Jeremy Krieg, Director of Athletics

My name is Jeremy Krieg, and in March 2023 I was named the first K-6 Director of Athletics for Thunderbird Youth Sports, our new youth sports organization for the three Lima Catholic elementary schools. I am extremely excited to take on this endeavor and want to introduce myself to give you an idea of the vision and future goals set to improve the overall athletic experience at the Lima Catholic schools. 

I am a graduate of St. Charles, LCC (‘04), and BGSU. My parents, Jerry & Lisa, sent my three siblings and I through the Lima Catholic school system: Steffany (’06), Samantha/JoJo (’09), and Justin/Bubba (’11).  (Most of you probably know me better as JoJo or Bubba’s brother). We are incredibly grateful to our parents for sacrificing in order to send us to the Lima Catholic schools, in the same way that you are doing for your children now. Thank you.

My wife, Katie (LCC ’05), and I previously coached the LCC Girls Varsity Basketball team together. While we thoroughly enjoyed the experience, our growing family forced us to put that aside. The year since have been full of coaching youth sports, with our children now playing, and I have found it to be the most enjoyable time I have ever had in sports. Nothing beats watching a child master a skill for the first time, accomplish something they did not know they could, and show a resilience that they did not know they had. Few things present the opportunity to teach a child transferable life skills better than sports.

It is the goal of Thunderbird Youth Sports to build an organization that does just that, provide children a fun environment where they can learn about sports, the value of hard work, how to be a good teammate, how to conduct oneself in the face of adversity, and how to focus only on what you can control. I love the expression “Event + Response = Outcome.” In the face of any event, positive or negative, our response to that event determines the outcome. Sports provide the best avenue to teach young children this life skill, and it will be at the forefront of everything our organization does.

This will translate to the coaches, spectators, and parents. We all love our children and want to see them succeed. That is the outcome we want across the board. Our responses to specific events need to be consciously made to achieve that outcome. In the world of youth sports, that means always encouraging your child, telling them how proud you are of them, and how much you love watching them compete and improving themselves. It DOES NOT mean criticizing officials, coaches, and players. These are youth sports. Winning is completely secondary. A renewed focus on positive encouragement from parents and spectators will also be at the forefront of everything the organization does.

We have a unique opportunity to help our children become better athletes, and more importantly good people, if we approach youth sports the correct way. To achieve the success we all want for our children, it will take a community effort, strong parental involvement, and an extreme focus on making sure we are cultivating the best youth sports environment for all involved.

I look forward to working toward making the Thunderbird Youth Sports organization such an environment.

Go T-Birds!