Why "Coach Anya"?

So my name is Anya- that much is pretty clear. My last name is very long- 13 letters and a hyphen. I work with a lot of kids teaching pre-school sports and I coach competitive/High School/College Soccer teams. That's where the name Coach Anya comes from- the kids couldn't call me Coach Last-name-with-Ukrainian-roots-that-we-can-not-pronounce. At first it was strange but here I am 10 years into my coaching career and I love it! Only the kids I coach and their parents call me Coach Anya- so you can just call me Anya. "Anya" was a boring blog title and thus the name of this blog was born.

Here I am with one of the kids I coach at the Tinker Bell Half Marathon.