Playing footie in new cleats

By Patrick McCready

Turf dirt rises out of the ground and the sound of furious running footsteps follow in the Wally Sigmar Complex at Peninsula College. This time its up to a new head coach, Jake Hughes, to continue what PC has done for many years.

Hailing from London and playing for multiple schools including Peninsula College, Jake Hughes has had the experience and the talent to be coaching in the cleats that former Peninsula College Coach Cale Rodriguez left in June of this year. He was selected by Cale himself to be the assistant coach two years ago when the men’s soccer program won the Northwest Athletic Conference division and conference title and repeated a division title last year. “It was an opportunity that felt natural to me,” Hughes said, “It seemed to me a natural progression going from playing to coaching. I’ve had a long history with Peninsula and it seemed like the right fit.”

Hughes is committed to giving these new players a taste of what it is like for him as a coach and how he views their success. He had this to say on how he wants players to grow, “I think it’s easy to think about the championships and the titles but the objective is to create an experience, a long lasting experience for these student athletes so that they can take away and say that they grew as students, people and soccer players.” Hughes believes that

NWAC championships will come as a by-product as long as the players grow and become who he pushes them to be.

His passion for his players and for the team really shows. Jose Cerna, 19 and a freshman really expressed how he feels Jake has done this season, “It has a big thing to do with how I feel at home here. There’s a saying that ‘success breeds success’ and it’s kind of the same way. Coach Jake already knows the game here at PC, he knows the standard, he knows the expectations. So he’s gonna make sure that us the players know this season and the next season… he’s gonna make sure that we meet those expectations.”

Jake is not alone in this vision and this passion is felt by upperclassmen as well. Cesar Gervacio, 20 and a sophomore men’s athlete this year, had this to say when asked about how the sophomores have helped out the freshmen this year, “I feel like he has me as one of the main leaders… He wants me to lead by example with my performances in games. He wants me to be a good role model to these players.”

In terms of how the team has grown over the year, Jake said that the team was apart at the beginning of the season which brang about some interesting challenges but the team has grown over the season. Many players agree with this including Sterling Penniston, 18 and also a fresh- man had some words as well on the topic, “I feel like he has done a phenomenal job with the progress of the team. I can say that over the past month we have actually gotten better and gained a lot of experience as a team.” Gervacio also added that, “We are vibing really well this year… but now we are starting to become a family and it shows on the pitch.”