Son succeeds father as soccer coach

Zac Garza has aspirations to turn coaching soccer into a career, but first he’d just like to take the field as head of the Cedar Grove-Belgium girls’ team.

After serving as assistant coach for seven years, Garza is taking over for his father Elias, in a planned succession.

“It had kind of been a progression. Every year I took on more and more responsibility,” Zac said. “Soccer is something I want to turn into my career at some point. (Elias) felt the time was right to push forward.”

Zac graduated from Cedar Grove-Belgium High School in 2011 and a year later agreed to help his father coach the girls’ team, filling in after an assistant coach quit weeks before the season started.

“I ended up absolutely loving it, probably more than I love playing,” Zac said.

One of his favorite parts is when a team buys in to a coach’s system and different concepts are initiated.

“To see it out on the pitch actually come off, it’s so fulfilling for me. I love seeing it come together,” he said.

Zac also assisted his father and two former coaches on the boys’ team the past few seasons.

The elder Garza said he decided at the end of last year that Zac was ready to step up and recommended the move to Athletic Director Scott Parsons.

“Zac has grown exponentially as a coach, mentor and person. His coaching evolution has been highly instrumental in the growth of the girls’ program. His contributions are a big reason our program has shown the improvements and achieved the successes that it has,” Elias said.

“I’m extremely proud witnessing the maturation and growth firsthand. Zac has exhibited tremendous leadership, knowledge, game management and the ability to connect with the players is truly special.”

Father and son have similar coaching philosophies, although Zac said “We don’t agree on everything. We’re not the same person.”

Their theory is to excite fans while playing with dignity and honor and control the things they can, Zac said.

“I definitely like to focus on the offense being the best form of defense, and I think it showed a little bit last year with us leaking some of the goals,” he said.

Coming into this season, Zac said he wanted to shore up the defense behind two-time first-team all-conference goalkeeper Brooke Braga.

He said regular powerhouse teams such as Oostburg used defense to carry it to the state title game.

“We wanted to make sure we had that part right this year,” Zac said.

The Rockets also return the Big East Defensive Player of the Year in senior Shelby Cooney.

The offensive end is also covered. Senior Abby Kraus is back after being named the Big East Offensive Player of the Year. She set the school’s single-season record with 34 goals last season. She is less than 10 from the career school record.

Zac joked with Kraus that she could reach 100 career goals. She needs 44.

Coming off of making the state title game in 2018, the Rockets went 13-0 in the Big East last season and won their first conference title before being upset by Kohler in the playoffs.

 Zac said this year’s team could even be better.

“This was definitely going to be, in our opinion, probably our strongest team ever,” he said.

Zac, who works as coordinator of the day program for Balance Inc., an organization that helps people with developmental disabilities live independently, said he has been checking the daily coronavirus updates. He is hoping the season be moved to a summer season schedule similar to what the baseball team used to play.

Regardless, seven practices are required before the first game and only four games need to be played to qualify for the postseason tournament, he said. Starting in mid-May would allow for enough games, he said.