Gonzalez leads Pacifica Christian Athletics

While building a successful girls’ soccer program at Bear Creek School in Redmond, Wash. Brandon Gonzalez kept in the back of his mind his desire to return to Southern California.

Gonzalez also maintained his goal of wanting to become an athletic director at a college by the age of 30. In addition, his wife, Kelsea, is also from Southern California and the two share the same Christian faith.

They prayed. Those prayers were answered in the form of Pacifica Christian, a new private high school in Newport Beach.

Gonzalez was named the athletic director and girls’ soccer coach in April at the school that opens Aug. 25 with 50-60 children that will be ninth- and 10th-graders.

With three Washington state finals appearances, two resulting in championships, Gonzalez was on the fast track to meeting his goal. However, he took on the challenge of leading a new school’s athletic program because he said it’s so unique.

“I’m not following in someone’s footsteps,” said Gonzalez, who was 56-15-5 in four years at Bear Creek and was twice named the Washington State Soccer Coaches Assn. Coach of the Year (2012, 2013). “Whatever I do now is the way that it’s going to be done. You build a legacy that will hopefully last 20, 30, 40 years. We could be the next Sage Hill or Mater Dei.”

Gonzalez, 28, has put that future goal of working at a college on hold and has poured himself into his new job. He has met with parents and future athletes and conducted interviews with coaches that want to take on the challenge too.

The work is exciting for Gonzalez. His life in Washington is behind him. Yet leaving Bear Creek wasn’t entirely easy.

Bear Creek’s girls’ soccer team bumped up a division after its three straight state finals appearances, and still qualified for the state tournament with a 13-3-2 record last season. His wife coached with him as he was the director of girls’ soccer and athletic director of Bear Creek, a K-12 academy. Gonzalez, who was hired in 2010, played a major role in developing the athletes, the majority of them starting at a young age at the school.

He believes Bear Creek will have another great girls’ soccer team, as there will be nine incoming seniors.

However, Gonzalez’s attention is now on Pacifica Christian, home of the Tritons.

This fall, Pacifica will have girls’ volleyball and boys’ and girls’ cross country. There is no football or baseball at the school, yet.

The Tritons will compete on the junior varsity and frosh-soph levels and will not be in a league this year.

“We are CIF approved,” Gonzalez says. “We’re a freelance school, so we can build tradition and momentum and who we are as a school. Then eventually we’ll get into a league. There’s a good group of athletes coming.”

In the winter, Gonzalez will lead the girls’ soccer team, and there will also be boys’ basketball. There is a gym on campus at the school where the West Newport Community Center had resided.

The girls’ soccer program will be in for a treat during its home games as Pacifica secured Vanguard University in Costa Mesa for home matches. Vanguard recently constructed a new field.

During the spring, Gonzalez said the Tritons will compete in boys’ and girls’ track and field.

“We want to start boys’ volleyball,” he said. “Boys’ golf is picking up steam.”

At some point during the school year, Pacifica Christian will also start a sailing club team, Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez is thrilled to be a part of the building process. He said he wasn’t sure what he would do after a successful college soccer career at Biola University. Now he feels this is where he was supposed to be.

Gonzalez, who is from Temecula, earned All-Golden State Athletic Conference first-team honors two straight years at Biola and was a second-team All-American his senior year and an honorable mention after his junior season.

Gonzalez played six seasons in the United Soccer League. He received advice from a friend to become an athletic director after earning a sociology undergraduate degree at Biola.

Gonzalez went to Concordia in Irvine for two years and earned a master’s degree in coaching and athletic administration. During those two years, he worked as sports director for Salvation Army of Orange County, which had community centers in Santa Ana, Tustin and Anaheim.

He’s accustomed to working with several teams and athletes as a coach and athletic director.

While at Bear Creek, he oversaw 37 athletic teams.

Time will tell how big Pacifica Christian becomes. Gonzalez said the hope is for the enrollment to increase to 200 and eventually 400 in the coming years.

For now, Gonzalez feels that he has found a new home at Pacifica Christian, and he’s ready to build.