Born in Des Plaines, IL, and growing up in Wheeling, IL, the love for fútbol (soccer) started back in 1986, when I was three years old. Both of my older brothers were involved in soccer and I couldn’t wait to start myself which forced my mother, Eloisa Rivera, to sign me up to play at Wheeling Park District. My father was my first coach and still this day is my biggest role model. I played recreationally through the park district until I was six years old when my parents decided to have me join travel soccer club Schwaben A.C. From there I played with Chicago Pegasus and was able to win two IL state championships. I played soccer competitively all the way through high school, but unfortunately wasn’t recruited out of high school to play collegiately. I will discuss this later on in a blog. My decision to attend Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI, as a preferred walk-on did not go as I had wished. I was cut on the last day of tryouts and was told I was “too small to play D1.” I will also discuss this later on in a blog. I opted to transfer after one year at Marquette and attend Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, MI, a small D2 school in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (GLIAC) where I earned All Conference as a Freshman and led the team in points (goals/assists). It was short lived. After one season it was determined that the program would be cut and was left packing my bags after a semester and returning home. Luckily, we had played against Western Michigan University in an exhibition game and I had played extremely well. Feeling desperate and confused, I reached out to the coach from WMU, and was able to make a connection and offered a position on their team. That is when my soccer career took off like a rocket into space. I played three years at WMU, earned a full academic scholarship through the college of education called the FAME (Funding Advancement of Minorities in Education) scholarship which was a testament to my academic success. At WMU, we won a MAC Championship, I was an All Tournament selection at Creighton University tournament, received All Conference Honors, and was honored the Commissioner's Award for Academic Excellence my senior year. After WMU, I decided to move south of the border and try my talent in Mexico. Short lived, I stayed in Mexico for a year and decided to return home to try and play with the Chicago Fire. Unfortunately, at that point of my career, I started battling injuries, and it began to be a slippery slope. I luckily still had a little gas in the tank and signed on with the Chicago Storm of the MISL (Major Indoor Soccer League) for two years. Later on, I opted out of the professional scene to pursue my career as a teacher and coach which is what I had always dreamed of doing.