Boys soccer looking ahead with new coach

The boy’s varsity soccer team is gearing up for the upcoming season. At the helm this year is new head coach Tyrone Diaz, an Aragon graduate himself. Diaz was the varsity goalkeeper for the class of 1988, and was an assistant for the frosh-soph team last year. Diaz says, “It feels good to come back and be a part of Aragon again.”

The players appreciate Diaz as well. Junior Aldo Severson says that “[Diaz] is doing a good job of getting us ready for the season.

Senior Fahad Sahib agrees, saying, “[Tyrone] is a good coach. We’re definitely more fit this year.”

Senior Omar Salli continues “At practice, we run about two or three miles to warm up, lots of sit-ups, we set up plays and scrimmage with the frosh-soph team.”
The soccer program also welcomes new frosh-soph coach Pedro Valerio. Although he has coached in the past at the U16 and U19 levels, this is his first year coaching at the high school level.

This year, Diaz and coach Valerio have set up a new system combining varsity and frosh-soph for conditioning and practice. The system is designed to prepare the frosh-soph players for varsity level. Diaz says “This new program is working out for us right now.”

Senior Carlos Cardenas says, “We feel that team chemistry is very important to us, and that this team has great chemistry.”

Diaz agrees, “We want to click as a team. We don’t want any individuals to stand out above the rest.” Unlike many sports teams, there are no captains on the soccer team.

Sahib elaborates, “No one on this team is a leader. We are all a family.”

Both the players and coach agree that the goal is to win the Division championship. However, that may be challenging after struggling to keep a spot in the Bay division last year. Diaz says, “These guys really went all out to stay up [in the Bay division].

Senior Fabian Contreras says, “We had trouble putting our great team chemistry to use on the field.”

Severson emphasizes the importance of execution. “We need to finish. Finish our shots. Finish our plays. Finish everything.”

This year, players seem very optimistic. Junior Parker Huang says “We’re looking for a big turnaround this year.” Sahib agrees, saying, “We look good this year. I think we’re going to go far. This is our strongest team in years.”

Along with the new coaches and system, there is a new crop of players as well. Diaz says, “We did not have as big a turnout of players as we expected.” Fortunately Diaz believes less cuts will benefit the team. He says, “I like to focus more on the players and practice more, rather than doing more trying out and cutting.”

Despite the smaller turnout, Diaz and Valerio still took many things into consideration before making the teams. Their main focus was the ability to listen to the coach and follow instructions in order to promote team chemistry and execution on the field. They also took into account the player’s academics, attendance and characteristics. Diaz says, “I like to take into account what the players show us they will become if they can stand up to the requirements.” “We love having a great player-coach relationship and we hope to keep that throughout the season,” said Coach Diaz. Preseason games are currently taking place. At a scrimmage against South on Dec. 12, Aragon lost a close game 2-1. Aragon’s next home game is versus Mills on Dec. 20 starting at 2:30. Diaz will make his coaching debut at the first regular season game on January 4.