WATSONVILLE — The 2017-18 season has been rumored to be the final season in Roland Hedgpeth’s legendary coaching career at Watsonville High. But not everyone is convinced he will hang up the whistle at the end of the year.
Chief among those questioning the retirement is Hedgpeth himself.
“I’m not quite positive,” Hedgpeth said with a laugh. “I mean, if you ask my wife I think she says yes.”
This winter is Hedgpeth’s 50th season on the sidelines as a high school soccer coach. Watsonville started its boys’ soccer program in 1968 and two years later the Watsonville alumnus — class of 1960 — took over as the head coach.
He coached Monte Vista Christian in the fall and Watsonville in the winter during his first two seasons before rolling solely with the Wildcatz for the 1972-73 and ’73-74 seasons. Following those two campaigns, Hedgpeth moved down to the junior varsity level at Watsonville for 12 seasons.
But in 1986-87 he returned as the varsity coach and quickly built the program into a Central Coast Section dynasty, three-peating as section champions from ’87-88 to ’89-90.
Hedgpeth did not have a losing record in any of his previous 49 seasons, and only once did one of his teams finish outside of the top three in the league standings. They finished fourth in the Monterey Bay League Gabilan division in 2013-14 season, but went on to win one of the program’s 11 CCS titles, nine of which have come with Hedgpeth as coach.
Including this season’s first nine games, he holds an insane 822-136-102 overall record and a 630-123-94 varsity record.
“It’s been a long time and there’s been a lot of success, and it’s due to a lot of things,” said Hedgpeth, who was named the NorCal Coach of the Year by the California Coaches Association last season. “Sometimes it’s not been necessarily me but another person keeping the flow going together. There is the passion here for soccer. There is the talent. We’ve had those two things and I’ve had excellent assistant coaches the last five or six years, and that’s been helpful, too. Everything has kind of fit in.”
So if it is his final season with the Wildcatz, it will be the swan song of one of the top high school soccer coaches to ever roam the sidelines.
“Honestly, we don’t think this is his last year,” Watsonville senior midfielder Erik Herrera said. “He’s a very dedicated man. He loves to do this. I think he’s going to be here for a little bit more time. I don’t think this is his last year. I’d be surprised if it is.”
And so there’s a little bit of added pressure on this year’s team to send its head coach out on the right note if he does decide to walk away.
The good news? Watsonville again has a talented and tested bunch that is hungry to earn its fifth straight CCS final appearance.
A sturdy and experienced striker, Herrera leads the group along with fellow senior Alex Gonzalez, a speedy forward who helped Watsonville capture the inaugural CCS Open Division title two years ago but did not play last season.
Midfielders Oscar Rocha, Armando Martinez, Ernesto Cruz and Derek Zaragoza and keeper Isaac Frias are also seniors that return from last year’s team, which advanced to the CCS Division I final and finished second in the Monterey Bay League Gabilan division.
Junior midfielder Ricardo Alvarado and junior defender Angel Quinonez-Figueroa and sophomore midfielders Julian Garcia and Brian Gonzalez are also back.
Watsonville has also received a big boost with the addition of senior defender Vladimir Mendoza, sophomore defender Jose Mendoza and freshman forward Jeal Leal.
“There’s more team connection,” Herrera said. “We understand each other more than last year. I think this year is going to be better.”
The Wildcatz got a bit of a wake-up call on the first night of MBL-G play with a 4-0 loss against two-time reigning champion Alisal High, but still figure to be one of the top contenders in the brutally tough division.
At the CCS level, Watsonville will not only have the incentive of winning its 12th section title but a shot at the inaugural California Interscholastic Federation NorCal championship. The four semifinalist from the Open Division and champions of Division I and II will all receive berths to the first-ever regional tournament.
A NorCal title, Hedgpeth said, might be the accomplishment that sends him into retirement.
“It’d be pretty hard to come back after that,” Hedgpeth said. “I don’t know if I could do that. That might be it, if we could do that.”
N.M.C.
At 7-1-1 overall, the North Monterey County High Condors are off to a hot start behind new head coach Ken Laird.
Senior Alvaro Rocha and junior Bryan Ochoa — both of whom are captains — have paced a massive turnaround from last season’s 4-13-2 finish.
Senior Edwardo Gallardo leads the Condors in goals (12), while Rocha has a team-high seven assists. They are just two of 13 players that have scored at least once for balanced N.M.C., which shut out Pajaro Valley High 5-0 on Tuesday in its MBL-G season opener.
PAJARO VALLEY
After being stripped of their top goal scorers by graduation, the Grizzlies have had a rough start to the season at 1-7-1.
They’ve been shut out in five of their losses, including Tuesday’s league-opening defeat against N.M.C.
Keeper Jesse Lopez has been a bright spot for Pajaro Valley, which will return to MBL-G play on Jan. 9 at Alvarez High at 5:45 p.m.
M.V.C.
With Headmaster Mitch Salerno taking over the coaching duties, Monte Vista Christian has already surpassed last season’s win total at 3-3-1.
Senior forward Matt Olson has impressed through the preseason by scoring 10 goals and making two assists, while senior keeper Alex Moran has also been solid for M.V.C., which welcomes in Christopher High on Jan. 9 at 5:45 p.m. for its second Monterey Bay League Pacific division game of the season.
APTOS
The Aptos High Mariners have been up and down leading up to their Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League opener at San Lorenzo Valley High on Friday at 3:30 p.m.
Cristobal Montejano and Bryan Palacios have helped the Mariners get out to a 2-3-1 start that has featured wins over Pajaro Valley and Madera South High.
ST. FRANCIS
The St. Francis High Sharks have continued to try to build the program from the ground up behind juniors Cesar Sanchez and Joey Correnti and sophomore Sean Farley.
Sanchez has a team-high seven goals and Correnti and Farley have added three and two, respectively, during the Sharks’ 1-4-1 preseason.
