CHICO — In the past three years working with Chico High goalkeeper coach Keith Powell, Panthers’ goalie Manny Diaz has grown his skillset immensely.
After gradual success his freshman and sophomore year, Diaz is a key part of Chico High’s success. Diaz’s freshman year the Panthers were 7-9-4, his sophomore year they were 5-4, and now in his junior year Chico High is 13-2 and 8-1 in the Eastern Athletic League ahead of Wednesday night’s regular season finale against Shasta.
Chico High split the season series against cross-town rival Pleasant Valley, and Diaz played well in both games. In the teams’ first matchup in mid-January, Chico High defeated the Vikings 2-0, and last week PV defeated Chico 1-0. In Chico’s second game of the week Diaz recorded a shutout in a 7-0 win against Red Bluff.
Diaz has eight shutouts on the season.
Despite the loss, with Chico High missing four of its top players due to them being in COVID-19 protocols, Diaz made 19 saves and kept Chico High’s chances alive against the Vikings. Because of Diaz’s strong performance throughout the season in last week’s games, Diaz is this week’s Chico Enterprise-Record Prep Athlete of the Week.
The goal Diaz did allow came late in the second half on a left footed shot by Keegan McGregor from 17 yards away right next to the PV sideline.
“We had 14 or 15 shots and Manny is just a beast,” said Pleasant Valley’s Cameron Powell after the game. Powell is teammate of Diaz on their club team Butte United. “I think it was just a great goal by (Keegan).”
Diaz said he has always had success against PV, knowing that he is going to have plenty of opportunities to make saves. He noted a game last season when he stopped a penalty kick as well as two free kicks.
In last week’s game the first shot from the Vikings to Diaz came within two minutes on a shot that deflected off a Chico High defender and into the hands of the diving Diaz. Diaz said while in an ideal world he would like to get a shot within the first 10 minutes of the game, making a save off of a deflection so early was a shocker.
“Before the game I was already pretty nervous because we were missing our best players obviously, so I knew it was going to be really hard for us to create attacking opportunities,” Diaz said. “I just had to keep it in my head that there was going to be lots of shots on me, way more in the first game against PV. I didn’t expect that many saves, I would never guess that, but I was just kind of scared how much we were going to get pressured on defense.”
Diaz recorded nine saves in the first half and 10 in the second half, diving left and right throughout.
Although now a strength of Diaz’s game and something he enjoys immensely, diving hasn’t always been Diaz’s strong suit.
Diaz grew up seeing photos of his dad and uncle as former goalkeepers and having aspirations of eventually being in that place and seeing fans and players’ reactions when a good save was made or a ball was booted 60 yards down the field.
In eighth grade, Diaz said he had games in which he allowed as many as eight goals and had doubts of success at the high school level.
It wasn’t until Diaz got to Chico High and was able to work one-on-one with Powell that his game grew. Diaz would ask Powell if he was free on the weekends, training up to five hours per day even if that meant taking shots from the girls teams that Powell was helping train.
“I think that helped motivate me during freshman year when I got Keith and I was able to see how much I was improving, so I was like there wouldn’t be any reason for me to complain about this,” Diaz said. “I’m doing so much better when I’m doing whatever he wants and the better I’m going to be able to become, so I just grew exponentially.”
Diaz said his freshman year he would dive straight to his knees. He has since worked on fully extending when diving, which has become something that has continuously helped his game.
“When he came to us, he had some goalie experience, but not much training,” Powell said. “What stands out is his coachability. I’ll ask him to tweak something in his technique and he makes a concerted effort to listen and adapt. Last year his development was very steep. He is willing to put in the extra work. Over the last couple of years, through hard work, he has become a stellar goalkeeper with very few flaws.”
Powell said Diaz’s quickness and explosiveness stands out to him, as well as his fearlessness which he said cannot be taught. Chico High coach Ryan Flenner said Diaz’s competitive nature stands out to him, whether that be while teammates are shooting around, during a drill or in a game.
“Manny wants to be the best at whatever he is doing. This is contagious to both his fellow keepers he trains with, and his teammates on the field,” Flenner said. “The rest of the team knows that when Manny is in goal they are going to get his very best. That makes the whole team play better overall because they want to work as hard as he does.”
Diaz said his goals for the rest of this season and into summer training ahead of senior year are to continue to be more explosive with his diving saves, but he also wants to work on low saves and having soft hands in goal. He said his hands are decent but he knows he can work on them more.
Chico High and Pleasant Valley could face off once more in the EAL playoffs. The seeding meeting for the Northern Section soccer bracket is Saturday at 1 p.m. at C.K. Price Intermediate School in Orland. The EAL championship will be held Feb. 19.
Stay tuned Sunday for a story on the seedings for the Northern Section soccer tournament.
