Somoza named director of coaching for Evergreen Soccer Club

Published 8:43 am Friday, March 27, 2009

Ben Somoza has been hired as the director of coaching, the Evergreen Soccer Club has announced.

Ben Somoza is a former Evergreen coach and for the last two years he was the assistant coaching director for the Northwest Nationals Club in Edmonds. Somoza has also been the Head Coach at Kings High School for the last two years, leading them to two straight state championship title games, finishing second in Kings’ inaugural season of 2007 and winning the state championship in 2008.

He has also served as a volunteer assistant coach for Dean Wurzberger and the University of Washington Men’s program and is currently on the Washington 1993 Girls ODP Staff. He holds a USSF “A” national license for coaching.

Somoza attended Edmonds-Woodway High School where he played basketball and soccer, as well as select soccer for Allemania Premier Team. Allemania was one the first select teams in south Snohomish County. Allemania played in four State Championships, winning two of them.

At the University of Washington he received a scholarship to play soccer and he was captain of the Huskies’ soccer team. He received all-conference honors three times and won three Pac-10 championships. Ben’s class made the NCAA’s postseason tournament all four years and remains the most successful class to date at UW with a 58-21-2 overall record. Somoza currently ranks sixth all time in assists at UW. In the summer of 2001, he was invited and played for the USA National Amateur team and attended numerous MLS camps.

His professional playing career started in 2002 when he was drafted and signed by the Portland Timbers. He later played for the Seattle Sounders for four seasons where he was a part of their 2005 championship run.

“I am excited to have Ben back at Evergreen. During the last several years I have seen firsthand that Ben has the passion and the organizational skills to help lead Evergreen to one of the top premier clubs in Washington State” said Mike Bergstrom, current Vice President of Development for Evergreen.

Over the next several weeks Somoza will be working hard to put a coaching staff together and getting ready for the approaching tryouts.