Loredo’s Hispanic roots drive soccer career

Ivan Palacios | THE RIDER

Sergio Loredo Jr. remembers struggling to climb out of bed in the mornings growing up, as his dad woke him to get ready for soccer training. Loredo, now a graduate student at UTRGV, thinks back to those days and is grateful for his father pushing him.

“Apparently, when I was younger, my dad would always say I never wanted to wake up to play,” said Loredo, a forward for the UTRGV Men’s Soccer Team. “To be honest, he would force me when I was younger. But I’m glad he forced me because now I love it. I play every day and I’m always excited to go practice and play.”

He grew up watching Hispanic greats such as Cuauhtémoc Blanco and Giovanni Dos Santos play for the Mexican national team. While he idolized these athletes, Loredo took the most from his dad, whom he watched play soccer growing up. 

“He would always work hard at anything, not just playing, but all around in life,” he said. “He would always say you need to work. Basically, if you want something, you need to work for it. Whenever I’d watch him play, he’d always be running around everywhere and he’d be tackling people just getting the ball here and there. All around, that gave me messages to work for whatever I want.”

Thanks to his father pushing him, Loredo came out of high school as the No. 7 recruit in Texas. Following the end of his high school career, he chose to leave his hometown of Houston to continue his soccer career at UTRGV. 

Loredo credits the strong Hispanic culture and growth of UTRGV as some of the reasons for him choosing a school.

“I had never really been here, so when I visited [UTRGV], it was like, not home, but I fit into the culture because it’s Hispanic,” he said. “Obviously, it’s grown over the years. I’ve been here for five years now and, in those five years, I can tell the difference that the UT System brought in. It fit in with the culture. I can’t complain. It’s close to home.”

Loredo’s Hispanic roots run deep being the eldest son of Sergio and Lucy Loredo, who are from Mexico. Aside from his father pushing him to practice, Loredo was also driven by his parents to use soccer as a way to get an education. 

“My parents were always, like, you can get your school paid for if you play,” Loredo said. “They were pushing that, too, which I’m glad because now they can help out my brother and sister. It’s just, like, little things that go down the line. My little brother and sister can go to college now. They have more money for that. It’s just nice because they pushed school on all of us. That’s a big thing so you could go to the next part of your life. Now I can help them out specifically.” 

Last spring, Loredo made it his goal to use soccer as a way to get an education. This became a reality when he graduated from UTRGV with a Bachelor of Multidisciplinary Studies. In doing so, he became the first person in his family to get a college education. 

With a college degree now under his belt, Loredo is looking forward to life after soccer and is excited to see what the future of UTRGV holds as well. 

“We’re supposed to play in the spring, so I’m just excited to get that started and, hopefully, it does play out,” he said. “But just for the school in general I am very excited to see what’s in the future. I’ve been here for a couple of years now. I’m like an old man on campus. It’s nice to see where it leads to. And I’m excited to see in 10 years where it’s at.”

Loredo takes pride in being a Hispanic athlete at the collegiate level and hopes that his experiences can help other Hispanic athletes achieve their own dreams of playing collegiately.

“It feels nice,” he said. “There are, honestly, younger kids from Houston messaging me and asking me questions. My friends’ little brothers are asking me questions ’cause they know I’m in a D1 program. Obviously, as a younger kid you want to play as high as you can and be in school at the same time. 

“I get asked quite a few ‘What do I need to do?’ or ‘What’s something that you would recommend?’ and things like that. It’s nice because they do not look up to you, but they come to you for questions to figure things out. So, it makes me feel like I’m ‘the man’ sometimes. It’s just little things like that. It’s nice just to see people are thinking of you when they see something good. It’s nice to represent where I’m from.”

Going into what may be his final season at UTRGV, Loredo has begun to think about what life after soccer looks like for him. 

“I was looking at either franchising a business or maybe get some houses and fix them up and then flip them,” he said. “I have some buddies who do that in Houston and I actually just started working with one of them here. It’s nice, not in the short term but in the long term, what it could add up to be. Obviously, you have to work with the construction part, but I’m willing to do that. It’s something interesting to me.”