This season varsity boys soccer coach Francisco Figueroa wants to take the team under his wing and improve their skills as well as make them better people.

“One thing that we always want to improve on has nothing to do with athletics but is to be a better person, better person in general, the skills, athletics, that’s extra and the main reason I coach is to make them a better person,” he said. “I want them to be respectful. I want them to be on time. Again, the best person they can be.”

Junior and varsity captain Aldahir Santillan wants his teammates to improve and work hard. 

“I mean I want them to do better, play well, and to go to the playoffs,” he said. “Work more on my condition, to win more games, and I think we will have a good team.”

Santillan said he will honor former head coach Joey Rodriguez by making sure he does what he would have liked him to do and continue to improve. Rodriguez passed away Sunday, Oct. 17 from COVID-19 complications.

“I will have to play good, play better every day, work hard every day here in the school too and outside the school, and in the game,” he said. “I think we’ll make him proud.”

Coach Figueroa also wants to honor Rodriguez by showing his players exactly what he would’ve liked it to be. 

“He was my high school coach when I came to Sam, then I worked under him,” he said. “The way I would honor him, remember him is doing everything exactly the way he’ll be doing it. So everything that he has been doing I mean I’m doing it right now. I’m not going to change anything, why? Because of work. We’ve been in the playoffs for 14 years in a row. I’m not going to change anything!”

Bryan Galeana

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