For Miguel Limon, a Varsity soccer player in his junior year at Santa Ynez High School, the sport is more than just an extracurricular activity: it’s a lifelong passion that runs deep in his entire family.
“My mom signed me up for the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) when I was 9 and I loved it from the beginning,” Limon said. “My dad has always played and coached my AYSO team the year we were number one in the state.”
Limon moved on to playing for a club team, which led to soccer at the high school level.
“Out of the three years I’ve played for Santa Ynez so far, this is definitely the most united we’ve been as a team,” he said. “The key to team success is being motivated.”
Limon attributes this progress to spending time bonding as teammates.
“It took a lot of work, but we truly played as a family and it definitely paid off,” he said.
Despite a slow pre-season and a loss in the CIF championships, Limon appears satisfied with his team’s overall performance this season.
“We’re young and small compared to a lot of the other teams, but we won some big games against some really strong schools like Santa Barbara High School, Dunn School [in Los Olivos], and Cate School [in Carpentaria],” he said. “It was a challenge, but we had some great victories.”
As one of the team captains, Limon’s strengths as a leader directly affect the team as a whole. It’s his positive outlook and joy for the game that bring out the best in others.
“I like to reach my full potential,” he said. “Once I get on the field, it’s really hard to stop me.”
These are sentiments that Limon expresses not only to his teammates, but also to younger kids thinking about pursuing soccer in high school.
“Kids shouldn’t waste these four years by not playing because it only happens once,” he said. “I look at the seniors on the team who are graduating and they’re really sad to see the end of the year coming up so fast. Live your life day by day and it’ll be a great experience.”
This article appears in Mar 6-13, 2014.
