Women’s soccer coach says team never gives up
Despite a crushing 11-0 loss to the DeAnza Dons on Tuesday,
Gavilan Soccer Coach Kent Cote was happy with his team’s effort
against the No. 1 ranked team in Northern California.
Women’s soccer coach says team never gives up
Despite a crushing 11-0 loss to the DeAnza Dons on Tuesday, Gavilan Soccer Coach Kent Cote was happy with his team’s effort against the No. 1 ranked team in Northern California.
“That team would beat anybody 10-0. They’ll play in the state championship soon. It doesn’t show in the win/loss column but we have improved significantly since our first game,” said Cote. “This team doesn’t give up, they play tough and they keep competing. And that’s what they did today.”
This afternoon, the Rams will travel to Fremont for a contest with Chabot College. Cote expects that game to be a lot more competitive.
“In this league, you have DeAnza at the top and everyone else is about the same,” he said.
The Rams are at the bottom with a record of 0-4.
But in Cote’s defense, he has a lot less to work with than many of his counterparts in the Coast Conference.
For starters, Cote was hired late last summer and had about three weeks to attract new recruits to the school and to put together a team-in spite of the school’s maligned past.
Last year, the Rams won two games. Two years ago, women’s athletics at the junior college were cancelled all together. For that reason, Cote was unable to get many players to sign up for soccer.
“We’ve got 14 players on this team. They’ve got at least 20,” said Cote as he looked towards DeAnza’s bench. “I’d like to have 22 so we could have team game practices.”
While the Rams are lacking an ideal roster size, it became apparent from the opening kick that the Don’s weren’t lacking anything. They had more depth, speed and skill at every position.
In fact, the ball seldom made its way into the DeAnza side of the field.
By halftime the score was 9-0.
“About half of our players never played varsity soccer in high school,” said Cote. “That team (DeAnza) is loaded with outstanding talent.”
In the second half, the Rams continued to battle and showed tenacity as they allowed only two goals over the final 45 minutes.
While the Dons did dominate the contest, Gavilan got solid play out of forward Catherine Powell and midfielder Saira Canales the entire game.
But the efforts of Powell and Canales probably wouldn’t have been enough even if soccer legend Pele was on the field with them and Oliver Kahn played keeper.
“They were just too strong,” said Cote. “They are going for a state title and we are hoping to win two games.”
