By: Gabriella Gonzalez

Anthony Gonzalez may be a soccer player, but it is because it’s in his blood. He spent 3 years in Santiago, Chile playing for a club team during High School.

University of Utah student Anthony Gonzalez is a student athlete, part-time employee, husband and full-time student who is studying business.

Anthony Gonzalez has been a player for the U of U Men’s soccer club for the past three years.

He said he finds it challenging being a student and an athlete because you have to balance family, school and soccer.

“Soccer is fun, but I know that it’s not the most important thing in life,” Gonzalez said,

Gonzalez has been playing soccer for most of his life. He is 25 years old, but he has been playing soccer for 19 years.

“My favorite part of the game is that it takes me back to my childhood,” he said.

Julie Gonzalez, Anthony’s mother and loyal game attendee, dedicates so much time to watching her son play soccer.

“I love to watch Anthony enjoy himself and have fun while playing soccer,” Julie Gonzalez said. “Anthony has so much finesse and is pretty to watch.”

Julie Gonzalez has watched Anthony Gonzalez play soccer all his life. She has noticed how he has changed as a player.

“Anthony has changed overtime by being more confident and comfortable,
she said. “He has always been skillful and had leadership qualities.”

The New York Times article, “It’s Not an Adventure, It’s a Job,” by Bill Pennington, had a quote from Tim Poydenis that said, “most of us are nonrevenue-sport sport athletes who have to do our own fund-raising just to pay for basics like sweat pants and batting gloves. We miss all these classes, which obviously doesn’t help is or make our professors happy. We give up almost all of our free time.”

Anthony Gonzalez can relate to this quote because he says that it is hard balancing life sometimes when you have sports taking up a lot of your time.

Coach of the U of U Men’s soccer team, Nelson Gonzalez, is proud of his team for making this sacrifice of time to play the sport.

Nelson Gonzalez has coached the team for two years, and he has coached other soccer teams for 20 years and he played soccer for 15.

Nelson Gonzalez said one of his favorite things about coaching the U team is the “association with good young men and the pleasure of seeing the team play like I want them to.”

Nelson Gonzalez is also Anthony Gonzalez’s father. He has watched his son play soccer for 19 years. Nelson Gonzalez said that he is proud of his son’s passing skills.

“Anthony always takes care of the ball and his accuracy is very high. Anthony makes simple and not so simple effective passes,” Nelson Gonzalez said “But one of his weaknesses would be is pure speed. He is not the fastest of players, but could be if he worked at it.”

Anthony Gonzalez says the hard work pays off.

“Even though it’s hard to balance soccer, family, and work,” he said, “it is all worth it in the end because it brings me happiness.”

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Filed under: Student-Journalists | Tagged: club team, husband, Men's Soccer, soccer, Student Athlete, University of Utah |