soccer clinics, such as those for 1st-graders and younger “munchkins,” as well as clinics that teach footwork or goalkeeping.
“Playing sports,” he says, “teaches kids a lot of life lessons, like teamwork, communication, leadership, goal-setting, and conflict resolution. My motto is ‘Try your best and be a good teammate. Listen and be respectful to your coaches and referees.’”
A lot of what he learned about the game—both the technical aspects and the philosophy behind it—came from his own high school soccer coach.
“John Mitchell had a major, positive impact on my life. In many ways he was like a third parent to me. He cared for his players, he was deeply dedicated and committed to continuing his own development as a coach, he led by example, he developed an infrastructure of youth soccer development in our town, and he had a solid understanding of the psychological dimensions of teams.”
Mitchell coached for the Derry Soccer Club in Derry, New Hampshire, where Ken grew up, and the two have stayed in touch ever since.
“We speak regularly,” says Ken, “about soccer, family, travel, music, and movies.”
Soccer Revolution
As a young boy, Ken worked the typical gigs for a kid from Derry.
“In elementary and junior high, I worked on a farm down the road picking corn, beans, and strawberries. To pick corn, you’d have to get up early and put on your raincoat even on a dry day, because at six a.m., no matter what, you’re covered in dew. It was hard work, and I learned a lot,” he says.
In high school, he worked at the Ice Cream Factory, “literally making ice cream. You would follow a recipe of a certain percentage of cream and milk mixture that would get poured into a machine. Then you would create recipes. This was back before all the blends we have now. You had your staples—vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry—but then you would add your own flavors, maybe throwing in Oreos or cut fruit.”
In college, he delivered pizza and campus mail.
An active kid, Ken—or Skids, as he was known in school—also played a whole host of sports, including basketball, football, and baseball.
When it comes to soccer, however, he was late to the game by today’s standards.
“Soccer wasn’t offered in Derry until you entered junior high school, so that’s when I started playing. I played center back and outside back, and I really enjoyed it.
“If a kid started playing in junior high today,” he admits, “he or she would be very far behind. Kids today start when they’re very young.”
In fact, Ken says he was lucky to have a soccer program at all in his town. According to the U.S. Youth Soccer organization, participation in soccer is more than 30 times higher now than it was 40 years ago, with more than three million children registered to play in 2014, compared to 103,432 in 1974.
“Soccer wasn’t big when I was young. I was fortunate I grew up in a town that even offered it. Over the years, so much has changed. Parents who played when they were kids have helped advance the sport, and it’s grown exponentially. It’s pretty neat to see the growth and evolution of the game.
“When I was a kid, the only soccer you could see on TV was Soccer Made in Germany for 30 minutes a week on PBS. Not too many people talked about soccer when I was growing up. Now there are games on all the time—EPL, La Ligue, Serie A, Bundeslegia, MLS, and so on. People wearing team jerseys go to restaurants and bars to watch games. There’s been an incredible growth of soccer in our country in the last ten years.”
Ken’s own parents, he says, were not unlike the families he sees in folding chairs around the field today.
“I come from a family of four—mom, dad, me, and my sister, Cathy—and my parents always attended my games and were very present and supportive. They allowed me enough leeway in life to learn and make may own decisions.”
Ken played all the way through high school—he attended Pinkerton Academy, New Hampshire’s largest high school, with 13 academic buildings—and played and traveled in England, Holland, Belgium, and Germany during that time.
“I have lots of special memories,” he says. “The first time I was ever on a plane or stayed in a hotel or left the United States was going to England to play and tour. I was a freshman. My coach put that together,” he says. “He did it all on his own, and it had a profound impact. It opened up the world to me.”
After high school, Ken studied at the University of New Hampshire, earned his MBA at Southern Connecticut State University, and embarked on a career in the pharmaceuticals industry that spans 25 years so far. But he never lost his zeal for soccer and never forgot the thrill of that first plane touching down across the pond, where the game of football was first codified.
Those memories are largely what prompted him to start European soccer tours for Clinton youth, the first of which took place in 2012, when the 8th-grade girls’ travel team visited England. In 2015 the 8th-grade boys’ travel team toured Spain, and in April 2017 they’ll see England.
Because it’s a significant financial commitment for families, Ken coordinates a fundraising campaign two to three years before each trip, with the goal of subsidizing at least 50 percent of the total cost of the excursion.
The most recent fundraiser, a “cow plop drop” behind Pierson School on July 9, sold more than 1,000 tickets. Also known as cow chip bingo and cow pie derby, the contest involves releasing cows out onto a field marked with a grid. Each ticket represents a square on that grid, and wherever a cow “plops” becomes a winning square. (Prizes ranged up to $1,000, and food trucks, games, a DJ, and bake sale rounded out the day’s events.)
“My goal is to make these trips affordable for our Clinton kids,” says Ken, “and my hope is to create special memories for them. The trips are 51 percent about soccer and 49 percent about exposure to a different culture—opening up children’s eyes to the world.”
On a typical 10-day tour, parents accompany their sons or daughters as they play three or four soccer games against European teams; participate in training sessions led by professional teams, such as Atletica Madrid, Liverpool, or Manchester United; tour soccer stadiums; watch professional matches like Barcelona, Real Madrid, West Ham, and Espanyol; and go sightseeing to landmarks like the Tower of London, Big Ben, the medieval architecture of Barcelona, and the elegant parks and boulevards of Madrid.
Ken acknowledges that none of this would be possible without the support of numerous individuals and groups, from Clinton Parks & Rec and those who participate in community fundraisers to the “small but very dedicated CYS Board” and fellow coaches like Dave Krikorian, Bob Dikranian, Mike Koziy, and Jason DiGiandomenico.
Not least of all, he credits his family with helping keep the dream alive. His wife Dana teaches 4th grade at Pierson, and the couple’s three children—Savannah, Carter, and Max—all play soccer.
“We get to share that,” he says.
As for kicking the ball around with other adults, time is tight, but Ken tries to squeeze in a pickup game whenever he can.