Grizzly to Bengal: Paz signs to UMFK
Smiling amongst family members and supporters, Granite Hills High School’s star soccer player, Veronica Paz, signed her National Letter of Intent on Tuesday to join the University of Maine at Fort Kent’s women’s soccer team on a full scholarship.
Paz was unstoppable this season scoring 30 goals and four hat tricks while leading the Grizzlies (11-10-1, 6-4 ESL) to a third-place finish in the East Sequoia League and a sixth-seed in the CIF Central Section Division VI Championship playoffs. She was named the ALL-ESL’S Most Valuable player and The Recorder’s 2017-18 All-orange Belt Girls Soccer Player of the Year.
“I feel like all my hard work to now [has paid off],” Paz said. “I made a lot of sacrifices. I wouldn’t go to birthday parties, I wouldn’t go to Disneyland cause I had soccer tournaments [or] soccer games. It’s a lot of dedication I put into this sport. And knowing that I’ve made it to that level, it’s satisfying and I feel like if I work hard, especially when I’m there, that I can be right there with them.”
The versatile forward had drawn interest from multiple schools since she was a junior so by the end of the season it wasn’t a question of if she would play at the next level, but where? Paz said some of the reasons she chose UMFK was because she liked the idea of living in a small town and going to a small school where she could be one-on-one with her professors. But even more so because she would be going to one of the best Division II program’s in the country.
“One, for the experience because I’m never going to get an experience like this in my lifetime,” she said listing the reasons. “They’re a really good soccer team. They’ve been national champions for consecutive years — they have seven rings.”
The Bengals play in the small Northeastern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and are coming off a 171-3 season where they won their fifth-straight United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) National Championship. Joining such a strong team can be difficult for some athletes but Grizzlies head coach Gabe Rodriguez believes Paz has what it takes to succeed.
“She’s so independent and she’s so passionate about the sport,” he said. “And in and out of the classroom as well. She is not going to have a problem at all. She just went over to visit last week and she was already getting in training sessions out there. So that’s her, that is her. It’s going to be easy for her.”
The senior who has a 4.4 GPA and plans to major in biology to become a dermatologist should begin with a smooth transition since she’s already spent time getting to know her teammates off the pitch.
“Just going to the campus and being with the girls, I connected with them right away,” she said. “How we play, how we talk to each other, it was really nice. The week that I went there they invited me over, I watched movies with them and it’s really fun.”
There’s no doubt that while Paz is continuing her journey to one day reaching her dream of playing in the FIFA World Cup, she won’t be missed by those back home.
“I’m definitely going to miss her,” Rodriguez said. “We’re all going to miss her. Not only as a player but just being a positive role model for all our students as a scholar athlete. Yes it’s going to be hard next year but somebody else can step into that role. I think we have the kids and she’s a great example of hard work gets you places. It’s going to be fun.”