Ed Russman is no stranger to soccer.
As a young player, he played from U6 through high school at Canon-McMillan, earning All-Section honors as a defender. After high school, he was a PIAA
high school referee for 12 years and a USSF referee. He continued his involvement in soccer as a coach and referee, becoming an integral part of Hopewell youth soccer.
Russman wears many hats within the Hopewell soccer community. Currently he is the Vice-President and Referee Assignor for the Hopewell Soccer Club and is head coach of a U12 travel team and the junior high boys’ team.
“When we moved to Hopewell, I knew I wanted to get involved with the soccer program in some way,” Russman told VSN. “It started in 2016 when my daughter played in-house soccer. From there, I started coaching and eventually coached some of the boys who are now in 8th and 9th grade at the U10, U12, and U14 travel levels. I’ve also coached my son’s travel teams along the way.”
“So, it’s really been a progression from being a parent who wanted to help out, to coaching, and then becoming more involved in the overall club.”
Russman is happy with the Hopewell Soccer Club’s accomplishments.
“We have an incredible group of people on our Soccer Board. We’ve officially become a 501(c)(3), continued working to improve our fields and drainage, and maintained the club’s
financial stability without requiring families to do fundraising,” he said.
“Ed has impacted our Hopewell community through soccer and wrestling,” said soccer parent Alisha Cumpston. Her son was coached by Russman. “In terms of soccer, he has served on the board for many years helping to improve and grow our soccer program. He has coached multiple teams during the same season just to allow additional kids to play.”
When it comes to soccer, Russman believes most importantly the players should have fun.
“Winning and improving are important, but I want the kids to actually enjoy coming to practice and being part of the team,” Russman said. “We’ve done water balloon practices on hot days, Halloween Costume practices, “Anything but Shin Guard” practices, parents-versus-kids games, parent soccer-ball gauntlets, coordinated a road trip to watch Messi and Inter Miami play, blindfolded penalty kicks, and even a tradition where the kids get to dump their water on me after a big win. Those are the things that I hope the kids remember years from now.”
“The biggest things I want my players to learn are how to handle adversity and owning their opportunities. My players know that we don’t blame the referee, the field conditions, the weather, the size of our community, or anything else when we lose. The other team scored more goals than we did and that’s the result. Then we figure out what we can do better,” Russman said.
Parents and players love Russman’s coaching style.
“Ed is a very vocal coach which is great,” Cumpston told VSN. “He’s always keeping things positive and engaging while helping kids learn and develop. Hopewell is so lucky to have Coach Ed.”
Nick Holsinger has a son on the U12 traveling team. “Ed brings tremendous passion in coaching. He is a high energy and vocal coach that is always coaching,” Holsinger told VSN. “He has always challenged our boys by playing better competition on. First season of winter indoor soccer we played a lot of older teams that were much better than us. We got beat by 5 plus goals every game. Fast forward three years and this same core group of boys were competing and beating Cup soccer teams on a regular basis. He believes, as do I, the only way to get better is to play against teams that are better than you.”
Holsinger said the players absolutely love and respect Russman. “There is no one who knows soccer better than Coach Ed.”
Russman has experienced many coaching highlights, including seeing former players take the varsity field for the first time.
“I’ve had some amazing coaches in my life, and I can still remember them and the impact they had on me. My goal as a coach is to have that same kind of positive impact on my players. Obviously, I want them to become better soccer players. But if they leave our program knowing how to be a better teammate, handle adversity, take responsibility, and enjoy being part of a team, then I think we’ve accomplished our goal,” Russman said.