HAVE YOU ever found an activity or sport that just fits? Do you feel like you are just where you are meant to be when doing that thing? Do you feel electrified and excited by the thought of it? Kent Bean has been in love since stepping onto the soccer field at around age 3 or 4. Today you might know Bean as our Franklin County High School soccer coach, but he started as a member of the team during his high school years in our community. The skills he learned early on in sports have followed him throughout his career, and he is called to share those same lessons with Franklin County’s youths today. As a student, Bean was involved in golf, basketball, and soccer. However, soccer is the one that drove his passion to become a teacher and a coach as a career.
Kent Bean’s father was one of the first coaches of the Franklin County High School soccer team when it grew from a club activity to a school sport in the late 1980s. “My dad was kind of my inspiration for wanting to become a teacher and a coach. I always wanted to teach and coach,” Bean shared. He explained that some of his favorite memories from his days as a student-athlete in Franklin County came from traveling with all of his best friends. “One of my friend’s mom had one of those vans with a TV in it, and we all used to fight over a seat in that van,” he recalled.
In college, he played intramural soccer and worked toward becoming a teacher. His teaching journey began at a charter school in Memphis. “I was coaching volleyball and girls basketball. I never saw myself doing that, but that’s what I did at first.” After establishing himself in his new position, Bean asked the administration if he could start a soccer team. “That first year, we had about 14 kids show up, and only one of them had ever played soccer before,” he said. “We didn’t have anywhere to practice. We practiced in an open field.” Over time, he watched the program grow, and in his last year in Memphis, 20 kids showed up to participate. “Franklin County hosts a soccer tournament, and I brought my student from Memphis all the way out to Franklin County. There was a church that would lend us cots, and we would camp out at the middle school and just play soccer during the day and play basketball in the gym at night.” Bean has created the opportunity for many players to travel with their friends and play soccer, which he enjoyed as a student-athlete.
After four years in Memphis, Bean returned to Franklin County. In 2016 he returned to this community and became the boys and girls high school soccer coach. He is excited to see that soccer has become more popular in our area. “It’s a lot more prevalent than it was when I played. It’s a lot more competitive. The community support continues to surprise me. The local rec league is growing, and I love seeing my current players and even former students get involved and give back.”
“Good things come from putting time and energy into things you care about,” Bean stated. “There are plenty of people I wouldn’t have met if I wasn’t on this path.” We are a lucky community to have such a strong and committed leader working with the local youths. Bean has firsthand experience with what it means to be a Franklin County student-athlete and has built a career around his passion for teaching and coaching.
By returning to the community, he can share the knowledge he has gathered as an experienced coach and give back to where he began his soccer journey. He is providing an incredible benefit to the experience of our student-athletes by providing mentorship. Leaders like Bean are building positive outlets where students can gain skills and knowledge that will impact the rest of their lives. GN
