Coaching change for Long Beach Jordan High boys soccer

After three years of unprecedented success with Jordan High boys soccer, head coach Chris Larios has stepped down amid rumors and confusion. Lower level boys coach and on-campus teacher Michael Kafka is taking over the program after working under Larios for the last four years.

“I gave this school everything I had for 10 years,” Larios said. He was an off-campus coach and would routinely drive 100 miles a day to work a day job and train his Panthers. “I will miss working with the players and continuing to develop the program.”

This season Jordan reached its first CIF Southe Section championship game since 1995, where the Panthers lost a heartbreaker in overtime to Sunny Hills. Larios was named the Press-Telegram Dream Team Coach of the Year.

According to multiple Jordan players, Larios stopped coming to offseason practice during the spring after parents and players complained about money raised for uniforms and team gear.

“It was a huge surprise,” Jordan captain Freddie Figueroa said of Larios’ departure. “No one expected this to happen.”

Figueroa, who is preparing to attend Yavapai College in Arizona next year, said the team decided to raise money for better uniforms and sweatsuits at the beginning of the season. However, some players didn’t pay, including Figueroa.

“You can’t get (uniforms) with just some guys paying,” Figueroa said. “Everyone has to pay, or you can’t order it. I didn’t even pay because I could tell other guys weren’t going to. I wasn’t the only one.”

According to multiple e-mails from Jordan players and parents, they believe their money was “stolen” by Larios instead of being spent on new gear. Figueroa doesn’t think that’s what happened.

“It’s not his fault,” Figueroa said of Larios’ predicament. “There wasn’t enough money for the other stuff. (Larios) just wanted us to have better stuff and it didn’t happen.”

“It’s a huge miscommunication,” Larios said, but wouldn’t go into more details. “Nothing I say will change anyones opinion. A lot went on. (Being an off-campus coach) made everything more difficult.”

Larios was the girls’ head coach from 2012-14 before taking over both programs for a year in 2013-14, and then just working with the boys for the last two seasons.

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“Obviously we quickly found out he’s a very good coach,” Jordan senior Nick Vazquez said earlier this year. “(Larios) is always ready to work hard with us and we know he’s dedicated. If we don’t have a field to train on he’ll find something for us like playing a little indoor game in a classroom or running around the campus.”

Larios instilled a relentless high-pressure style at Jordan, and the impressive technical skill of his players blossomed.

“When I was back there I hated to be under pressure,” Figueroa said. “Not all teams press so we wanted to do something different, and I know how it works so if we rush the other team into making mistakes its our advantage.”

“Toughness changed the culture at Jordan,” Larios said.

Kafka has been the frosh/soph coach at Jordan since 2013, and has coached the junior varsity level at Long Beach Wilson (2001-02) and Durango High (1994-95) before running the Los Alamitos boys program from 2002-04. After he played a season at UCLA in 1988, Kafka played professionally for the LA Salsa as part of the American Professional Soccer League in 1993. He also played for Santa Fe de Bogotá in Colombia.