For Marist men’s soccer freshman attacker Ronan Hogg, soccer has always been a part of life. It was not until he moved to the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, though, that the sport became a gateway to opportunities and experiences that shaped his high school career, ultimately leading him to Poughkeepsie and the Red Foxes.
Growing up as an only child in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Hogg developed a strong foundation in the game early, but with a surprising twist: no one in his family really played soccer, despite the sport’s popularity in the country.
“My parents told me that as soon as I could walk, I always just wanted to play the game,” Hogg said. “Growing up in Ireland definitely helped push my passion for the game.”
He also played golf and tennis growing up, but his dream was to play soccer at the highest level. At the same time, his mother, originally from the United States, wanted to move back to be closer to her family. Hogg often spent summers in the U.S., and during those visits, the idea of living across the pond took root.
“My mom started to get really homesick of missing New Jersey, missing America, missing her family,” said Hogg. “She would hint to [my dad and I] she wanted to move back.”
The COVID-19 pandemic solidified the move, and the family moved to the U.S. in 2020, settling in Rumson, N.J. Hogg felt nervous about moving thousands of miles from his friends, his family and the place he had spent his whole life. His father, whose family lived in Ireland and ran a concrete business, also felt hesitant about the move.
Despite the nerves, Hogg found the U.S. very welcoming and used soccer to connect with people in his new hometown, where he made the varsity team as a freshman at Rumson-Fair Haven High School and helped lead the team to a state championship in 2021. His success continued in 2022 when he won the Golden Boot with 11 goals and five assists.
The Hoggs knew that a move to the U.S. might present their son with new opportunities not found in Ireland, but many challenges and surprises still lay ahead. One of them was that people in the U.S. show less interest in soccer than those in Europe.
“People just didn’t care for it. [They] would kind of laugh at it,” he said. “In Ireland, it was like even people that didn’t play soccer, they would either watch it, or they would even just play it at break time, at lunch time and just kick around with friends.”
While this was an adjustment, Hogg feels soccer has gained respect and popularity in the U.S., based on his own experiences and conversations with players here.
“The biggest adjustment [was] definitely just being away from home [and] my best friends, my closest people to me,” he added.
In addition to cultural differences and homesickness, Hogg also had to adjust to a different style of schooling and classroom academics, as Irish schools are stricter and more orderly than U.S. schools. He also had to adapt to a new style of play on the field.
“From a very young age [in Ireland], kids get into academies, and they develop skills a lot quicker, whereas over here it kind of takes a bit for people to join the academies,” Hogg said. “…in Ireland, you’re like five years old, and you’re getting professionally coached about the right technique.”
Despite differences in the timeline for learning the sport, Hogg views American athletes as more athletic compared to their overseas counterparts.
“I would say the kids are often more athletic, usually sometimes when I’m 16 or 17 playing in New Jersey, I can come up against a 6-foot-5 guy that just like can jump very, very high and all that sort of thing,” he said. “But I would say in Ireland a lot of kids had a lot better technique.”
A key aspect of Hogg’s path to playing at the Division I level was his experience at the MLS Next Side Player Development Academy (PDA), which he joined during his sophomore year of high school. Several of his teammates from PDA later committed to play alongside him at Marist, and his experiences playing with them were instrumental in shaping him as both a player and a person.
“I would definitely say at PDA I learned what it took just to play a good game of soccer, not to completely just win the game… it definitely made me the player I am today, and I’m so grateful for it,” he said.
During his time at PDA, Hogg won the FLEX league in his first year with the club and helped lead them to a 2024 Next Cup run, scoring 12 goals. PDA made it to the round of 16 after defeating CF Montreal thanks to a crucial goal from Hogg. Even today, he cites his coach at PDA, Tyler Stakiwicz, who is currently an assistant coach at Rutgers, as a significant influence on his soccer journey.
“He’s very close with the coaches here… Coach Viggiano, Coach Cusano, Coach Esposito, and me and him are pretty close, and he knew that this was the right fit for me. He was thrilled that I was talking to [Marist].”
Hogg’s presence at PDA enabled him to begin receiving attention from college coaches at schools like UPenn and Villanova, both with top academic programs. However, his high school grades were not strong enough to play at those schools because he never really had college athletics on his radar.
“The big reason for that was I didn’t know what I wanted to do with the game, I didn’t know that college [soccer] was a big thing,” Hogg said.
Hogg had his first college call with Cornell and eventually visited Villanova while scheduling several other visits, but everything changed when he visited Marist in November 2024 and saw the school’s opportunity to offer him both a strong academic and athletic experience. Fellow PDA teammate Ben Mills had committed to Marist over the summer, and Hogg had already talked to the school at that point.
He intended to visit after PDA’s national showcase in California, but assistant coach Ricky Cusano and the rest of the Marist coaching staff saw potential in him, so much so that they wanted him to visit earlier. This urge, along with a positive visit, solidified Hogg’s choice to commit to Marist.
“[The Marist coaches] told me it was up to me. That’s when I kind of felt a spark of joy,” Hogg said. “These guys actually want me and actually care for me. That’s a big reason why I chose Marist.”
After some bumps in the road, Hogg officially committed to the Red Foxes in January, 2025 and went on his official visit in May. While he felt prepared athletically, attending high school in the U.S. helped him prepare for the academic side and his decision to pursue a degree in business as a student-athlete.
“[College is] more dependent on you and your free time of what you do with the lectures that you learned from, whereas in high school, there was a lot of busy work,” Hogg said. “But that definitely prepares you for college.”
In his first season at Marist, the Red Foxes had a turbulent season in which they went from ranked 17th in the country to missing the MAAC Conference playoffs. For Hogg, who did not see the field during the season, there is still much more to accomplish on and off the field.
“I just want to win, I want to play as much as I can. I’m a winger, I’m a striker, I like to score goals, I like to assist, so whenever those are available, I’ll be a lot happier,” Hogg said. “Academically, my goals are to get a good degree and hopefully a master’s somewhere else,” he said.
For a team built with underclassmen — the Red Foxes had 11 freshmen on their roster — Hogg represents a potential piece of the future despite not seeing the field in 2025. From Belfast to Rumson to Poughkeepsie, his journey across the pond may have found a stopping point, but his journey on the field and in the classroom remains unfinished.
Edited by Max Rosen and Ryan Eichem
Graphic by Xavier Angel
Photo via Marist Athletics
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