The Marist men’s soccer team has a bond no other team in the MAAC Conference can replicate; six of the 25 players share a youth club team, with five of them being freshmen who have all played together prior to Marist.
Five freshmen: winger/forward Eric Moroz, center midfielder Ben Mills, winger/forward Ronan Hogg, defender William Salivonchik and goalkeeper Samuel Amyot all played together for Players Development Academy (PDA) in Somerset, New Jersey.
Now, they suit up together in Poughkeepsie, helping the Red Foxes get off to an undefeated start, earning them their first Top 25 honors in program history.
“I’ve been at PDA since I was seven years old; I’ve never left. I never wanted to leave. It was like a second home to me. I’ve been through many coaches, and they’re all my favorite coaches I’ve ever had. The way they develop players. That’s what they care about there,” said Mills.
Similar to Mills, Salivonchik also spent a good portion of his career with the club, five years to be exact, after competing with Lehigh Valley United (LVU). He noted the difference in competitiveness, coaching and collegiate exposure between the two clubs.
Unlike Mills and Salivonchik, Moroz played the majority of his soccer career outside of PDA. He dedicated about a decade to SC Vistula, noting the exposure and general player improvements he experienced after making the shift.
“What sets it apart is it’s a lot more exposure, especially on the college level,” Amyot said. “It’s less of you go play, you try your hardest, try to win games and more you develop and try to be seen by college coaches.
As for Hogg, he enjoyed the opportunities the American academy brought him upon going stateside as a native of Belfast, Ireland.
“[PDA] gave me opportunities that I never thought I would get within the game, [like] playing in college,” said Hogg. “I never thought of it once until I joined PDA. It definitely opened doors for me.”
Whether motivated by their coach, improving their game or earning looks from schools, the group made sacrifices in order to reach this elite level. With the exception of Mills, all of their commutes constituted a 30-mile or greater drive each way. Hogg traveled over 40 miles from Rumson, Moroz traveled nearly 55 miles from Wallington, and Salivonchik crossed state borders on his nearly 60-mile commute from Nazareth, Pennsylvania.
Amyot constantly experienced traffic, particularly on I-287, on his 30-mile drive from Holmdel to Somerset; thus, he spoke to the tolls, both physical and mental, that constant traveling had on him.
The dedication also required the players to miss out on other aspects of life, including social and academic, but “the commute was something that we all knew was worth it in the end, so we were all fine doing it,” said Amyot.
This dedication paid off for Moroz, as he only started to hear from college coaches once he switched to the PDA and got more exposure.
“Playing at [SC] Vistula, I don’t think I got a single college call, nothing,” said Moroz. “I was there for like all my life, and as soon as I went to PDA, even after my first game, I had three college calls right after the game,” said Moroz.
Regardless of when the calls came or where they came from, all five answered the same one: a call anchored by head coach Matt Viggiano of Marist University, now in his 19th year with the program. The 2021 MAAC Coach of the Year and his staff appeal to recruits with the effort they put into them.
“They were at every single game we played.”
Ben Mills
Mills recalled a PDA trip he and his eventual teammates went on last year, the California Fest event (also known as the MLS Next Fest), located nearly 2,750 miles away from Poughkeepsie in Indio, California. They attended all three games, watching every minute of play.
“That was when [they] recruited these guys as well,” said Mills. Mills committed first in the group, followed by Hogg, Salivonchik and Moroz. Amyot committed after graduating from high school in July.
“On my visit, they kept saying ‘oh yeah, Ben’s here… we’re still recruiting other PDA kids,’ so I’m like ‘that’d be really cool seeing my friends again and playing at the same college,’” said Moroz.
Viggiano and the coaching staff also attended the club’s first playoff game and asked Mills about the talent from next year’s class, continuing the narrative of talent flowing from PDA to Marist.
This interest, paired with the sight of the campus and relative proximity to home, propelled the group to Poughkeepsie. Everyone in the group lives within 150 miles of the campus, allowing their families to watch their home matches in person.
“I knew that this team was younger, so they have a lot of potential,” said Salivonchik. Another thing that was important too was having the opportunity to play first year for me.”
Both of these came to fruition through the first six matches for Salivonchik. Marist held a 4-0-2 record entering conference play, and Salivonchik played 486 of a potential 540 minutes in non-conference play (90%), starting every game.
Like PDA, Marist plays a pass-first game, primarily intending to move the ball around. Most especially in this type of scheme, everyone on the field must know one another and their playstyles well. Growing up together accomplishes this goal perfectly.
“Playing with these guys throughout my PDA career, I knew what runs they were going to make. I knew when to make a run. When you build time with each other playing-wise, you get to know each other and what their best attributes are when making runs,” said Hogg.
Though fans may focus on the athletic play of student-athletes, the athletes must also adjust to college life for the first time. Most athletes move away from home for the first time, where they must live an independent life, knowing nearly nobody on campus, and learn to grow new relationships with their teammates and peers.
Luckily for the PDA freshmen, they enjoyed an easier transition to Marist because they had one another to rely on.
“All of us were probably nervous coming into our freshman season. Having these PDA friends around made us more comfortable. Seeing familiar faces allowed us to get into the team easier,” said Moroz.
Though greater in number, the freshmen who played together at PDA are not the only set of teammates on the Red Foxes with a common club team. Junior defender Ethan Ortiz, sophomore defender/winger Evan Marques and junior midfielder Kyle Evans all played for New York Red Bulls Academy, a similar club to PDA.
“I always felt like Red Bull was an extension of PDA and vice versa. A lot of kids came and went from both clubs, so they would go from PDA to Red Bull and Red Bull to PDA,” said Amyot. “We all have that connection because even though we didn’t know them personally, it’s a similar play style.
For the first time since at least 1999, the Red Foxes entered conference play without a loss. Of the 26 players on the roster, 17 are underclassmen, with 11 freshmen. Under the guidance of Viggiano, Marist will look to further develop its program powered by Players Development Academy.
Edited by Sierra Fisher and Ben Leeds
Photos from Marist Athletics
Graphic by Quinn DiFiore
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