In Luis Romero’s first year as the head coach of the L.A. Soccer Club’s Santa Clarita Valley U2013 girls’ team, the goal heading into the season was to develop the young athletes throughout the year and win as many games as possible.
What Romero didn’t expect was the success that team achieved in the 2025-26 season that featured an undefeated regular season, a league title, and winning the SoCal State Super Cup II in March.
“It was my first year having them as a head coach and they performed very well,” Romero said in an Interview with The Signal. “They were able to win league, won the state cup and I’m very happy for them … it was a nice ending to our journey.”
Romero added this season was special for many reasons but that primarily this was also the last year the players spent playing together.
He added that after the season ended, many girls went on to explore different club options and prepare for the high school level.
Romero had to keep the team motivated throughout the season as the thought of no longer getting to play together can get into the players’ minds during games, which presented a challenge for him as a coach.
“That was a tough moment within our journey, because they were approaching the state cup and were about to be not together any longer,” he said.
As the state competition was set to begin, Romero prepared his team to know that their season can come to an end if they don’t execute.
But the team had a near-perfect start to the playoffs and qualified for the knockout stages after going 2-1 in bracket play with a 13-5 goal differential.
“They won their first few matches really convincingly. They performed really phenomenally,” he said. “We had a little setback where we lost one of the games against a really good opponent. So, I had to bring them back and talk to the team to stay on path to stay motivated and try to accomplish what we came in to do.”
In the quarterfinals of the knockout stage, the team defeated the Pateadores Soccer Club, 8-1, and advanced to the semifinals.
After a back-and-forth matchup against the Beach Futbol Club in the semifinals, the LASC-SCV team won 4-3 in penalties to advance to the finals.
Romero said that the semifinal was a tough matchup to prepare for but was glad to see his team overcome the adversity to win in penalties.
“In the semifinals, they were down I believe twice in the game, so they showed the ability to overcome that,” he said.
He added that with the momentum from the win in the semifinals, the victory propelled the team to the finals with the most motivation possible to finish the job.
With a matchup against the SoCal Blues in the championship, the LASC-SCV team won, 3-0, at the Silverlake’s soccer complex in Norco and became state champions of the girls’ 2013 – Sper Cup II division.
“It was a great journey and a great experience for me as well to take them there,” Romero said. “This was my second time, but in this one, they were able to win it and it’s fantastic.”
Romero added that this year taught him a lot as a coach and how to work with athletes in the future. And with the state cup being the last game he’s ever had with that group of players, he’shoping to use the skills and lessons he learned throughout the season on the next group of athletes who come through the club in future years.
“Coaches often get stuck in the game where they think they can win, when the actual players are playing. And in the game, the coaches are the ones that are kind of top-down guiding the players. So, it’s an evolution and we’re trying to move forward,” he said in response to what lessons he learned throughout the season. “But overall, I’m very happy. I won’t see this team again, but we left on a very high note, so I’m very happy.”
