For Immediate Release: February 15, 2016
Primary Contact | Jeremy Schultz, [email protected], 559.320.2543
FRESNO FUEGO FUTBOL CLUB SIGNS JOSE (CAPI) DEGADILLO AS ASSISTANT COACH
Coach Capi will bring a wealth of playing & coaching experience & continuity to the Fuego
FRESNO, Calif. – Fresno Fuego Futbol Club is very pleased to announce the appointment of Jose (Capi) Delgadillo as its Assistant Coach for Player Fitness and Conditioning for the 2016 Premier Development League (PDL) season. Coach Capi will report to recently-signed, full-time Head Coach Sean Lanigan.
Coach Capi has a lengthy history with the Fuego Futbol Club, dating back to his playing days in 2003 where he was a Team Captain and PDL Defensive Player of the Year. He was also Captain of Fuego in 2005, 2007 and 2008, when Fuego was Western Conference Semifinalist, Western Conference Champion and PDL National Semifinalist, and Western Conference Semifinalist, respectively. More recently, Coach Capi has been working with Fuego since 2009 as an Assistant Coach for Physical Conditioning.
“A hallmark of the 2016 Fresno Fuego is that we will be the best conditioned team on any pitch during our season,” said Coach Sean Lanigan. “We lost some close games in years past when we seemed to run out of gas late in games; that’s not going to happen this year as all three of the Fuego coaches, Capi, Brian Zwaschka and I, are totally committed to implementing a fitness and training regimen designed to bring out the physical best in our players for as long as any game lasts, and longer.”
From 1998-2003, Coach Capi was a Program Assistant with Fresno Pacific University when they won the GSAC Championship in 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2003, and were NAIA runners-up in 2002. In addition to his Fuego duties, for the past two seasons he has been the Men’s Soccer Assistant Coach for Roosevelt High School. As a player Capi earned All-American honors playing defender at Fresno pacific University, and went on to play professionally for Toros Neza FC in Mexico, Stanislaus County Cruisers, and Fresno Dragons.
“Coach Capi has been the heart and soul of the Fuego Futbol Club since he first started with us as a player in 2003 and a coach in 2009,” according to General Manager Jeremy Schultz. “We will surely benefit from the unparalleled continuity and commitment that Capi brings to every practice and game and the universal credibility he enjoys with current and past players. His tough, no-nonsense style will fit right in with the expressed attitudes of the other Fuego coaches, Brian Zwaschka and Sean Lanigan.”
Fresno Fuego will tune-up for their 2016 regular season start by playing three home friendlies in Chukchansi Park against FC Ararat Yerevan (Thursday, February 18 at 6:30pm), New York Cosmos (Wednesday, February 24 at 6:30pm) and Sacramento Republic FC (Thursday, March 3 at 6:30pm). The games will be an opportunity for Fuego to try out players in different positions before the start of the regular PDL season in early May. Prospective player fitness will be a large part of the final evaluation for the 24-28 positions Fuego will be seeking to fill in the 2014 season.
ABOUT THE FRESNO FUEGO
The Fresno Fuego are four-time Champions of the Southwest Division in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, the top level of amateur soccer in North America. Founded in 2003, the team competes in the newly-formed Central Pacific Division of the PDL Western Conference. More than 50 Fuego players have moved on to sign professional contracts. The team plays its home games in the heart of Downtown Fresno at Chukchansi Park. Season Tickets, Group and Birthday packages, and fundraising options for the 2016 season are currently available by contacting Jordan Wiebe at [email protected].
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