New Palestine boys soccer head coach Juan Diaz DeLeon.
Submitted Photo
NEW PALESTINE — The New Palestine High School boys soccer program will have a new leader in charge beginning this season.
Former head coach Brett Canova stepped away from the position following last season
The timing worked out perfectly for last year’s junior high coach, Juan Diaz DeLeon, who has taken over the job.
“Brett had been discussing maybe stepping away after his son (Elliott) graduated. Through that, it just so happened to be perfect timing for me. My family just had our third baby, and I had just walked out of the junior high position and my company was providing a six-month paternity leave,” DeLeon said. “With that, it was going to be my first year being able to coach and just focus on being part of the family. God works in mysterious ways and it all just happened to fall into place.”
Although this will be his first year as the high school team’s head coach, for DeLeon, the connection to the New Palestine team was already there.
Through the NP United Soccer program, DeLeon has been around New Palestine soccer for nearly 10 years. The program is where he built a relationship with Canova and where he has coached an array of players already on this year’s high school roster.
He coached many of the upperclassmen on the team at the academy level, and with being the junior high coach last season, has coached many of the incoming freshman.
With those connections in place, the decision to take over the high school coaching job was a no-brainer for him and has helped make the transition easier.
“When I moved here, I had my son sign up for rec soccer and through that, I became a board member with NP United. I picked up a couple of teams which ended up resulting in some of the current junior class,” DeLeon said. “Right now, I’ve probably already coached 50 or 60% of the team. All these kids have seen me coach back in the academy days which has made this transition a lot easier.”
While he’s been coaching soccer in New Palestine for nearly 10 years, his start in the coaching world came much earlier.
As a sophomore at Goshen High School, DeLeon began his coaching career. He coached youth programs there before moving to the Indianapolis area in 2014. Since moving, he’s helped out with the Morristown High School’s boys program and has helped New Palestine girls head coach, Erin Clark, with the girls program. He has also coached a variety of teams with Impact SC established through the NP United program.
Along with coaching, DeLeon played soccer in high school and played collegiately at Goshen College.
As he enters his first season with the high school team, he hopes to build off what Canova and the team have done in recent years.
The Dragons were 6-1 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference last season and earned a share of the conference title. They won their first sectional game since 2019 and reached their first sectional championship since 2015. The conference title was the second in three years.
“It’s just about following the same expectations. Brett laid a good framework of hard work and dedication,” DeLeon said. “We’re going to continue to strive for that and hopefully move on from not just conference titles but to the sectional and regional titles.”
