Since graduating in 2025, Daniel Yaya has returned to the school to work as an assistant coach for the JV and varsity soccer teams.
Yaya’s journey as a soccer coach began before his freshman year when he started working for Brit-Am Soccer Academy during the summer as a way to earn SSL hours. “The reason I wanted to start working at the summer camp was honestly because I needed SSL hours, and I thought it’d be easy since I was familiar with the club because I played for them for a couple of years,” Yaya said.
After that summer, Yaya was offered a position to return and begin coaching a team that winter. Yaya accepted the position and has remained a coach with Brit-Am since.
As an underclassman, Yaya played on the JV team, but he stopped playing before his junior year due to injuries and other commitments. In spite of this, the JV coach recognized what Yaya could offer off the field and asked him if he wanted to help out in a team manager role. “I had never coached at that high a level before, and in terms of deciding whether or not I wanted to continue coaching in the future, I thought it would be an interesting experience for me to have,” Yaya said.
Since accepting this offer, Yaya’s role with both the varsity and JV teams has grown, but Yaya spends most of his time working with the JV team. Over the past three years with JV, Yaya has been responsible for planning and leading practices, communicating with parents and helping the players improve by offering specific feedback and instructions.
As a varsity coach, his role is more limited. Like other varsity assistant coaches Eddie Aranda and Mike Niemiec, Yaya helps the team by working with individual players and helping make head coach Kevin Gnatiko’s job easier by assisting with coaching responsibilities.
What was once an experimental way to gain SSL hours has now become a real goal for Yaya. “Now that I’ve decided that coaching is something I want to do in my future, my reason for continuing at Wootton High School even after graduating is to continue to learn from other coaches and gain experience,” Yaya said.
In addition to gaining experience by working alongside other coaches, Yaya also said that his position working with the school’s soccer teams will allow him to progress to the next coaching license. Although he already has his grassroots license, the coaching license available to minors, Yaya hopes to earn his D license soon.
According to senior varsity captains Shreyas Ganeshan and Kevin Sun, who have worked with Yaya during their time on JV and varsity, Yaya has been an integral part of their high school soccer experience. “Daniel Yaya has been the backbone of the team ever since I got there,” Sun said.
Ganeshan notes the specific impact Yaya has had in helping JV players become accustomed to the intensity and culture of high school soccer. “Daniel Yaya has been a good mentor to younger players on JV, helping them transition into high school soccer, and uses his past experiences to help players progress to the next level,” Ganeshan said.
Once as a player and now as a coach, Yaya has kept his passion for the soccer program and intends to continue to work with the team for seasons to come.
