TEDDY COBO
Special to The Leader
There have been many candidates who were eligible for the position of president of the men’s club soccer team at Fredonia. But, during the Fall 2020 semester, there was one candidate who stood out from the rest: Vincent Alesi. In 2020, Alesi was appointed president of the team.
Alesi was born on Feb. 13, 2001 in Long Island, N.Y. Vincent went to high school at Locust Valley in Locust Valley, N.Y. . Alesi found the passion for soccer when he was a child, and has been playing the sport since he was 6 years old. His family watched the sport as well throughout his adolescent years.
Alesi loves watching the Italian Premier League (Serie A) and became inspired to play the sport at Fredonia. Alesi’s position on the soccer field is left defensive back (LB). Alesi is an aggressive defender, which makes it hard for strikers to win any air duel against him.
When speaking about his defensive abilities, Alesi said, “It’s always a great feeling once you clear the ball out and disrupt the opponent’s attack. I get on the field to do my job as a defender, and I feel driven every time I interfere with the opponent’s attack.”
Alesi said that he would consider playing at the varsity level for college.
“I’d love to … When I first came to Fredonia, academics were everything to me and I wanted to do my very best and put my full focus on school. Joining the club team made playing the sport more manageable along with keeping my academics up,” Alesi said. “After all these years, I have had conversations with myself [about] if I were to attempt to try out for the varsity team, we’ll see. [But], one thing for sure is that I will never stop playing the game.”
In Fall 2019, Alesi was a freshman on the club soccer team and became a part of the starting 11 fairly quickly.
“Trying out for the club team was definitely harder than I expected,” Alesi said. “There were many great players and half of the team had players that were on the varsity team at one point but ended up dropping down to the club division.”
Alesi also said, “Seeing the intensity in practices and the will to win from my teammates at the time only made me want to work harder to earn a position on the team where my performances can make a positive impact on the pitch.”
In addition to Alesi, there were a couple of other teammates that started on the team back in 2019. Senior teammate and starting striker Jovan Opacic reflected on his postive experiences with Alesi.
“Playing with Vincent is an honor,” Opacic said. “… When the team needs a leader, he’s the one to speak up and motivate the team in any possible situation. He is truly inspirational to the rest of the team.”
Alesi said, “I was so happy to take on the position. I have had so many ideas for practices and preparations for games in the coming season. I would like to continue playing in our official league season and finally be part of a league since we haven’t been in one in a while prior to this season. I can’t wait to push the club team to compete at the highest level to really showcase our skills as individuals and as a team as well.”
As everything seemed to be on track leading into 2020, one factor that unexpectedly affected the team and future performances at the time was the start of the pandemic. To this day, there are still many clubs throughout the school that are experiencing the repercussions of the pandemic.
“When [COVID-19] hit, it was really hard for us. [Soccer is a team sport], [so] it was really hard to set up practices and games when you really weren’t supposed to be around other people,” Alesi said. “From students graduating, to some players just not showing up to practices, we lost many players throughout that period of time. We at times didn’t have enough people at practices and this made it really tough for us as a team to keep on running.”
Alesi and several other players still found ways to attend private practices together, even if that meant needing to wear masks. Throughout these tough past few years, Alesi and the team have come together as one.
“After all these tough months we are finally part of a league where we will compete against several local colleges around us such as the University of Buffalo, Niagara University, SUNY Brockport, Cortland and others. This can be a time where we can really put Fredonia back on the map when it comes to sports,” Alesi said. “ … I am excited to see how the team will perform in the upcoming season.”
As the season starts soon, the men’s team has had months of preparation for the upcoming season. The team is ready to showcase their skills and compete.