CS Dominguez Hills Coach Is Ready to Take Care of Business : Soccer: He is eager to get back to rebuilding men’s and women’s teams after hectic off-season.

Marine Cano, the men’s and women’s soccer coach at Cal State Dominguez Hills, has been so busy during the off-season that he’s looking forward to getting back to his steady job.

Cano is still going to be busy because the teams need a lot of work, but he anticipates getting some time to himself.

“Semi-rebuilding year,” said Cano, who is 51-37-9 with the men’s team and 66-33-10 with the women’s team.

Since November, when the Lady Toros advanced to the NCAA Division II Final Four, Cano has:

* Earned his pro coaching rating in Florida.

* Went to Mexico with a state select youth team.

* Came out of retirement as the backup goalie for the Los Angeles Heat. The Heat, now in the playoffs, could continue to play through Sept. 22. That would further snarl Cano’s schedule.

* Been a color analyst on a pair of soccer games on cable TV.

* Scrambled from Fresno to Tennessee to sign 22 players.

* Given private lessons and coached at his weekly summer youth soccer camps, which ran from June to August and doubled in size to more than 400 kids.

* Searched for two new assistant coaches. After two months of looking, he hired Albert Bru, a professional player with the California Emperors, to assist with the Toro teams.

* Started two-a-day practices at Dominguez Hills the same week that the Heat entered postseason play.

* While Cano was recruiting a player in the Simi Valley, his wife, Julie, went into labor with their first child, a girl named Juliana. Cano said he made the return trip to the hospital in Redondo Beach in less than 30 minutes.

“It’s been hectic,” Cano said during a brief pause in a youth camp at Alta Vista Park in Redondo Beach.

But it might be difficult for Cano to slow down with this year’s schedules. On nine dates, the men’s and women’s teams play back-to-back games. The season-ending schedule is particularly time-consuming.

On Oct. 22, the women are at San Francisco State and on the 23rd play at Cal State Hayward. On the 24th, the men are at San Luis Obispo and on the 26th, the women play host to Metro State of Denver. The teams conclude the season on the 27th and 31st with doubleheaders.

Cano has packed the schedules with tough opponents. The teams open their seasons Sept. 1 with games against visiting San Diego State, a Division I school. The women, who play a free-lance schedule, will need to make a particularly good showing to start the season. They play five road games in seven days in mid-September. Unlike the men, who play a conference schedule, women’s berths to the Final Four are based a team’s record and strength of schedule.

“The question with the women is, will the returning players accept the responsibility of leadership,” Cano said. “If not we will be mediocre at best. When I say mediocre, I don’t mean .500, either. I want better than that. That part of the schedule, where we play all those games in a week, that will tell.”

The men’s team won’t have it easy, either. Three of its first four games are against Division I opponents, including a visit to national powerhouse UCLA on Sept. 9.

Said Cano: “The big thing is, we are very suspect in goal. We have nine new players. We have a bunch of guys from our 1988 team back (when the Toros shared the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. title), but all of them will have to work very hard it they want to start on this team.”

Replacing Chris Wilson in goal for the men has been difficult and was made even more complicated when Jose Castaneda did not show up for practice.

“We’re looking for a goalkeeper,” Cano said.

Wilson, an All-Western Region selection, is playing for the Emperors. After a slow start that saw him benched for four games, he helped California win its last seven games to capture the regular season title in the Southern Division of the American Professional Soccer League West.

The loss of Castaneda could be detrimental because Cano does not have a strong bench, although he puts a lot of stock in his starting lineup.

“We’re going to be OK,” he said. “We’re looking good in early practices, but we need a (goal)keeper.”

Senior forwards Kaveh Razaghi and Martin Mira shared the team lead in assists with seven last season. Razaghi also shared the team lead in total points last year with Joe Flanagan, the school’s career-scoring leader and now a backup forward for the Heat. Flanagan will also serve as a student assistant coach at Dominguez Hills.

Mira, according to Cano “could score 20 or 30 goals in a season.”

Other seniors expected to win starting spots are forward Mark Merino and defender Mark Lincir, an academic All-American candidate. Freshman Masahiro Fujiki was a high-scoring high school forward in Germantown, Tenn.

Goalkeeping is also a concern for the women, but Cano has three people to choose from, including All-American Chris Pezzulo, who set a school record last season with shutouts (15), goals-against average (0.57) and wins (18). But Pezzulo reported to camp out of shape and Cano was quick to point out that two newcomers, Fresno City College transfer Jenny Lueck and freshman Briana O’Dodd of San Diego, are excellent players.

Four starting field players, defenders Donna Robertson and Anna Rubin and forwards Amy Rubin and Heather Rolland, return. After a year off from knee surgery, Kerry Bertoldo, a defender, also returns. From there, 10 newcomers have a shot at starting berths. Orange Coast College transfer Michelle Forgette and Golden West College transfer Kerry Kelter are expected to make an impact.

If Cano does find time sometime soon to slow down his soccer activities, he says he knows how he will spend it.

He wants to train to compete in a triathlon.