www.montereycountynow.com JUNE 12-18, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 21 There are many hours of sweating in solitude, practicing repetitive drills in the life of a pro soccer player. Apart from the moments some dream of—stepping into a stadium illuminated by floodlights, surrounded by thousands of people cheering for you or your team, fans trying to grab your attention to get a photo— most of the work is unglamorous. Few soccer players will experience the glamorous highs in their life. For a select few who make it professionally, it is a testament that their talent and hard work has paid off. Adrian Rebollar, 25, a midfielder for Monterey Bay FC, is a Watsonville native. Many local soccer fans have seen him play since he was a little kid. “I grew up in this area so I get to see a lot of friends, meet a lot of people that are close to where I was born and where I was raised,” Rebollar says. While enjoying the spotlight is part of the job, there are different factors including talent, discipline and family support that help players make it to the big leagues. Rebollar’s first memory with soccer is playing at Ramsay Park in Watsonville. “I remember my dad used to tell me for every goal that I scored, he would give me $5 or $10,” Rebollar says. “After that I would use the money and get some ice cream from the paletero.” Rebollar says family support has been key to achieving his professional career from those early days until now. During his first season with the team, his parents and sister showed up to every home game with signs and MBFC’s flag to cheer for him. “I think they’re just as excited as me to come out here on game days,” Rebollar says; he always looks for them in the crowd. Pros say that “making it” comes from a combination of factors. Some are the player’s responsibility, including discipline and skills. Others are about having a strong support system around them, from coaches and fellow players to family members. In part, the path to pro is a family affair. Parents invest time, money and emotional support every time their kids step onto the field. Off the field, there’s carpooling to practices and games (especially demanding for players on traveling teams), and fundraising. Rebollar is playing professionally this season alongside other local players including Pierce Gallaway from Carmel and Joel Garcia Jr., a Salinas native who signed with MBFC this year. All three remember a time, not that long ago, that their parents would drive them back and forth to practices and games because they were not old enough to drive. The path to pro was a little different for each of them, but there are familiar patterns. They started playing at an early age, signing up with a local youth recreational team and later on climbing the ladder joining teams that offered better training and structure similar to that of a professional league. Rebollar says he wanted to be part of a team since he was little, and he saved his birthday money for that purpose. When he was in kindergarten he remembers telling his mom: “I have the money for the registration, so sign me up.” For Garcia, on the other hand, soccer didn’t have a lot of appeal. “When I was 4 or 5, my dad would always try to get me involved in soccer because my older brother was already playing at the time,” he says. But his reaction was negative: “I hated it. I never wanted to play soccer, get near soccer.” He made a deal with his dad and told him he could sign him once he turned 6. And right on time, on his 6th birthday, his dad signed him up to join a team. Garcia says the first day he played in denim jeans and regular tennis shoes. He felt a little out of place until he saw one of his friends. “Once I started playing with the ball, I was like, ‘this is pretty fun.’ I fell in love with [soccer]. Ever since, I’ve been obsessed,” Garcia says. Gallaway was an active kid growing up and once he touched the ball, that was it. “I never really gave anything else too much of a shot,” he says. “[Soccer] just drew me instantly and I never really looked back.” Growing up, Gallaway attended several Earthquakes games in San Jose and watched his favorite player, David Beckham, on TV. Neither Rebollar nor Gallaway played on a high school team; both attended Santa Cruz Breakers, a soccer academy. Garcia enrolled at Alisal High instead of Salinas High (using his aunt’s address) to make sure he would play for the Trojans. It was the team his older brother Mauricio played for and at the time, the team was ranked first in the California Interscholastic Federation Central Coast Section, ninth in the state and 30th in the country. While Garcia played for the Trojans, they won their first NorCal title in 2018. Rebollar and Garcia also played for El Camino Football Club Salinas, a traveling soccer team under the nonprofit Monterey County Soccer Club. “I’m not surprised he made it, to be honest with you. He had all the tools. He had the emotional discipline, the mental skills,” says Garcia’s former coach, Mark Cisneros. (Cisneros is now the soccer coach for Alisal High School and Monterey Peninsula College.) Local soccer players have different opportunities to showcase their talents; at high school games, club games (ECFC Salinas is part of the Elite Clubs National League) and during national and international tournaments, like Copa Chivas in Guadalajara, Mexico. Local coaches reach out to scouts from professional teams or they show up to games to check out local talent. Garcia was recruited for the San Jose Earthquakes Academy after the Trojans faced their biggest rivals, the Everett Alvarez Eagles. A scout for the Quakes was watching other players, but Garcia was one of the players who got their attention. “I just play freely—I try to play to the best of my ability and just let God take over,” Garcia says. Playing in the Quakes academy was eye-opening. Garcia says the quality, speed and strength were different than any team he’d played on before. “You see that there’s levels of soccer for sure,” he says. According to a 2023 report from the International Federation of Association Football, or FIFA, “I WAS PLAYING REALLY WELL, AND DOORS JUST STARTED TO OPEN.” DANIEL DREIFUSS
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