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Friends form soccer dream team at GCCC
Published 11/7/2008 in None : GCCC
By MIKE KESSINGER
It was almost dusk Thursday and the 11 members of the Garden City Community College men's soccer team from Miami stood out front of the Dennis Perryman Athletic Complex wearing their jerseys.
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Laurie Sisk/Telegram — The Miami connection has been instrumental in the success of the 2008 Garden City Broncbuster men's soccer team. Front row (left to right) Mariano Leo, Jose Hernandez, Mario Ojeda, Adrian Loyacono and Jose Cardenas. Back row (left to right) Fedarico Argreda, Oscar Zelaya, Juan Lopez, Alexis Dominguez and Bryant Coto. Ojeda and Zelaya are sophomores, and the other nine are freshmen.
As Telegram staff photographer Laurie Sisk gave instructions to what she was looking for in a picture, several of them stood with their arms crossed, shivering while trying to stay somewhat warm as the cooler weather moved in. Not one of them seemed to mind as they listened to what Sisk set them up.
"Yeah, yeah, do that," Sisk told a couple of them as they grouped together for a pose, laughing, giving her different looks.
A group that has helped lift the Broncbuster soccer to new heights this season, every one of them knew each other before coming to Garden City. In a way, second-year head coach Stephen Gorton sees it as a blessing. A chance encounter he had watching several of them in 2004 when he was an assistant coach at his alma-mater Western Illinois was what led him today to have this group playing for him.
"I had notes down on all these guys," Gorton said remembering back to watching them play in a South Florida Showcase.
The good news for the Broncbusters coach was that when Mario Ojeda, one of the players Gorton watched in Florida, started looking for a place to play in college, Western Illinois coach Eric Johnson directed him to Gorton.
"Coach Johnson started calling schools to see where I could go," Ojeda said. "He came up with Garden City, and I decided to come to Garden City."
A blessing just to have landed Ojeda, a forward who sat out last season, and was named to the first team All-Jayhawk Conference and All-Region VI teams this week, more players from Miami were to come.
For much of it, Gorton has Ojeda to thank. But to Ojeda it wasn't all that much to ask as once he settled in to Garden City, the Argentina native felt at home.
"The people have made it easier for me," Ojeda said. "They were good to me. You know, people here tend to be nicer to you, and willing to talk to you."
The impression Garden City gave Ojeda was one he could sell some of his friends on at home in Miami. It started with a phone call from Ojeda to Oscar Zeleya, then one by one: Cesar Aguilar, Mariano Leo, Jose Cardenas, Jose Hernandez, Juan Lopez, Adrian Loyacono, Fedarico Argreda, Alexis Dominguez and Bryant Coto. The Miami group grew, and it worked out that Gorton was able to provide scholarships.
As the Broncbusters prepare for Saturday's 7 p.m. start to the Great Plains District Championship, it is the Miami contingent that has been such a huge part of Garden City and where they find themselves: ranked No. 7 in the nation and one game from the national tournament in Phoenix. It's been a goal, a dream the group wanted to achieve together.
"We're going for nationals, that's all, we want to go all the way," Dominguez said.
Together the Miami kids have been the glue with how well they know each other, through high school and club soccer teams in Florida. They stick together, forming a tight bond with their other teammates along the way.
On more than one occasion, the Busters had been dealt a discouraging hand, leading scorer forward Steve Shaw missed two game with an injured shoulder, Agreda and Leo were both given a red card in the second half of Garden City's 1-1 tie against No. 2 Barton County on Sept. 24, Ojeda was given a red card Sunday in the Region VI championship against Barton that the Busters ended up winning in a shootout. Through it all the team has persevered.
"We have the type of players that step it up when we need it the most," Agreda said. "Against Barton, when I was out, our players stepped it up. In the (region) finals, Mario was out and we had players that stepped it up."
On Saturday when the Busters take the field against the winner of tonight's game between Jefferson (Mo.) College or Laramie (Wyo.) County they will be without their captain, Ojeda, who was to sit out as a penalty from the red card against Barton. He will be missed, but as Agreda said, the team always has someone to step up.
"Adrenaline kind of hits you when you have one man down," Leo said. "You know you're going to be one man down and you play with all you have."
If the Busters were to win Saturday, Agreda, Leo and Dominguez said they had no celebration planned for on the field yet. They're a team too focused on wanting to first just get to that point. But it's not say that the group from Miami won't be able to come up with something.
What is important to them is just having the opportunity that lays ahead of them. And to do it all together, this group from Miami with their other teammates, means more than anything else.
"Mario was the head start," Agreda said of Ojeda being the spark to get 10 friends from Miami to come to Garden City. "We all had one dream to play together in college. We talked to each other and we decided to come here."
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