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How you know him: Jose-Luis Valdes was appointed head coach of the Martlets soccer team in 2013 after serving one year as interim head coach of the men's team. A goalkeeper for the men's team from 2001 to 2004, Valdes graduated from McGill in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in physical and health education. He has had several international stints as an assistant coach, including the Canadian women's soccer squad at the FISU World University Summer Games in Taipei City and Gwangju, South Korea.
What has been the best moment during your coaching career?
There are a couple of moments that stand out for me, one being with the U-17 women's national team when we won a gold medal at Concacaf (Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football) to qualify for the World Cup. I was the third assistant coach and did a little bit of everything to get on the staff, from equipment management to video work. Wearing the national team jersey was such a proud moment. Another one would be the 2017 FISU World University Summer Games. I remember walking into the stadium in South Korea for the opening ceremonies with 40,000 people in the crowd, that was another special moment I'll always remember.
Prior to becoming a coach, what was your best sports memory?
As a player, a moment I'll never forget was winning a national silver medal with the men's team, then turning around immediately and winning a national silver medal with the women's team as the goalkeeper coach. I started as a player at McGill in 2001, and in the summer Marc Mounicot gave me a shout and asked if I wanted to be a goalkeeper coach with the women's program. It was a lot of work between both teams and school, but I decided to do it. We wound up playing for national titles with both programs at the University of Montreal, and we lost a pair of incredibly tight matches - the women's game went to a shootout. While of course I wish we had won, I'm proud and probably one of the very few to have ever played for titles in two sports as a student-athlete and coach.
If you could have any professional sports coaching position, which job and team would you choose?
I would love to be an assistant coach for either Pep Guardiola (Manchester City) or Marcelo Bielsa (Leeds United). Their personalities, the way they work with their teams, their philosophies, general principles and core values are all things that I respect tremendously. Bielsa has a bit more of a tendency to go with underdogs, change the way they see themselves, and put a chip on their shoulder to compete with the very best, while Guardiola will take a number two or three ranked team and just dominate. Those two guys would be at the top of my life for sure.
Who was your favourite pro-athlete growing up?
Two guys jump out - one was Michael Jordan, he was the guy for my generation, just so dominant, and the second would be Stephane Richer, number 44 with the Habs, I just remember he had a great slap shot and I gravitated towards him.
What are you most looking forward to as things begin to re-open in the coming months?
No doubt about it, reconnecting with my players, having that face-to-face human interaction is missing big time. I'm looking forward to having us back together striving as a group towards a tangible goal, knowing exactly what it is that we are pushing towards and ready to commit to doing everything we can to get the job done.
SOURCE:
Zachary McRae
Communications Officer
McGill Athletics & Recreation
514.616.5573 (Tel.)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
zachary.mcrae@mcgill.ca
