Teammates in Big West Tournament

Teammates Could Tangle in Big West Finals
by Janis Carr, Orange County Register

November 9, 2007

Cal State Fullerton coach Demian Brown knows all the women’s soccer coaches in the Big West. He knows their names, their teams, their coaching styles.
 
But he knows that Long Beach State coach Mauricio Ingrassia is a fanatic about Argentine soccer. Brown saw his fervor first-hand a few years ago when the two went to an Argentina-Mexico match at the Coliseum.
 
“We rode a bus there, and I was the only non-Argentine on there. And you could just see his love for his country and soccer,” Brown said.
 
Conversely, Ingrassia knows that Brown once sported a flat-top 1980s-style hairdo, a la basketball star J.R. Reid. The Titans coach now wears his hair in dreadlocks.
 
“He’s changed a lot,” Ingrassia said. “You could do a great before and after photos.”
 
Both have change and yet their love of soccer remains as strong as when the two were teammates at Cal State Fullerton in 1992-93.
 
Ingrassia was a transfer from San Diego State and Brown was an incoming freshman. Despite their age difference, they became fast friends after working a youth soccer camp.
 
“I thought he was one of the nicest guys,” Ingrassia said.
 
When the season started a month later, the two had formed a strong bond that remains. Despite being opposing coaches in the same conference, they talk on the phone or visit each other’s homes routinely.
 
“For what Mauricio has done at Long Beach State in four years, that has been a measuring stick for me,” said Brown, a first-year coach. “Not necessarily for my team because we’ve had success in the past, but for me individually it’s been a measuring stick.”
 
Fullerton beat Long Beach in the teams’ lone regular-season game this season and could meet again this weekend in the Big West women’s soccer tournament at Titan Stadium. Fullerton opens against UC Irvine on Friday and Long Beach plays Cal Poly.

Long Beach State University Athletics

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