California doesn’t have a state championship for high school soccer. There is a variety of set-ups for division and regional championships.

With that aside, Hayward’s high school soccer is grabbing headlines with its varsity men’s soccer team. Some of that credit goes to coach Gabriel Hernandez, who recently nabbed Bay Area News Group’s East Bay Coach of the Year for his work in turning around the school’s varsity boys’ soccer program.

After enduring a grueling and losing 2010 season, Hernandez suffered a 6-24-7 season in the blue and white Lancer uniform of varsity boys’ soccer. As a matter of fact, the Hayward area high school had dealt with losing seasons for the past six seasons. However, in 2012, Hernandez was able to put on a spectacular display of offense with team point leaders and forwards Rafael Garcia, 23, and Gerardo Zendehas, 25, finishing fourth overall in the Hayward Area Athletic League (HAAL).

Hernandez was able to turn around the once losing ways of Lancer soccer for the varsity squad, mastermind a 10-6-5 overall record and earning a winning league record of 7-5-4. After turning this season into a gem, he was able to earn the team a bid into the North Coast Section Division II playoffs in February when the Lancers shut out local rival and sixth seed Hayward High as an eleventh seed 2-0, shutting out third seed Dublin 1-0 before losing to fourth seed Albany 4-1 in the semifinals ending one of the finest seasons the Lancers have ever put together.

Hernandez says the team is just getting started.

“The boys trusted in me and in what I was trying to get them to do,” Hernandez told the Contra Costa Times. “We were peaking at the right time and the main thing is that we were relaxed. There is a fine line between confident and cocky, and we were confident.”

The Lancers were told they couldn’t lose their last four games of the season and they didn’t. There is a difference between cocky and confident and the varsity squad played with confidence with their newfound success.

Oakland’s Bishop O’Dowd went on to win the tournament, but the Lancers will see them again soon. This season they were able to tie Bishop O’Dowd in the regular season. However, next season they will have to do it without their chief scoring leaders Garcia and Zendejas because they are seniors.

Take note East Bay: the Lancers have made some noise in the HAAL.

Next season will be a challenge with the roster turnover. Can they keep up the winning ways? Only time will tell. They are losing their best scorers, after all. Keep playing Lancers, we’re watching — and the bar has been set. Good luck.