By Paulo Hernandez

Town Crier Intern

Coaching a men’s soccer team filled with freshmen has advantages and disadvantages, according to Vava Marques.

The coach at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills sees youth as a positive for the future and a weakness for the present.

Sometimes the Owls are looking too far ahead instead of focusing on each game, Marques said, and other times they need to be more aggressive.

So how does the 12th-year coach expect to win with a team that includes 18 freshmen among its 25 players?

The key, he said, is not to set the season goals too high because the players are learning as they go.

“We have to take it one step at a time,” Marques said.

However, Foothill is still expecting to make an impact this fall.

The team goal is to qualify for the Northern California playoffs.

And once there, “We’ll go as far as we want to go,” said Marques, who led last year’s team to the semifinals. “It all depends on ourselves.”

The coach knows that making a run at the postseason will take a team effort.

“There’s not any one player that really stands out,” Marques said, “they all work together.”

And this is where the strength of the team lies.

Every player is “team oriented,” the coach said. They play for the team and all of them contribute to the cause.

Foothill may not have a star player, but Marques said it does have a nucleus of players critical to the team’s success.

This group includes center forward Verdine Baker and defensive midfielder Rene Martinez, both Los Altos High graduates, along with left midfielder Alberto “Cha Cha” Hernandez from Menlo-Atherton and sweeper Sam Krow-Lucal from Gunn.

Marques referred to this foursome as “the base of the team” and recognized them for bringing out the best in their teammates.

“They make everyone else around them look good,” Marques said, “and it becomes difficult to win when they don’t play well.”

The majority of Foothill’s players are local. Several are players Marques either coached or coached against at the high school level (he also runs the boys program at Los Altos).

This includes midfielder David Madrigal and forward Carlos Benito of Los Altos High, defender Juan Landa of St. Francis High and defender Mario Tejada and midfielder Sergio Reyes of Gunn High. All five are freshmen.

The Owls also depend on foreign players like center forward Raphael Soares and goalkeeper Rodrigo Baptista from Brazil and left fullback Mats Lovgren from Sweden. The community college team has five foreign players in all.

The Owls improved to 6-3-1 in the competitive Coast Conference and 9-3-1 overall with last week’s 1-0 home win over Cañada.

Foothill is next in action Thursday at Fresno City. The conference match is scheduled to start at 4 p.m.