The Fresno City College mens and women’s soccer teams are both ranked in the top ten of the California Community College Athletic Association. They have shown themselves to be serious contenders for a championship run this season.
The men’s team has put up a fight for the Central Valley Conference championship. They are fresh off a tie against Taft College and are currently ranked No. 10 in the state.
However, this high ranking has not been a major focus of the team.
“That is hasn’t played a large part in the team’s motivation,” said FCC men’s Head Coach Eric Solberg. “They don’t talk much about it. I don’t bring it up. We always want to be ranked just because it’s nice to be ranked, but I don’t think that is really on anyone’s mind. The final poll is really the only poll.”
Even though the team has been successful, Solberg still sees a lack of focus as a major challenge for his team to overcome.
“We have a good group of players […], but I don’t know that we’ve been focused at our tasks at hand,” said Solberg.
Solberg is currently preparing the team for a game against Modesto Junior College.
“We don’t know much about them,” said Solberg. “Unfortunately, they haven’t played many teams where I can get much of a report on them, so we’re not going to prepare for this game really much different, other than letting the team know it’s a big game, but I think they know that.”
The Men’s soccer team achieved a triumphic home victory over Modesto Junior College this past Tuesday 2-1.
The women’s soccer program is focusing on conference play to stay on track to win the Central Valley Conference title.
Women’s Head Coach Oliver Gemond is ecstatic about his team after their 4-0 win against Solano, and he feels great about the position they are currently in.
“The last couple of weeks have actually been concerning,” said Germond, “We’ve done so well that it’s almost been too easy, and you don’t want to get too comfortable because come playoff season, you always want to be at your best.”
Even when not scheduled for a game, Germond does everything he can to keep his team in that energetic, must-win mindset.
“Last Thursday, we didn’t have a game […], so we scrimmaged ourselves that Thursday, and it was one of the most competitive games we’ve played in the past few weeks,” said Germond.
The Women’s soccer team sent on to defeat Chabot last Friday 6-0; thanks in part to sophomore forward Jenna Thompson’s 3 goals.
“I feel like we worked well together, but we’ve always known that,” said Thompson, “It was one of those games where we just needed to get our business done on the field, and we did it.” Soccer stopper Laura McIntosh added, “After every game, you have things that shouldn’t happen and things that go well, so we learned how to do things that we needed to work on before.”
Germond is currently preparing the No. 9 state ranked Rams for their game on Friday against West Hills Eagles. According to the Germond, it is a game that he looks toward to; it is the first conference game of the season.
Both teams are out to prove their dominance to the rest of the collegiate soccer world, and even though they may very well have already pushed themselves to the top, their coaches are still making sure their teams are ready to push themselves even farther.