Team History
Cupertino Boys Soccer Through the Years
A Championship Tradition is Born : 1971 - 1973
In the winter of 1971, Jim Tegley, a Physical Education Teacher from Hyde Jr High School, was chosen to begin a boys soccer program for Cupertino High School. With white jerseys and bumble bee striped socks, the Pioneers fielded a Varsity team of 19 players that began a five year journey taking the program from infancy to champions. In their first season, the Pioneers were led by senior forward John Smillie who later went on to star at San Jose St University from 197-196 and continued on to play professional soccer.
Cupertino's First Varsity Soccer Team (1971-1972)
Head Coach Jim Tegley (1971-1973)
Under the patient guidance of Coach Tegley, the Varsity squad won their first Santa Clara Valley League title in 1973 in only their second year of existence. The Pioneers amassed an overall record of 16-2-3 and earned their very first CCS playoff berth. Led on the field by the dynamic brother duo of Jim and Dan MimMack, the Pioneers dominated an overmatched Westmoor team 5-2 in the first round and then shut out Prospect 3-0 in the Semi finals. Finally, in the biggest game of the season, Cupertino stunned previously unbeaten St Ignatius in the CCS final by a score of 1-0 on a Jim MimMack second half goal. The result was the first CCS Soccer championship in Cupertino history. Dan, Jim, and fellow teammate Bob Pierceall were named to the ALL-CCS Tournament first team.
The Glory Years : 1974 - 1976
In 1974, Coach Dave Favro, a social studies teacher at Cupertino, took the reigns of the young Pioneer Boys soccer program. His first season as head coach saw the Pioneers go 13-2-2 and 9-1 in league play. A first place tie with Homestead High School at the end of the 1974 season forced a one game playoff to decide who would represent the SCVAL in the CCS playoffs (at that point in time, only league champions earned playoff berths). In a crushing 1-0 defeat, Cupertino fell to Homestead in the league playoff on a Steve Sampson goal and were denied a CCS playoff berth. (Steve Sampson later went on to be the USA Men's National Team coach for the 1998 World Cup)
Photo from Cupertino v Homestead - League Playoff
The 1975 season began with a whole new focus to build on what 'almost was' a season ago. An all-star defense led by fiery Sr. goalkeeper Carl Suter, Sr. fullback Ray Tracey, Jr. fullback Bill Viscovich, Jr. fullback John Nochella, Sr. Brain Ward and Sr. fullback John Davis....shut out team after team during the season and yielded only 12 goals in 22 games. An arsenal of talented strikers and midfielders led by 3 year letterman Sr. Jim Mimack, Jr. midfielder Joe Silveria, Jr. midfielder Chris Trevisan, Sr. striker Greg Lindberg, and Jr. midfielder Sam Toplak scored a whopping 60 goals on the season. The Pioneers easily took the newly formed Fremont League title and earned a CCS playoff berth with an overall record of 16-1-1 and 9-1 in league. After a shocking penalty kick shootout win in the first round over Ravenswood, Cupertino beat up on Buchser 4-0 and Watsonville 2-1 to reach their second CCS title game in 3 years. Cupertino boasted the stingiest defense in the section giving up only 12 goals during the regualr seaosn and 3 total in the post season. The solid effort was attributed to the team's tremendous on and off field chemistry. They simply wanted to play as hard as possible for one another. The mark of camaraderie and passion for the game would be one future Cupertino teams would look to live up to for decades to come.
Cupertino capped off its second CCS soccer title in three years by defeating Saratoga High School 4-1 on March 11, 1975 at PAL Stadium. Led by CCS tournament and team MVP, Joe Silveria, the Pioneers finished with a 19-1-2 record and outshot the Falcons 19-8 in the final match of the year. The game was sealed in the second half with a beautiful goal put away by Jr Samo Toplak on an assist from Joe Silveria. Greg Lindberg, Clay Lauricella, and John Nochella also notched goals in the commanding victory.
Joe later went on to play four years at the collegiate level with local San Jose State University followed by a successful professional career highlighted by several years with the NASL San Jose Earthquakes. He returned to coach in San Jose during the spring of 2000 to be an assistant coach for the "new" San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer. Joe is currently the head coach for the Men's and Women's soccer teams at the College of Notre Dame-De Namur in Belmont, CA.
Also making the All-CCS tournament team were standout players Jim MimMack and Robert Bustamante. Two other top players, Clay Lauricella (in 1982) and Chris Trevisan (in 1988), would later come back to coach the Varsity Soccer team. The winter of 1975 marked the best ever sports season for Cupertino High School as the basketball team (led by Kurt Rambis), wrestling team, and soccer team all won CCS titles.
1975 Cupertino Boys Varsity Soccer Team - CCS Champs
One year after capturing their second CCS title in three seasons, the Pioneers returned a core group of seniors from the championship team of 1975 who were looking for a return trip to the CCS playoffs. All Fremont League midfielders Chris Trevisan and Joe Silveria anchored a Cupertino attack which featured several prominent strikers including: Finnish transfer student Juoko Hopsu, Sr. Sam Toplak, Jr. Dave Pickett, and Sr. Clay Lauricella. The defense was anchored by All CCS Tournament MVP Bill Viscovich and Sr. Dave Raymaker. The Pioneers compiled a 16-5-3 overall record on the season while taking their second straight Fremont League Title with a league mark of 7-2-1.
After easy playoff victories over Wilcox and Woodside in the first two rounds of the CCS playoffs, Cupertino met old foe Saratoga in the semi-finals. A hard fought 1-0 victory over Saratoga sent the Pioneers to their third CCS final appearance in four years. In the finals, Cupertino faced off against West Catholic League power Riordan High School at PAL stadium on March 4, 1976. The game went into double overtime and was seconds away from a penalty kick shootout when Riordan struck the controversial game winning goal in what was to become perhaps the most infamous and controversial story in Cupertino Soccer history to date.
As the story goes.....Cupertino and Riordan were tied 0-0 in double overtime. In the 110th minute of the game, a Riordan forward received a through ball and got behind the Pioneer defense with a breakaway. Sr goalkeeper Ken Danielson was now the only thing standing between the ball and a Riordan championship. Ken charged out to take on the challenge head on. The Riordan players, seeing the charge, was forced to fire a shot to the Keeper's left, which was saved by Danielson. The ball deflected off of Danielson's chest and rolled a few feet away from him out of his reach. Ken quickly came to his senses and scrambled on his hands and knees after the ball, quickly smothering it once again. The Riordan player who had shot the ball had been following his shot and at the moment Danielson pounced on the ball a second time, the Riordan forward lunged and fell on top of Danielson. In the mêlée that followed on the ground immediately after the collision, the Riordan forward managed to swing his arm around and smack the ball into the net with his hand while his body shielded the vision of the referee. Game over, Pioneers lost 1-0. The heartbreaking loss in the 1976 CCS finals ended a remarkable three year run for the young Pioneers who now had established themselves as one of the top soccer programs in the entire Central Coast Section of California.
Coach Favro Rebuilds and Reloads : 1977 - 1983
A New Era : 1984 - 1989
Cupertino Soccer in Constant Flux : 1990 - 2000
A Tradition Reborn : 2001 - 2003
In the spring of 2000, the reigns of the Cupertino soccer program were passed onto Coach Jeff Panos who had previously coached the Junior Varsity squad the past two years. The task at hand was to rebuild the storied traditon of a program that had been dormant for so many years prior. The Varsity squads of the 1990's had not placed higher than 5th in any given year within the second tier El Camino division of the SCVAL. The Pioneers had also not own a league title or earned a CCS playoff berth since 1989. The worklist ahead for the program was long, complex, and would take multiple years to reach the high expectation levels of yesteryear. Coach Panos understood this got to work immediately with a step by step approach.
The 2001 season goals were established as realistic first steps for the program to get started in the new era with emphasis on the fundamentals of the game, a balanced attack using all 11 players to score goals, and most importantly a return to the camraderie on and off the field of play at all times during the season. Understand the possession oriented game and go out to compete with 100% effort each and every time you step on the field were the charges before each game. Senior and three year Varsity letterman, Christian Cifuentes led the Pioneers all season long with an MVP performance as both an attacking midfielder and forward that earned him the ALL SCVAL Offensive Player of the Year award. On the field Cupertino completed a season sweep of Mountain View High School for the first time in several years as well as finished the season with three league wins in a row for the first time in over 5 years. The Cupertino attack was also sparked by sphomore midfielder, David Tanton, who's 30 yard free kick laser shot in the final minutes of play sent the Pioneers on to a 1-0 memorable victory over rival Lynbrook early in the season. The preparation and lessons learned in this first year of rebuilding helped shape what was all ready looking like a promising near future.
The 2002 season saw a talented group of seniors, who had been with Coach Panos for four years to date (including two years on the JV squad), come to power and produce the best record the program had seen in 13 years (since 1989). At the heart of the team was a dynamic goalkeeper duo of Senior Brian Emery and Jr Chris Campbell. The defense was led by Jr Steve Dickinson and outstanding Sr marking backs Brian Kettner and Justin DeOliveira. Seniors Mikey Vance and Ryan Hutchinson as well as Freshman and Sophomore phenoms Yuki Minematsu and Billy Garza provided a scoring attack that produced a whopping 53 goals in 20 games. The Pioneers posted a 4th place finish in the El Camino division with 26pts in what was a very tight league race as league champs Mtn View and Saratoga were only 4 pts better with 30. League play was highlighted by a thrilling 5-1 victory over rival Monta Vista where Yuki Minematsu scored his first ever Cupertino hat trick. The Pioneers exceeded the consecutive victory mark from a year prior with four wins in a row in the 2002 season as well as a regualr seaosn finale 3-1 victory over League champion Mountain View High School in front of a large crowd and TV cameras carrying the game on KMVT. Cupertino finished the 2002 season with a record of 11-7-2 (8-4-2). Brian Emery, on his way to earning Goalkeeper MVP of the SCVAL El Camino division, had a 0.750 save % on penalty kicks as he saved 3 of 4 during the season. Above all, this group of talented players in four years had raised the bar of expectations and officially declared that Cupertino soccer was back as a force within the SCVAL and CCS. As the 'Traditon Reborn' continues to grow and the success of future Cupertino soccer teams takes shape, they can all trace their foundation back to the 2002 Cupertino Varsity squad.
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