 "Photo: Loyola Athletic Department/Steve Woltmann")
 "Photo: Loyola Athletic Department/Steve Woltmann")
After missing almost an entire season due to a knee injury, the last thing senior Cynthia Morote-Ariza expected was to be the first Loyola women’s soccer player drafted to a professional team. On Jan. 15, however, the Boston Breakers chose her in the fifth round of the 2010 Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) Draft.
Morote-Ariza said she was at home when she found out. Her dad had been following the draft online and woke her up to tell her the good news.
“It was a big surprise,” she said.
Morote-Ariza made the decision to take the rest of the semester off to play in the preseason and will return to Loyola in the fall to finish her degree. She said this will allow her to focus 100 percent on soccer and give the same dedication to school in the fall.
She practiced twice a day leading up to her departure to Florida for training camp on Feb. 24. Thirty-two women will be entering the camp, but only 18 spots are available on the Boston Breakers roster along with four developmental positions. Morote-Ariza said she has trained every day, since she is going into the camp a little behind the others who are just coming off their college seasons.
She started off behind physically, but she has been doing her best to get back in shape. Morote believes she is getting into playing shape, and is excited rather than nervous going into the camp.
Morote-Ariza said she was nervous entering college soccer as a freshman, because she was so new to the whole experience and the game was a lot different than high school.
“The game was so much faster, the girls were so much bigger and it was much more competitive even in practices,” Morote-Ariza said. “It was like a job. I had to prepare on and off the field to keep my spot and to keep up my mental fitness.”
Although she has similar feelings about playing for the Breakers, she said she has matured, and that this will only add to her experience and help her play at the next level.
“I’m looking at this as a great learning experience and great practice,” Morote-Ariza said. “I know I will do my best. God is with me, and I have the support of my family and friends. I am extremely happy to live out the dream I’ve had since I was four years old.”
Morote-Ariza gives a lot of credit to her coaches for working behind the scenes to make sure coaches in the draft noticed her. They sent videos of her playing from the last season.
“A huge part is due to their work,” she said. “I’m really grateful for that. I hadn’t even spoken to any league coaches prior to the draft.”
Morote-Ariza said that throughout her four years at Loyola, all three of her coaches have given her “something special” in terms of her growth as a player and as a person. When she quit club soccer her senior year of high school, a lot of colleges dropped her from consideration. Head Coach Frank Mateus started contacting her and offered her a full ride to play for Loyola. Morote-Ariza cited Mateus’ approach was that he had a great deal of faith in her as a player.
“It was a big changing event in my soccer career,” Morote-Ariza said. “I don’t know where I’d be without him giving me a chance to play Division I soccer. I will always remember and be grateful for that.”
“It has been a pleasure to say that Cynthia Morote-Ariza has been part of the Loyola women’s soccer family for the last four years,” Mateus wrote in an e-mail. “She is one of the most complete soccer players in all of college soccer. She has been our best player not because of her natural ability but she has been our star because of the way she goes at every single day.”
Morote-Ariza said she is asked often of her favorite memory of playing for Loyola, and she always answers the same: when the team won the Horizon League Championship against Milwaukee her sophomore year. Loyola was down 2-0 but was able to tie the game in the last minute and win in penalty kick shots.
“It was an awesome game the way we came back from 2-0 deficit,” she added.
Although the team didn’t win the championship the following year in 2008, they finished first for the season. Morote-Ariza has also led the team to two NCCA Tournament appearances and is the owner of six school records, according to the Loyola Athletic Department.
Morote-Ariza didn’t join the team thinking about records or titles, though. She went into college soccer without any expectations other than to play and have fun.
“Loyola has given me the opportunity to become the player and the person I am now,” Morote-Ariza said. “To know I am able to help the school in that way, it’s a great honor and a blessing.”
Moving out of Fordham Hall after being drafted, where she lived with two teammates and another roommate she didn’t get to know until this year was “kind of emotional.” She said it is hard to say goodbye to college as a whole, including the friends and teammates she thought she would graduate with in May.
“It will be a good growing experience,” Morote-Ariza said, “since I’ve never lived in a different state on my own.”
It was especially hard saying goodbye to her best friend, senior Jackie Vera, she said. The two have been playing soccer together since they were eight years old. Although they didn’t plan on coming to Loyola together, they ended up on the same team again and were roommates before she left.
“We stuck together from the beginning,” Morote-Ariza said. “She was the only one I was really close with.”
She said that Vera is very happy for her; and although Vera is a little sad to see Morote-Ariza go, they both know it won’t be for good. Morote-Ariza says she’ll be gone for a little while, but knows things will be just like they were when she returns.
“It feels like it will be the same with the rest of the team,” she said.
If she didn’t get a contract from the Breakers she would not stop trying to make it on a professional team. Other options included playing overseas or staying in the states to play in the W League, which is the league below WPS.
“Sometimes you make it, sometimes you don’t,” she said. “But I definitely wouldn’t stop trying … There’s always different ways of going about our dreams.”
One thing Morote-Ariza would love is to make known is how “deeply grateful” she is to have gone to Loyola and to have played Division I soccer for her coaches.
“I am very Catholic, and I felt very meant to be with this team at this school with these coaches at this time,” she said.
Because of their support through training, she was able to save the majority of her soccer career and get back the joy of the game.
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