Finalized a few weeks ago, but months in the making, longtime local assistant soccer coach Luis Magana Reyna will lead the Centralia girls soccer team into the 2023-24 season.
Magana Reyna has spent the last eight years working as a soccer assistant, mostly with Noel Vazquez, who served as Centralia’s boys and girls head coach last year and before that was Toledo’s head girls soccer coach for seven years.
Magana Reyna also assisted Horst Malunat’s boys Toledo/Winlock United squad that made several runs in the state playoffs in the late 2010s.
Now it’s his turn to lead a program.
With Vazquez off to coach Centralia College’s new boys program in the fall, both he and Magana Reyna anticipated the latter taking the reins of the high school program in the Hub City.
“It has been in the works since Noel’s departure,” Magana Reyna said. “We talked about how he wanted me to take over. We always had a plan that eventually, we would talk about splitting up. He always encouraged me to get my foot in the door, he always told me that I have potential and that I should look for a head job. He always wanted to spread my wings.”
And after working with Vazquez for eight years, including coaching club at Twin City Union, and also helping coach under Malunat and Henry Gallanger — another former Centralia soccer coach — 2023 seemed like just the right time to take the reins.
Magana Reyna also works as a resource teacher at the high school, making it all the more appealing to work with the athletes he sees at the school every day.
“I’ve been pretty involved,” Magana Reyna said. “It means a lot, seeing my players every day in the hallways, getting to see them in the classroom or on the pitch is a cool feeling.”
After a much-improved season last fall that saw the Tigers go 5-11 — doubling their win total in 2A Evergreen Conference play from the year previous — Magana Reyna wants to keep the positive momentum rolling.
“We just want to focus on the things that we were focused on improving last year,” he said. “Trying to change the culture and get a positive culture. Some of these girls don’t know what it takes to have a winning record and put the work in over the summer yet. Building on that culture that we started last season and staying positive.”
