Jake Nye, though sharing the last name of a popular scientist, instead puts his energy into something more active- soccer. Coach Nye, alongside Sarah Andrews, leads Normal Park Museum Magnet’s girl’s soccer team.

With 30+ years of playing under his belt, he’s had quite the career, beginning all the way back at age ten. After baseball was a bust, (way too boring, always waiting for something to happen), he wanted to give soccer a try. …and immediately didn’t wanna play anything else. It was fast-paced and hands on, things baseball didn’t compare to.

Starting out soccer, he hadn’t played before and was unfamiliar with the game, while his fellow teammates were. Supportive coaches gave opportunities for extra playing time, which really helped in the beginning.

After a strong start those opportunities paid off, and he played for teams like Chattanooga Central in high school- where he was made MVP twice and took the team to all district twice, and even all region once- and then after college 5 years at the Dalton Hispanic League with multiple player of the week awards and as a two time member of the the Hispanic Allstar team.

By this time he was 35 and too old for CFC when it started ‘09, and it wasn’t ten years later that an old, improperly healed, torn ACL landed him in a knee replacement and knocked him down to coaching. But before that he played soccer with lesser known teams for fun.

Now, an uncountable amount of years later, he’s trying the best that he possibly can to give more kids the opportunities he got, focusing on their enjoyment, sense of successfulness and accomplishment. Coaching is a tough job, not putting your value in the win/loss column or living vicariously through your players, but coaching soccer isn’t about that. “It’s more about the progress of how well the kids are learning the game and being prepared to continue to play after I’m no longer their coach.”