After a long wait, the boys soccer team was finally introduced to their new soccer coach. On Monday, Louis Francisco Morales-Shnaider was presented to the Spartan community on Greeley West social media platforms.
The man they call Paqui has 15 years of experience as a coach with additional years of experience as a player. His experience as a player comes from going through the Metropolitan State in Denver, Colorado Mesa University, and professional Honduran soccer team Club Deportivo Olimpia. Throughout his high school career, he led the team in assists, was a two-year letter-winner, and first-team academic all-state
After a rough season going 2-13 and conceeding 49 goals throughout the 15 games, Paqui looks ready to bring the team to a winning route while making sure he integrates himself into the Spartan community.
“I’ve admired the idea of keeping the team together as a family, the whole idea of being all for one and one for all is what attracted me to become a head coach at Greeley West,” Paqui explained. “ I want to make it known how much the family ideology is shown through the soccer team by having the boys go to other sporting events and show their school spirit not just on our respective sport.”
Sophomore Emmanuel Silva believes that the new hire will bring a new culture to the team.
“Paqui’s idea of cutting out the bad apples and being straightforward will set a new standard for the team,” Silva shared. “Committing to a sport, you can’t sugarcoat anything and you need to trust your teammates to be able to function as one.”
Eagerly the athletes asked forward about what their new coach’s playing philosophy is like. Paqui answers by saying there will be some changes to last year’s playing style.
“As a player, I was always aggressive but smart. I’ve seen that the team doesn’t want to play aggressively,” Paqui shared. “If we want to compete we need to show that as a team we move won’t be pushed around and we will trash talk with our skills on the field.”
The soccer players are excited to be introduced to this new playstyle that Paqui has introduced. Junior Nicholas Tijerina shares his thoughts on his new coach’s ideology. “I like the idea of having to play aggressively, with the team moving up to the 5A division the aggression is going to be needed when we play teams like Legacy and others who are as competitive,” Tijerina shared.
