It’s an afternoon in late September, and BMCC soccer coach Kenichi Yatsuhshi is putting his charges through practice drills at a playground in Brooklyn’s Red Hook section. The day is sunny and warm, and the players are working hard. Every t-shirt, singlet and jersey is soaked through with perspiration, but no one’s complaining. “Winning is important,” Dmitri Prokofyev tells a visitor during a break. “But so is having fun.”
Like most of his teammates, the Russian-born Prokofyev has had a lifelong relationship with the sport. “I basically see soccer as my third parent,” he says. “There wasn’t much else to do in our town, so we played soccer virtually 24/7.”
But these days, soccer is more than a game for Prokofyev, now in his freshman year as a starting player on the Panthers, one of the best-regarded community-college soccer teams in the nation. “When you play on a team—especially this team—you learn how to care about others and how to help your teammates,” he says. “It’s more than a team. It’s a family.”
Pulling together
Teammate Modou Seck agrees. “It’s unusual to have so many people working together without any friction or arguing,” says Seck, who emigrated to the U.S. from Senegal to attend college and play soccer. “We had a good team last year, but this year’s is even better.” The team, like BMCC’s student body, is incredibly diverse, he adds, with players from Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. “We really benefit from a true communal spirit,” Seck says.
As of this writing, the Panthers are 3-3-1 on the season. While no one can predict how many games the men’s soccer team will win this fall, or whether they’ll make it to the nationals, Coach Kenichi Yatsuhshi is optimistic. “We’re definitely improved over last year—more cohesive and more focused,” he says. But any credit for the Panthers’ success should go to Coach Yatsuhshi, say his players.
A great coach—on and off the field
“He really cares about us and always stays in touch,” says Brooklyn-born Kevin Vezquez. “If you’re having trouble with a class, he pushes for tutoring. If you’re out sick or injured, he always calls to see how you’re doing.” Adds Seck, “The first time you meet Coach Keni you know that soccer is his life. And he’s exactly the same off the field as he is on. You can call him any time and he’ll make himself available. He’s everything a great coach should be.”
