University of San Francisco Athletics

San Francisco senior Miguel Aguilar has been one of the more impressive student-athletes on and off the field in his four seasons on the Hilltop. He has twice been named to the All-West Coast Conference second team, made last year's WCC All-Academic Team and was a preseason All-WCC First Team selection.
 
As he comes towards the end of his collegiate athletic career, he sat down to reflect on some of his experiences.
 
Now being one of the older members of the men's soccer team, how has your role on the team changed?
 
Miguel Aguilar: Being one of the older guys, having gone through this for three years now, you learn the ropes and you take new guys under your wing. They get frustrated about playing time and stuff like that. We saw it my freshman year. Kevin [Gould] was a guy that redshirted his freshman year and now he's our captain. Their time will come. I'm not a very outspoken guy but I like to let my playing and my work do the talking for me. That's my way of leading.
 
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YOUR COLLEGIATE CAREER YOU HAVE HAD TO CHANGE COACHES. HOW HAVE YOU ADJUSTED TO HEAD COACH EDDIE SOTO?
 
MA: It's definitely a completely different environment. From being used to the same things, change is always needed, not necessarily good or bad. It was a big adjustment for me because the past three years, I felt I had a lot of pressure and now I feel I have a freer role on the team.
 
I feel it's more of a collective team, less individualistic than it was before. I like that. He's very good at getting guys motivated and I think that was one of the big changes.
 
YOU HAVE SPENT THE LAST TWO SUMMERS PLAYING FOR THE SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC (2013) AND PORTLAND TIMBERS (2014) ACADEMY TEAMS. WHAT DID YOU TAKE FROM THOSE EXPERIENCES?
 
MA: I think my summer with the Sounders was probably one of the roughest patches I've ever had to go through. It was a good program and I became more mentally strong. I wasn't rostered, I wasn't playing. Practices were rough because I wasn't even in the first 18 guys and it's easy to get discouraged. I got out of my comfort zone, I wasn't on the main part of the team like I was used to being.
 
Carrying that throughout the season and into the next summer, where I actually got to play and I got to start, it gave me confidence that I was good enough to play with those guys that are up there. After going through such a hard summer the previous summer, it was all added up for me.
 
My favorite moment this summer had to be the All-Star Home Grown game. Playing in front of so many people against professionals with a group of really good young players was the highlight of the summer. It's an experience I'll never forget.
 
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT AT USF?
 
MA: One of my favorite moments was probably the day we all moved in our freshman year. Kevin [Gould] was the first guy I met and I didn't even know he was on the soccer team. I showed up here in front of Memorial Gym, saw this guy standing there and said, "Hey, do you know where Gillson [Hall] is?" He told me, "I have no idea." A couple of hours later, we were sitting in the same room. We didn't even know we were teammates at that time. Later on, we're all in the dorms, talking, hanging out and a week passes by and we're all friends. That's probably one of my favorite moments, the span of that week where we all bonded and became teammates and friends. These guys have been my best friends since then.
 
BALANCING ACADEMICS AND ATHLETICS IS NEVER AN EASY TASK YET YOU WERE BOTH AN ALL-LEAGUE AND ALL-ACADEMIC PERFORMER LAST SEASON. HOW DO YOU BALANCE THE TWO?
 
MA: It's more about discipline than anything. Willing yourself to get everything done when it has to be done and trying as much as you can to procrastinate and not to let things pile up. That's when you feel overwhelmed, that's when doubts start to creep in. Just taking it one thing at a time. I try to not let anything get too big. It's hard to tackle that way.
 
WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE TO GET AWAY FROM SOCCER AND HOMEWORK, WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO?
 
MA: More than anything, other than playing, I like to relax. I feel like I'm tired all the time. If I'm not doing homework, I'm playing, training or vice versa. Sometimes I just like to sit on the couch, put on a movie and just take a nap. That's probably my favorite thing to do.
 
THE TEAM HAS PLAYED WELL EARLY ON AND FEELS LIKE A TEAM THAT COULD RETRUN TO THE NCAA TOURNAMENT. WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS TEAM?
 
MA: In a way it is a different team but it has a lot of the same qualities that it did a year ago. The biggest difference is the mindset. Everybody has the mindset that we're good enough to play on par with any team and we're good enough to beat any team. We've talked about this a couple of times, there are games we have to grind out, there are games that we have to battle to the last second. Those are games we probably would have lost last year but this year everybody has that mindset that we're not losing, everybody is going to battle to the last minute.