One of the things Windham Middle School girls’ soccer coach Aaron Talon loves about sports is being able to compete.
He grew up playing sports and majored in physical education at Saint Joseph’s College. He began coaching in 1999 and has been a physical education teacher at Windham Middle School for the past nine years but has been teaching physical education for 24 years altogether.
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| WMS physical education teacher and eighth grade girls' soccer coach Aaron Talon just finished his second season as a soccer coach and inspires his athletes to work together as a team to achieve desired results. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA |
“At the middle school level, we want the athletes to learn how to work as a team,” said Talon, who just wrapped up his second year of coaching eighth grade girls’ soccer at WMS. “This includes respecting each other and listening to everyone’s thoughts and ideas and building trust between all of us.”
At Saint Joseph’s College, he played baseball and says that he always enjoyed sports and wanted to pursue a career involving athletics.
Talon taught physical education at Gray New Gloucester High School for 15 years. While there he coached varsity baseball for 10 years and varsity golf for five years.
While coaching at Gray New Gloucester High School, he made some strong connections to players and coaches at Windham High School. At that time, they shared coaching responsibilities with American Legion Baseball during the summer. He wanted to take a break from head coaching to spend time with his family, and being an assistant coach for the Windham High School’s baseball team was an opportunity to continue coaching.
While coaching at Windham High, a teaching position opened up at Windham Middle School. Talon thought it was a good time to make a change in his professional career.
Both his daughters played soccer for Windham Middle School and at Windham High School. He saw this as an opportunity to get involved with the program.
“He allows us to do what we need to do on and off the field,” said Windham Middle School girls’ soccer eighth grader Shea Carey. “He supports us in our academics and ... has us doing exercises that help us get better endurance. I learned how to really trust my team and I learned many different defensive skills and how to work with the girls on my team and become basically a family.”
His WMS girls’ soccer team had a very impressive season this year. They had a lot of returning players who played on the seventh-grade team. The eighth-grade team finished its season undefeated. Having so many experienced players helped this group achieve such an impressive accomplishment.
“The success belongs 100 percent to the student athletes,” said Talon. “They are the ones who show up each day, put the time in and work hard.”
His favorite thing about being a coach is taking a group of athletes with different levels of experience, beliefs and backgrounds and watching them work together to achieve a common goal.
“He makes sure we’re always having fun,” said WMS girls’ soccer eighth grader Jennifer Schwarz. “He’s really nice and a really good coach, always super supportive, and he makes good drills for us. I learned to really talk to my team.”
Talon enjoys playing golf and watching his daughters play basketball at the University of Maine and Saint Joseph’s College. <
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