years of successful goals soccer has made playo s every season

Mike Washington Roundup Reporter

The Roundup: Your team is doing fantastically well considering they have been making the playoffs almost every year.

Adolfo Perez: 206 wins, 35 losses, and 38 draws. We have made the playoffs every year since 2001.

RU: Not many teams can say that.

AP: I think it’s just us and Ventura in the whole state of California that can actually say that.

RU: So you took over the team in 2001?

AP: Yeah. Actually, I’ve been the first and only coach. When I got hired on 2001 there was no program. I actually got hired in May which is recruiting season and as I like to say, we did not have a soccer ball. I mean we literally started from scratch. There was no soccer ball, no field, no nothing. We got our field halfway through our second year. It was rough.

RU:

So there was no soccer at all here?

Not even a men’s team?

AP: There was no men’s, no women’s. There was nothing.

RU: Why do you think that is?

AP:

At that time, our ex-Athletic Director Bob Lyons wanted to make a women’s soccer team here for the community. So I applied, I got the job, and I’ve been here ever since. That first year we won 15 games. We went 15 and 4 and then we made the playoffs. And it’s tough because in a junior college, every year is a different team.

Everybody thinks it’s every two years but it’s actually every year. For instance, we only had three players from last year’s team come back this year.

RU: Why Pierce? There are so many other options out there to take up a coaching position. Why did you choose Pierce?

AP: Because of the proximity. I’m a Cal State Northridge alumni and I played there. I actually got offered to coach at the University of Idaho in 2003 and that was my third year here. It’s one of those things that an opportunity came and at that time I was not ready. I didn’t know it but opportunities like that are very hard to come by, Division I jobs. I don’t regret it because I really enjoy the kind of kids that I coach here at Pierce, because I also coach club soccer teams and it’s a different breed of player.

RU:

Would you say that your coaching style is different from other coaches?

AP:

I think we make our players believe. It all starts with work ethic. We don’t cut corners. We try to have every one of our players be at every single practice session and we go above and beyond with having our girls wear the same colors even during practices, or you cannot train that day. Everybody has to be wearing something “Pierce.” We take pride in that. We also fundraise because it’s been tight with the budget in recent years but we somehow have managed to make it. It’s been tough for me because I used to teach two summer soccer classes and a spring class but now I only teach the fall class and one spring class. With the work that you put into it, you don’t make a rewarding amount of money, but it’s rewarding in another sense.

RU:

Final question: how would you describe your experience at Pierce over the last 10 years?

AP: to his role as an educator.

Definite change. The kids are different. It used to go from us winning six straight years winning Western State Conference, we have won it a total of 8 times, which is very hard to do, and I think we take it for granted. There are some years, two specifically, that we not only lost a conference, but we did not even allow a goal. I look at that nowadays and think, “How did that happen?” When now it’s so hard just to win a game.

“Coaches are teachers; teachers are coaches, regardless of how you look at it,” he said.

Martinez credits his time management skills in his success in both of his teaching endeavors.

“You have to be able to delegate to keep it balanced. Otherwise, you’ll go nuts. You have to be able to time manage,” he said. “I have a concept of time. I know that there’s an importance to time, regardless of how anybody looks at it.”

According to Athletic Director Bob Lofrano, because of the many players on the football team, Martinez’ time management and organization are his strongest points as a coach.

“It’s really needed when he ends up not being here until [3:30 p.m.]”

Despite the long hours — Martinez teaches at El Camino from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and attends practice from 3:30 to 10 p.m. — he says he enjoys his jobs.

“There’s more pressure in doing [football] but I don’t consider one more difficult than the other one,” he said.

“People ask me, ‘How’s work?’ I say, ‘I don’t work.’ In fact, what I do is fun; it’s enjoyable, I get up and enjoy it. I come here, I enjoy it. I just enjoy not working.”