Soccer, Stories, and Sun Señor Carlos López Soccer Alumni Day

By Henry Zatarain, Director of Sports Information and Game Operations

On a beautiful spring Saturday in Atherton, the Menlo soccer community came together to take part in the annual Señor Carlos López Soccer Alumni Day. Current and past Oaks took to the field to take part in 7-on-7 games, followed by lunch and conversation.

Carlos López took the reins of the men’s soccer team in 1961, and remained the program’s head coach until 1988, also serving as college president from 2004 to 2007. One of the winningest coaches in Menlo history, he accumulated 215 victories and 12 conference championships while coaching six All-Americans.

Larry Lopez, Carlos’s son, greeted the record number of attendees by saying that his father “would be absolutely pleased to see so many older players” on the field. One such alum was All-American Karl Buder ’66, who joined the team in Carlos López’s first year. “We played major schools like Stanford, Cal, San Francisco State, and USF. We lost every game, but we never gave up. That built [the program] into what it is today.”

This year’s event was the first for new women’s soccer head coach Freddy Delgado, who guided the Oaks to an overall record of 8-5-3 and a GSAC Tournament appearance in the fall.