“Every year is different, every team is different,” says Coach Luis Plasencia about his Coast Union girls soccer teams, and this year is unique as well. Each year Plasencia says he has some difficulty getting his teams to jell together—but this team is the best at coming together he has had so far, he explains.
Coming into this week, the girls’ season shows 4 wins and 5 losses. This year’s team is made up of mostly underclassmen, which is a good sign for the future, but a bit problematic for the present.
For Plasencia, going “back to the basics” when coaching relatively inexperienced girls is a change for him that is both fun but challenging. In his 10 years of coaching, he has coached not only at the high school level, but an adult team here in Cambria.
Luis was first introduced to soccer at the age of 12 years; his interest became more serious once he became part of an amateur team at a school for a professionals in Tecula, Texas. Ask him what made him first love soccer, and he explains it was after making a goal (while being on the amateur team) from midfield.
“That’s when it all started,” he answered. Luckily for Coast Union athletes, soccer has been a part of his life ever since. Plasencia said he is “Looking for the girls to become teammates and good players. And, most importantly,” he adds, he wants them to “understand the concept of the game.”
Another thing Plasencia strives for with his team is that they will “encourage and inspire” other girls to play on the team next year — those are talented enough to do so.” When Plasencia is not training soccer players on the field, he is running his own landscaping and gardening business that he will once again give his full attention to once this season comes to a close.
To close out the season, the team has just two tournament games (today, Feb. 4, and Saturday, Feb. 6), a home game against Orcutt Academy at 6 p.m. Feb. 9, and their final game against Mission Prep at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 11.
—Alexis Scrivner, special to The Cambrian
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