Orange Changes Attitude, Finds Success

The Orange boys’ soccer team was supposed to get this far. The Panthers were ranked No. 1 in the county in the preseason poll, they returned nearly everyone from last year’s team that reached the quarterfinals, and most of them had played together since elementary school.

So reaching the Southern Section semifinals is no big deal, right?

Not exactly.

“We could easily be sitting out reading the papers instead of other teams reading about us,” assistant coach Kevin Esparza said. “This team was on the verge of collapse.”

After four games, Orange was 1-3 and in need of an attitude adjustment.

“Our heads were so big after reading all the papers’ write-ups on us, that they couldn’t even fit through a door,” Esparza said. “There was way too much individualism.”

Goalkeeper Aldo Zuniga saw the selfishness spreading like a cancer and after an embarrassing loss to Santa Ana Valley, he called a team meeting.

“We were going through such a bad time,” Zuniga said. “I told them that we’re not supposed to be losing. This is not us and that we have to play as a team.”

Zuniga said many players blamed their slow start on first-year Coach Sal Anaya, who replaced longtime coach Eddie Carrillo.

Anaya was Carrillo’s assistant and was promoted to head coach when Carrillo left for a teaching and coaching position at Trabuco Hills. Carrillo was responsible for building Orange into a soccer power, and left just when a championship was in sight.

“The guys had second thoughts about Eddie leaving,” Zuniga said. “We didn’t feel complete without Eddie. Eddie was more strict, and Sal was our friend as the assistant. As a head coach, he wasn’t as strict as he should have been.”

Even Esparza had his doubts.

“Sal and I both played at Chapman [University] and we had a certain style that we used,” he said. “It was a faster style than Eddie had used. They had a hard time adjusting to that style and we struggled a little bit. I questioned our style at the beginning myself.”

Esparza said it got so bad that, after a loss to Santa Ana, he sat on the field and cried with Victor Diaz, a player, for 15 minutes.

Said Anaya: “Yes, we were doubting ourselves a little bit. We were playing at the same level as we were in the summer but we weren’t finishing . . . They see us more as friends than as coaches. That’s a positive and a negative. There was a lot of messing around with the guys early in the season.”

Orange began turning its season around when Anaya moved Steven Gonzales and Jose Lopez to the middle and then won the Orange Holiday Classic right after Christmas. Going into the tournament, the Panthers were 1-3. They are 16-3-5.

“I could see the gleam in their eyes before that tournament,” Esparza said. “They decided they wanted to start living up to their expectations.”

Esparza said he gives Zuniga credit for helping to keep the team together.

“Without Aldo, we’d be in a world of hurt,” Esparza said. “He’s one of a kind. When you have somebody of that caliber who’s willing to step up and put it on the line in a meeting, you have to admire that.”

But there was more trouble ahead. Diaz, the team’s second-leading scorer, was suspended five games for challenging a referee during a game against Santa Ana Valley; he was almost lost for the entire season.

“He was facing a life suspension,” Esparza said. “But the [Southern Section] said, ‘If you put a harsh suspension on him, we’ll accept that.’ So we suspended him for the rest of the regular season.

“I think it was good for Victor. His head got kind of big after he started receiving letters from UCLA last year as a sophomore. His attitude went from being the best on the team to being a kid that we almost kicked off the team.”

Since returning from his suspension, Diaz has four goals and three assists in Orange’s three playoff victories.

“He came out a different man,” Zuniga said. “He was real intense and he was not only thinking about himself, but the rest of the team.”

Diaz’s intensity was costly in Thursday’s quarterfinal victory over Santa Barbara, which was won on penalty kicks. He was given two yellow cards for overly aggressive play and he will miss Tuesday’s semifinal against Oxnard Rio Mesa at Orange.

“I’m just trying to win and when I can’t win, my temper gets so high,” said Diaz, who has 14 goals, second to team leader Alex Garcia’s 23.

But Orange shouldn’t miss Diaz much. If the Panthers have learned anything this season, they’ve learned to be resilient.