The men’s soccer team has six wins and seven losses this season as they fight their way to the playoffs with hopes of winning the NJCAA Region IV Tourney. 

Competitor Jason Fuentes is No. 6 on the pitch, and he believes with great confidence a tournament win this season is going to happen. 

Coming out of Bensenville, Ill Fuentes played soccer all four years during his time at Fenton High School and is now playing as right back in .his second year of ball at COD. He hopes to pivot from the community college level into his dream of playing soccer with a DI team. 

As he started playing from the age of four, Fuentes quickly developed a passion for the sport by his love for taking on new challenges and demonstrating on that field he’s got what it takes. 

“I’m really a competitive person. I play it with everything. I give 110%,” Fuentes said.  “The passion I have for the sport, I just love it.” 

It’s been essential for the team to create powerful strategies of knowing what they’re going to do next at every stage of the game. Having a calculated battle plan prepared for what’s about to happen on the pitch “in every single play,” Fuentes said. 

“To know what you’re doing when you do and don’t have the ball” and to always have some form of “awareness” has been key for a top notch performance.   

Players on the team like Fuentes have kept a certain mentality, regardless if they’re on the field for a practice or a game.  

“You put in the work, and even though you don’t know what’s going to happen, believing in yourself is the most important thing,” Fuentes said. “I believe hard work beats talent all the time.” 

In Fuentes’ last year playing soccer at Fenton High School in 2019, he tore his meniscus on his right knee ultimately stopping him from participating throughout the rest of his final season. 

Then graduating in 2020 right out of the COVID-19 pandemic Fuentes ended up taking a gap year, questioning what school he was going to go to or if he was even going to continue playing soccer. 

Fuentes took those troubling times and turned them into an opportunity for him to come back “stronger and better” as he needed time for his recovery. 

“It was definitely a difficult situation, but I really tried to use it to my benefit,” Fuentes said.  

These past experiences of injury have motivated and inspired Fuentes to pursue a career in physical therapy. 

With 4 games left in the fall 2022 season, Fuentes is confident that the team will succeed in winning the NJCAA Region IV Tourney at the end of the season.