page_title: Nick Perera
section_title: Youth and college
hierarchical_section_title: Nick Perera / Playing career / Youth and college
caption_attribution_description: President George W. Bush stands with members of the University of California, Santa Barbara Men's Soccer 2006 Championship Team Monday, June 18, 2007 at the White House, during a photo opportunity with the 2006 and 2007 NCAA Sports Champions.
context_page_description: Nicolas Perera is a Spanish-born American professional footballer who plays for and is the head coach for the Tacoma Stars of the MASL.
context_section_description: Perera played youth soccer in Belgium with club team K.N.S. Tervuren, as well as his high school team European School of Brussels.  He walked on to the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's soccer team in 2005 after receiving a recommendation from his mother.
  Perera played an integral role in UC Santa Barbara’s attack, leading the Gauchos to the 2006 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship and winning the national title.  For his performances in the 2006 tournament, he was named the College Cup's Most Outstanding Offensive Player.
caption: Perera and the 2006 UCSB Gauchos soccer team honored at the White House.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "115", "Image YResolution": "115", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2007:06:18 19:00:54", "Image Artist": "Eric Draper", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "252", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1078", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6771", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "9", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "250", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:06:18 15:16:26", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:06:18 15:16:26", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "51/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "28", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "920", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "613", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "952", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "250400/71", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "666800/189", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}