Soccer Dad Bernard Sandoval Masters the Art of the Coaching “Hat Trick”

Plenty of dads coach their kids’ sports teams, but few have achieved what Bernard Sandoval has — what you might call a coaching “hat-trick.”

Sandoval coaches three PAL sports —baseball, basketball and soccer—and he does it year-round. His 10-year-old son DJ (short for Derek James) plays all three sports.

What makes Sandoval’s dedication all the more admirable is that many of the kids he coaches come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. As a result, Sandoval is not just your run-of-the-mill coach; he’s also something of a father figure to the roughly two dozen kids in his charge.

He provides transportation for kids who have trouble getting to and from practice, lends them equipment if they can’t afford to buy their own, and even feeds them meals and snacks after games. Sometimes he takes the kids on excursions to the beach or the park.

“I want to make a good experience for them,” Sandoval says. “Some of these kids don’t get out of the Mission. They don’t know about Golden Gate Park.”

No Program? Do It Yourself 
Sandoval’s involvement in PAL sports started when his son was in third grade. His son’s Mission-district school did not offer an after-school sports program. So Sandoval took it upon himself to tailor his own after-school sports program.

He started with basketball. His son’s team was named the Mission Dolores Tigers and the kids played in both PAL and CYO.

“It’s a great set-up if you have PAL,” he says. “Once the [PAL] season is over, you roll into CYO. The PAL league is pretty competitive, so it gets the kids very prepared” for the winter league. The PAL basketball season runs from October to the end of November.

The team was a U10 finalist in the championship game last year. This year, facing tougher competition, they ended the season in 5^th place.

Sandoval also signed on as soccer coach for Jamestown, a soccer club in the Mission.  His team plays fall soccer in the Viking league, winter futsal in the SF Rec & Park league, and spring soccer for PAL.

The Jamestown Littlemen, as the team is known, have developed a following among kids who want a competitive team but don’t want — or are unable — to play on the more demanding travel teams. The Littlemen won the city championship for Viking this past fall.

“Sometimes it’s tough to get enough kids” to play soccer, Sandoval says. “But because our team has been successful, I haven’t had that problem… We’re not too demanding yet we’re very productive and successful at the same time.”

Sandoval likes the PAL league because “it’s tough, good competition, good refereeing, and the fields are great … PAL is awesome.”

Finally, Sandoval created a baseball team for the PAL Jr. Giants, which plays during the summer. That team is also called the Tigers.

First, Keep Them Save
Sandoval’s coaching philosophy is, first, keep kids safe and second, help them to master the skills they need to enjoy the sport. Ultimately, if you do both those things, he believes, kids will develop a love for the sport.

“You may get a child who doesn’t like this sport, but a parent wants them to play this sport,” he says. “We work with them until they get better and start wanting to come on their own. The most important thing is, get them to love the sport.”

As an example, his son DJ was initially a reluctant athlete. Today, however, he enjoys all three sports. Sandoval didn’t push him too hard, but gave him lots of room to be a kid and build skills.

He says, “Sometimes you get coaches who are too demanding. Other coaches don’t ask enough from the children. It’s a fine line between making the parents happy and making sure kids don’t feel like you’re killing them, especially when they’re small — because when they’re small they can get turned off easily.”

In soccer, Sandoval teaches kids how to protect themselves so they don’t get hurt on the field by flying balls. He says this important for young children. When they feel safe, they can tackle the fundamentals with confidence.

“We’ve been fortunate on all the sports,” he says. “My kids know now, they’re starting to equate fun with getting good rather than fun with just running around.”

For information on how to become a PAL coach, visit our soccer web page.