Rio Hondo Men’s Soccer player, Eric Alejandro Maldonado Garcia, sophomore, has played two years for the Roadrunners. After completing this final season as a defender, Maldonado has been accepted to play soccer at Ottawa University, a Private Institution in Kansas.

Graduating from Monrovia High School in 2012, Maldonado, played soccer since he was six-years-old (making it about fourteen years of playing.)

Maldonado, received loads of experience playing for leagues outside of school, “I played in clubs for three years, when I was thirteen, fourteen, and seventeen. In middle school I played a total of three years as well, then in high school I played four years of Varsity.”

When asked who motivates him to succeed at the sport, he states, “A person who would motivate me is my family of course. A person who really helped me through this process is my Coach, ‘Javi.’ He motivated me a lot, my second year was rough…I didn’t play as much but he helped me in the process to transferring.”

Maldonado talks about his past two seasons with Rio Hondo saying, “My first year I started almost every single game. Second year came there was more competition, I didn’t really get playing time. I thought about quitting but I talked to the Coaches, and Coach ‘Javi’ helped me stay. He told me to go through with it and I learned a lot, not just as a player but as a person.”

Majoring in Psychology, Maldonado plans to focus on his major and continue working on his Bachelors.

When Maldonado talks about his decision on attending an out of state University, he says, “I wanted something new, I know there’s a lot of school’s out here I could have tried out for but I wanted something new and they gave me a good offer; I just felt like everything out there was best for me.”

Maldonado was given the opportunity to try out on the campus and talks about his visit saying, “I played with all the players already, actually one of the players is a former player here, and he told me they needed defenders so I went out there. The coaches are nice people, I like their style of play and their ideas because they all broke it down to me.”

After being asked about his teammates Maldonado says, “I became close to the players, still to this day. I still play at least twice a week with them.”

In two years Maldonado hopes to graduate with his bachelors and try to gain a career that involves his major.