Luke Pelant receives his MVP award from CHS coaches (l to r) Dan d’Almeida, Gary Manker, Kyle Nelson and Paul Mendes. (Photo courtesy Coupeville Booster Club)
The tributes continue to flow in.
After capping an extraordinary three-decade coaching career with a farewell block party Saturday, recently-retired Coupeville High School boys’ soccer guru Paul Mendes was feted by a former assistant.
Now having taken up residence in Vienna, where he will be teaching for the next two years, Dan d’Almeida, who was the Wolf girls’ head coach in the fall and then worked with Mendes and the CHS boys in the spring, remembers their time together fondly.
His words:
David, Coach Mendes has an incredible history in coaching, as you have pointed out. I have been fortunate enough to work with him in his final season.
First and foremost, Paul is passionate about soccer. He was a player and coach for nearly all his life.
I loved the structure of his training sessions. He expected all his players to do their best to improve and help the team. He also had zero tolerance for unsportsmanlike behavior — he was developing men after all!
Danny (Savalza) already described his pregame speeches, which were epic.
During the season, many of his former players would stop by to train in their college off-season as well as former coaches — everyone loved and respected Coach Mendes.
During the years together in Coupeville, we would chat soccer, whether the World Cup, a big US game, or the Cascade Conference.
I will miss Coach Mendes on the pitch and so will all of his past and present players and assistant coaches.
Coupeville Sports 
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