A New Beginning
We Welcome New Head Varsity Coach John Kouakam
Welcome and Welcome Back to the Chantilly Boy’s Soccer Newsletter.
This was started last year but unfortunately I was unable to gather any momentum and quickly faded with the season.
We are back this year with fresh energy, fresh momentum and fresh hope for improvements throughout the program.
Before moving on too far, I want to add a note of appreciation to former Coach Brendan Jeschke. Brendan started coaching at Chantilly back in 2015 and gave so much to this program as JV coach before taking on the role of head Varsity coach the last 5 seasons. He led the Chargers to their first district title back in the Covid Season of 2021. Leading up to the coming season, we will take a look back to that year and that incredibly successful team.
And of course, we have to mention Coach Bill Jeschke, Brendan’s dad who has also been part of the program going back to 2015. Coach Bill was ever present and will be surely missed on the sidelines.
Welcome Coach John Kouakam
For the coming Spring 2025 season, Chantilly Boy’s Soccer welcomes new Head Varsity Coach John Kouakam. Ahead of our first interest meeting, I asked him a few questions to get to know more about him. Here is what Coach John had to say.
Q: Tell us about your history playing soccer? Where did you play in high school and college? What position did you play and enjoy the most?
A: I've been in love with soccer, ever since I can remember. I played throughout high school at Gaithersburg high school in Maryland and I played college abroad in Argentina at Universidad Del Salvador in Buenos Aires. I also and trained and trained played in Spain and Germany. I played Center backs and Center Midfield. I love Center mid because you get a lot of the ball, and you can dictate the pace of the game.
Q: What is your coaching philosophy?
A: I have an education and player centered based coaching philosophy, where my goal is to have a positive impact on the lives of my student-athletes. As a coach, I always seek to work with the full student-athlete, both on and off the field, emphasizing the importance of academics. I implement my coaching philosophy, through relationship building, ensuring student-athletes understand that we are here for them.
Q: What’s the most important thing for you to focus on with your team in any given training session?
A: I think the most important thing for me to focus on in any training session is getting my team energized and motivated so we can give a hundred percent in everything we do. I want to make sure they have a strong "why" to the things that we do so they can hone their focus and move as a unit.
Q: What are your main goals for this season?
A: My main goal of the season is to establish a strong foundation for the program where we are united and support one another in all adversity. The message is, we work hard on and off the field and the results will come. The other two goals are winning and ensuring that the players have fun while doing it.
Q: What professional club(s) do you support and why?
A: At the moment, I do not have a single professional club that I support but I have clubs that play a particular style of football that enjoy watching. I like the way Liverpool don't stop running. Their press is so coordinated, and they cause a lot of turnovers. I like Man city's patience on the ball and the way they can create space and gaps by moving the other team side to side. I also particularly enjoy the way Inter Milan defend. Their defensive shape is very solid, and all 11 players understand their role.
We will have our first interest meeting for the upcoming season Tuesday November 19th.
Keep an eye out for more coming as we build up our fundraising efforts for the coming season and more insight from coaches as we lead up to the start of the season in February!
In our next issue we will get to know our JV Head Coach!