The San Diego Mesa College Men’s Soccer Team kicked off this season with a 2-1 win against Cuyamaca College on Aug. 25 at El Cajon.
After finishing third with seven wins, three losses, and two ties in last year’s Pacific Coast Conference, Coach Abdelghani Toumi and his players will strive to make a leap from their current third place spot, skipping second, and leaving as champions.
Mesa’s proud Olympians have brought home four consecutive PCC soccer championship titles – 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002. Since then, the Olympians have remained part of the Top 5 contenders for the conference, falling to fifth place only once in 2006.
Southwestern College’s Jaguars held the second place title and the Cuyamaca Coyotes held first.
Opening the season by defeating the defending PCC champions was an excellent start, but unfortunately the Olympians were handed their first loss of the season by the Orange Coast College’s Pirates on Tuesday, Sept. 01 at Costa Mesa with a final score of 2-1.
Having coached soccer at the youth, high school, and college level Coach Toumi is no stranger to the soccer community. Toumi’s soccer career began far from Mesa’s So-Cal soccer scene, in Morocco.
He is a well-known figure in the soccer community and founded the SSA, the Street Sokker Academy, “a program to help young players become confident and to nurture their passion for playing soccer.”
Last season, Olympians Gamaliel Vasquez, Rawley Kornman, Anthony Rodriguez, and Ricardo Hernandez were named as the PCC All League Selections and the four also received Team awards from their fellow players. Vasquez along with Andres Liera, John Crowell, and Lucas Carlsson received Honorable Awards. Hernandez and Mathew Blackman received Team Leadership Awards, while Kornman and Rodriguez were voted as the team’s Most Valuable Players for the season.
Those interested in this season’s players can view the roster online on the school’s Athletics page under the Men’s Soccer tab, and will be available starting Thursday, Sept. 17. Also available online to the public is a schedule of the team’s games providing the opponent, date, and venue information.