San Francisco State University’s men’s soccer club was inaugurated last fall, overcoming registration hurdles from the previous spring semester to kick off for interested students.
After completing a full season last semester, they are preparing for their next season this semester as they hold tryouts within the next week to invite new players.
The team initially started with an idea from five leaders of the club — Luis Cardenas, Stefano Silvia, Thor Skrindo, Miguel Picazo and Eden Salman. What began as a small idea by a couple of team members launched into a bigger responsibility for the group.
Before the pandemic, Cardenas originally had the idea to start the club a couple of years ago. However, he didn’t have enough people to coach with him but he didn’t let that stop him from starting.
After a hiatus from school during the pandemic, Cardenas conceived the idea to bring the club to fruition upon his return to campus.
“I came back and I met the new people like Stefano, Thor, Eden, Miguel and then we just — one day casually — were talking about it like ‘Hey, what if we were to start a club’,” Cardenas said. “He was like ‘Yeah, that sounds like a dope idea. I’m all for it.’”
They eventually took the appropriate steps to become a club at SFSU and now have a season of experience. After progressing into a team, they wanted to create an inviting environment and a good camaraderie. Cardenas says their ultimate goal is to win and they believe they need good chemistry in order to do that.
“We take our club very seriously,” Cardenas said. “We want to compete at the highest level that we can compete in as local schools. We want to build a community where guys push themselves to be the best possible version that they can be on the field and also off the field.”
Sebastian Luna, one of two volunteer coaches for the club, has around six years of coaching experience. When he was asked to be one of the coaches for the soccer club, it was an easy switch because it was familiar to him.
“What I’m looking forward to doing is for those guys who don’t have the opportunity to experience that college level and playing for a college team, is that the idea that we have of the guys having fun coming out there showing their skills,” Luna said. “But also having that intent of learning and keep improving as a player individually and also as a team and that’s what the goal is there.”
Joshua Bernateau, the second volunteer coach, is originally from France and has a couple of years of coaching experience under his belt. However, when he coached back in Europe, he was only coaching players under the age of 14.
When he was asked whether or not he was interested in becoming a coach for the club, his immediate response was yes. However, he had to adjust when he decided to coach for the soccer club here at SFSU. He noticed that he needed to create a different environment to build a team of winners.
“I think my main goal is to individually have each player improve their own game,” Bernateau said. “My goal as a head coach is to have fun while playing soccer. If I’m able to make it fun and improve your game at soccer, then it’s mission accomplished for me.”
The club is looking to add more players to their roster and will hold tryouts from Feb. 19-23.
