Andres Ayala said it hit the two of them one night this season, as he and teammate Juan Pablo Garza thought about how far they’d come.
“We were like, ‘Dude, how did we end up here – all of our high school teammates are spread out everywhere,’” said Ayala, a senior forward for Purdue University Calumet’s national bound men’s soccer team.
“We just stuck together.”
Even though both players originate from the same city – Monterrey, Mexico – Ayala and Garza oddly didn’t know each other when they both made the move to San Antonio, Texas, to play their final seasons of prep soccer at Ronald Reagan High back in 2011.
So to say it’s crazy that not only did they both choose the same college to continue their careers on the pitch, but they’ve also both been a huge reason why the Peregrines – four years later – are making their first-ever trip to nationals, might be an enormous understatement.
“I think it’s pretty crazy how everything falls into place, but I feel like that’s how it needs to be,” Ayala added.
And fall into place, it has.
Saturday, the Peregrines (12-4-2) will take on second-overall seed Davenport (Mich.) in the 2015 NAIA Men’s Soccer National Championship Opening Round, slated for a 1 p.m. CT start in Caledonia, Mich.
BUILDING FROM THE GROUND UP
The game not only marks the first appearance in the national tournament by the Purdue Calumet men’s soccer program, it also stands as a testament on how far the Peregrines have come from their “inaugural” campaign in 2012, when they won just three games.
“When the team first started, it was all these freshmen going away from home, and we had people from all around the world,” Garza, who goes by “JP,” recalled of his first season at Purdue Calumet. “It was hard to get that chemistry at first, and we weren’t as mature.”
The team, built by former head coach and Purdue Calumet alum James Drzewiecki, featured 18 freshmen from six stats and five different countries, including Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Ghana.
Purdue Calumet improved to 8-8-2 in 2013 before last year’s breakout year of 10-7-2, which featured a berth in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament and advancement into the semifinal round. Six of those 18 freshman remained for this year’s record-setting campaign, including Garza, Ayala, Alex Dougherty, Papa Otoo, Aksel Dregelid, and Jawayne Spence (sat out 2013 with injury). With first-year head coach Ryan Hayes at the helm, the Peregrines won 12 games and finished second in the CCAC to snag the second national bid after Roosevelt swept both the regular-season and conference tournament titles.
“We continued to grow as a team and as a family every year,” Garza said.
Added Ayala: “We just grew together as a family – that’s how it’s always been. Purdue Cal is just like home for me... I’ve made some pretty good friends here – brothers – who I’m going to keep for a very long time.”
STRONG BEGINNINGS
Ayala and Garza left Monterrey, a city of 1.1 million located about 150 miles south of the Texas state line, not knowing they would spend the next six years together as soccer teammates.
Garza said the city was becoming dangerous, so his family left for the United States for a better life. Ayala said his parents, Gerardo and Maria, who still live in Monterrey, wanted the same: they wanted their children to gain U.S. citizenship. So, he and his older brother, Gerardo, Jr., moved to San Antonio.
While Garza and Ayala didn’t know each other, they had enough mutual friends to put the two together for a common ground: soccer.
“He moved to San Antonio his senior year – he wanted to meet me and play soccer,” Garza said.
Together, they were nearly unstoppable.
The duo starred at Ronald Reagan High, where the Rattlers made a run at the Texas 5A State Title. The squad finished 22-1-3 overall, spent the majority of the season ranked in the Top 25 of the Powerade FAB 50 rankings and nearly pulled off a championship before falling in the regional playoffs.
When it came time to choosing schools, both had multiple offers, even full-rides. But luckily for the Peregrines, they also had strong career aspirations: of becoming an engineer.
“My dad saw Purdue, and he said, ‘If you want to be an engineer, that’s where you want to go,’” Ayala said of his father, Gerardo Sr.
Garza had similar goals, and both are set to graduate in December 2016 with engineering degrees: Ayala in civil engineering and Garza in computer engineering.
HARD WORK PAYS OFF
With a new head coach and nine seniors on a team bursting with potential, Purdue Calumet started 2015 with a bang: a 7-1-0 mark and seven-straight games at home without a loss. The Peregrines, just four years after bringing back a soccer program that was discontinued in the late 90s, were a team to respect.
Ayala has been the team’s scoring leader, recording 11 goals in 14 starts, including two hat tricks. Garza has been the team’s distributor, recording a Purdue Calumet-best five assists to go along with three goals.
“They bring phenomenal leadership skills,” Head Coach Ryan Hayes said of the duo. “I think JP is a guy that everyone looks up to and typically look to him for advice, and from a playing perspective, they’ve really led the front this year, scored some important goals.
“They have a way of really bringing the squad together.”
Ayala and Garza also credit Hayes, who stepped into a difficult role: building success where there already was a strongly knit group who had already experienced tremendous growth.
“Ryan helped us a lot, he’s really a great coach and he knows what he’s doing,” Ayala said. “We just came together as a family and we said this was our year. We had to work together and we were going to go out with a bang.
“Starting a team from nothing, to going to nationals, that is a very big accomplishment, and I’m very proud of the whole team.”
Up next: the NAIA defending national champion Panthers, who finished 2015 with a 15-2-2 overall record and Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference regular-season championship.
“I think we need to believe that we are on the cusp of something special,” Hayes said. There’s not denying that this is going to be a very strong challenge for our team, but we play best when we have our backs to the wall and we’re really going into the game with nothing to lose. “
Monterrey’s own echoed that sentiment.
“I think we can (win).” Garza said. “I think if there’s something that we’ve learned in the last four years, it’s the best teams don’t always win. It’s the team that has the biggest heart, the biggest fight, is prepared, and is willing to leave it all out on the field.
“...We have a huge chance, we have to treat this as a final, and we don’t have anything to lose – we just have so much to win.”