Michael Ochoa named new head coach of Edmonds men's soccer

LYNNWOOD, Wash. — Edmonds College men’s soccer has a new leader for the 2023 season as Michael Ochoa takes the helm of the program.

Ochoa has vast experience in the soccer community for the past 20 years, most recently as an assistant coach at the college in 2022 under former head coach Ben Kososkie, who departed for a new head coaching post at Indiana University Northwest.

Prior to joining the Triton sideline last fall Ochoa was the head coach of the boys team at Edmonds-Woodway High School, leading the program to a winning record each of his eight seasons. He was the head coach of Bellevue High School and at his alma mater, Flowing Wells High School, in Tucson, AZ.

For the past 10 years he’s coached locally with Seattle United.

“Michael is a great fit to take over — he has the experience, understands the off-field academic and holistic development pieces we value, and cares about bettering our community,” said athletic director Spencer Stark. “We look forward to supporting Michael as he builds this program and puts his unique mark on it.”

As a player, Ochoa competed at NCAA DI University of New Mexico after transferring from Yavapi College where his team finished as NCJAA National runners up in 1996. Professionally, he played six years for the Arizona Olympic Development Program, three years as part of the ODP West Regional Team, and was a member of the semipro Tucson Amigos from 1994-1998.

Ochoa earned his bachelor's degree in University/Native American studies and for the past 10 years has been an elementary school teacher in the Edmonds School District at Edmonds Elementary School. He believes his role as leader of the program is to help support the academic and athletic growth of each player in his program.

“Being an elementary teacher and former high school coach in Edmonds, I felt like this was the next step for me to help our community through coaching,” said Ochoa. “We have players on our roster from this area and that will continue to be one of our goals here. We have a huge soccer community in Edmonds that we haven’t tapped into yet.”

“I want to help these young men get through these first two years of college and beyond. Our long term goal is to have our program compete as a top team in our conference,” he added.

Two new assistants join Ochoa this fall — Terrell Norris and Armand Bram.

Bram was most recently was with FC Tucson Youth in Arizona where he was the head coach of various teams and has nine years of coaching experience in high school and select. Norris brings five years of coaching experience and coaches select teams locally.