Beginning coach Pilar Flores’ third year at La Jolla High, the pieces are coming together, not only in his players performing proficiently but also in their wanting to go to battle together and make their mark—especially among the seniors.
“I keep hearing from alumni that you want to play well,” says Nate Takata, a versatile athlete who is playing midfield and forward. “It’s our last time as seniors playing together. You don’t know who you will see again (after we graduate). Play without regrets, and leave everything out there.”
This is from the heart of a team leader who finds himself returning to soccer in his final year of high school after “playing a lot of club soccer” when he was younger. Takata, who runs well and has some physicality, led the freshman football team three years ago as their quarterback, then cycled through varsity lacrosse, varsity golf, and now varsity soccer. “Sticking with one sport burns me out,” he says in an honest confession.
The “glue” person for the Vikings comes in Mateo Peniche, a 5 feet 8 inches tall soccer lifer who has nothing but positive recollections of his childhood in Mexico City, where he grew up and lived until he was age seven, going to the schoolyard and playing “the beautiful game” with classmates.
“All the memories are good,” the center midfielder says, smiling. “There, soccer is part of the culture. I played with friends and schoolmates.”
It is the relational way in which Mateo connects with others—coming alongside his peers and offering encouragement—that helped make him Flores’ choice to be senior captain this season. Asked about his view of the exploding number of transfer student-athletes between schools in CIF in the past few years, Peniche takes the middle ground: “Anyone should be able to play” without having to sit out after transferring.
He, in turn, is carrying out the leadership role he saw demonstrated by his role model, former teammate Koji Sakamoto. Mateo picked Sakamoto’s jersey number “4” to emulate him. “(The numeral) means a lot,” he says. “It’s usually a defensive number, but I looked up to Koji, and his younger brother Seiji is on the team, which also means a lot to me. Koji took me under his wing when he was on the team.”
Interestingly, the mascot of Peniche’s elementary school in Mexico City was “Los Vikingos” (The Vikings), and now, in some sort of predetermined way, he is holding down the midfield for his high school team in the U.S., the black-and-red Vikings.
“We know we have the talent. Everybody on our team plays on teams outside school,” he observes. “It’s important we play as a team, we play as a family. A strength of the team is our chemistry. Everybody gets along. We all want to win.”
Regarding La Jolla’s home game on Jan. 7 against Bishop’s, the captain remarks, “Since we’re a block away, we’re rivals in any sport. Any time we play them, it’s going to be headlines.”
