SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan – If he’s nothing else, Damian Perez is quite the student of history, “especially when it’s about things I’m passionate about.”

Take soccer, for example. When Perez arrived at E.J. King from Texas 2½ years ago, he learned very quickly that the Cobras boys soccer team had not won a Far East Division II title since 2007.

And in the 2022 season, before Perez came to Japan, the Cobras recorded just one win in 24 matches.

“I kept making that joke to my coach, explaining that before I arrived, he didn’t have a winning season,” Perez said of Rick Andrew, King’s athletics director and boys soccer coach.

“Although it was a joke, it wasn’t just me that helped the team; it was everyone as a whole,” Perez said. “Everyone worked to get better from that season on.”

King went from 1-23 in 2022 to 11-9-6 the following season, in which Perez scored 16 goals. He added 25 more in the Cobras’ 9-8-3 2024 campaign, which led to the just-completed 2025 season.

“I believed even before the season started, that we had a very strong chance with the young and promising talent that we have,” Perez said. “Every year, we would have strong players all around that were willing to die on the field for each other.”

It didn’t get to that point, of course. But the Cobras enjoyed their finest campaign since capturing the 2007 D-II title on penalty kicks against Indianhead International School.

Perez scored a Pacific-best 39 goals for boys, one more than Kadena’s Elijah Whipp. In so doing, the Cobras repeated their Western Japan Athletic Association tournament title, then went on beat Matthew C. Perry 2-1 in last month’s Far East D-II final.

“To be honest, it hasn’t even sunk in yet,” Perez said Sunday during an online interview. “To us, it felt like another season, but every time we walk into that gym and see the banner, we get reminded of all the hard work we were pushed through.”

For all those accomplishments, Perez has been named Stars and Stripes Pacific high school boys soccer Athlete of the Year, nosing out Whipp, whose Panthers won their second straight Far East Division I tournament title and Pacific-record ninth overall.

“He played wherever we needed him to play for our team’s success,” Andrew said. “This year, he was double- and triple-teamed in most every game. His ability to beat two or more players off the dribble and put pressure on opposing teams freed up our other players.”

There was no one point during the season that Perez said he believed the Cobras could end that lengthy Far East title drought, though coming from behind to win the WJAA tournament final was a foundational moment.

“We just had a lot of slipups in that game,” Perez recalled. “We know that when we play at our best, we are unstoppable.”

Going into the Far East tournament at Misawa Air Base, Japan, “we were determined from the start, from when we arrived at the airport,” Perez said. “Our last practice as a team together, we made sure that our mentality was there from start to finish.”

Ben Duncanson scored both Cobras goals, each assisted by Perez, and keeper Kent Monto had 19 saves for King in the D-II final.

Perez could have been the one to score in the final, but Andrew said his play in the final was a framework of his growth in three seasons.

“Damian became a leader on and off the field,” Andrew said. “He has grown so much in the last three years. We went from a ‘me’ player to a ‘we’ teammate and his contributions and actions on the field raised the level of expectations of all our players.”

Now that his high school years are over and he heads with Cobras teammate Amin Alipourkashiki to Point Park (Pa.) to play NCAA Division II soccer, Perez said he has high hopes for King moving ahead.

“I can’t wait to see what awaits the future Cobras team,” he said.

Age: 18

Place of birth: Yuma, Ariz.

Other sports: Cross country, football, track and field.

Favorite subject: History.

Least favorite subject: Math.

Favorite athlete: Neymar Jr.

Favorite forms of entertainment: Movies, R&B/Hip Hop.

Favorite entertainers: Adam Sandler, Tory Lanez.