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Central soccer coach, a Philly native, found his calling in Uganda

Josh Trott spent some rewarding years teaching and coaching soccer at a boarding school in African nation.

JOSH TROTT wandered down the halls of Christ School Bundibugyo in Uganda, trying to find the bathroom.

With instructions from his roommate, Desmond, Trott walked out of his dorm room, made the quick turn around the corner and began walking. When he reached the bathroom, three stalls with no toilets were all he saw.

Confused, he walked back to Desmond and asked for help. Out of his comfort zone, the Philadelphia native and current varsity soccer coach at Central High School was making the transition to a new world.

"I didn't know what I was in for," Trott recalled. "But I got used to that and other things after a while."

Today, Trott is trying to lead Central to a fourth consecutive playoff appearance. But in 2002, he arrived at Christ School, a secondary boarding school in western Uganda near the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to begin a two-month internship with World Harvest, now known as Serge. With a literature degree from Temple University, Trott was persuaded by his sister, Kimiko, to travel to Uganda.

He taught English and literature for two months, then stayed another three months to continue working. After returning to Philadelphia, Trott returned to the all-boys school at the end of 2002 and taught there for two more years.

"I ended up there as a fluke for me," Trott said. "I always said I was a Philly guy, and I thought I wasn't going anywhere."

When Christ School's headmaster approached Trott to coach the newly formed junior varsity soccer team, the former Central varsity player took over the 20-player squad. With a field for drills on site, Trott and his team practiced the basics of the sport without modern equipment, including cleats.

"My feet couldn't handle it," Trott said. "I was losing skin, and then [my feet] got hard enough where I could do it. But I like playing barefoot a lot. It was a worthwhile training experience. You learn the surfaces of your feet. You feel connected to the grass."

After two years of coaching and playing pickup soccer at Christ School, Trott returned to Philadelphia with a passion to continue teaching. But struggles with readjusting to life in Philadelphia led Trott to the hardest time of his life.

"I felt depressed when I came back here," Trott said. "It was cold, people were distant and didn't communicate . . .

"I just felt everyone was so unfriendly. It is so different culturally than Uganda, where, if you don't know someone, you are going to chat with them. Where, in Philly, everyone looks straight ahead. I struggled with reverse-culture shock."

With the help of pickup soccer games with the United Brotherhood of Haiti, an adult recreation team at Olney High School and the soccer field at B Street & Olney Avenue, Trott's rejuvenated love of soccer gave him a new direction for his life.

He re-enrolled at Temple, received his master's in education in 2007 and became an English teacher at Thomas FitzSimons High School the same year. He went on to coach the FitzSimons varsity boys' soccer team for three years in the C Division of the Public League.

In 2011, Trott began teaching English at Central, and, in 2012, he became the varsity boys' soccer coach. In the first year under Trott, Central lost in the quarterfinals of the Public League Championships to Julia R. Masterman School.

The following year, Trott led Central to its first Public League title since 2001, defeating top-seeded Northeast High School, 1-0.

"It was magical," said former center back Joel Kelly, who graduated Central in 2014 and is a sophomore at Duke University, double majoring in mechanical engineering and computer science. "Looking back on it, the season felt like we were in a sports movie, because we lost two out of our first three . . . but coach Trott never gave up on us, and we found our form."

"We made it a goal in the locker room during the first day of practice to win the championship," said former center midfielder Jake Dillon, a sophomore at Bryn Athyn College who graduated from Central in 2014. "It was amazing to be able to accomplish that . . . we had one thing left to finish."

Last season, Central fell to Northeast, 1-0, in overtime of the semifinals of the Public League Championship. Through four games this year, Central is 2-2.

"We are not as good as we are used to being in the past years," Trott said. "We are young . . . it's a growing year."