Posted: Aug 06, 2025

2025 Fall Huskies Preview

(written with AI-generated content... mostly)

With only less than two weeks until preseason games begin, here's a season preview for East Los Angeles College Athletics' early fall teams.
(Men and Women's Basketball are not covered since they start in November).

Football • Head coach: Bobby Godinez

Arnie Robles - who won the job back in January after leading the program through a challenging 2024 season - left the program in mid-July to accept a NCAA D-1 assistant coaching job. So Godinez, who helmed the program from 2016-2023, is back.

Looking ahead in 2025: The Huskies kick off their preseason scrimmage on August 21 vs LA Southwest and open the regular season at San Diego Mesa on August 30, followed by key National Central League matchups through November .

Strengths & challenges: ELAC's defense showed early promise last year in the season-opening win versus Grossmont. But offensive consistency was a major issue throughout the rest of the season, which led to a smallish Huskies' defense getting worn down and exposed far too often. Injuries to the quarterback position forced linebacker Zach Camarena to step in behind center late in the season. And to his credit, he did spark some offensive life in in the Huskies' final game of the season at Cerritos. Normally, you would expect development from younger skill‑position players to be crucial for success, but the bigger challenge is how quickly Godinez can connect with a locker room of talent that he didn't recruit.
Key games to watch: Fullerton, Golden West, Orange Coast and Cerritos will again be on the schedule as conference opponent. College of the Canyons and Bakersfield, former rivals from East LA's days in the National Northern League, make the move to Central to renew competition with the home Green. Pasadena City, who had been racking up wins in the lower American Division for the past few years, were bumped up to National and join the Central League - the Huskies will host them in November.

Soccer (Men's & Women's)

Men's team: In 2024, the squad struggled with injuries throughout the season. They weren't great in non-conference play, but they fared better than in South Coast Conference (SCC) play, where their lone win came against LA Harbor at home.

Outlook: Returning athletes such as forward Lucas Souza should bring more cohesion. Head coach Eddie Flores, who retired briefly after last season only to come back for one more year, is anticipating a wider haul of international talent to this season's squad.
SCC home matchups will be pivotal in building conference positioning. But truthfully the team needs to churn out some road wins - particularly in-conference - if they are to hang in the thick of the standings.

Women's team: A coaching change saw former men's assistant Ramon Rivas return to Monterey Park to take up the women's program after a successful two-year run at College of the Desert.

Outlook: An ELAC women's program that's only won four games in four years post-Covid has literally no where else to go but up. Said program - that has only scored eighteen (18) goals within that same four-year span - really has no where to go but up. Coach Rivas has no misgivings on the task at hand, and has plans to build things up brick by brick.

Men's Wrestling • Head coach Miguel Soto

Soto approaches his fifth season as head coach after serving as an assistant to former longtime Huskies' coach and National Wrestling Hall of Famer Ralph Valle.

Outlook: Soto has enjoyed a steady run of sending guys to the State Championships every year, though last year saw fewer Husky qualifiers. According to sources, he'll have his work cut out for him this fall: his incoming crop of freshmen are not as good as previous years, and he'll really have to coach up his returning sophomores to get them in range to qualify for State.

Cross Country • Head coach Milton Browne

ELAC's competes in the SCC and fielding both men's and women's teams each fall. These squads rely heavily on endurance, emerging freshmen talent, and support from mid-distance track athletes. Regional conference performance will determine progression to state-level races.

Outlook: No word yet on head coach Milton Browne's freshmen crop of runners. He has been making steady inroads post-Covid, and now he's transitioning from landing a couple of top-level runners per season to building a group that can compete for team placement and eventually, conference and state titles.

Women's Volleyball • Head coach Dr. Elliott Walker

2024 Recap: ELAC suffered multiple sweeps late in the season, most notably lost 3–0 to Long Beach City College on October 30, 2024, as part of LBCC's breast-cancer awareness night. Just over a week earlier, Mt. SAC swept ELAC decisively (25‑16, 25‑21, 25‑11) in mid-November, emphasizing struggles in both offense and defense. Conference play was especially challenging, with ELAC falling short in critical SCC clashes. Overall, inconsistencies in passing, serve-receive, and offensive execution hampered ELAC's ability to compete with established SCC programs.
Outlook for Fall 2025 Coaching & Roster: Coach Walker is getting a much-needed freshmen crop of club players, and the early word is that Walker is far ahead of where he was last year in implementing next-level strategies. To that end, the coaching staff remains focused on improving libero and setter rotations, which frequently disrupted rhythm last season. Incoming freshmen and sophomores will be vital in bolstering depth at outside hitter and middle blocker, where injury exposure affected rotations in 2024.
Areas of Focus:
- Although the freshmen are picking up on things quickly, returning upperclassmen should bring valuable experience in leadership roles.
- Continued emphasis on serve pressure and defensive communication—a focus area throughout preseason.
- Conference play - Outside of Mt. SAC and Cerritos, many believe the SCC (which again will be split between North and South divisions) is wide open. Can ELAC secure a winning conference record for the first time in program history? If so, a playoff berth should be well within reach
Challenges to Address:
- Improving consistency: passing errors and serve-receive breakdowns cost key sets last year.
- Building trust and connectivity between setters and attackers will be essential in fast-paced situations.
Upcoming Schedule & Rivalry Watch:
- All conference games are key. With the division split, the Huskies will have home and home sets against LA City, Mt. SAC, Pasadena City and Rio Hondo. They'll face Long Beach City, Cerritos, El Camino, LA Harbor, and Compton one time each.
- Two year ago, the Green defeated Mt. SAC at home for the program's first ever win against the Mounties. East would have had the season sweep of Long beach, but a scheduling violation negated the second of those wins. Still, it's victories like these that will indicate if this season's team can reach the postseason for only the second time in school history.

Women's Water Polo • Head coach Kimberly Diana Romero

Coach Romero always faces an uphill battle with recruiting. Despite having one of the best collegiate swim stadiums west of the Mississippi to call home, the neighboring high schools that are close to ELAC are not known for water polo talent. Those colleges (LBCC, El Camino, Orange Coast) that are closer to the Pacific draw from better pools of aquatic talent. And for Romero to mine those inland high schools with good water polo programs, she has to combat with more established programs such as Cerritos and - of course - Mt. SAC.

That said, two years ago she made substantial progress with the program, securing the team's best conference and overall records in 2023. She'll look to get back to that mark this fall.

Predictions & Storylines

Can the football program stabilize on offense? Who will Godinez turn to at QB, and can they execute the offense? And will he have the level of athletes defensively that he's used to.
Soccer rebuilding under new leadership: With injuries behind them and coaching adjustments, both men's and women's programs look to climb SCC standings.
Cross country depth & endurance: A strong season may depend on freshmen and mid-distance runners stepping up to score across races.
Women's Volleyball: is the talent of the incoming freshmen enough to build a playoff team from?