When Cerro Coso hosts Glendale on Aug. 22, it will be the first time since the 2019 season the Coyotes have had a women's soccer team. The program is returning under the leadership of new head coach Michelle Hernandez, who is excited at rebuilding the program.

"I'm just excited especially because it hasn't been here in a while, and I know unfortunately a lot of players after 2019 didn't have the opportunity to possibly play on the team because there was no team," she said. "I'm happy that I am able to offer it back again, offer it to the community, and do something special here. People say it's rebuilding, but I feel it's a whole new program. I don't know exactly how the last program went because I would rather start fresh and everything new. I really want to build something special here. For my program, I really want it to be a tight knit family."

The new Coyotes coach is no stranger to the game, as she has a history as a player and an experienced coach.

"I started playing soccer very early on," she said. "Funny story is I didn't want to play soccer. My sister convinced me into playing it and after that it was just me and the soccer ball. I went through the JUCO too. I played at Delta Community College up in Stockton. I had an amazing time there, and then transferred to Fresno Pacific.

"How I started coaching was kind of by accident. I knew I wanted to coach, just wasn't sure what level. I didn't know any of that, but the head coach at Sacramento City, where I started coaching, she was my assistant coach when I was at Delta. That's how it went about, and I had an amazing time there and did amazing things with that program. It was also a rebuilding program, so I am used to doing the whole rebuilding. I started coaching at UC Santa Cruz, and my first year with the team, we went all the way to win our conference championship. That was the first time in the program's history, so that was really exciting, and I got to experience the NCAA. It was really cool, and then I just coached high school in the meantime because we still have to coach, after the crazy season I had at UC Santa Cruz."

As a coach who has experience rebuilding programs with success, Hernandez spoke on the accomplishments she is targeting in her first season.

"The dream is to make it all the way until the postseason and then make it as far as we can. That is my main goal, to make it to the postseason. I am just a competitive individual, and the players I am bringing in are also competitive. They understood the vision I wanted to do here. I kind of just want to shock everybody in my first season," the Cerro Coso coach said. "A lot of people may see us as the underdogs or don't really know about Cerro Coso or Ridgecrest. I just want to shock everybody and kind of be 'where did these players come from?' or 'where did this school come from?' or 'where have they been?' Just shock everybody. That is what I'm hoping for in our first season, just really get people talking about us and seeing they don't come to play just so we continue growing on into the future."

Hernandez also spoke to the struggles she expects to see.

"It is hard to say because the girls I selected, I wanted, and I recruited obviously I did a lot of recruiting. I was able to talk to a lot of players, but the ones that understood the vision, understood what we want to do, and understood that I want to help them and their success is kind of who is going to be here. As long as we are all in line with all of that, I don't see too much struggle," she said. "Obviously, if we take a loss, we need to understand we need to come together, and that is what I perceive as a struggle. If we take a loss and we learn that this loss is a lesson and not a complete loss, because obviously we always learn from our losses. Coach Joe and I both have international kids, and getting them here is a process. I think the struggle will be during the summer conditionings, we won't have them just yet because it's a process. We will have them, but ideally, we want everybody to start on the same day and get that going, the chemistry."

The Coyotes are playing eight preseason games and have 12 games in the Inland Empire Athletic Conference. Hernandez said on her goals for the preseason and conference, "for preseason, I want to get our chemistry, our communication, and our consistency down. Just understand how we all play, and I want them to understand how I coach, and just all understanding each other and having good chemistry on and off the field. That will prepare us for the season, because I am a big believer if you have great team chemistry, that can get you so far. Having good team chemistry is the most amazing thing you can ask for as a coach."

In preseason, Cerro Coso hosts Glendale and Irvine Valley and visits San Joaquin Delta, East Los Angeles, and Sacramento City. For conference play the Coyotes face the co-Inland Empire Athletic Conference champions Desert and Chaffey. With these teams on the schedule, Hernandez is not excited to face just one of these teams but to face all of them.

"I'm looking forward to all the games. I don't really have a favorite one that I'm like, 'I can't wait to play them.' Just because I was in the Big 8 Conference before, I know we are playing some teams from the Big 8 and what they bring. Our conference is newer to me, so I'm just excited to play everybody. There is nobody who I'm like, 'I want to play them.' I'm just excited to see the talent out here," she said.

With her new program, Hernandez, her players, and even the Cerro Coso men's soccer coach are excited to get their teams on the field and show off an exciting, quality program to the community. And the community is important to Hernandez, who wants to attract fans to Cerro Coso's field to watch her team play and create an amazing atmosphere for her, the players, and the community of Ridgecrest.

"It would be amazing to get the whole community. There's a lot of stuff me and Coach Joe (men's soccer) have talked about to really give back to the community, and it would be a real cool thing. Most of our home games are Fridays, and it would be a cool thing to have 'it's Friday, let's go watch the women or men's soccer team.' It would be amazing to have that because the environment, when there is a lot of people cheering for you, changes the whole game," she said. "Having the community come out and watch our game would change a lot, even if we are down 1-0, having them cheer us on would be the world to us. We want to also give back to the community and help out. We have talked about doing camps for children, and doing stuff to be more involved in the community because we haven't been around in a while. At the end of the day, we are a community college, and community is the first word. Building our community and fan base would be exciting."

Hernandez is excited for the first game of the season. She can't wait for Glendale to visit Ridgecrest and open the 2025-26 season at home with fans in attendance. She said, "I'm just excited because I love coaching during the season because it's an amazing time. I'm excited to get them here. I'm excited to just get started and show everybody we are here and come support us."

Eduardo Miranda

The Daily Independent