ABERDEEN — Victor Corona is finding his footing as a centerback on the Grays Harbor Gulls Football Club, but there was a time the former midfielder wasn’t sure he’d ever feel comfortable in his new defensive role.
“The first couple of games, I felt like I was going to lose my mind,” he said. “Everything was going fast in the game and you really don’t have time to say ‘Hey, time out. What do we need to do?’”
The Gulls normally take the field in a 4-4-2 formation and their coaches planned to make Corona an anchor of that group of four playing at the back despite not having played the position in high school, or at any other level for that matter.
Though they pulled from talent throughout the county, the Gulls still suffered from inexperience on the backline and had to convert midfielders and forwards to defenders on the fly as the season began.
Grays Harbor head coach Drew Grannemann, who played centerback throughout high school and college, was tasked with teaching the position to players who had never played it.
“Trying to break down and explain something you do naturally is kind of tough,” he said. “It’s a tough teaching moment when you have to break down something so complicated in its simplest ways when you’ve been playing the position for 15 years.”
Grannemann added that while it was difficult for him to communicate the intricacies of playing defense, he noted that his playing experience made him more credible in the eyes of his newly-converted defenders.
With the youth and quickness that most of their opponents posses with their attacking players, the Gulls initially came out with a more aggressive defensive formation to start the season.
Grannemann planned to have his two center backs play more conservatively to take away the middle of the field while the two outside backs pressed up to support the outside midfielders and generate counter attacks.
The strategy yielded mixed results with the team winning one out of its first four games while generating positive things on offense.
Players and coaches consider the team’s 3-0 victory over Twin City Union on June 2 to be somewhat of a turning point.
Not only was it was the team’s first, and thus far only shutout this season, but it indicated that the team’s new strategy of having the outside backs stick closer to home could be effective.
Grannemann said having Corona back there to captain the defense with the more traditional flat four at the back has been a big help to his team.
“Once we realized we were capable of that we just had to find the right pieces to put into the puzzle,” he said. “We started out with Victor Corona who is a solid, smart soccer player to kind of be the commander-in-chief of everything going on.”
Corona may have been made president of a defensive line that tends to play more conservatively these days but there are still opportunities to get downfield and shoot. When Federal Way sent some of its own backs forward against the Gulls on Saturday, Grays Harbor took advantage and allowed some of its defenders to go on the attack. Corona came away with a pair of goals as a result and said he is enjoying his new spot on the field after some initial hesitation.
“I’m going to be honest, I didn’t want to switch positions,” he said. “I wanted someone else to play that position. But I’m having fun now and I still get to go on runs upfield sometimes.”
The Gulls have found some cohesion in the position group even though Grannemann observed that the area isn’t producing a high number of backs capable of playing in the Western Washington Premier League.
The long-term goal for Grays Harbor is to develop an internal pipeline where faster midfielders and forwards can rely on the knowledge gained through experience, making the switch to fullback after age has slowed them down.
It may seem counter intuitive, but former midfielder and current defender Izzy Fernandez thinks the strategy could work for others as it has for him.
“We were all offensive players, so getting organized in the defensive mindset was good for us,” he said. “Because we had that offensive mindset, we knew what to look for so we can limit the shots at the goalkeeper.”
Grays Harbor’s Anthony Churlin, right, clears the ball away from his own goal against Kirkland on June 10. Churlin was one of the few backs on the team who had previous experience playing the position. (Hasani Grayson | The Daily World)
Gulls defender Victor Corona dribbles the ball away from his own goal against Issaquah on June 16. Corona played midfield in high school but was converted to centerback at the start of the season. (Hasani Grayson | The Daily World)
