Head Coach Vayron Martinez (center) teaches David Martinez (left) and Justin Burleson (right) by example during a drill at Wednesday's practice.
Posted: Aug 24, 2017
Bakersfield College Men's Soccer officially kicks off their 2017 campaign with a home match against Santa Monica College this Friday, August 25th at 2p at the BC Soccer Complex on the west side of campus.
The team is returning for their second consecutive season of play after being resurrected from a long hiatus that stretched from 1990 to 2016, when BC hired former LA Mission Assistant Coach Vayron Martinez to guide the Renegades back to a place of respectability amongst a field with no shortage of talent.
Martinez guided the team to a 4-14-3 finish in which the first year head coach and his charges found their footing and evolved through the season, dropping a handful of close matches to very strong teams in a schedule that wasn't gentle in the slightest.
"This season we've got another very competitive schedule," Martinez said, "We're playing 22 matches in a very compressed amount of time, but 12 will be played at home, and we hope folks will come out and see how hard we are working to represent this community. In September we have eight matches, and six of those will happen in a span of 12 days! That's very demanding; but that is the proving ground of community college athletics. Coaches (at four year schools) know that community college soccer players are tough."
The Renegades will see opponents representing five different confrences, three defending conference champions, and three other teams that finished in the top ten in the state.
"In the Premiership (in England), they'll play 38 games in a season. But that season is spread out over ten months! So they average only four games a month. And that's why we spend considerable time with our athletes, and train and condition them specifically like we do," Martinez said.
NOTES:
Ryan Valencia joins Martinez's staff for 2017 as an Assistant Coach. Valencia played one season of football for Bakersfield College in the early 90s before transferring to Cal State Bakersfield and joining their soccer team, where he finished his career with 77 appearances for the Roadrunners.
August Matches:
Santa Monica @ BC 8/25 2pm.
BC @ Allan Hancock College 8/29