The region lost a pair of assistant coaches with the end of the season last week. There are a lot of hard-working folks involved in this community but an area of particular significance is when recent college graduates give back by working with local high schools. Especially when they didn’t play their prep soccer here. That’s the case with this pair.
Liz Russell (far left) came to Springfield from Oklahoma to play soccer for the Drury Panthers. Her career was cut short by injuries but that didn’t stop her involvement in the game. She was part of the group that brought you the College Recruiting seminar at Drury last year and she’s been part of the Glendale Falcon’s coaching staff for the past three years. She handled the Junior Varsity during that time frame and she was committed enough to the girls that she was on the side lines through the entire playoff run. Now she’s off to Law School at the end of the summer.
Justin Douglass has been working with the Catholic Fightin’ Irish the past two years. When he completed his outstanding career with the Missouri State Bears a year ago he agreed to help out with the girls team, taking on the JV girls last Spring. This past year, as he completed preparation for graduate school (he’s headed to Houston for Opthalmology School) he worked with both the Boys and the Girls and supported the varsity squads as well. Admitted to graduate school, the last of his teammates long gone when the MSU campus cleared out, he noted to me “I’ll pack up and leave AFTER the Irish complete their playoff run”. His commitment to the players and the team wouldn’t allow him to leave before then.
We have benefited greatly from the commitment he and Liz made to soccer in our community. I’m going to miss both of these player/coaches. The good news is based upon what I’ve seen of their character and commitment, they’ll be impacting kids and their community for a long time. Thanks Liz and Justin, or Coach McD as the girls called him. At least that’s what I think it was 
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Well said, Ole! These two deserve a lot of credit for the contributions they made to their respective programs. I greatly appreciated the work Justin did for the Irish. I was especially impressed (as you pointed out in your article) when he made the commitment to remain with the team through the playoffs when everyone in his world outside of soccer had left Springfield. Justin is a young man of great class, character, and commitment and the Irish were fortunate to have him the past two seasons.
Thanks for giving these two credit. Liz was a great role model for the girls at Glendale…Justin was a great student in our Cell & Molecular Biology program at MO State…and a pretty good footballer too :-). Good luck to both of them…although with their talents I don’t think it’s required.
Nixa’s womens’ assistant coach Dave Brenner has also left. He will be the head coach of the new Branson soccer program.
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[...] made a roster, and I can’t find anything about them playing anywhere else since. Douglass is definitely not playing, it appears. Gallegos is listed on the Galaxy player register at MLSnet, but he’s not listed [...]
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