Hoover welcomed Adam Coppersmith as the new head coach of the Hoover girls’ soccer program and varsity girls’ soccer team.
Coppersmith has an impressive 12 years of coaching experience and with his dedication to soccer coaching and his love for Hoover’s soccer program, he hopes to lead the girls’ soccer team to success.
Coppersmith was approached by Hoover’s administration and asked if he wanted to take the open spot, after the previous coach left.
“The timing was really good for me,” Coppersmith says, “My daughter’s on the team and it was just an opportunity to kinda help out with the program, getting things started again.”
He has coached boys and girls, younger and older, and of all different skill levels in the past 12 years.
He has had a lot of success, coaching many teams who have won tournaments as an AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) coach, and he is currently an AYSO board member for the Glendale region. He has even coached all-star teams, one of whom won a state tournament just last year.
But even with all this experience, running the program is challenging, he says, especially with this as his first time at a high school.
“It’s not just coaching,” he says, “there’s a lot of administrative stuff to kinda learn and deal with.”
Things like putting together a game schedule, doing fundraising, and working with administration are all part of the challenges he has to face.
Getting to know the team was much easier though, because Coppersmith had an older daughter who graduated from Hoover and was on the team for four years.
He also has a younger daughter, Katherine, who currently attends Hoover and has been on the team for two years, so he was able to know some of the girls on the team through them.
He has high hopes for the girls this year and wants to work together with the other coaches to create significant improvements to the program, and get the community involved.
Coppersmith, who oversees the entire program but coaches varsity, is working closely with the varsity assistant coach, Niguel Cook.
Coppersmith is already hard at work. He held practices over summer, tryouts last week which were very successful, and held a parent-player meeting to get parents involved.
“We have a really good group of girls,” says Coppersmith, “they’re kinda energized, enthusiastic, they’re very coachable, they have a high desire to want to play soccer and they’re motivated.”
But he does not want them to just go through the same old routine and rhythm, he wants to change it up and instill values like discipline, responsibility, hard work, and to always look for ways to improve themselves.
“I do it as a coach every year,” says Coppersmith. “And as every year goes on I learn more things about being a better coach and running the program better.”
“I know the other high schools,” says Coppersmith, “I know their strengths and their weaknesses, who’s good and who’s bad.”
Coppersmith emphasizes wanting to change the culture around the program and to bring back the school spirit and enthusiasm for the program.
“I’d love to have the stands full and the kids excited,” he says.
He wants kids from other schools to pick Hoover’s soccer program instead of going to other schools.
But it’s not just Coppersmith who’s looking forward to what is to come, so are the players.
“I’m very excited for the upcoming season and being under new leadership,” says Breann Pimenta, a senior on the varsity team. “It’s super motivating and I’m excited to see what this new leadership can bring to the team and how we can do this season.
“I’m excited to see what this new leadership can bring to the team and how we can do this season.”
Lillian Yousefian, a senior on the varsity team, said Coppersmith is a really good coach.
“I’m very confident that this year will be a really good one and I’m excited to be continuing this last year, and I think it’s going to be a fun one,” she said.
But Coppersmith says that success doesn’t always mean winning, and the hard work the girls put in and the challenges they overcome are a win too.
Ultimately, he wants not just for the program to be recognized, but also the hard work, dedication, and skill of the players.
“It’s going to take time, it’s not going to be an overnight process,” says Coppersmith, “but we’re going to take steps towards that.”
“I want the girls to be proud. Look back in a few years and be proud.”
