On Oct. 7, the De Anza women’s soccer team started off their season with a three-game losing streak before tying 0-0 to Las Positas College, ranked third in the conference.
Despite the losses, the team still has hopes of doing better than their previous season.
This season’s head coach of the men’s soccer team Rusty Johnson enters to lead the women’s team, bringing more than a decade’s worth of experience coaching De Anza’s men’s program. In his collegiate career, he redshirted for Santa Clara University, helping the team make consecutive appearances at the national championship in 1999 and 2000.
The women’s program struggled to find a coach and Johnson presented himself as an option to coach to the administration.
“I wanted a new challenge …. I’ve done a little bit of women’s coaching in the past, and I’ve enjoyed it,” Johnson said. “I know we’ve gotta have a growth mindset this year because the program’s struggled in the past, but the girls have responded well this year.”
In overall matches this season, women’s soccer has one win, eight losses and three ties. Compared to last season at this time in the quarter, the lionettes had zero wins, nine losses and two ties.
Along with the coach, the team changed their drills, exercises on the field and expectations of results.
“There’s a higher level of expectation for our performance, still realistic for where we are, but it pushes us as a team to work harder and strive for better,” midfielder and captain Lia Hirata, 18, liberal arts major said. “It’s faster paced and there’s a lot more intensity in training.”
Last year, the team struggled with filling the roster with players and keeping them accountable. Four returning sophomores welcomed 16 new De Anza athletes this season and Johnson has responded with stricter enforcement of practice attendance
“We have more girls joining on the team, more numbers, which is exciting, and it’s a positive vibe,” midfield and captain Jazmin Lucas, 19, psychology major said.
To further develop the team, new coaches were onboarded including Veronica Cashman, Women’s World Cup champion in 2017 and NCAA Division I women’s soccer national champion in 2001.
“We went from having usually one coach running 12 to 15 girls to five coaches running 20 girls,” Johnson said. “The increase in numbers helps me to keep them all accountable. It’s having a better player to coach ratio, making them feel like they’re really cared for.”
From his coaching standpoint, Johnson said the goal for this year is to end mid-table in the rankings and use that as a foundation to improve upon for the upcoming seasons.
“We know we’re gonna come across some teams in the conference that are gonna be able to handle us pretty easily. So it’s learning how to make it difficult for those teams,” Johnson said. “We’ve been at the bottom of the table every year. So if we can get mid-table with the girls this year and then hit the recruiting trail, I think we could have this program back to where it was.”
The women’s soccer program won state championships twice, in 1994 and 1995 making a total of five appearances from 1992-96.
“Hopefully, it goes even higher than it’s going and more girls start to show up,” Hirata said. “Regardless of wins or losses, it’s to have fun and also for the girls to come back.”
“One of my goals is to at least tie games, not necessarily win,” Lucas said. “I want to get results and I want us to come off the field feeling like we did something.”
