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Champion Soccer Coach in the Making!

I joined Haulotte in July of 2017 as the Director of Finance for the Americas Zone. I moved to Virginia Beach with my wife, Nayeli, who I have been happily married to for 17 years, and our three kids, Enrique 15-years old, Emiliano-12 years old, and Isabella-10 years old. The three of them love to play soccer and it is what you can currently call my ‘weekend hobby’.

My favorite soccer team is from Mexico, the Club de Futbol Tigres, where the French player, Pierre Gignac, plays. In Mexico, where I am from, soccer is a part of our culture, so you grow up always watching and playing soccer.

I started coaching kids 8 years ago when my own kids started playing soccer. It all started when I was taking them to practice and realized that I could not keep myself quiet on the sidelines; I decided to coach my kids’ teams ever since then.  I always wanted to be able to give my kids some feedback, but did not want to contradict the coach, so I decided I could learn how to coach, plus add my own experience that I gained from all the soccer I played in Mexico when I was young. It has been an extremely rewarding experience, especially when some of the kids on the team have no idea how to play soccer, and by the time the season is finished, have made a big transformation. The aim is always for the kids to have fun.

My last coaching gig was this past winter with a futsal team for 9 and 10-year-old girls named ‘Beach FC Dragons’. Although we made it to the championship, we lost the final 3-0. It was a very rewarding experience though since when we started the season, we had very little hope to go far given our team was partially new and inexperienced.

Last year I also coached a U-15 (under 15 years old) team in a futsal league here in Virginia Beach. It was very nice because we had won all our games, but the last game of the regular season was against anther undefeated team, and we lost the game 5-0. After the regular season, we advanced to the playoffs, and I knew we would have to play that team again in the final, so I had to change our strategy a little bit, still while motivating the kids. It worked perfectly, and we ended up winning the final 4-0! Another fun championship that I participated in was the National Sand Soccer Championship in 2018; my team went undefeated and won first place. This was my first time coaching a sand soccer team.

I am looking forward to this summer where we will have the North American Sand Soccer Championship here in Virginia Beach, and I will coach two teams, one for 16-year-old boys and one for 12-year-old boys. This will be incredibly challenging as they will compete at the Youth Elite level. This year, our goal is to win both North American Sand Soccer Championships. I have gathered very top-quality players so hopefully we can excel in the highest level of competition.

The thing I love the most about coaching is when the kids finish the game, and they have given all their effort, especially with some kids who are a little bit more complex because they don’t possess the same skill level. I also enjoy seeing the progression the kids make from the beginning of the season to the end. For example, in my last futsal season, we had one girl who cried the whole first practice and didn’t wanted to train. She was afraid and shy, but by the end of the season, I could not get her off the field. That is rewarding.

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