SJEarthquakes.com:
Welcome to the Quakes! Tell us a little about your background in coaching and in girls’ soccer.
Andres Deza :
I was born in Barcelona, Spain. I came to America initially about 16-18 years ago. I spent six years, then I went back to Spain. I studied in Scotland, did some post-graduate studying in Japan for five years. My wife is Japanese. Then, I came to the U.S. and worked another six-eight years, went back to Spain, spent 3 years in Spain again, and now have been back in the U.S. for 10 years.
I’ve been coaching girls soccer for about 12-14 years. I started in a small club called the Gryphons Soccer Club
in San Mateo, then I moved on to be the Technical Director for De Anza Force ECNL program.
SJEQ:
You have a couple daughters yourself, are they involved in the game as well?
AD:
My older daughter has graduated from college. She actually lives in Japan right now working for a pharmaceutical company, and my younger daughter is graduating from high school this month and she’s going to go play college soccer at U.C. Berkeley.
SJEQ:
What do you love about coaching girls’ soccer?
AD
: I love coaching both boys and girls. I’ve been coaching boys as well as girls for years now. It’s recently that I’ve focused more on girls and it had to do with my involvement with this very special team that I coached, the Force ’98 team. A very special group of girls that I coached for many years. That fueled my passion and inspiration for working with girls. Then, I tried to do what I did with that team in the context of a club, within that director role, and stayed involved in girls soccer. I got to know a lot of the college coaches in the girls game and I thought ‘that’s probably who I want to continue working with.’
SJEQ:
Do you find the director role any different than a coaching role as far as your approach, or are you out there kicking every ball with them?
AD:
For me, I wouldn’t be able to do the director role without being heavily hands-on in every single kick of the ball. The coaching and being hands on with every player on the field every day is what makes me happy and what I do. The director part is the part of the job that I think I can do, but what really inspires me is actually being on the field with the girls every day.
SJEQ:
This is a newer thing for us to have so many girls’ teams within the club. What is your vision for the style of play, the way they communicate?
AD:
The first thing I will need to do is to learn about the direction and the vision of what the Quakes’ way of playing and direction is. I believe that this is why they hired me. They believe that the vision that I have of how the game should be played is very much in line with the direction that the Quakes are going. For me it is very important that all teams follow the same curriculum, the same principles of play and the same style of play. My hope is that in the not-so-distant future, there is awareness of a clear brand of soccer that the Quakes play out there in the community
.
SJEQ:
What would you want to say to girls considering the Quakes Academy?
AD:
For any girl that is interested in playing soccer at any level, I’m hoping that the Quakes would be able to facilitate the right program for any player that wants to come and play. What I can promise the fans is that I can provide a good environment to develop their technical skills and their decision making, that I hope with time they will be able to see the difference that we can provide in this environment versus other options available in California or other parts of the country.
