Men's soccer receives new coach
Campus Times
April 16, 1999
After three years of serving as the University of La Verne men's soccer
team head coach, Mike Collins has resigned from his position.
To fill the head coach position will be one of last season's assistant
coaches, Derrick Kerr.
Jim Paschal, athletic director, said that due to the fact that Collins
was only a part-time coach and his other obligations did not allow him to
be as effective as he would have liked to be, he approached Paschal about
leaving the program and in March, he officially left.
"He and his staff did a nice job with recruiting players this year.
They had the most depth and talent that I have seen in a La Verne's men's
team since the mid 1980s," said Paschal of Collins performance with
the team last season.
"I am excited. Its an opportunity I more than welcome. As a coach
or someone in this field, your goal is to get as high as you can,"
said Kerr who acted as an assistant to the team for two years.
He said that his intentions for next year's team are to "build
a reputable and competitive team," to "work on overall improvement
of physical and mental attributes."
Kerr feels that what he will need most from his players, in order to
achieve his goal, is their commitment to the team.
"The guys in this program need to be committed,"he said.
He said that this program is not a "recreational program," that
players cannot come out and play one or two games and that be all.
Players from last season appear to be pleased with the decision to have
Kerr serve as their new coach.
"In comparison to the coach we had, he is more of a kick butt type
attitude. He doesn't settle for mediocrity. He wants them [the players]
to do their best and if something needs to be said he'll say it," said
junior mid-fielder and co-captain Michael Campopiano.
Kerr said that each player needs to work on their own individual development
and then bring that back to the team to improve as a whole.
Junior mid-fielder Jorge Macias was the other co-captain for last season's
team and said, "He [Kerr] is real strict. He has a lot of discipline
and is very capable of improving this program."
The assistant position has not been filled yet and is still "up
in the air."
Kerr has the authority to chose whom he would like to serve as his assistant
and spoke very highly of Cres Gonazlez, who was also an assistant coach
last season.
"Cres has been very involved. He works very hard and has contributed
a great deal. It would be my hope that Cres would make time in his schedule
for this,"said Kerr.
He also has some other people in mind that he was worked with in the
past, but felt that it was too premature to discuss who they were.
Kerr has been an avid soccer player since he was a kid, playing from
youth leagues all throughout high school and on to the collegiate level.
He graduated in 1985 from Azusa Pacific University with his bachelor
of arts degree in Exercise Physiology. He received his masters of arts in
Socio-cultural Aspects of Sports and Physical Education and his masters
of arts in Education from Cal Poly Pomona and is currently working on his
PhD.
He has been teaching Spanish and physiology for the last fourteen years
and is working at Damien High School in La Verne. He has also worked in
the social services field with organizations like the Salvation Army Youth
Services.
