TOKAY HIRES TWO NEW COACHES
A pair of coaches got promoted recently at Tokay High, moving up from junior-varsity coach to varsity.
Bailey Smith, who has been coaching junior varsity girls soccer as well as kickers and special teams for the football team, was named the varsity girls soccer coach, and Edgar Gutierrez, who has coached the Tigers’ JV boys basketball team, will move up to coach the varsity squad.
“Edgar’s been our JV coach the last two years, and was the freshman coach the year before, so he’s been with us a while,” said Tokay athletic director Michael Holst. “He has good energy, and he’s a third-grade teacher in our district. Really about developing and getting the kids back to working.”
Gutierrez takes over for Chris Boss, while
Smith replaces Sam Gonzalez.
“Our district opens up every coaching job after every season now,” said Holst. “Hailey will coach kickers for us still, and will continue to have a more extended role now for soccer.”
Tokay’s girls soccer squad has been on the cusp of success the past few years, but finished just outside of the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs. Smith feels the team has the weapons to make it happen.
“Currently we’re the only team on campus that hasn’t won a league title,” Smith said, “so that’s our No. 1 priority, to kind of try to work the program and go out and beat Lincoln and St. Mary’s and Tracy, and put us in that position.”
Smith played two years of varsity soccer at Tokay, and also was a kicker for the football team during her high school days. At Fresno State, she played (and managed) the club soccer team, and also began coaching youngsters in competitive soccer while there.
Upon her return to Lodi, Smith caught on with the soccer program, coaching the JV squad.
So what is the team missing, that final piece to get the Tigers over the hump?
“That’s a hard question. I’ve been grappling with that myself,” Smith said. “I want to bring us closer and organize our program as a whole. We created a boosters club last year, so we have more money funneling into the program. We’re focusing on our main goal, everybody needs to know we’re going to set out to complete that goal.”
Gutierrez has a tougher task set out for him, taking over a squad that has gone 6-50 over the past two seasons and hasn’t finished a season above .500 since going 15-14 in the 2014-15 season under Travis Okomoto.
But, like Smith, Gutierrez believes the team has the weapons to be successful.
“I believe they have the will to learn, they’re itching to compete, those characteristics are there. I saw that in them, so that’s why I decided to take this opportunity,” Gutierrez said. “They just want to take their game to the next level, and I feel like I can offer them the instruction and encouragement they need. This is a talented group that can start restoring the respect that Tokay can earn.”
Gutierrez started at
Tokay as the freshman coach, then spent two years as the JV coach. Before coming to Tokay, he was head freshman coach and a varsity assistant for Sir Francis Drake High School in the Bay Area.