Brandon Hire is a left footed player who is technically very solid, and understands the game at a good level. This year he has played predominantly at center back, and I have asked him to do some things that he is maybe not used to doing. My teams must try to play out of the back at all times. Most of the time they are doing this under intense pressure from the opposition. At the beginning of the season, this style of play cost us some goals because we were still learning the process, and through learning comes mistakes. In one game, we conceded four goals because we were not great at achieving success in playing out of the back early in the season. As the season went on, we became better and better at playing out of the back, and Brandon never once tried to change the way he played. He made mistakes which cost us goals and he felt terrible. The easy thing to do would be to boot the ball down the field away from danger. However, you learn nothing from this and Brandon knows that.

I am proud of Brandon for the way he stuck to his and the team's principles when things got tough. It shows his commitment to excellence, his fight to overcome adversity, and his belief in what we want to do as a team. These characteristics will help Brandon now and in the future in whatever he does.