Three years ago, Matt Neil became the Weatherly boys soccer coach.

A year later, he took on yet another coaching position with the Lady Wreckers soccer team during the fall season. Entering his second year as the boys' mentor, he gave a helping hand to first-year girls' soccer coach Shannon Shughart and became one of her assistants.He knew what he was getting himself into - fulfilling his duties as a U.S. and World History teacher and serving as both a head coach and assistant coach. And to this point it still doesn't bother him at all."If you want to teach and coach at the same time you have to approach it from a standpoint of having two full-time jobs," Neil said. "You have to be willing to put the time in to both in order to do them well. Good teaching and good coaching have a lot in common."You have to care about your students and players. You have to focus on motivating them and helping them as individuals so that your class or your team can learn and grow."With the girls' program close to collapsing before Shughart took over, Neil took it upon himself to help make the job a little easier for her since she never played a game of varsity soccer in her high school career."Even though Coach Shughart was already the band director and an extremely active teacher in our school and community, she took the job because they needed a coach and she wanted to help," Neil said. "She didn't have a soccer background so we both agreed that we would work together for the benefit of both of our teams."The two unselfish head coaches ran a summer program together, in which they ran optional conditioning twice a week for both boys and girls. In doing so, Neil added that it "brought in a lot more players" and have continued to do so each year.After the summer program comes to completion, and the soccer pre-season rolls around, Neil needed to split his final days before school starts between the two programs.He had the schedule set and he does his best to stick to it.With his primary responsibility set to be the head coach of the boys' team, a typical day for Neil goes as follows. He held boys practice from 9-11 a.m., worked with both teams' goalkeepers from 11:15 am-12:30 pm, assisted at girls' practice from 12:30-1:30 pm and then would finish up the day from 2 to 4 p.m. with a second boys practice.And, once the season rolls around, the schedule got a little more fast paced for Neil. In fact, it changes a bit in so many ways.If the Wreckers have a game, he is on the sidelines with the boys.If the Wreckers have a day off, Neil heads over to the girls game to fulfill his duties as one of Shughart's three assistants. Four of his Wreckers also join him after practice to run sidelines for the girls as the rest of the team stays to watch the Lady Wreckers' game.While it may seem as an impossible task to many, the fourth-year Wreckers' head coach pinpointed the fact that he has a great supporting cast on and off the soccer field that makes the challenge possible."I couldn't do what I do without the help of great people," Neil said.He stated that his full time-assistant coach, and head JV coach, Mike Ziegler and volunteer assistant Brandon Hingle bring a lot to the team.He was thankful for the kind support to the individual - Scott Zoscin - who was one of those who made it possible for Neil to handle this true challenge.He also mentioned the support he received from the parents of his players to make things run smoothly from practice to game time."Soccer is important and I strive every day to help my team get better as a team, but that doesn't mean anything if my guys aren't learning how to be good men," Neil stressed. "Our coaches for both the boys and girls share a set of values. We expect our players to be ladies and gentlemen (respectively) at all times. For me soccer is a way to teach values like hard work, respect, team work, and perseverance."*****SEEING RED ..... Last year's TIMES NEWS Golf Player of the Year, Ben Andrews, is off to another fine season already.The Palmerton senior has carded plenty of under-par scores over the course of the season.While the Bombers hold a current 2-9 record, Andrews has shined regardless recording a six-under-par 66, as well as a five-under-par 67, on his home course of Blue Ridge Country Club (par-72). He has also carded two two-under-pars in home meets.Silver Creek, which is a par-70 course, has been his next best were Andrews has tallied two one-under-par score on his card.*****GOOD SHOWING FOR LADY INDIAN ..... In Saturday's Centaur Invitational Cross Country meet at DeSales University, Lehighton's Jenifer Beers had a strong showing.Beers finished 45th, which was the eighth-best of area girls. Since Lehighton did not have a full team entered, Beers was not listed in the initial results received by TIMES NEWS.Beers had the second-best showing among District 11 2A girls at the meet.*****OLYMPIANS, LADY RAIDERS RUN AWAY WITH TEAM TITLES ..... In Saturday's 5th annual 'Canes Invitational at Schuylkill Haven High School, the Tamaqua girls' cross country secured its fourth consecutive meet championship as a team, while the Jim Thorpe boys' edged defending champion North Schuylkill for this year's title.Amber Carroll paced the Lady Raiders to a four-peat with a first-place finish, in which she finished in a time of 22:13. Teammates Kelsey Patrick and Emily Bumbulsky contributed to the title run by finishing in the top-five in second and fifth place.Christian Fields led the Olympians by keeping pace with the front-runners, but was only able to secure himself a third place finish in a time of 19:14, which was 43-seconds by the individual champ, Hamburg's Nick Sturm.*****ONE HIGHLIGHT AFTER ANOTHER ..... Over the last few weeks, the Tamaqua girls' soccer has made some noise on the competitive field.Back on Labor Day weekend, the Blue Raiders defended its title at the Schuylkill Haven Soccer Tournament.They opened with a 4-0 win over Tri-Valey, in which Kailee Rottet paced the Blue Raiders with two goals. Rottet followed with another two goal effort to help lift the Blue Raiders to a 3-2 overtime victory over the host, Schuylkill Haven. Rottet scored a hat-trick, while teammate Kayla Hope recorded two goals, to highlight a 7-0 win over Williams Valley. The Blue Raiders finished unbeaten at 3-0 in the tourney.This past Saturday, the Blue Raiders knocked off defending Schuylkill League and District 11 Class 2A champion Blue Mountain.Kayla Hope scored the game's lone goal 3:23 into overtime to lift the Blue Raiders to a 1-0 win over the Blue Eagles.Chey Bates stands alone now among Tamaqua Area High School records as she tallied her 25th career soccer shutout in the moral boosting victory.