Milwaukee Kickers Soccer Club coach John Sweeney was honored as the 2007 Girls Coach of the Year at the recent WYSA (Wisconsin Youth Soccer Association) annual meeting in Appleton.
Sweeney, who has coached youth and collegiate teams for more than a quarter-century, most recently led the Milwaukee Kickers Wauwatosa Region select level boys and girls teams. In 2007 Sweeney coached the Tosa Kickers U18 Kicks girls select team and the Tosa Kickers U18 Warriors boys select team. Both teams won their Wisconsin Premier League Championship and were undefeated in league play.
"John has spent countless hours devoted to youth soccer over the years, and his knowledge of the game and experience working with young athletes has been invaluable to both the athletic, and more importantly, the personal development of the players," states Tosa Kicks U18 girls team manager Kathy Coleman.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
