About Coach Christine

Hi! My name is Christine Celozzi, and I am a soccer fanatic. I started playing when I was 5 years old.

I would love to quickly paint you a picture. If you can imagine a large group of kids chasing after the ball, and then behind them, another group of 3 kids chasing the larger group, and then behind them another kid or 2…and then there was me. I couldn’t run fast, but I liked to chase. And at 3’ tall with small hands, I wasn’t making much of a case for playing goalie. Fast forward to 8 years old, I went to summer soccer camp at Holy Cross College. I won the pair of XL men’s purple shorts for camper of the week [why they were that size is still a mystery today], and my confidence, but mostly my endurance, grew significantly along with my love for the game.

At 10 years old, I was really fortunate to have my dad as a coach. Did this mean more playing time for me? Favoritism over the other players? No, absolutely not. In fact, one of the things that made my soccer experience much more enjoyable was that my dad played fair.

Every week, he would come to the game as an accountant does, with an Excel spreadsheet made up of playing times. Every child on our team was given the exact same playing time, the exact same time as goalie, and the exact same respect. Soccer became a community for me that felt safe, exciting, and accepting. And I carry this with me to this day, trying to fill his shoes as a coach myself because it molded my long standing love for soccer. It wasn’t just about the game anymore, it was about the shared experience; soccer family halloween parties, being forced to run around the field holding hands with someone I didn’t get along with, which ultimately led to us becoming good friends, laughing and feeling like there was a time to be silly and a time to be focused and learning the difference between the two.

I carried this love and respect for the game while playing throughout high school, into my collegiate years, into my late 20s, and now into coaching. Because to me, the best kind of team you can be a part of is one where you’re a team on the field, and a family off the field.