On a day of light fall workouts at the Sedona Red Rock High School soccer field, 18-year-old Juan Beltran Jr. offered his services as an assistant and junior varsity coach to head coach Cindy Hauserman.

“She had coaches come and go, but she never had someone who could really help her out,” he said. “So I just showed up to practice and I asked if she needed some help. She said a JV spot was open.”

“I jumped on the idea right away,” she said, “because we were in need of a JV coach, I have known Juan since he was in middle school and I knew instinctively he was the best man for the job.”

Beltran, a lifelong Sedona resident and soccer player for more than half that time, was taken under Hauserman’s wing after four years as a midfield striker and left-footed specialist on free kicks for the Scorpions. As a freshman, he played with the varsity in the state playoffs; as a senior, he was team captain.

“Some seasons were harder on us than others, but Juan was a courageous force [who] played the left wing really effectively, with speed and finesse,” Hauserman said. “The fact is, he has a really high soccer IQ and could always read the field well.”

But before his father — once a near-semipro soccer player in Mexico — secretly registered Beltran, then a 9-year-old at West Sedona School, for a local American Youth Soccer Organization team, he hated the sport.

For the full story, please see the Wednesday, Dec. 24, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.