Coach Tina Estrada and her San Jose State women's soccer team are on a roll. We discuss Estrada's story and the Spartans' recent successes. We also address the university's mental-health resources for student athletes.
Estrada's success
Hanson is a distant cousin of Estrada, who in 2017 became the assistant coach of San Jose State's women’s soccer team. She was an All-American college soccer player, and was also a member of the U.S. under-17 national team. Estrada played in four NCAA tournaments and was an all-WCC forward at Santa Clara. In 2015, she was named NSCAA Assistant coach of the year.
Estrada, a Fremont native, was awarded the Mountain West Tournament twice. She was also named National Assistant Coaches of the Year. Her teams won five consecutive conference tournaments. She also coached the Spartans into two NCAA Tournaments.
SJSU's recent successes
The recent success of SJSU women's soccer has been attributed to several players. Most notable, Dorthe Hoppius was named team MVP. However, she will not be returning to the Spartans in the 2018 season. Also on the team, sophomore Jamilecxth Becerra was named Mountain West Newcomer of the Year after netting seven goals, including five game-winning ones. In addition, Darriell Franklin was named the MW defensive player of the year and named to the All-MW first team.
New facilities have contributed to Spartans' recent success. The Spartan Baseball Practice Facility and Spartan Beach are two recent additions to the campus. In addition to these two facilities the Spartans plan to open their Spartan Athletics Center in the next year.
Career of Tina Estrada, Coach
Estrada has been acting as interim head coach for San Jose State's women's soccer program for the past two weeks. She has been a Spartans assistant for four years and was most recently an Associate Head Coach. Lauren Hanson had resigned eight seasons ago. Lauren Hanson was the last person to be named to this position. Hanson had been the winningest coach in school history.
Estrada was an outstanding player at Santa Clara University and has been a great assistant and associate head coach for several programs. She has the potential to become one among the most exciting young head coaches for women's division one soccer. Estrada has an exceptional teaching ability, excellent communication skills and outstanding leadership skills.
SJSU's mental health resources for student-athletes
SJSU student-athletes have access to many mental health resources. Many resources are designed to address the athletes' individual needs. For example, Support for Sport helps athletes find mental health referrals and talk about mental health issues with teammates. LGBTQ+ support includes stories and perspectives of being gay or lesbian in sport. ULIFELINE's college resources for mental health are also very helpful. Counseling Services also has a student-athlete self-help resource page. Finally, Health and Wellness Education has a website that contains a wide variety of information on mental health topics.
SJSU's Counseling and Psychological Services provides quality services to students. The department examines each individual's entire self and aims to provide guidance and tools to help them become productive members of society. The department is located on the third level of the Student Wellness Center and offers counseling for a wide variety of issues.