By Jim Richards
The 2008 SMCC women’s soccer roster is made up of names entirely of Hispanic persuasion, but there is no language barrier whatsoever between player and coach.
In fact, it’s the Spanish language that likely brought the program back onto the field after a year away.
Bilingual first-year head coach Marcelo Piana revived the women’s soccer program by gathering 14 players to compete in this year’s 18-game ACCAC soccer season and through two conference games, it also appears that the Cougars have more than a fighting chance of making some noise within the conference.
The Cougars opened the season with a 3-0 home victory over Scottsdale CC and then took No.3-ranked Pima CC into overtime before falling, 1-0, a few days later.
The action on the field is a stark contrast to last year’s washed out season.
“I just went to local high schools and recruited,” said Piana, who also serves as an assistant men’s soccer coach at SMCC. “I introduced myself and what we were offering and they seemed to like that I speak Spanish.”
Piana recruited heavily out of the Maryvale area and landed two players --Sheila Luna and Angie Hernandez--who were expected to sign with another top team within the conference. Piana expects the two players, along with Sylvia Arballo, to be up for conference awards at the end of the season.
“The fact that I speak Spanish made them feel more comfortable and they came here,” Piana said.
Piana admitted that he had his work cut out for him.
“I’d been told quite a few times by a couple of coaches that I wasn’t going to be able to get it done, especially by bringing in all Mexican girls,” Piana said. “But as of now, there has been no problem whatsoever.
“To be honest, I never thought that we weren’t going to get a team going. The players are out there.”
Piana’s roster is made up entirely of freshmen except for holdovers Grace Ocampo and Masiel Casarez.
Catch the Cougars in action at home this week against top conference opponents Chandler-Gilbert on Wednesday (3:30) and the powerful and No.14-ranked Paradise Valley (noon) on Saturday.