CRISTIAN TORRES

4/12/19

My name is Cristian Torres. I grew up in Dixon, California and went to Dixon High. I have always had a passion for soccer and have played all my life, but after I graduated high school I didn’t really know where I was going with soccer or going with my life in general. All I knew is that I wanted to go as far as I can with soccer. After high school I ended up going to American River College where I was planning on playing soccer. Unfortunately I didn’t make the team and got cut towards the end of tryouts, but that didn’t phase me. That only made me want to work harder, so I trained on my own a lot or with my friend Josh Barrios. We would always push each other on becoming better soccer players. Then the next year came around and I felt prepared and confident for tryouts, but unfortunately I didn’t make the team again. At that point I felt kind of hopeless and was starting to think that was the end for me in playing competitive soccer, I thought that was going to be the farthest I was going to be able to get and have to play Sunday league for the rest of my life. I talked to my friend, Allan Espinoza, and I told him that I didn’t make the team at American River College after the second time trying out, but he told me that there are more options and it that there will be plenty more of opportunities for me because I am still young. That is when he told me about Azteca FC. I ended showing  up to tryouts a couple weeks later where I met Coach Rose. By the end of tryouts I ended making it as a reserve player. I was more that happy being a reserve player because that meant I was at least able to have a team to train with and I felt like just that would be able to open up a lot of doors for me because then I would have a chance to prove my self at practice. After just 2 weeks of training with the team Rose signed me to the team and I played my first game in Reno. Ever since the first day I met Rose she would always push me to become a better player, but I knew I would have to put in work myself more than anyone else if I wanted to become better, so I showed up to every training session we had and took advantage of the opportunity I was getting. There would be days where I would be the only player who would show up to training sessions and Rose would stay and made sure I was putting in 100% until the end of the session. I would also talk about school and work with Rose. I told her that I was dropping out of college, and going to just start working more, but Rose said that I should have never dropped out and that I should go back to school because getting a degree is very important. I would think about what she told me alot but I never really did anything about it, I was just focusing in work and soccer. A couple months later she told me she was talking to two coaches from two different universities and that they were interested in seeing me play. I couldn’t believe it because I never really imagined myself going to a university, yet alone playing for one. Rose ended up giving me the coach’s contact information and I started talking to both of them. One of the coaches told me that Rose spoke very highly of me. One of the universities was Eastern Oregon University and the other one was Southwestern University. I went and tried out for both of them, and now I am getting offered a scholarship from Southwestern University and none of this would of been possible without Azteca FC. I am more than thankful for having Rose as my coach and appreciate everything she has done for me, and I will continue to work really hard because this is only the beginning.

Sincerely,

Cristian Torres