When Marlyn Argueta played forward for the Riverhawks soccer team from 2008 to 2010, his teammates constantly told him he should be a coach some day.

Now he is.

Argueta, who graduated from AACC and went on to earn a degree in Business Administration  from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, has coached boys’ soccer at South River High School in Edgewater since 2011. In 2019, he took over running the high school’s soccer program.

Since becoming coach, Argueta’s team has scored more than 60 goals and conceded 15.

“I’ve always been told that I … could be a coach, that I have wisdom,” Argueta said. “The way that I play … seemed like a smart way to play, so I’ve always wanted to coach.”

And he said he loves it.

“I just fell in love with [coaching],” Argueta said. “I love soccer. It’s taught me so many lessons in life that I wanted to give back a little bit.”

Argueta’s style of play is inspired by every coach he has worked with. Plus, Argueta said “[Diego] Cholo Simeone from Atletico Madrid is probably my [coaching] idol.”

Argueta led the South River team to win the county championship in 2022, and then into a state championship victory in 2023. That was South River’s first boy’s soccer state title in 36 years.

“It was my first full cycle of freshmen to seniors, and they won the state championship,” Argueta said. “I wanted to bring that as a player [and] I’ve never had the opportunity to. Now that I did as a coach, it just goes full circle and …  I’m just so proud of my team and the school.”

Former AACC soccer head coach Nick Cosentino, who coached Argueta as a player during his time as a Riverhawk, said he always saw him becoming a coach.

“The guys looked up to him,” Cosentino said. “When the coaches needed some advice regarding their players, opinions or attitudes towards certain things, he was one of our go-to guys.”

Cosentino, who coached the Riverhawks from 1999 until he retired a couple of months ago, said Argueta and his team “gelled together really well.”