Joel Fumia vividly remembers going to his two older sisters’ Los Gatos High soccer matches and the program competing for league and section championships. Now, the 33-year-old looks to lead the Wildcats to a return to glory as the new head coach of the program.
“I was born and raised in Los Gatos, so I do have roots there,” Fumia said. “Coming back to coach at a high school I’m familiar with was very attractive to me. I grew up going to my sisters’ games and have a ton of memories of the program having a lot of success.”
From a win-loss standpoint, the team took a giant step backward last year. Los Gatos had one of its worst seasons in program history, finishing 1-16 overall and 1-11 in Santa Clara Valley De Anza Division play.
The latter mark got them demoted to the SCVAL’s lower El Camino Division for the 2022-2023 season, a stunning turn of events for a program that has enjoyed tremendous success over the years.
Los Gatos is a five-time CCS champion—four of those coming under Khalid Al-Rasheed in 1990, 1994-1996) and has been a runner-up four times, in 1993, 2005, 2008 and 2012. The Wildcats advanced to the Open Division semifinals as recently as 2020.
Fumia, who is one of the youth directors in the Los Gatos United club program, has coaching experience there and previous to that he was the head coach for both the boys and girls teams at Cristo Rey High and the junior varsity coach and assistant varsity coach at Menlo School.
Fumia knows Los Gatos has no shortage of girls soccer talent, and because of that is confident a quick turnaround is possible.
“I was pretty shocked to see that (1-16 record),” he said. “I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus or bash anybody, but we’re looking to get it back on the right track. There is no reason why Los Gatos shouldn’t be a top school in the area for soccer.”
As the youngest of six children—all of whom played soccer—Fumia had little choice but to be indoctrinated into the sport. Not that he’s complaining. He loves what many refer to as the beautiful game and it’s given him memories to last a lifetime.
That’s because Fumia graduated and played at Bellarmine and St. Mary’s College in Moraga. Now, Fumia wants to establish additional smartphone moments at Los Gatos. As a coach for United, Fumia is familiar with some of the players on the team along with some of the incoming freshmen.
One of his goals is to also reach out to players who haven’t played for the high school but do club, and in some cases, have committed to a Division I program.
“We’re hoping maybe we could convince the girls who didn’t play last year to play this year because the high school season is pretty special,” Fumia said. “The cool thing about high school is you get to play with your friends and there are certain elements that are very special, unique and different from club.
“We’re looking to build a great culture around the girls soccer program and hopefully a successful one that is super competitive and competing for league titles and getting into CCS every year. We just have to put the structure in place and make this a great place to play soccer. When you have a great culture, good things tend to happen. It’s all tied together.”
Even though Fumia has high expectations on the field, he also wants to build the players’ character.
“Ultimately, it’s not just the wins and losses but also teaching them to be good people on and off the field,” he said. “Obviously, there are a lot of things they can learn through soccer to build their character, teamwork, discipline, camaraderie and sportsmanship. The game of soccer is a really good tool to teach these kids how to be good people.”
Sports editor Emanuel Lee can be reached at [email protected]
