University of California - Riverside Women's Soccer

Gerardo Hidalgo completed his second season with Highlander Women's Soccer in 2024. Hidalgo served as an assistant coach in 2023 before being named the program's interim head coach in July 2024. He also currently serves as the Director of Futbol at MAGIA Futbol Youth Club. Hidaldo is no stranger to college coaching, previously serving as an assistant for Hope International Men’s Soccer and Fullerton College Women’s Soccer. He led Fullerton to back-to-back the CCCAA playoff appearances after a 12-year absence. Hidalgo also served as an assistant coach for Minot State University and as a Director of Coaches for Minot Magic (Youth Club in Minot). He played at the semi-professional level for four years, two with LA Blues (USL-PDL) and two with Southern California Seahorses (USL-PDL). Collegiately, Hidalgo played two years on the back line at Santa Ana College and later transferred to Hope International. Hidalgo was named team captain as a junior in 2014 and led the Royals to their first ever regular season Golden State Athletic Conference title, surging HIU to as high as No. 21 in the national polls. 

Makena Honda enters her first year as Director of Operations and Player Development/Management at UC Riverside.  Honda will oversee women’s soccer strategy and daily operations — recruiting, logistics, game analysis, student-athlete support, and mental readiness — while cultivating team culture and success on and off the pitch. Honda is a personal goalkeeper coach, building custom training programs to enhance positional skills, confidence, and performance. She also served as a youth sports coach at Village Sports in San Francisco from 2022 to 2023. Honda spent the 2021 and 2022 seasons with the University of San Francisco’s women’s program team between the posts after a successful prep career at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach. She earned four varsity letters at Mira Costa, winning the 2020 CIF Southern Section title and 2021 Bay League title. She was also an All-Area First Team Bay League honoree.  Additionally, Honda played seven years of club soccer for Beach FC.  Outside of soccer, Honda is the Head of Business Development for Bayside Medical Center in Hawthorne, where she oversees marketing outreach among other duties. She also holds instructional certifications in CPR, First Aid, and phlebotomy.