A new coach is testing an old theory this season for the men’s soccer team at UH-Hilo.
Gene Okamura, taking over from soccer director Lance Thompson who resigned last spring, has the job on an interim basis after coaching years with club-level and Kamehameha Schools.
Now, coaching both men’s and women’s teams concurrently, he’s going to discover if it really is possible to gain addition through subtraction. The added quality hoped for is a more respectable result than last year’s 4-12-2 record, accomplished with 15 seniors on the active roster.
It isn’t supposed to work that way, the senior class is supposed to express leadership qualities that motivate and bring together their teammates. Instead, it was a group that seemed to take a “been there, done that,” approach that involved too much partying, and not enough work. There were suspensions in the middle of the season that seemed to indicate a lack of commitment.
At the end of the season, the Vulcans were 3-5 in conference and then the bottom dropped out in a finish that saw them lose three and draw twice in their last five matches, scoring just three goals in the process.
“No doubt it was a rough season,” said Okamura before flying to Nampa, Idaho, for Thursday’s opener against Westminster College. “But even with all these new pieces, we seem to be building a cohesion, a willingness to fight for each other that we haven’t seen in a while, and that’s very encouraging.”
Trenton Hooper, a freshman a year ago, was one of the bright spots with his capacity to find open space as a target and though he started just six games he had a pair each of goals and assists.
“Trenton will be on the ball, but it will be different,” Okamura said, “we have some other people who can play up front, too, which should be better for everyone.”
Jonathan Garcia, a three-time first team all-conference player and conference Player of the Year last season at Redlands (Calif.) East Valley High School, the same school that produced Hooper and another newcomer, Omar Machado, might not take long to work his way into top of the 4-4-2 structure Okamura has planned.
“You know what, Omar is speedy, he’s a goal scorer and a creator, he knows how to do those things,” Okamura said. “Will he convert right away to this level? I don’t know, but I do know he has those skills and knows how to use them. If it takes a while to grow into it, OK, but he has trained very well.”
There are encouraging signs in goal with the return of senior Cassidy Dixon, who had a respectable 1.48 goals against average a year ago with 29 saves behind what was too often a disaster-prone defense. He is being pushed by senior Joshua Jasper, a transfer a year ago from Southern Indiana. He started four games and had a bulbous 2.71 GAA, but Okamura said he felt Jasper turned the page and played well in training.
Okamura expects six new starters to take the field in their new red-and-black horizontal striped jerseys. Garcia is one, the other five are sophomore Curtis Walker, an outside back transfer from Carson-Newman College, where he played in four matches for the 15-3-2 Eagles; sophomore Conner Ebright, center back, a transfer from Whittier College; junior transfer Rodrigo Castellanos, a defender who played sparingly last season at San Francisco State; Danny Baumgartner, a freshman midfielder with collection and distribution skills who was all-league three years at Serrano High School (Fontana, Calif.) and Jesus Ortega, a freshman forward from San Gorgonio High School (Santa Barbara, Calif.), named all-league three years.
“Really excited to get this going,” Okamura said. “The cohesive willingness to fight for each other to get out of trouble spot or keep pressuring, whatever, is already better than it was last year.”
The Vulcans open the season against the Westminster Griffins from Salt Lake City at 11 a.m., HST.