Soccer
Player
I began playing organized soccer when I was 11 years old in the Chico Youth
Soccer League. It was the second year of the league's existence and not
everyone knew all the rules of this game. Some referees would not even let
the keeper handle the ball outside of the goal area.
In 1978, I made one of the Chico High School club soccer
teams. It was essentially the "JV" team, and I learned
to play outside defender. As a junior, I made the "varsity"
team, the Chico High Rebels. These teams played in the old
North Valley Soccer League which consisted of two teams from Chico
High, Pleasant Valley, Oroville, Paradise, and Colusa. I
played for the Rebels the next two years as we won the league both
times where I earned All-League honors as a sweeper.
In my senior year, the first U-19 Chico Select team was formed.
I was a starter the next two years as we played in the Sacramento
Competitive league (Class I). Our highlight was to play the
first games in a Chico Tournament against two San Juan United teams.
We were so ignorant of the reputation of that fine club that we were
not even slightly afraid. We played the San Juan "B" team and
beat them 5-1. The local soccer hierarchy was astonished at
the result. In the final against the San Juan "A" team, we
easily won 4-0. Interestingly, a San Juan defender in that
game (Tom Phelan) later went on to coach Chico High School with
great success.
Mainly due to a mild heart condition, I quit playing soccer by
the time I was 20. However, I then went on to
coaching--something I found out I loved.
Coaching
I began coaching when I was 16. Starting out, I coached
at the recreation level with U-14s. Soon, I began to coach
U-16s in the Sacramento Class I division.
Competitive Soccer
Next, I coached the Chico Pipeline. We won our "B"
division in the Sacramento competitive league. The highlight
of the Pipeline was when we beat the State's 2nd ranked team in Bay
Navy Classic tournament. We took fourth after we lost to Santa
Clara (5th ranked in California) 1-0 with five minutes left.
Pleasant Valley High School Boys Soccer
In 1987, I became the first coach of the PV Boys' Varsity
Soccer team. I retired in 1998 after twelve years as the head
coach. During that time, we won eight EAL titles, played in
six North Section championship games, and won four North Section
titles including the last three in a row.
In the twelve years we three times went on win, or unbeaten
streaks. First we went 37 straight games without a loss, tieing only
twice. We also managed to win 22 straight.
Then starting in 1997 we went on the longest win streak of all. With six games remaining in the 1996-97 season we "ran the table" to take our second section crown. Little did we know, that this win streak would continue for the next two years as we took two more EAL and Section titles. When I retired from coaching we had won our last 37 straight games. Previous to the 1998-99 season, only PV and Davis High School had ever managed two perfect seasons in Division I soccer in the state of California. After the 1998 season, PV stood alone having repeated another perfect season. My tenure at PV resulted in an overall record at PV of 149-21-19.
Pleasant Valley High School Girls Soccer
Starting in 2011 I started coaching the PV girls soccer team. We took third place in league and were knocked out of the playoffs by Foothill in the first round. A highlight for us was that we defeated champions Chico High two out of three games.