Before the Play: Coach Vieira’s Life Before Coaching

Redwood Girls soccer coach, Jason Vieira, shares about his life before coaching soccer at Redwood High School.

By: Adriana Castillo

Everyone has a story, a past, reasons for the present and the future, so here’s a piece of Jason Vieira’s life before he became a coach for women’s soccer here at Redwood High School.

“I played sports. Oddly enough, soccer wasn’t my main sport. I really liked football. I went to school at Tulare Union. I was involved in FFA for all four years. I lived on a family farm, so AG was always a big part of my life,” said Mr. Vieira. “I was in the ASB class, mostly just because my friends were. I didn’t enjoy it all that much.”

Mr. Vieira attended college at Fresno State and majored in history.

He said, “I wanted to be a history teacher and so, right when I got to Fresno State, I just focused on that, and it took me five years to graduate from Fresno State.”

“My first year, I kind of didn’t take it too serious. So I needed to take an additional year,” said Mr. Vieira. “I focused on my major and then with the emphasis of going into education.”

Mr. Vieira explains how he has always been good at sports.

He says, “I loved being on teams and a lot of my good friends, still to do this day, are guys that I met playing one sport or another sport, and, you know, we just developed friendships that way.”

“I think it’s a great way to connect with people, like on a human level and, I love competing, so I loved competing in high school sports, and other things. I like that idea of like team chemistry and building relationships with people and competing. I think a lot of that has had to do with my motivation to coach and my philosophy when it comes to stuff like that.”

Jason Vieira, Redwood High School Womens Soccer Coach

Mr. Vieria also had some mentors along his journey of coaching.

“One mentor in my life in terms of coaching, Matt Suzino, he was the athletic director at Redwood when I first started and he was super supportive and I learned a lot from him, not so much about soccer but about, working with people, communicating with parents, and I’ve gotten really good at it.” Said Vieria.

For Mr. Vieira, his father is, “a huge mentor in my life and he coached me when I was younger, like when I played baseball, but I think more so than coaching or sports, my dad taught be the importance of a work ethic and he was an incredibly hard worker and he really installed that in me.”

He continued talking about his dad by saying, “I put a lot of time and effort into coaching the girls’ soccer team and I think a lot of that I owe to my dad because just life, installing in me those values. He’s such a kind, caring man, and I think his personality also helped me be a coach that can really connect with people and connect with my players.”

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