In June of 2008, after being named the new Varsity boys head soccer coach at Alisal High School, the wheels in my head immediately began to spin and quckly turned towards planning.  I anxioulsy ran through the various issues that I could possibly face as the new coach: Would my team be as talented as teams from the last five years?  Will I keep the tradition alive by winning a championship?  Who will play for me?  Will the returning players respond well to me?

Well, with less than a week to go before the first game of the 08-09 season, the answers to these questions have come to light.  I have an extremely talneted team that is young and full of enthusiasm and passion for the game.  With approximately four seniors, one returning starter, our team is definitely on the young side, but not lacking in experience. And with this team, I truly believe we can keep alive the soccer winning tradition that has been prevelent at Alisal High School for many years.  This year's team is made up of a few players from last year's J.V. team, a few retuners, and a variety of other players that have come out of the woodworks this year, players that have played all of their lives but never for a high school team.  So far I have received the full respect from my players, and I believe they view me as an optimistic leader with a gentle but firm rule over the team.  They understand that I do what is best for the team and not what is best for me.  

We will be playing at Alisal High School on Friday, Nov. 21st, against Gonzalez High School.  Gonzalez is a Division II school, but they were champions two years ago and went to the semi's last year.  It is a respectable test for our team, and being that it is going to be our first game out of the gate, a tough one.  

I have to say that I am extremely excited and eager for the season to get underway.  I look forward to seeing my starting line-up, which as this time is still in the works, on the field and ready to be aggressive on defense and to score many goals on offense.  Our two main goals this year are to win our league championship and to win the first ever Central Coast Section Championship in school history.  Historically and traditionally, Alisal has always had incredible teams, at one time even being nationally ranked.  But there was always a psychological hump that prevented our teams from getting to the top.  In some regards, despite all the soccer that our boys have played througout their lives, they lack experience playing against teams outside of their own racial and technical make-up, teams in different socio-economic brackets, teams that have certain economic benefits.  I have made it a point over the summer to expose my players to soccer outside of Salinas. We had a busy summer with a lot of soccer played in other cities.  In addition, I have prepared myself by learning new mental and technical strategies.  This is not going to gurantee success, but I believe it gives us a better opportunity to succeedd.  we are training in all of these areas, and we hope the outcome is a positive one.  

Coach Cisneros