Top-seeded Paramount unselfish, ready for CIF-SS playoffs

PARAMOUNT >> While the rest of the CIF Southe Section Division 1 boys soccer teams worry about reaching the second round of the playoffs with wins today, top-seeded Paramount is just worried about itself.

The No. 1-seeded Pirates (19-1-3, 9-0-1) have used an unselfish approach to win the San Gabriel Valley League and ea a bye through today’s first round. They’ll host the winner of the Alemany-Fountain Valley first-round match next Wednesday, and they only need three wins to reach the final.

“It’s the atmosphere,” Paramount head coach Rafa Villasenor said of his program’s success. “We’re mostly Latino, so we’re already about family. But this team especially is a family. They play for each other.”

The unselfish play on the field has made Paramount one of the most dangerous high school boys soccer teams in Califoia. Maxpreps had the Pirates in the Califoia top-5 rankings for almost the entire season.

“When we practice we’re not working on ourselves, we’re trying to make the team better,” Paramount junior Bryan Ortega said. “And we practice a lot.”

The speedy Ortega, arguably the most talented attacking player in the CIF-SS, dished out a team-high 20 assists this season to go with 13 goals. Fellow senior Oscar Canela scored a team-high 15 goals and junior Christian Perez added 10. The Pirates are the only Division 1 team that has three players with double-digit goals.

“I wouldn’t want to play us, that’s for sure,” Villasenor said.

A member of the Paramount High Class of 1994, Villasenor retued to his alma mater to teach. As a Pirate he competed in football, wrestling and baseball. When the football team needed help in 2004, Villasenor took over the special teams coaching duties. He was the kicker on the 1995 Long Beach City College national championship team.

When the soccer program needed help in 2010, Villasenor joined co-head coach Juan Navarro and leaed the ropes. The Pirates slowly improved, while the SGVL did the same, and they were all moved from Division 3 to Division 2 in 2013. Paramount reached the quarterfinals that year, and the second round in 2014, before Navarro handed the reins to Villasenor just in time for the SGVL to be moved up to Division 1 last season.

“Division 1 is a whole ‘nother level,” Villasenor said. “But we’d been scheduling the Trinity League teams (while in lower divisions) because you have to beat the best to be the best. That really helped us adjust.”

Paramount lost the SGVL title to rival Warren last season, but bounced back and reached the Division 1 quarterfinals, where the Pirates were upended by eventual champion Servite. The Friars are the No. 2 seed this season.

“That’s what we were thinking about all summer while we were conditioning and doing beach runs,” Canela said of the playoff loss. “We trust our coaches (to have us ready), and the hard work is paying off.”

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Villasenor has welcomed back Paramount alumni to help keep his program a tightly-knit one. Varsity assistants Edward Garcia, Tony Flores, Ignacio Villaseñor and Luis Silva, plus lower-level coaches Juan Mejia and Hector Rodriguez, are all former Pirates.

“We have a lot of help,” Ortega said. “They’re all right there any time we need them.”

That extra assistance has allowed each coach to focus on an area of concentration. For example, Garcia is the offensive mind so he has Ortega, Canela and the other attacking players running preconceived moves in the run of play.

“Like when (Ortega) gets the ball, that’s when it starts,” Canela said. “Depending on where (we are on the field) decides the play we run. When I get the ball, sometimes I already know where (Ortega) is going before he makes his run. Sometimes it’s hard to not stand and watch him.”

“I always tell the kids, ‘If you play for yourself you can be great. If you play for the team, you can be extraordinary,’” Villasenor said.

Paramount hasn’t lost since a Dec. 18 defeat at Loyola, which is the No. 3 seed in Division 1. Because it took the top seed away from Servite last week, the Pirates won’t have to play Loyola or the Friars until the final. The highest-ranked opponent Paramount will see before a possible final is No. 4 Los Alamitos. The Pirates and Griffins played to a scoreless draw in touament play before Paramount defeated Los Alamitos, 3-0, in December at home.

“We don’t do a lot of advanced scouting,” Villasenor said of the possible future playoff matchups.

“We’re just staying humble and taking care of ourselves,” he added. “We’re the only team that can beat us.”

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