The Coronado High School boys soccer team kicked off its season on Nov. 21 with a 4-2 victory over Sweetwater High School.
Since then, the Islanders have posted two straight wins followed by two straight losses to put their season record at 3-2. With three wins logged this season, the Islanders have already improved threefold from last year, a season in which they went 1-15-3 and 0-6-2 in league play.
Head Coach Jeff Roe said that despite last year’s troubles, the team’s expectations are still high.
“Our expectation is to win a league title and compete for a Division 2 championship,” he said, “Our team chemistry is very good this season. We have a really good group of young men who want to compete for their school and for each other.”
Among this group of young men are two who Roe believes have stood apart from the rest, two he named team captains because of this. Aiden Trieschman and Ethan Messner’s conduct on and off the field stood out to Roe immediately, he said.
“[They] have great leadership skills, a very high soccer IQ, and they demand respect both on and off the field,” Roe said of his captains.
As the Islanders prepare for their next game, a bout with Valhalla High School on Jan. 7, Roe and the team look to stay focused on what they’ve deemed is priority number one — a CIF title.
“This is a special group of young men. They are playing for the right reasons. They all support each other and they all work extremely hard,” Roe said. “They all have the same goal.”
The Islanders’ regular season will come to a close with a match versus La Jolla High School on Feb. 11, a team they have not played since the 2019-2020 season. They played twice that season, winning 5-0 and tying 1-1.
For Roe, however, this line of work is not about the wins and losses, it’s about the impact he can make.
“I coach because I love the game and I love working with young adults. I feel like I have something to give back,” he said.
