LEAVE YOUR MARK: Life Coach
— -- As the Palomar College soccer players trot back to the sideline after warming up before a game last November, they are greeted by their coach, 48-year-old Carlos Hernandez. "Come on, guys, make up on, let's get ready to go," he jokes.
"You one hundred percent today?" he asks one player. "What about you, knucklehead?" he asks another, slapping him on the shoulder.
During the game, Hernandez encourages his players in Spanish and English from the sidelines. "Bien," "Good defense," "Way to play." When they make a mistake or allow a goal, he does not get angry or berate his players. Instead, he instructs them on how to make a play the right way. Based on the coach's positive, upbeat manner, you would never know that Palomar, a public two-year community college in San Marcos, Calif., about 30 miles north of San Diego, is mired in its first losing season under Hernandez. The game this day turns out the same as so many others this season, a 3-0 defeat.
While every loss is painful for the competitive Hernandez, he is not consumed with wins and losses. He is far more concerned with making sure his players, most of whom are low-income Latinos, win in life. In his 14 years coaching at Palomar, Hernandez has helped dozens of kids and their families deal with challenges and overcome obstacles. "I can relate to these guys," he says.
Hernandez knows all about overcoming challenges. Born in San Luis Potosi, he was seven when his single mother moved him and his two-year-old brother to a slum in the border town of Piedras Negras. They lived in a building that was a former prostitution bar and the single small room they rented was one of those which the prostitutes had used to earn a living. "It was the only place we could afford," he says.
Growing up surrounded by addicts injecting themselves with heroin and men offering him hits from their marijuana cigarettes, Hernandez says, "I feel blessed because I could have easily fallen into that because I saw it all the time." Instead he learned at a young age to be responsible and care for others. When his mother went to work in a restaurant, she locked her two children in the room for the day with instructions for Hernandez to take care of his younger brother. At an age when most kids are out playing or in school, Hernandez was preparing bottles and changing diapers.
