East Valley’s Escobar is happy to be home again

Gabe Escobar is home again.

Escobar played soccer back in his days at East Valley and has harbored the thought of coaching his old team for the better part of a decade. Even while he’s turned the East Valley girls’ squad into a perennial power in the Great Northern League, he’s dreamed of coaching the school’s boys’ soccer team in the spring.

And now he is.

“I was supposed to be the head coach a while back,” Escobar said. “Jeff Rose was the head coach and he said he only wanted to coach one more season. So I came on board to coach the junior varsity for a season and then take over the varsity. But during that year, Jeff Paulus came to East Valley as a math teacher and when the job came open, he applied for it. Since he was a teacher, he got the job and I didn’t even get the chance to apply.”

In 2011, West Valley needed a boys’ soccer coach and tabbed Escobar, setting up an unusual situation: coaching his alma mater in the fall and his archrival in the spring.

Paulus shifted to the elementary school for the 2014-15 school year and could no longer continue as the boys’ coach and Escobar got the job.

There’s something different about coaching your alma mater.

“There is a pride and a passion about playing soccer here,” he said. “I wanted these kids to understand that, so the first thing I did when I got the job was set up an alumni game.”

The game drew East Valley alums from as far away as Colorado and as near as the school district headquarters.

“(Interim) Superintendent Tom Gresch was an all-star soccer player at East Valley and it was great to get him to come out,” Escobar said. “I built in plenty of time for a meet-and-greet for my guys to get to know everyone.

“I wanted them to know that the program has a long history that they are a part of, that they are carrying on a long tradition.”

The game helped kick-start the coaching change.

“I was so impressed by the attitude and the work ethic,” Escobar said. “They’ve had to learn my system and they’ve handled it very well.”

East Valley got off to an 0-4 start, dropping nonconference games to Gonzaga Prep and Mead, but playing well.

“Those are two very good programs and we were able to go play with both of them,” the coach said. “Against Mead we were down by one goal and they added a late goal to make it 2-0. But we did a few things trying to get back in the game and Mead capitalized.”

The Knights also dropped their first two Great Northern League games, to Cheney (2-1) and Pullman (2-0).

And then things turned around.

East Valley knocked off Clarkston, 4-0 on goals by Tristan Gresch, Devonte Gorman and Trevor Jacobs, then scored a 2-1 win over West Valley in a game that left the coach feeling torn.

“I miss the guys I had when I was at West Valley and it felt weird going over there and playing again,” Escobar said. “I think they understand why I left and all of that.

“The first thing I did when I got the East Valley job was call my friend Lenny Peterson. Lenny played at West Valley and I used to play against him all the time and we got to be good friends. He went on and had a great career at Whitworth. He got the job at West Valley and it helps knowing that the program is in good hands.”

The biggest win thus far was last week’s shootout win over Cheney – the program’s first win over the Blackhawks in four seasons.

“That was a big win for the program,” the coach said. “No one in the program was around the last time East Valley beat Cheney – it happened that long ago and they’ve been the beasts of the league.

“The Great Northern League is a long haul. We end up playing everybody three times. We got through the first go-around 2-2, and we started the second go-around with a win over Cheney. I hope that’s a good sign.”