Ashley Parham
Less than a month after former head football coach Steve Sell announced his retirement, Aragon’s defensive coordinator for the last decade, Ash Parham, was hired to be the new football head coach. However, Parham is no stranger to the world of football coaching.
“I started coaching after graduate school … at the College of San Mateo,” Parham said. “I coached up there for four years and then took a short hiatus.”
Parham was also an Aragon alumni, so when JV football coach Steve Henderson invited Parham to help out at Aragon, he gladly accepted.
As the Dons’ defense coordinator for the last ten years, Parham has done a lot of work on-field by coming up with the game plans for the defense. However, Parham feels that as the new head coach, he will be leaving the on-field work to his assistant coaches while he focuses on general supervision.
“Coach Sell has been in for a long time,” Parham said. “His predecessor, who was my head coach, was there for a long time as well. I want to carry on that legacy and tradition … [and] I want to be here for a long time.”
Nick Carrara
Replacing former coach Joe Rousseau, Nick Carrara is the new varsity boys soccer coach this season. A Serra High School alumni, Carrara was a talented midfielder who was named Athlete of the Week by the San Mateo Daily Journal in 2009. From there, Carrara played college soccer at San Jose State University, where he then transitioned into a semi-professional career, playing for the Burlingame Dragons, the Kitsap Pumas and the U23 team for the San Jose Earthquakes. Carrara first turned to coaching 14 years ago.
“When I first started, it was pretty tough,” Carrara said. “I was coaching younger kids. [It was] tough dealing with the younger kids and being new to something … I’ve been playing soccer my whole life so I adapted quickly. As [I] got older and coached more, [I] became more comfortable coaching, and I can relate to the players better.”
After his stint coaching elementary schoolers, Carrara returned to his alma mater as the Serra Padres’ assistant coach, where he remained for the last 10 years before joining Aragon.
“I’ve been coaching high school for a while, and I took a break for a couple of years,” Carrara said. “My friend was the coach before Joe Rousseau. When he stopped coaching, he told me that it was a great spot and if I want to do it, he would put my name in to be a coach. I applied and I was really excited to be part of the program.”
Carrara is focusing more on improving the existing team framework rather than implementing new changes.
“My philosophy is if it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” Carrara said. “I’m still going to try to add my experience and my personality to the team, my playing style, which the kids are adapting to nicely. But there was already a good program that I came into, so it’s just about the boys understanding what I’m asking for in games and practices and the level of competition that I expect day in and day out.”
Though there weren’t major changes to the Dons’ soccer program, varsity center attacking midfielder Sam Pirzadeh did notice a difference between Carrara’s and Rousseau’s coaching styles.
“We used to have more physical drills, or more fitness definitely, but now it’s a little bit more tactical,” Pirzadeh said. “So an example of the drills you did was instead of just outright running from field to field, we’re playing scrimmages with short-term strategies.”
One reason behind the change in drills stems from Carrara’s personal coaching philosophy and how he prioritizes what’s needed to win.
“My philosophy is these kids don’t necessarily need to be in the best shape, because if you’re good with the ball then you’re a good soccer player,” Carrara said. “We win games by being good soccer players and playing good soccer.”
In addition to good tactics and smart soccer, Carrara also emphasizes the importance of a good work ethic.
“I expect accountability from the kids,” Carrara said. “If they are not giving their best effort and best attitude, then I demand it from them.”
Martin Chan
Martin Chan is the newest addition to the Aragon coaching roster, stepping in to replace former badminton coach Linda Brown. Growing up in Hong Kong, Chan picked up badminton at a young age, but soon dropped the sport due to other commitments such as volleyball, tennis, chess and choir. Although Chan was not the most dominant in all the sports and activities he participated in, his determination and go-getter mindset still earned him the role of team captain in volleyball, tennis and chess.
“I treated school more like a country club,” Chan said. “You have all these extracurriculars, and it doesn’t cost extra to do an extracurricular. So why not? If you can put in your time, just do it.”
Prior to becoming Aragon’s badminton coach, Chan was the coach for tennis, girls volleyball and boys basketball at Borel Middle School. Though Chan had never coached badminton before, he believes that his prior experience playing the sport and his extensive experience as a coach of other sports would help him adapt quickly.
“The person-to-person interaction is really key to coaching,” Chan said. “Being able to work with the kids, I have built a rapport with them. The act of coaching isn’t just like teaching how to play the game, but strategizing how the games play.”
Although Chan acknowledges that there will be challenges and differences when adapting from teaching middle schoolers to high schoolers, he believes that he had already climbed over one of the toughest hurdles when he overcame the coaching of sports during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“During COVID, you’ve got a computer, you’ve got a textbook, you’ve got online stuff,” Chan said. “It’s so hard to learn. And that happens especially more so with sports. Without the actual human interaction, it’s really hard to learn something without being personable, especially playing a team sport where you have to communicate.”
Chan reflects that his passion for teaching had only grown over the years.
“I’ve been doing email marketing for most of my adult life. And then And then recently, since I started coaching, I’ve been coaching more and more,” Chan said. “The benefit of coaching is that I get to work with the kids. I get to exercise. I don’t have to go to some gym, or do weight lifting and run on the treadmill. I could actually play a sport that I enjoy … It’s pretty cool and rewarding, and it makes me happy to do it.”
