By: Erin Cotton and Claire Hounslow

Paul Mumby is not only a superb soccer coach and excellent teacher, but also knows how to lay bricks, fix piping, and deliver chocolate. Mumby is the Westborough High School girls’ varsity soccer team coach and a physical education teacher at the Mill Pond School.

Growing up in England, Mumby had many other professions before he stumbled upon one he loved. He was a truck driver, delivering chocolate to pubs, a construction worker, fixing pipes in the ground, and an apprentice, laying bricks. Mumby grew up just outside a city called Birmingham with his mother, father, and younger brother Sean. He moved to the United States of America in 1996 while the rest of his family remained behind in England.

Mumby decided he wanted to work with kids when he left school at about age seventeen. Finding a profession that both included his love of kids and his love of soccer came easily with coaching. Mumby has been coaching for 25 years now, eight of those years have been spent at Westborough High School working with the girls’ varsity team. Juggling his high school team and self-run club, Best FC, has left Mumby in a busy situation. As he says, “It is difficult to manage, because I run around like a headless chicken.”  Mumby would love to coach at a college level but not until his two daughters graduate from high school.

Even though it seems we never see  Mumby away from the soccer field, he in fact has many other hobbies. In his free time Mumby can be found playing golf or tennis, traveling with his family, watching sports, or simply eating and sleeping. Mumby enjoys following professional soccer, his favorite team is Derby County but he also likes Manchester United. His favorite player by far is David Beckham. As Mumby himself says, “He’s my hero”. He also enjoys playing soccer, in which he used to be right midfielder.

Mumby is also a physical education teacher as Mill Pond School. Before working at Mill Pond, Mumby worked in West Boylston for 10 years. Mumby loves to work with kids because he “loves to see how kids develop and be part of that development”.  Ten years from now he sees himself still at Westborough. When asked if he wished he had chosen another profession he simply said, “never”.