Spartans' recipe equals championship or bust

Strathmore girls' soccer coach Hector Gonzalez originally had no intentions of coaching.

He grew up playing soccer at Monache High and for a handful of club teams. In fact, he still plays.

But back in 1990, a neighbor asked Gonzalez if he would take some kids to soccer practice, and he complied, only to find himself thrust into a new career opportunity.

“The coach didn’t show up, so I ran the practice,” Gonzalez said, laughing. “They said, ‘Hey, why don’t you help us out?’”

Now, Gonzalez is going on 20 years as a teacher rather than student, and he currently helms his best team yet — a 23-2 powerhouse that just finished its season at the top of the Eastern Sequoia League.

In his seventh year as Strathmore’s varsity coach (which follows a three-year tenure with Granite Hills), Gonzalez believes he finally has all the ingredients to reach the Div. VI Valley Championships — something that had eluded them the past three playoff runs, including two semifinals appearances.

Two seasons ago, Gonzalez’s squad made school history by claiming its first ESL title. Last year, Gonzalez racked up his best record as a coach — 19-7.

Now that the Spartans have shattered that record, they earned themselves the No. 1 seed among a five-team bracket and their best shot at their first Valley Championship.

“This is definitely the most talented team I’ve ever had,” Gonzalez said. “They know how to play and they understand the game. (The chemistry) has been developing for two years and it took awhile to finally get everyone on the same page.”

So what was the recipe for success that contributed to the Spartans racking up 122 goals this season with 14 shutouts? Several ingredients contributed, actually.

For starters, they return 11 from a squad that had already cultivated a winner’s mentality. Six seniors — including four-year varsity players Cecilia Ramirez and Mercedes Magallon — headline a well-balanced roster down to one of its strongest freshmen classes in Strathmore soccer history.

“Our freshmen are huge,” Gonzalez said. “Right away they came in and contributed.”

The team’s leading scorer is freshman Nayeli Colunga, who led with 38 goals after they shut out Laton, 4-0, on Feb. 10. The 14-year-old forward plays nothing like her age and quickly established herself as one of the team’s bright stars.

“Nayeli has speed -— she’s very physical, strong, knows the game, knows when to sprint for the goal,” Gonzalez said. “She reads the players before they read themselves. Just a great athlete.”

Colunga, who is also third on the team in assists, nearly opted to play basketball instead of soccer this winter. Luckily for Gonzalez and the Spartans, she didn’t.

“When I was (still deciding), the girls were like, ‘Yeah, you should play soccer,’ and I’m like, ‘You guys already have a good team, so I wouldn’t really make a difference,’” Colunga said. “But they do help me a lot. I don’t make my goals by myself. If you make one person look good, you make the whole team look good.”

Fellow freshman Hailey Tsuboi is second on the team in assists behind Ramirez. Gonzalez says the midfielder has come a long way in such short time.

“Hailey is learning to control the ball and to be physical,” Gonzalez said. “I’ve moved her around a lot and she’s become one of the best passers in the middle.”

The other two freshmen, Brianna Rodriguez and Andrea Gutierrez, have stepped in as starters at midfielder and forward, respectively.

Ingredient No. 2 would be the team’s unselfishness. Ramirez, whom the coach calls the “point guard” of the squad, gave her forward spot to Colunga and focused solely on distributing the ball — a significant change since she led the team with 44 goals last year.

The midfielder relishes her role as a team player.

“I help out with whatever they need help with,” Ramirez said. “I got moved down to midfielder this year and I’m okay with it — I’m doing this for the team and not just for myself.”

That’s not to say she doesn’t get any satisfaction out of setting up Colunga or Gutierrez with the perfect pass for a score.

“Oh yeah, it’s like, “Did you see that girl’s goal? That’s my assist! That’s mine!” Ramirez said.

Another example is Amelia Medrano, who played forward as a freshman, moved to the midfielder spot as a sophomore and finally settled as a top defender as a junior this season.

“I was like, “Wherever you want me to play, I’ll play,’” said Medrano, who says the changes are easier to handle knowing it makes the team better. “I think this year, we can actually win it all.”

Another factor mixed into the equation are the X’s and O’s.

Gonzalez introduced a completely new 3-4-3 scheme this year after employing the more traditional 4-4-2 setup in 2007-08.

“We weren’t as fast last year,” Gonzalez said. “This year, when I saw the speed that these girls have, I figured, ‘Let’s give it a different look.’ Now you’ve got seven players pushing the ball and you don’t let them get past you. Your best defense is your offense. They can’t harm you if they don’t have the ball.”

Of course, if the opponents do get by the Spartans’ front seven, they’ll only have three defenders to deal with. But that has rarely been a cause for concern, as goalkeeper Veronica Magana will sometimes go entire games without touching the ball. In fact, Gonalez is working with Magana to come out of the box more often and help out with passing.

And if opponents can match Strathmore’s talent, Gonzalez is confident in Magana’s abilities to stop the ball. The net-minder once had eight saves against Woodlake.

Aiding the Spartans’ in their development, of course, is the coaching staff. Gonzalez and his assistant meticulously study video of each game, looking for areas of improvement each player needs work on, and bring in soccer experts as guest speakers during practices.

“You have to have discipline to be a team player and that’s what I try to teach,” Gonzalez said. “We work on a lot of the basics - touching the ball, moving it around, being a team player. We’re working on a few advanced things. We’ll try to get different shots on the field, how to set up on the field, how to defend different players, how to work with free shots, overlaps.”

Factor in the team’s general camaraderie — “We all like each other and everybody gets along,” Ramirez said — and on-field chemistry, it seems the Spartans struck karma with a recipe that’s just right for success. But that’s still not quite enough, Gonzalez suggested.

“Talent alone can’t win,” he said. “Especially at this level. There’s other teams that can hurt you. All they’ve gotta do is play smart.”

Ramirez, however, thinks they’ve got the heart to push them over the top.

“We have a team that really wants to win this year, especially me ‘cause it’s my last year,” Ramirez said. “If we stick as a team and play as one, we’ll make it there.”