Panther Prints Sports Editor Julio Munoz  went unplugged with head boys soccer coach Nuno Passos and ask him about his restructuring of the boys soccer program.

Q: What are the essentials to building a soccer program from the ground up?

A: “You’ve got to have structure in your program, you have to have discipline, and you’ve got to build an environment where kids want to compete. One of the really important one’s is grades and having to change the mentally where grades is a very very important part of having success in the program.”

Q: Explain the success of the sub-varsity teams

A: “We have a very successful jv and jv2 program, this is probably our second year where we’ve kind of just implemented these things at the lower level and really taught them the importance of character, hard work and that structure and that discipline are important. We have a really bright future here in the next few years because we started it at the lower levels.”

Q: What was the most difficult part in transferring from Sam Houston and building your program in Duncanville?

A: “Changing the culture, changing the environment, changing the mentality. Before it was okay to fail, grade checks weren’t implemented. We’ve just tried to change that culture at the lower level. The young kids have done a real good job with it.”

Q: At what point can you feel you’ve done a good job in developing a program?

A: “Well it usually always takes about three years. We started seeing the change this year which was surprising because normally when a new coach comes in it takes them about three years to implement their program. Beginning next year we will have this program where we want it to be and hopefully where we can maintain it and not having to start over.”

Q: What are your personal goals as a coach?

A: I think the number one goal of why I came here was to try to get back to prominence, to get this program back to regional tournaments and competing for a state championship. If you ask me a five year goal, it would be my intent in five years to win a state championship. That’s why I came here, obviously time have changed and its much harder but I want to stay on track.”