First in a two-part sequence. Half II coming Wednesday.
SAN JOSE — What has modified for Bellarmine soccer since final fall?
It’s the query that has been on the minds of observers for the reason that Bells accomplished the primary 0-10 season in class historical past final November.
Bellarmine is clearly a great distance away from returning to the heights that the storied program as soon as referred to as residence. For many years, the Bells had been perched on the high of the West Catholic Athletic League and Bay Space highschool soccer at massive, successful part and regional championships and sending gamers to school and in some circumstances the NFL.
A kind of gamers, former Tremendous Bowl champion David Diaz-Infante, is getting into his third season as head coach. He’s attempting to drag Bellarmine out of the doldrums and into the trendy period of highschool soccer.
How shut is he to bringing the Bells again?
“There’s not a lot of us,” Diaz-Infante noticed on the conclusion of a current 6 a.m. apply. “We’re not real big. But the guys are working hard. We’re getting there.”
As Bellarmine seems to be forward to the subsequent few years, getting gamers might be a giant a part of the long run success. Because the finish of final season, this system’s former head coach, Jalal Beauchman, has returned to steer the offense and generate curiosity within the college – and soccer – as a part of his new place on the school.
Former Bellarmine head coach Jalal Beauchman, proven right here working with gamers throughout apply this month, has returned to this system to steer the offense. (Aric Crabb/Bay Space Information Group)
To some extent, the present drawback with this system is a numbers sport.
Bellarmine completed final season with about 30 wholesome gamers after beginning with 48. On the morning apply this month that the Bay Space Information Group attended, the Bells had 38 varsity gamers taking part.
Diaz-Infante famous that some gamers had been gone and can be again the next week. Bellarmine athletic director Kevin Saldivar stated the Bells have 47 gamers on the varsity roster, together with 16 returners from final yr’s group and three transfers.
The numbers are beginning to enhance on the decrease ranges. Diaz-Infante stated Bellarmine’s freshman group has about 70 gamers and several other appear like future contributors.
“We probably have the best freshman class we’ve had in 10 years,” Diaz-Infante stated.
However a brighter future isn’t going to occur in a single day.
“We’re still a year away from being competitive,” Diaz-Infante stated. “But we got a lot of young guys that played last year. They’re moving up, so the future’s looking better.”
State of affairs
Bellarmine soccer gamers undergo passing drills throughout a apply this month. (Aric Crabb/Bay Space Information Group)
The Bellarmine ecosystem that Diaz-Infante entered in 2023 was far completely different from the one he remembered as a pupil on the college within the early Eighties.
“We kind of got away a little bit from the role athletics really plays in the overall picture of the school and development of the total person,” he stated. “Our academics are always strong. But when I was here, we were state champs of football and state champs of speech and debate. So one does not take away from the other.”
One factor Bellarmine can fall again on this season is the return of Beauchman.
Beauchman, a former broad receiver for the Bells below legendary head coach Mike Janda, took the reins of the Bellarmine program in 2020 and coached the group by way of 2022, a run that included an look within the Central Coast Part Division I semifinals and a CCS Division II championship.
Beauchman is now Bellarmine’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Diaz-Infante praised the previous head coach’s potential to steer and educate offense, which he believes might be an asset for the Bells.
For his half, Beauchman stated the choice to return again to Bellarmine was multi-faceted. When he resigned as head coach, he was trying to spend extra time on his private life.
Life modifications
Whereas away, he acquired married and had his first youngster. Now a dad, he was able to return to teaching whereas additionally accepting a job on campus as Bellarmine’s Christian Service and Range, Fairness, Inclusion and Belonging Affiliate.
“I have a lot of fond memories of this place when I was a student here, as a football player, as a coach,” Beauchman stated. “It harm to be away, and it harm to see what’s transpired since I’ve left, by way of how the video games have been going, and never solely the outcome, however simply the style of which we’ve been shedding.
“So having coach Diaz reach out to me and asking me if I’d be interested in coming back, it was a no-brainer for me. Because I figured I want to be part of the solution versus just watching it from the sideline.”
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The brand new union will doubtless decide whether or not Bellarmine will sink or swim within the coming years. Diaz-Infante emphasised the significance of getting coaches like Beauchman on campus full time, noting that many different WCAL faculties have 5 or extra soccer coaches on workers in roles past teaching.
Diaz-Infante singled out Serra coach Patrick Walsh and St. Francis coach Greg Calcagno as WCAL friends who’ve been sounding boards for him as he seems to be to rebuild the Bells again to what they weren’t too way back.
“Those two guys, they’ve been at it a long time, and they’ve been successful,” Diaz-Infante stated. “So the formula is there. We can’t expect to do things differently and yield the same result. The footprint’s there. We’ve just got to get back to that, and I believe we’re headed in the right direction.”
