Plymouth Magazine, January 2007

Coaches Who Care

Two brothers earn recognition for a coaching job well done

by Kelly Westhoff

Growing up, Marcus Onsum was a busy boy. He liked being outside and playing with friends. He kept an eye out for his brother, Steve. Steve wanted to play with the big boys—typical little brother behavior, except for one thing: Steve was in a wheelchair. He suffers from a form of muscular dystrophy called spinal muscular atrophy and has used a wheelchair since he was very young. “I was always busy playing sports.” Marcus admits. “But we always found a way for Steve to play. We adapted the neighborhood games to include Steve. Looking back, that really set the foundation for what we do today.”

What Marcus, 31, and Steve Onsum, 28, do today is coach adapted athletics. They coach soccer, floor hockey and softball for physically impaired students. The Robins serve students in three school districts including Robbinsdale Area Schools, Mound-Westonka and Hopkins. Technically, the Robins are a part of Robbinsdale Armstrong's athletic program, which suits the Onsum brothers just fine. Both are Armstrong graduates.

The Robins play against other adapted teams in the Metro Association of Adapted Athletics (MAAA) conference, which along with all varsity athletic programs, belongs to the Minnesota State High School League. Because the Robins are part of an official state league, the players are subject to the same regulations as other Minnesota athletes. Robins players must maintain their grades and avoid alcohol and drugs. If they meet the team criteria, they can earn their varsity letter for participating in all three sports during the school year.

“Our players have cerebral palsy, spine bifida, muscular dystrophy, autism…the list is a mile long,” says head coach Marcus Onsum. “Many are in wheelchairs or use crutches, but some of the kids you'd never know were disabled just to look at them. But put them in the game, see them move, and you'll see their imbalance.”

“We focus on making better teams, but really we're making better individuals,” he continues. “We work the kids until they drop. We tire them out. We treat our adapted athletes the same way we would treat football players. We get mad when they blow it. We get in their face when they don't listen. It's tough love, I guess,” he smiles. “But we don't ask them to do something they're not able to do. The most rewarding part about this job is to watch the kids test themselves and learn what they can do.”

As far as assistant coach Steve Onsum is concerned, there isn't much the players can't do. “We take our teams and our games very seriously,” Steve Onsum explains. “I've been in these kids' shoes. I'm the coach now, but I grew up here. I used to play on these exact same teams,” he says. “I think I owe it to these kids to be a good coach. I wouldn't have gone to college, I wouldn't be working, I wouldn't be where I am today if it hadn't been for these teams. Through sports, I came out of my shell and it's great to see these kids change, gain self esteem and social skills.”

With attitudes like these, it's easy to understand why the Onsum brothers were selected out of 700 nominations to receive USA Weekend's Most Caring Coaches Award in October 2006. They were featured in the magazine, appeared on Fox Sports and received $1,000 for their adapted sports program. A parent of one of their players nominated the coaching brothers for the award.

The remainder of this article can be found in the January 2007 issue of Plymouth Magazine.