Soccer coach joins the army!

res1dg16 · July 1, 2003

Interesting DMN article about the high school soccer coach (& UNT graduate) of 3 current Mean Green players:

Naaman Forest soccer coach hangs up whistle for military career

06/22/2003

By MILENKO MARTINOVICH / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

In the movie Patton, there's a scene where the hard-edged general depicts a circumstance later in life for his troops. He asks when they get old and their grandchildren ask what they did in past wars, what will be their answer. Did they do menial work like dig ditches or did they fight the enemy? Patrick Baley asked himself the same question, and he wanted the answer to be noble. So Baley, who was otherwise happy as the girls soccer coach at Naaman Forest, walked into an Army recruiter's office two months ago and enlisted.

"I just felt it was the right thing to do," said Baley, 28. "I'm excited about the opportunity."

Baley, who will be in the infantry, nearly joined the military two years ago after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C. but said he talked himself out of joining. He promised himself, however, that if the United States geared up for war he would enlist.

As the U.S. prepared to attack Iraq, those patriotic feelings returned. Baley would have joined the Navy, but when he went to a recruiter's office in Mesquite, he found the place empty. He then went to a nearby Army recruiter instead. Looking back, Baley said he was happy the Navy office was unoccupied.

"I'm really glad to be going to the Army," Baley said. "I think I'll see a little more action."

Those thoughts don't comfort Jerrell and Ouida Baley, Patrick's parents. Jerrell and Ouida have one son in the service, Michael, who served two years in the Army before joining the National Guard seven years ago.

"I never in my wildest dreams thought Patrick would do something like this," Ouida said.

Probably because Patrick, as Jerrell says, "marches to his own drummer" and is a "free spirit just like his mother." Patrick took Ouida bungee jumping for Mother's Day five years ago and took her to get a tattoo in Deep Ellum for her birthday last year.

Baley's foray into the military may not come as a surprise to some players because they thought he would probably make a good drill sergeant. Baley was strict about team rules and conduct. He held players out of playoff games for violating the lightest of team rules and once made his standout seniors do extra sprints because their locker room was messy.

"Even though he was a bit of a goof-off, he had morals," Jerrell said. "I knew he'd amount to something."

The news of Patrick's enlistment was more shocking considering Patrick's discretion. Only a few people knew of his feelings as war was imminent and less knew of the action he'd take. Jerrell and Ouida found out during a peculiar phone call.

"My wife was on the phone, and she began crying," recalls Jerrell, who was drafted during the Vietnam War but wasn't sent overseas. "The last thing she said was, 'You'd better tell him yourself.' I got on the phone, and the voice on the other end said 'I joined the Army.' I knew it was Patrick, but I thought it was a joke so I said, 'Who is this?'

"He said he'd been watching the news and seeing all these young soldiers kiss their wives and kids goodbye. He said since I don't have a wife and kids, I should be the one to go, not them."

Baley, who guided Naaman Forest to the playoffs all five years he was there, said he doesn't know if a military career is in his future. He heads to Fort Benning, Ga., on Sept. 2 for basic training, then another month of AIT (advanced individual training). He said he's committed to the Army for two years then will evaluate his prospects. If he doesn't want to continue serving in the military, he said he would love to return to teaching.

"I'm as proud as I can be of him," Jerrell said. "When he does something, he's 100 percent into it. I think he'll make a good soldier. No doubt in my mind."