By Eric Charbonnet
@ECharb10
Get ready Las Positas. Another school year has begun and that means another Hawks soccer season is among us.
Men’s and women’s soccer teams have made a number of additions to their teams and look to capitalize on their recruiting.
For the women it has been an eventful offseason.
In his tenure of head coach, Paul Sapsford has helped create the largest incoming recruiting class LPC has ever seen
With six returning players from a team that won eight conference games last year and nineteen incoming recruits, Sapsford is confident that his team can make it to the end of the season with plenty of players healthy and ready to compete in the playoffs.
Just don’t ask Coach Sapsford about how many games he thinks they’ll win this year compared to last.
“I don’t focus on rankings and things like that,” Sapsford said. “Obviously you have plans, but you always have to be ready to adjust.”
Sapsford is confident that his team is up for the task. As for the team’s focus and where the emphasis lies, not much has been changed.
“I just want the team to focus on what they can control, focus on improving and giving the effort,” Sapsford said.
The team will be looking for suport from last year’s second leading goal scorer Yesica Morales.
LPC Women’s soccer fans can expect to see a lot of effort being exerted on Tuesdays and Fridays this fall either here at Las Positas or at any of the team’s away games.
But while continuity and consistency is a strong point for the Lady Hawks and Women’s soccer this year, change is an imminent reality for the men’s team in 2016.
New Head Coach Andy Cumbo has made his way to Las Positas from Cal State East Bay calling the new position a “dream Job”.
When asked why it was a dream he had this to say about his excitement for not only the upcoming season, but also the opportunity to teach on campus,
“If I had the choice to coach and teach at Las Positas College or just be the men’s head coach at Stanford, I would always choose this,” Cumbo said.
He definitely has his work cut out for him with only six returning players from last year’s team that finished seven and thirteen.
Cumbo recruited seventeen players in to the program in his very first attempt and he’s excited about the group.
“The players that either we chose to bring here or chose to come here as a mutual decision wanted to be in a positive and competitive environment,” Cumbo said.
Among the players joining the team for Coach Cumbo’s first season are two Hawks players that took time away from the team but have found their way back.
Lalo Aguilar was the 2014 Coast Conference Player of the Year and will be looking to bolster the attack alongside two of the three top scorers from last season, Salvador Morales and Antonio Jimenez who scored seven and five goals respectively.
Coach Cumbo is excited about the squad and thinks that not only the returning players, but the new one’s as well, fit the mold of creating a successful program.
“What will make us successful this year is working together as a team, defending as a team, and being committed to being coachable, “ Cumbo said. “If we do that, no matter what the result is, we’ll have a good experience.”