This page is in memory of all past and present Seaside High School (Seaside, California) soccer players. This page is not affiliated in any official way with Seaside High School. More stuff will be added as it is received. Some stories are shown below. Check back here for fresh updates. Due to bandwidth limitations, most video had been taken offline. We are in the process of getting a new server, and then your favorites will be back- Maradona, Pele, Zidane, Denilson.
Jim Hernandez 77-79
Stories from the early days
"I can't give you much history. I was part of the first JV team after injuries knocked me out of varsity, and before that a member of the Seaside Soccer Club which essentially laid the foundations for the high school team. Dennis Trason, who was a German teacher can fairly be called the "Father of Seaside Soccer." He coached it for some years and he organized and led the club. Most of the guys on the early high school teams in the 1970s played on the club: Jim Dycus, Anis Ahaldi, William Owens, Tom Slagle, Mark Noel, Rory (can't remember his last name), Mike Speers, Merle Deck, Mike Hitzler, Alan Layton and others.
The club was not bad. We had some success. The greatest I think was against an Indonesian team back in 76 or 77. We whupped 'em 10 to 0. A lot of guys had a big day. Our winger Mark Noel scored 3 goals, and a guy named Theo Calderon scored another 3. Rory, Speers, Anis and another guy (Merle Deck) added the other scores. Results were published in the Monterey County Herald newspaper back then. It's on microfilm -The Herald newspapers archives for 1977, kept at the Seaside Public Library, in Seaside, California.
When it came to league play, we were not as highly skilled as the Mexican players and teams who grew up with soccer from Day 1. We basically played for fun. No one out there expected to be the next Pele. Consequently we usually got beaten by the Hispanic teams out of Salinas and Watsonville.
Looking back, we could have done a lot better. Essentially we played "kick and chase" - booting long balls upfield with the forwards chasing them down. I seldom got a ball played to my feet. After high school I coached a youth soccer team in Southern California and I saw then the things we could have done to shut down the Mexican teams, like a tight man to man defence, or structured 2-man combination moves, one of the simplest yet most effective techniques.
Direct play ("kick and chase") too could have been vastly improved by structured runs -like the classic West Ham move of English football, (crossing early to an advanced striker sprinting towards the near post) rather than aimless "clearances". In defence we played a loose sort of zone, giving our opponents time and leisure to operate- really a suicidal approach against the short passing Hispanic style attack. Then once in possession, we generally "cleared" or booted the ball upfield. It got really irritating sometimes watching the ball constantly sail ahead of you into the opposing defence. We really had too little tactical structure or tactical discipline.
But again, we did not grow up with soccer as game #1, like the Hispanic kids. We were in it for fun- not "guts and glory". Coach Trason did not harness everyone into a rigid "metodo". It could be said he kept it loose and did the best he could with the talent he had at the time. I don't fault him, nor can I complain too much, since several goals from that forward position.
We had a run of bad luck in 78 when we lost all the Korean guys who were on the team- immigration or grade problems perhaps- we never knew exactly what. We also lost 2 good guys (like Speers) to graduation. It was like an NFL team losing 60% their linemen and running backs in a single day. So Coach Trason had to patch together a lineup from what was left. We were having a winning season before being decimated by personnel losses. JV team too had the same problem. We had a football guy Joe Fitz and another good guy, Les Yamamoto. We had some offensive punch, but they quit for other sports and poof, there went half your front four. Soccer has matured much since those early days. There is a greater pool of good athletes to draw from now, but many complain of the fetish these days with tournaments- those rushed affairs where players travel hundreds of miles, "kick and chase" endlessly and do not have enough time devoted to building in-depth skill and tactical understanding, as they do in other countries.
I really can't remember all the other players. I would rate 5 guys the best I saw in my day: Pak and Cheng the Korean forwards, a guy named Wayne Penrod and Jim Dycus. The best opposing player I faced is hard to pin down. Watsonville had some great forwards, and Monterey High's best was easily a smooth Jamaican guy- name of Orel Blackwood. Orel had a peculiar shuffling gait as he dribbled- very deceptive and effective. My brother and Orel used to play pickup games sometimes with other guys at a local park. The best goalie is hard to say. Probably Bob Wilmont did good service that year. Mike Speers who played in goal was also pretty good but I would more rate him the best all rounder guy- goalie, forward, defender, and he was on the baseball team too. I rate the first varsity team higher than the second, after the Korean guys left.
In defence we had some of ex-football players, like Mike Hitzler, and big George Cassidy or was it Philips? Everybody seemed to have their own theory or playing style, and their favorite players. Big George would blast out these long goal kicks like a cannon. You would see him rumbling up and boom- mostly into the opposing defence. Merle Deck also played some and used to drive Coach Martin crazy because in defence he used to kick the ball out of bounds. Martin would tug at his afro in pain! Say what you will, but his busy "utility man" style helped set up hat-tricks for Noel and Calderon against the Indonesians. The fastest guy up front was probably Mark Noel, who could play on both the right and left wings. Coach Trason switched him back and forth to put pressure on opposing defenses. Noel was a proponent of the low cross, hit hard across the face of the goalmouth. Noel hit a goalpost once with one of these crosses, and Pak tapped home the rebound- a game I remember because the feisty little Korean forward almost got in a fight with a defender. It was funny watching the little guy tangle with this huge dude.
On the field, Cheng, a Korean forward, liked to take on several men with his dribbling. He was effective, probably the best "pure" wing specialist, followed by Noel the cross-field guy. Tall Mike Schwartz, on the first varsity team, was possibly the most awkward looking forward I have ever seen on a soccer field, (I think he was a basketball guy) but he handled himself well and scored once that I remember. William Owens played some in defence and the front line. Owens could jump. Tom Slagle also played up front, and Richard Rodriguez served as captain at the back. In midfield we had Eddie Green, Jimmy Myricks, Gabe Rios and Champu whom we called "Poo".
The first girl played on the boys JV team after I left. She was outclassed on the field but I'll say this for her- she hustled. We also had a guy who never made the team, Tim Reeves, but he performed a valuable service by maintaining all the stats, photos and news. Everybody pitched in as needed in those early days.
Lots of other stories could be told by other people I suppose, but that's my 2 cents Jim. You got to understand that we were pioneers of sorts in those days. It was mostly football, basketball, baseball and track back then. Those early teams put soccer on the map. Like any other expansion teams, the early years were lean at times. We faced hard-nosed Mexican opponents, like Salinas for example, that cut us no slack.
I remember playing in Salinas and hearing a bunch of catcalls and jeers in Spanish. I didn't understand all the words but it was pretty clear that they weren't whistling Dixie. Didn't bother us much. We understood. It was just business. In retaliation, we yelled faux "Speedy Gonzalez" Spanish phrases ("Ariba! Ariba!") after the cartoon character. But after the game we shook hands and chatted with the our opposing counterparts, man to man. On our team we had all types- Blacks, Koreans, Mexicans, and Whites. That was the melting pot that was Seaside High in those days- a reflection of the town- sandwiched between affluent upscale white areas like Monterey and Carmel, the big Fort Ord military base, and expanding Hispanic migrant populations working the agricultural fields out near Salinas and beyond. Our team captured that ethnic snapshot in time, as it was. The military base shaped the background of the city back then- forging a rough unity- that will seldom be seen again. There is even a book on how it used to be- called "Racial Beachhead" by Carol McKibben, 2011. It has massively changed since those days. Many of the middle class black military background families for example, eventually faded out with the closing of Fort Ord in the early 1990s, reducing the black population by about half. That is ethnic sucession- nothing special- a common occurence in US history- but it did change the more balanced mix of those days. Still Seaside to this day has maintained its diverse heritage. Some cultural "soul" flavored landmarks still remain such as the Monterey Bay Bues festival and the Monterey Jazz Festival, and while there are the usual "low-rent" housing areas, it never developed into the blighted all-back "ghetto" zones as some other cities of California did.
Back then in the mid and late 1970s though, our diverse mix didn't need any special gimmicks to work together, or to show respect for our opponents. The military associated families then were "doing divesity" long before it became a political buzzword. Even in competition, common goals and common tasks do more to unite people than empty symbolism. Those who have played the game will understand what I mean.
We had better luck against other opponents like Carmel, York, and Monterey High. One time I remember going up to affluent Carmel High and the students there were kinda apprehensive when they heard Seaside High was coming. One Carmel student told Alan Layton that he thought it would be a busload of big black guys showing up! Well we weren't, but we whipped them comprehensively. And we beat them again when they came to Seaside. I am sure we we intimidated some of them ahead of time, winning the mental battle even before play started, or we were simply better. Whatever the reasons, at the end of play, school colors meant little. There was only respect, one player to another, and respect for the game.
This page is in memory of all past and present Seaside High School (Seaside, California) soccer players. This page is not affiliated in any official way with Seaside High School. More stuff will be added as it is received. Some stories are shown below. Check back here for fresh updates. Due to bandwidth limitations, most video had been taken offline. We are in the process of getting a new server, and then your favorites will be back- Maradona, Pele, Zidane, Denilson.
Stories from the early days 
The club was not bad. We had some success. The greatest I think was against an Indonesian team back in 76 or 77. We whupped 'em 10 to 0. A lot of guys had a big day. Our winger Mark Noel scored 3 goals, and a guy named Theo Calderon scored another 3. Rory, Speers, Anis and another guy (Merle Deck) added the other scores. Results were published in the Monterey County Herald newspaper back then. It's on microfilm -The Herald newspapers archives for 1977, kept at the Seaside Public Library, in Seaside, California.
Direct play ("kick and chase") too could have been vastly improved by structured runs -like the classic West Ham move of English football, (crossing early to an advanced striker sprinting towards the near post) rather than aimless "clearances". In defence we played a loose sort of zone, giving our opponents time and leisure to operate- really a suicidal approach against the short passing Hispanic style attack. Then once in possession, we generally "cleared" or booted the ball upfield. It got really irritating sometimes watching the ball constantly sail ahead of you into the opposing defence. We really had too little tactical structure or tactical discipline.
I really can't remember all the other players. I would rate 5 guys the best I saw in my day: Pak and Cheng the Korean forwards, a guy named Wayne Penrod and Jim Dycus. The best opposing player I faced is hard to pin down. Watsonville had some great forwards, and Monterey High's best was easily a smooth Jamaican guy- name of Orel Blackwood. Orel had a peculiar shuffling gait as he dribbled- very deceptive and effective. My brother and Orel used to play pickup games sometimes with other guys at a local park. The best goalie is hard to say. Probably Bob Wilmont did good service that year. Mike Speers who played in goal was also pretty good but I would more rate him the best all rounder guy- goalie, forward, defender, and he was on the baseball team too. I rate the first varsity team higher than the second, after the Korean guys left.
In defence we had some of ex-football players, like Mike Hitzler, and big George Cassidy or was it Philips? Everybody seemed to have their own theory or playing style, and their favorite players. Big George would blast out these long goal kicks like a cannon. You would see him rumbling up and boom- mostly into the opposing defence. Merle Deck also played some and used to drive Coach Martin crazy because in defence he used to kick the ball out of bounds. Martin would tug at his afro in pain! Say what you will, but his busy "utility man" style helped set up hat-tricks for Noel and Calderon against the Indonesians. The fastest guy up front was probably Mark Noel, who could play on both the right and left wings. Coach Trason switched him back and forth to put pressure on opposing defenses. Noel was a proponent of the low cross, hit hard across the face of the goalmouth. Noel hit a goalpost once with one of these crosses, and Pak tapped home the rebound- a game I remember because the feisty little Korean forward almost got in a fight with a defender. It was funny watching the little guy tangle with this huge dude. 
I remember playing in Salinas and hearing a bunch of catcalls and jeers in Spanish. I didn't understand all the words but it was pretty clear that they weren't whistling Dixie. Didn't bother us much. We understood. It was just business. In retaliation, we yelled faux "Speedy Gonzalez" Spanish phrases ("Ariba! Ariba!") after the cartoon character. But after the game we shook hands and chatted with the our opposing counterparts, man to man. On our team we had all types- Blacks, Koreans, Mexicans, and Whites. That was the melting pot that was Seaside High in those days- a reflection of the town- sandwiched between affluent upscale white areas like Monterey and Carmel, the big Fort Ord military base, and expanding Hispanic migrant populations working the agricultural fields out near Salinas and beyond. Our team captured that ethnic snapshot in time, as it was. The military base shaped the background of the city back then- forging a rough unity- that will seldom be seen again. There is even a book on how it used to be- called "Racial Beachhead" by Carol McKibben, 2011. It has massively changed since those days. Many of the middle class black military background families for example, eventually faded out with the closing of Fort Ord in the early 1990s, reducing the black population by about half. That is ethnic sucession- nothing special- a common occurence in US history- but it did change the more balanced mix of those days. Still Seaside to this day has maintained its diverse heritage. Some cultural "soul" flavored landmarks still remain such as the Monterey Bay Bues festival and the Monterey Jazz Festival, and while there are the usual "low-rent" housing areas, it never developed into the blighted all-back "ghetto" zones as some other cities of California did.
That's it for me Jim.