The Santa Ana College (SAC) athletic department has named Jessica Rapoza and Jose Vasquez co-head coaches of the women's soccer team after Jodi Coffman stepped down at the end of the season.

Coffman's tenure ended with the Dons 2-1 win at Golden West College, giving her 105 wins over 12 seasons as head coach at Santa Ana College. During that time, Coffman became the college's all-time leader in wins.

Now the next chapter brings Rapoza and Vasquez together, combining two coaching styles while connecting the men's and women's programs.

Vasquez, who has been the men's soccer coach for eight seasons, will continue to run the men's program while also serving as the co-head coach with Rapoza.

"I'm excited to start a new journey with a program that has been here for awhile now," Vasquez said. "It's going to be a challenge. But it's an exciting one."

During his eight seasons as the men's head coach, Vasquez has won the Orange Empire Conference championship in each season while also leading the Dons to two state championships and one national championship.

Rapoza, who has been the co-head coach of the Dons softball team for the past two seasons, will now make the transition to the soccer field in the fall.

"I'm not really worried about the soccer background. Coaching is coaching," Rapoza said. "To be able to get athletes to play hard and to play at their full potential transcends all sports."

Rapoza added that their first step is to build a mutual trust with the student-athletes that come to play soccer at SAC.

"The fact that they're sitting on the field, at that moment means that they trusted us enough to take a chance on us," Rapoza said. "We're going to build this trust through hard work and dedication, and what happens on that field from the first day of spring on."

For Coffman, she said that it will be tough to no longer experience the day-to-day interactions with the student-athletes.

"It's all about the players," Coffman said. "They're everything that was positive about [the last 12 years]. They kept me going and they were the reason why I [coached]."