The Warriors boys’ soccer team is getting a new head coach out of Albuquerque.

Daniel Sanchez is an Albuquerque native, graduating from Del Norte High School back in 1983. He would go on to play college basketball at Northland College in Ashland Wisconsin. While at Northland College, Sanchez would learn to play soccer by joining an indoor soccer club team.

The new Warriors boys soccer coach is originally
from Albuquerque.
Photo courtesy of Daniel Sanchez

“During our offseason in basketball, I would join this soccer league, and that’s where I got my introduction and learned to play the game. It was neat because it was a traveling league,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez has been coaching for over 20 years now. Coaching tennis, football, basketball and of course soccer. Despite the various sports, and his heavy basketball background, Sanchez points at soccer as his favorite sport to coach.

“My favorite sport to coach is soccer, I mean I played college basketball and I like coaching it as well, but my favorite is soccer,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez has found success before when coaching soccer, “I used to be the head coach for the women’s soccer team at West Mesa High School. We went to state twice,” he said.

Coming into Socorro, the goal for Sanchez right now is to fill out his roster. “I just want to find the players right now. There was a big graduating class, so I just want to find our players.”

Sanchez likes a pressure-type system on the field. This system has the forwards fall back with the mid-fielders to help on the defensive side. In soccer, often the forwards don’t really fall back past the mid-field. “I’ve found a lot of success with the pressure system before. Of course, we will run formations and plays to the strength of our team, but it is something that I want to install right away,” Sanchez said.

As far as expectations go, Sanchez is just focused on building his team. “I, of course, want to get to state, but right now I just want to meet my players and get work with them,” Sanchez said.

The Warriors will have their first game on August 23.

Juan Baeza, El Defensor Chieftain Intern