HERRIMAN — Jimmy Coenraets knows Utah’s roads as well as anyone in the state he’s called home since moving to Utah from his native Belgium three years ago.
But on this particular stretch of the Jordan River trail, during his daily double-digit mile bike ride to work from his home in a Salt Lake suburb to the Utah Royals’ training facility in Herriman, the former OH Leuven manager sees the trail run straight — with a heavy uphill incline — for about four miles.
At this point, he usually smiles.
“I like to suffer,” he says with a dry sense of humor that has become his trademark. “People who know me know that.
“The more I suffer, the better it gets,” he later adds. “When the hardest parts show up, that’s when I like it. I think that’s why I also love the playoffs; This is the hardest piece of the season, so let’s do it.”
This story originally appeared in The Salt Lake Tribune before Friday’s NWSL quarterfinal match between Utah Royals FC and San Diego Wave FC (8 p.m. MT, Prime Video). It has been republished here with permission from the author; read the full story here, or subscribe to saltcity.soccer to it below.
