Head coach Jesus Rodriguez (right) and Club President Diego Torres explain the way the tryouts work. Jose Medina/THE RIDER
The Men’s Club Soccer is set to continue tryouts from 5 to 7 p.m. today at the University Recreation Soccer Fields on the Edinburg campus.
Club President Diego Torres said the club is expecting about 50 people to try out.
“We have held tryouts multiple times,” Torres said. “What we did for these tryouts is on our Instagram account, we have a link that you click so you make a try-out form. That way we can know and expect how many people are going to try out.”
In order to join the club, you must be enrolled at UTRGV and have at least a 2.0 GPA to compete in the games.
The Rider asked Torres if there was a limit on the number of people who could join the club. He replied there is no limit.
Torres explained that there are two sides of the club. The competitive side that competes in tournaments and the recreational side that practices and plays friendly games.
“Maybe you don’t want to travel,” he said. “Maybe you don’t want to spend the money of the fee of the competitive side. So that way you can join the recreational. You can still practice with everyone. You can still be part of all the activities, just not the competitive games. So there’s no limit. We can have as many people as they come.”
Torres said the recreational side of the club has a yearly fee of $25, while the competitive side has a fee of $50.
“We also know that things happen, so we promote to members of the club that it doesn’t have to be, like, one payment,” he said. “Maybe you can pay, like, every month, or every week, so we don’t put them in the pressure of paying that amount of money right away.”
The club has previously played against other universities throughout Texas, as it is part of the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association.
“We’ve played against the [University of Texas at Austin] … [Texas Southmost College], [South Texas College] and Trinity [University],” Torres said.
Club Vice President Richmond Akwarandu said they will find games for the recreational side of the club to play in.
“They’re not just coming to practice just to practice,” Akwarandu said. “We’re trying to see if we can find games for them. … We’re still in the works for putting them in … like, a Sunday league or something and give them the equipment that they need.
“That way, they can just be involved coming to practice. That way, coaches can cater to them when it comes to Sunday league.”
Akwarandu said the club leadership wants to make sure everyone in competitive and recreational sections will have a game during the fall.
He reminds individuals looking to try out to bring equipment, cleats, water, white T-shirts and black shorts to make it easier to be identified in comparison with the colorful training vests.
Akwarandu also reminds students to fill out the online form to make things easier going forward with the tryouts.
Helping the club with training is its new head coach Jesus Rodriguez, a former UTRGV Club Soccer member who has previous experience playing for New Mexico State University, as well as coaching younger players.
The Rider asked Rodriguez if there was a limit to the number of players who can join the competitive side of the club. He said there was going to be a limit.
“I usually like to take 22,” Rodriguez said. “Just so I can have two in every position and, like, at least I can guarantee … everybody can play. But, yeah, so the limit’s 25.”
With this being his first semester as coach for the club, Rodriguez is ready to see what it is like to coach older players.
The schedule and try-out forms can be found on the club’s Instagram page, @utrgvmclubsoccer.
