Bad Vibes Underfoot at Reseda : Soccer: Regents plagued by forfeits, coaching changes and other misfortune.

Though the mighty have fallen they are still a formidable force.

The Reseda High boys’ soccer team showed that much Tuesday afternoon at Canoga Park High, trouncing the Hunters, 8-1, in a Valley Pac-8 Conference match.

But nine months after advancing to the City Section semifinals, the Regents are reeling.

Reseda, which was 23-2-5 and won the conference title last season, has in the past three months endured two coaching changes, the loss of seven players who were expected to start and a pair of forfeits.

The forfeits occurred last weekend in the Burroughs tournament when Coach Julio Castillo could round up only eight of his 16 players.

Castillo said he didn’t realize Reseda (2-3 overall, 2-1 in conference play) was entered in the 16-team tournament until three days before its start.

He added that three of the absent players were taking the Scholastic Assessment Test, one was injured and the others had to work.

“I’m disappointed but what could I do?” said Castillo, who became the Reseda coach Nov. 20 after Adolpho Perez resigned. “It looks bad for everybody.”

Norman Weiler, Reseda’s athletic director, said he had been “trying to do away with any tournaments” because of the team’s uncertain coaching situation. But Weiler also said he did not call Mike Kodama, the Burroughs boys’ soccer coach and the organizer of the tournament.

“I am so inundated and I do not consider it an error on my part,” Weiler said. “I thought that because we did not have a coach we were not going to be in [the tournament].”

Kodama said he talked with Perez and his predecessor, Terry Davila, about Reseda’s berth in the tournament two weeks before its start. Kodama said he first became aware that Castillo had become the Reseda coach when Castillo called 30 minutes before the Regents’ first tournament match and said they would forfeit.

“[Castillo]’s in a tough position, but if he knew about the tournament in the middle of the week he should have checked with his kids and then called me,” Kodama said. “At least then I could have still done something.”

Reseda’s problems this season began when Davila, The Times’ 1994-95 area coach of the year, resigned shortly before the start of this academic year. Davila, a Regent assistant from 1989-94, is currently an assistant with the Northridge men’s soccer team.

“That was a big blow,” Regent senior William Diaz said of Davila’s departure. “Terry’s a great motivator. You could be the sorriest player ever and he’d make you good.”

Weiler said Perez was named to replace Davila in mid-September. However, Perez was also the coach of the men’s team at Mission College and when the Free Spirit qualified for the state playoffs, the end of its season conflicted with the beginning of the season at Reseda.

“It was just more convenient if Julio took the job,” said Perez, who also coaches a youth club soccer team. “I felt like I let some of the players down, but it was all too much.”

Castillo, 21, was elevated from assistant to head coach, but the timing of the move cost Reseda a week of organized practice.

“We waited and waited for Adolpho and he never came,” Diaz said. “No one ever found out why he stopped being the coach.”

Castillo, who played with current Regents Diaz and Juan Guadron as a Reseda senior in 1992-93, inherited a mess. Five key players were either ineligible or enrolled in continuation school, one had moved and another had transferred to Taft.

“It’s a tough situation,” Castillo said. “Before we were all friends and now I have to order them around. It’s hard for them to adjust.”

What has suffered most is the team’s unity. Last season the Regents sacrificed their egos to play disciplined defense, a characteristic that lifted them above the area’s other City teams. Diaz said that is not the case this season.

“We’ve got a lot of little prima donnas running around,” Diaz said. “Last year everybody battled during practice because you knew there was someone on the bench who could take your position. This year guys are like, ‘Go ahead, bench me.’ ”

Davila, the architect of last year’s successful team, is dismayed by the current situation.

“I put a lot into that program and it hurts to see it this way,” said Davila, who attended Reseda’s Tuesday match with two of the team’s ineligible players.

“But the guys have to stop living in last year and feeling sorry for themselves. They need to let their soccer talk because there’s still enough talent on that team to win the league again.”