Eastlake High’s boys soccer team already was looking strong for 2020-21, even after the coronavirus pushed the season into the spring.
Then, when the various soccer academies shut down, the rich got richer as players like Gael Ayala-Quintero decided playing high school soccer might be fun.
Adding Gio Medina as the head coach certainly didn’t hurt. All he had done was lead Southwest High to the state soccer championship in 2014.
Even Medina, however, wasn’t sure how things would come together when he first gathered the club in late February.
It turns out these pieces fit better than a child-sized jigsaw puzzle. The Titans drew byes into the Division II quarterfinals and start a second season Saturday after flying through the Metro Conference and nonleague schedule with a 15-0-1 record.
They have outscored their opponents 50-8, the lone blemish being a 0-0 tie against Medina’s old school, which, if nothing else, certainly was aware of his coaching tendencies.
Medina could not have been more impressed.
“This team has great camaraderie,” said Medina, who decided he needed a change after 15 years at Southwest, the last eight as the head coach. He lives within sight of Eastlake High so when the position opened up, he applied.
“The big difference between Southwest and Eastlake is depth. Eastlake is larger and so we have depth. Right now five starters are out (none COVID-19 related) but we haven’t missed a beat. It’s just a bigger pool of talent.
“As far as skill level goes, Southwest is just as good, if not a little better, but the resources we have, the facilities, the discipline, the maturity of the players here is better. Both are very good programs, don’t get me wrong.”
Unity, it turns out, wasn’t a problem as Ayala-Quintero was one of three players who have been together since Salt Creek Elementary School. Leading scorer Cole Friesen and Luis Lee were the others. Then there were the four players who first met at Thurgood Marshall Elementary and are still kicking the ball around — Joshua Anyaji, Preston Fleming, Jorge Llamas and Diego Delgado.
Getting a player like Ayala-Quintero, who started soccer at age 3 and has played locally for Albion and most recently Surf, as well as in the Olympic Development League, was a big boost. He’s headed to Saint Mary’s College.
A midfielder who possesses the ability to shoot or pass with either foot, great speed to either beat the opponents downfield or race back and help the defense, not to mention ball-control skills and a booming kick, Ayala-Quintero is what Medina calls a “box to box player, meaning he can cover from his own goalie box to the opponents’.
“He’s my quarterback,” said Medina of the 18-year-old.
It has all come pretty naturally for the 5-foot-9, 140-pound Ayala-Quintero who was introduced to the game by his father, Jaime Ayala-Quintero.
“Soccer is my passion,” he said. “It’s my escape, something I can do that distracts me from everything going on — it’s never boring.
“To get better I’ve tried to play against older and better players. It’s such an elegant sport. In club ball, I’ve played against older players to learn how to use my body against bigger and stronger opponents. Older doesn’t make them better, and I learn a lot doing that.”
He fully expected to be undefeated heading into the Division II playoffs where the Titans are top seeded. Eastlake is ranked No. 2 in the section by MaxPreps behind St. Augustine, which they will not play this year.
“It’s all about chemistry and the players on this team have been together a long time,” he said. “We’re friends. That’s why I came out, I wanted to play one year with all my friends on my high school team. Club is a little more serious, but they’re both fun.”
Ayala-Quintero believes his strength is his passing vision — he can see how a play is developing before most defenders realize what’s happening. Given the opportunity, he can score — he has two goals and four assists — but he prefers finding the open teammate on offense or quickly getting back on defense.
He plans to attend Saint Mary’s for at least two years and then decide if he might be better off going to Europe to further hone his skills for what he hopes is a professional career. He’ll major in business.
But first there are the playoffs to polish off his short-lived high school career.
Brand is a freelance writer.
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