1,000 games

Scott Wentworth reaches coaching milestone with PECSA

Last Saturday morning, Scott Wentworth led his pint-sized charges onto the Johnson Street soccer fields in Picton to begin his 1,000th game as a coach for the Prince Edward County Soccer Association (PECSA). His squad of five-year-olds needed as much coaxing as they did coaching, and there were long stretches where he had to hold the hand of one of his players just to keep her on the field and involved in the game. However, his patience and his exuberance remained boundless. This was also the weekend of PECSA’s annual tournament, and a celebration of its 20 years of providing soccer in the County.

Wentworth has been coaching soccer for 24 years, even before the start of PECSA. “I played soccer as a kid in Toronto and really got a lot of benefit from it,” he says. “I see coaching kids and young people as a vehicle to show them the benefit of sport and being on a team.” He has been a coach in every age range from the youngest tykes to elementary and secondary school and up to the Tier 1 competition level for men and women. In the last couple of years he has been coaching primarily at the youngest level. “It’s very rewarding,” he says. “When we start with the youngest groups, they need encouragement from time to time, and they’re really looking for direction. It’s been a lot of fun, building great relationships. And now I have the blessing of coaching children of players that I’ve coached, some of them starting when they were 10 or 12 years old.”

One of the things that Wentworth enjoys about coaching is seeing how his players develop through the season. “Every team will reach a point in the season, and it doesn’t matter what level it is, where they go from a group of kids together to truly playing as a team,” he says.

“And when you’re coaching, it is truly rewarding when that happens, and I think the kids really feel that cohesion and feel they’re contributing to something bigger than themselves.” Even at the youngest levels, Wentworth has been able to see which of the players have the potential to develop a true passion for the game. “When I was going for my coaching training, I had an instructor who called this “banana soccer”—everyone ran around in a bunch until someone peeled off with the ball. It’s those kids that really stand out in this league. You also see their personality emerge—who is aggressive with the ball, who wants to defend their zone.”

This year, PECSA had 624 registered players and 30 teams from U-5 to U-19, and the Johnson Street fields saw a lot of activity during the tournament on the weekend. On Saturday, the players were treated to a hot dog lunch served by the Picton Kinsmen, and there was a small ceremony to honour Wentworth for achieving the 1,000-game milestone, as well as a presentation to the coaches of the year. The award is named after Wentworth. The organization also honoured long-time volunteer Charlene Inch, who died of cancer earlier this year, by planting a tree in her memory. “It’s a sunburst honey locust,” says Wentworth. “We thought it would be appropriate to the sunny disposition that Charlene had, and with the joie de vivre that she shared with those around her.”

Looking back on his coaching career, there are many highlights for Wentworth over that 1,000-game span. He recalls a women’s team that played 47 weeks of the year for seven years, but his fondest memories are of the players and their families. “The greatest thing perhaps is the relationships you build, and those relationships are with kids that are five years old, and with adults that now are in their 30s, and that’s definitely the most rewarding part of it.”

Scott Wentworth and his teams celebrate his 1,000-game milestone.