COACH: Katie Rumfola becomes the main coach for the girls’ varsity soccer team.
By Himadri Ratnayake, Staff Writer
As sports seasons come and go each year, the coaching staff also has the ability to be refreshed with different members and goals. Poly High School welcomed a multitude of teachers and coaches this year as instructors that have been at Poly for more than three years retired in significant numbers. Coach Katie Rumfola joins the girls’ varsity soccer team as head coach after being an assistant coach for two years.
Although Rumfola is not new at Poly, she has plenty of experiences coaching soccer athletes. She is also the assistant coach at California State University of San Bernardino (CSUSB) and coaches club soccer at Legends. Rumfola, like most soccer enthusiasts, started at a young age developing into a soccer athlete and coach. “I started playing soccer early on around four or five. I just loved sports when I was younger, and I followed my older siblings,” Rumfola said.
As for what she “looks for” in athletes, she says she does not necessarily have a list of criteria for each athlete. Rather, she focuses on the athlete’s potential. “For tryouts, we look for really technical players, and we want to try to make them disciplined, respectable and good teammates. Overall, we also want to help them become good people in life,” Rumfola commented.
She also mentioned her thoughts about the upcoming soccer season and what she and assistant coach Chris Montgomery can expect and hope to achieve. “The previous coach has done a really good job, and she has a great legacy of winning league. We have been in league for a while now, so we are expected to win league. The assistant coach [Chris] and I do not expect anything less than that. We expect to go far in CIF, but really you get what you put into it,” Rumfola expressed.