New Chabot College women's soccer coach Dan Chubbock sounds ready to get things done. He's Glad to be on board.
"I'm very excited. New role for me. New direction," Chubbock said.
The man who guided the Piedmont High girls soccer team to its first CIF North Coast Section title in 20 years this past season, in Division 4, is well-connected in soccer circles, which should help him recruit for Chabot. The NCS crown was just that, a crowning achievement for the very competitive Highlanders.
"It was a pretty cool achievement," he said. "We've made the final every five years for the last 15 years. We lost on penalties five years ago against Branson and then 10 years ago against O'Dowd … I was the coach of both of those, so it was nice to finally get there, finally get the win there."
The Piedmont Soccer Club Director of Coaching, Chubbock will remain with the club and Piedmont High while he builds the Chabot program. He's a coach's coach.
"The seasons all complement each other quite nicely," he said. "The opportunity (at Chabot) came up, I applied for the position and, yeah, I'm very excited to get started and try and rebuild the program and utilize the contacts I have in the Bay Area soccer world and get that women's program up and running."
Two of his former club players are already on board at Chabot.
During a time of soccer transition at the college, the Gladiators also have a new men's head coach in highly respected Geoff Aguiar. Both new head coaches, noted program builders, have basically a clean slate.
"The first step this year is making sure we get a team," Chubbock says, "and then from there we build that team and make sure we're competitive, and who knows from there?"
Chubbock's high profile in the soccer community — and natural ability to communicate — should play an important role in recruiting.
"I don't want it to sound egotistical, but people hopefully have a good sense of what I can do and will be comfortable encouraging their players to come to Chabot," Chubbock says.
Chubbock has an impressive list of qualifications: USSF A License; NSCAA Premier Diploma; NSCAA Director of Coaching Diploma; and English F.A. Coaching C License, to name a few.
It all started out for the southwest London native as a teenage Community Coach with Wimbledon FC and AFC Wimbledon. He was also a Community Coach with Crystal Palace FC (2003-04), and MLS New England Revolution Camp Coach and PDO (2005), among other jobs.
He played college soccer in the UK, a more social level of competition than exists in the United States, and transplanted here about 15-16 years ago to work initially with Castro Valley Soccer Club and then Piedmont. He works with 24-7 UK Soccer Academy.
The Piedmont team, which finished second behind Berkeley in the West Alameda County Foothill division, had a lot of aggressive attackers, and so it played an attacking style. At Chabot, Chubbock plans to implement a style that best suits the personnel.
"Make sure we highlight our strengths and try to expose our opponent's weaknesses," he says. "Dream world, yeah, I want to be playing fast-paced and aggressive soccer, but if we don't have those players to start with, then we're going to have to adapt. Maybe we'll play with a low block and make ourselves difficult to beat."
He adds that the non negotiables for his system will be work rate, determination, effort … things like that.
Now it's just a matter of building steadily and aiming for more crowning achievements.