Zwissler Family Has Connection on Soccer Field

Throughout her eight-year tenure as the La Verne women’s soccer coach, Wendy Zwissler hasn’t had to look far to recruit her best players. They’ve been right across the dinner table.

Zwissler’s three daughters have not only played for her, but have been the best players she’s had.

Fraternal twins Jacqui and Jenny played at La Verne from 1993-96, between them making first-team all-conference six times. They were second-team all-conference twice, and in 1996, Jacqui was voted the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference player of the year.

Jenny is working with her mother as an assistant coach, and the youngest Zwissler, Katie, is a junior who has four goals and two assists this season for the Leopards, who are tied for first place.

Sports have been part of Wendy’s life since childhood and she graduated from college with a degree in physical education. So she made sports a part of her children’s lives early on.

“We’ve played since we were 4,” Jenny said. “Mom sat [Jenny and Jacqui] down at the table and said, ‘Pick three sports you want to do.’ I picked soccer, swimming and, I think gymnastics. And my sister followed me.”

So did Katie, who did the same thing when she was 4.

Wendy’s goal was to get her children active and to make the family closer. To do that, she and her husband, Jim, coached their daughters’ AYSO teams.

Wendy says she had no idea how far coaching would take her.

“I didn’t know it was going to be my profession,” she said. “I still laugh about that today.”

After coaching her daughters at AYSO, Wendy began a girls’ club in Claremont when her twins were in fourth or fifth grade. She then went to coach at Claremont High, where the twins followed her a year later. Before Jacqui and Jenny’s senior year, Wendy became tennis and soccer coach at La Verne. The job of soccer mom became difficult.

“They were the hardest recruits I had,” she said.

“Jenny knew she wanted to come [to La Verne] but Jacqui wanted to go away. But I think she wanted to stay with her sister.”

Katie also chose to stay close to home, although she also was recruited by Arizona and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Besides keeping her family together, Zwissler got a scoring combination in the twins that led La Verne to a 51-20-2 record over four years.

The toughest part for Wendy wasn’t winning, but being able to balance the roles of mother and coach. Even today, she’s always making sure she’s not too easy on her girls--or too hard on them.

But she has found the balance. She still coaches Katie but has Jenny on the sideline with her. Wendy’s love for the game has carried over to her daughter, opening the possibility of a Zwissler head-coaching tradition at La Verne.

But soccer mom is still a mom and the ultimate soccer family is still a family. Between work and soccer the family is seldom together at home. But Sunday is different. Sunday night is family night. Everyone is at the table for dinner--and away from soccer. And that’s one thing the coach isn’t flexible about:

“Nobody misses the Sunday dinner.”

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The two biggest upsets in women’s soccer this season occurred Wednesday. Defending NAIA national champion and top-ranked Azusa Pacific fell to

No. 3 Westmont, 3-1, at Azusa.

In perhaps the biggest upset in SCIAC women’s soccer history, Pomona-Pitzer defeated Cal Lutheran, 3-2, at Pomona-Pitzer. The victory ended Cal Lutheran’s 46-game conference winning streak and 55-game SCIAC unbeaten streak.

It gave the Regals their first SCIAC road loss (50-1), put La Verne in a first-place tie and left Cal Lutheran’s record in the SCIAC at an amazing 100-2-1.

The No. 10 Cal State Bakersfield women’s soccer team lost to UC Davis Saturday, 3-0, ending the Roadrunners’ streak of 741 minutes without having been scored upon. . . . The Redlands men’s team improved to 10-1-1 overall and 6-0-1 in the SCIAC on Wednesday. It won seven games all last season. . . . Two weeks after passing for a 602 yards and seven touchdowns in a 59-52 loss to Azusa Pacific, Redlands quarterback Danny Ragsdale threw for 512 and six scores in another wild one, a 48-45 victory over Chapman Saturday. Ragsdale’s 1,777 yards passing lead the SCIAC and are more than double those of La Verne’s Dan Blahy.

UNIVERSITY BEAT

Less than a month after Stanford won the Southern California water polo tournament at USC, the Trojans returned the favor Sunday, winning the NorCal tournament at Stanford. . . . The UCLA women’s volleyball team got 20 kills from Kristee Porter and 17 from Tamika Johnson to defeat USC, 15-10, 15-10, 15-5, Wednesday night to improve to 7-0 in the Pac-10.

UCLA’s Elaine Canchola won the women’s race to lead the Bruins to an easy victory in the Long Beach Invitational cross-country race Saturday. The Bruins finished six points behind winner California in the men’s race. . . . USC defeated Pepperdine by 21 strokes to win the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational golf tournament, completed Wednesday. Pepperdine’s Tamie Durdin won the event by seven strokes with an eight-under-par total of 208.

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Best of the Week

WATER POLO

UCLA vs. California at Rose Bowl Aquatics Center, Saturday, 10 a.m.

The losers of Sunday’s championship and third-place matches in the NorCal tournament meet in a match that features two of the nation’s best teams.

Convergence tournament at Pomona Pitzer, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Redlands, today and Saturday

These three SCIAC foes co-host an 18-team tournament that features some of the top Division III teams in the nation and Division I schools such as Loyola Marymount and Harvard.

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Cal State Bakersfield at Cal State Dominguez Hills, today, 3 p.m.

The No. 20 Roadrunners, at 7-2-1 in the CCAA, are half a game behind first-place Cal Poly Pomona and half a game ahead of the 7-3 Toros, who cracked the national rankings at No. 24 this week.

CROSS COUNTRY

SCIAC multi-dual meet at La Mirada Regional Park, Saturday, 9 a.m.

All the men’s and women’s teams in the SCIAC come together for a meet that will serve as one-half of the scoring used to crown the conference champions.