Coach Adolfo Perez and the Pierce College women’s soccer team hit a milestone of playing their 500th game — and reaching their 333rd win — on Sept. 17.
The Brahmas beat Los Angeles Harbor College 2-1 at Shepard Stadium. For Perez, the win added to a legacy of more than 20 years at Pierce.
Perez has been coaching soccer since 1995, when he started at Mission College. After the Mission College program was shut down due to budget cuts, he began working at Pierce in 2001.
“I started the program in 2001,” Perez said. “Soccer’s a fall sport. I got hired in March, therefore we didn’t have time to recruit. I remember my first athletic director saying we didn’t even have a soccer ball.”
In his time at Pierce, there was one game, the state championship against Long Beach in 2005, that stuck with Perez the most. A big takeaway for him was “everything happens for a reason.”
The Brahmas were up 3-1 and “were basically gonna win.” Then Long Beach switched goalies, scored four additional points and took home the win.
“If we would have won that game we would have won our first state championship, but the final was the following Saturday on Dec. 10, 2005,” Perez said. “If we won, we would have played [in the final] and I would have missed the birth of my son. That game was impactful in so many ways.”
Although the team did not become state champions, the loss allowed Perez to be there as his son was born.
The soccer program has had many challenges, however Coach Perez expressed that this year a big issue is budget cuts. Despite the lack of funds, Perez said there are certain things the team does in order to go to away games and to make the team still look put together.
“We’ve gone through budget cuts and I’m very proud to say we’ve always found a way,” Perez said. “We are able to fundraise. You would never think with how professional we look that there were budget cuts.”
Perez’s legacy at Pierce has continued with one of his very own players becoming his assistant coach. Joandra Ramirez was a part of Perez’s team from 2011 to 2012 and later joined as assistant coach in 2019. Ramirez explained the change in dynamics and understanding she had for Perez after becoming a colleague.
“We may not understand who he is as a whole or as a coach, but he wouldn’t be putting so much love and passion into not just practice, [but also] the minor details and how organized he is,” Ramirez said. “Now as a colleague, I see that side and as a player I didn’t. I understand him a lot more”.
Team captain Lily Rang has been a player for two years at Pierce and became team captain this year. Rang explained that a memory she cherishes the most is Perez’s fun spirit getting her through a tough time.
“I had found out that my grandfather had passed away, and I didn’t really mention it to anyone,” Rang said. “Adolfo didn’t know either, but the practice that we had as the team, he was just kind of bringing this fun energy to it, and everything. It kind of helped get my mind off of it so that was really special to me.”
A big factor that Perez said keeps him coaching at Pierce are the student-athletes, especially those who have a passion for it but lack the funds to follow their passion for soccer.
“You know I coached clubs and they have different dynamics, they can afford it and these kids cannot, I think that is the number one reason,” Perez said.
As far as when Perez will retire, he said he has no date planned, but he has the passion and energy to keep coaching the team. Perez said he doesn’t plan to stop any time soon.
“I have always said the day I do not care about it, then I am done,” Perez said. “I don’t know when it is going to be, but the day I stop believing and having that feeling in it is when I’m done.”
