Senior Tony Pagano and Andre Reyes won’t be wearing the Marauder jersey on game days this season. They won’t receive buckets filled with candy and assorted tokens of admiration from “Soccer Stalkers.” They won’t walk the field in front of their friends on Senior Night and they won’t have the chance to win a state championship. Though they gave up their varsity spots, they also know that they quit for the same reason they joined–they love soccer.
Pagano, Reyes, senior Caleb Richardson and juniors Cameron Drackett and Brandon Moore have all resigned from the high school soccer program to fully commit to their Academy teams outside of school.
Academy teams provide players with college exposure and opportunities to take their soccer careers to the next level. Other leagues also provide these opportunities, but according to Reyes, soccer at the Academy level is of a higher caliber than other leagues.
The league is run by the United States Soccer Federation, which at the end of the summer implemented a new 10 month season. Players used to be able to take three months off from Academy to play high school soccer, but with the new season length, players cannot participate in both. Head coach John Gall said he and the team support the decision of the Academy players.
“We especially here at the high school are not holding anything against those guys,” Gall said. “They’ve been made to choose and they’ve obviously chose to do something they feel is going to be a little bit more beneficial for their careers moving forward.”
Though Reyes and Pagano said they will miss playing high school soccer, they also feel they’ve made the right choice in playing Academy.
“It’s not hard, but it really just depends on who you are,” Reyes said. “If you want to just have the high school experience, it would be really hard. But if you’re willing to make a sacrifice to be better and to do better, it’s worth it.”
Reyes and Pagano first crossed paths in developmental teams when they were 6-years-old before joining the same team in eighth grade under the Dallas Texans. By their freshman year they were moved into the Academy league and began getting a feel for the program.
They practice three nights every week and Reyes also participates in extra programs everyday to improve skills led by coaches from professional teams like Manchester United. According to Pagano, the team requires total commitment and discipline and comes with sacrifices as well as compromises.
“Sometimes it’s like you’re a full-time athlete and a part-time student,” Pagano said. “It takes a lot, and for some people it’s hard to find the balance.”
Despite the loss, Gall said there is still talent on the team and they are moving forward in the season.
“I think we are compensating very well, I know it has taught the players that now we need to work a little bit harder, we have to work on some things a little bit more because we’ve lost some talent,” Gall said. “We’re going to make up for that in hard work.”
Since the USSF decided that Academy players were no longer allowed to play for high school teams, other schools have lost key players. Pagano and Reyes said they think this will even out the playing field and the team will ultimately be successful.
“I think it will make the team even closer,” Reyes said. “All you can say is that unfortunately this happened but we’re going to make the best out of it.”
Though they agree that playing on the Academy level has been extremely beneficial for their soccer careers, Pagano and Reyes both have a special bond with the program on campus. After transferring from Lewisville after his freshman year, Pagano said the team helped him adjust to the change.
“If it wasn’t for high school soccer I probably wouldn’t have a lot of the friends I have now,” Pagano said. “I came in and that’s the one place I know I’ll make friends because we have something in common.”
Because his Academy teammates are from many metropolitan cities, Reyes said playing with friends he’s known all his life was something he loved about the high school team.
“Experiencing something like that, you can’t really compare it with Academy because that’s strictly business,” Reyes said. “High school soccer is about enjoying your time with friends while trying to achieve something great.”
Though they’ve lost important players, Gall said his attitude about the season is the same as it has always been.
“I don’t come to school and coach these guys thinking I’m here to go through the motions,” Gall said. “I’m here to win state championships because I know that’s what the players want.”
Playing in the Academy league has required traveling across the nation for tournaments and allowed Pagano and Reyes to get noticed by college recruiters. Reyes has committed to Old Dominion College in Virginia and hopes to eventually achieve what he’s been striving towards all along–a professional career.
“If you work hard every day in soccer, whatever your fate is, it’s what you deserve,” Reyes said. “I just try to work hard every day and hopefully my dream of becoming a professional will come true.”
Pagano has verbally committed to the University of Dayton in Ohio. Both are Division I schools and Pagano also hopes to someday play professional soccer.
“That’s the dream,” Pagano said. “But you have to ask yourself, ‘Is it realistic?’ No one else can tell you if it’s real for you or not. If you can answer that and say ‘Yes I think it’s real,’ then nothing can really stop you.”
