Freshman advisory and English language support teacher Hector Toscano has become Ukiah High School’s girl’s varsity soccer coach. Toscano, who is in his second year teaching at UHS, is “ready to take on the challenge of coaching the varsity girls team.” and has “taken away many lessons with my experience under Coach [Naomi] Rhodes last year.” Toscano has played soccer for most of his life and is “ always looking forward to a good challenge”.
At Fort Bragg High School, Toscano played soccer for four years winning the league title as a varsity player twice. After graduating from the University of California, Davis, Toscano played for Mendocino College in 2018 and 2019 winning two individual titles as the Defensive Player of the Conference and two-time All-Conference player.
Toscano thinks that most of the girls trying out for the varsity team this season know the game well “and I think for them, it is more about getting the experience of hearing a new voice.” with Rhodes coaching the varsity team in the previous years. Toscano said that the girls have “been able to gain a very solid foundation” and thinks that his style of coaching will “bring a lot of emotion and energy to the sessions, and a different philosophy of the game”
Toscano is excited to work on “Refining their technique and confidence on the ball, as well as seeing the game in terms of time and space”
In 2013, Tosacano’s coaching career took off. He started coaching because his coach Jeremiah Heim needed help. At the beginning of his coaching journey, Toscano “was not a fan because I still very much wanted to play, and when I was coaching, that was time I could’ve spent playing.” But after a couple of weeks coaching a Sonoma State University, he was able to “be with some of the players to really fall in love with the coaching aspect of the game.” Toscano mentions the player’s skills improving which helped him fall further in love with the game.
Working with younger groups especially excites Toscano because “you can see that process of them falling in love with soccer.” This year was Toscano’s fourth working with players in the Mendocino County Soccer Academy and his goal stays the same: “to show our players how much fun the game I love can be.”
As for a goal for this season, Toscano expressed that the goal of the coaching staff, in general, is “winning a league title and seeing how far we can go in the playoffs.”
We are excited to see what the UHS Girls’ Varsity Soccer Team can do under the guidance of Hector Toscano this season.
