Winning back-to-back state championships has brought women’s soccer head coach Ruben Gonzalez the honor of being awarded National Coach of the Year twice in a row, as the women’s soccer team was also honored in a Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday, Jan. 22 at 6 p.m.
“It’s very humbling to receive an award like that,” Gonzalez said. “You are voted on by your peers in the west coast. Then whoever wins that vote, gets voted on by the national coaches.”
Along with Ruben, three players, sophomore Claudia Lopez, sophomore Alexis Carrillo and sophomore Alyssa Cabral followed their coach to receive awards of their own.
Lopez was awarded Most Valuable Player of the tournament and the NSCAA National Player of the Year.
Cabral was named second All-American, while Carrillo was named first All-American.
The win that brought this team so much media attention from news outlets like CNN, the Long Beach Register and La Opinion was achieved on an icy field in Sacramento on Dec. 8 last semester.
Now that it is spring’s sports to shine, the champion team has not stopped working according to Gonzalez.
“We have a class that meets here (Falcon stadium) twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday nights,” Gonzalez said. “We will start full board in March getting ready for the summer.”
Although practice routines are not as rigorous now as they were during pre-season, coach Gonzalez still wants his players fit.
Carrillo was stunned to hear that she was named first All-American, “It’s an honor to even be considered to receive it,” Carrillo said. “It’s all about the team. The team is the one that helped me receive it too. It’s them that I really owe it to.”
Forward striker Lopez no longer trains with the team, but the memories of such a well knitted team still linger on in her memory, “Even though I don’t practice with them anymore,” Lopez said. “I know that right now they (the players) would be preparing for the third title.”
Lopez’s next school to play at will be the University of Texas.
“Wow, I mean, you always dream of things like this,” Coach Gonzalez said. “It’s like a dream come true, and you continue to work hard because you know how good it feels to be on top of the hill and you want to maintain yourself there.”
