Soccer, unlike basketball or football, is not a sport with a physical requirement. Lionel Messi, the greatest soccer player ever, stands at a lowly 5-foot-7. Pele, one of the best scorers of all time, is just one inch taller, at 5-foot-8.
Also standing at 5-foot-8 is Allen Gavilanes, who in 2017 became the second Marist player to ever win the MAAC Offensive Player of the Year. A midfielder raised in a Hispanic family from North Plainfield, New Jersey, Gavilanes recently signed a deal with Indy Eleven, a club in the second division of American soccer, the USL Championship. Gavilanes played at Marist from 2017 to 2019 and, although no titles were won, left a very strong impact.
Indy Eleven is one of the newer clubs in the USLC, but has a sterling reputation and competes consistently, as well as having some of the strongest fans in the country, including Major League Soccer clubs.
Being from a Hispanic family, he spent countless hours at his dad’s Sunday League games or in the backyard with his cousin. Wherever he was, Gavilanes could usually be spotted with a ball.
While playing for his high school in North Plainfield, Gavilanes struggled to attract the attention of colleges. One day, though, a scout from St. Benedict’s watched him and his team play. This led to an offer for him to transfer for his senior season, which he took.
“[St.] Benedict’s put me on a whole different platform,” he says. “If I never went to Benedict’s, I don’t know where I’d be.”
St. Benedict’s, who are 15-time national champions and won the New Jersey Non-Public A State championship in 2025, runs a very competitive program to prepare players for college and professional soccer. Players train daily in rigorous practices and treat every game like a championship.
“If you lose even one game, it’s as if your season’s over,” described Gavilanes.
During his senior year, in which his side finished as state finalists, Gavilanes was recruited by and committed to Marist. College was not always in the cards for the First Team All-State midfielder, who said that he and his family were unsure if he would be able to afford college without a scholarship.
Marist head coach Matt Viggiano and assistant coach Ricky Cusano worked with Gavilanes and his family to get the aid he needed, and in turn got the signature.
“[It] was a no-brainer for my family and me,” said Gavilanes about choosing Marist.
After committing, Gavilanes continued to play for his club team, Cedar Stars Academy. Cedar Stars have a national reputation of competing and winning tournaments, as they did in the Dallas Cup with Gavilanes. After that tournament win, many high-major schools began recruiting the North Plainfield product, but he remained committed to the Red Foxes.
“I had already committed, and I never regretted it,” he affirmed.
His impact at Marist was immediate. Gavilanes won the MAAC Offensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards, and was named to the All-MAAC First Team and Rookie Teams. He led the team in goals and assists, with eight and nine, respectively. Even more incredibly, Gavilanes entered Marist at just 17 years old and was undersized, barely standing at his fully-grown 5-foot-8.
The relationship he had with Viggiano before coming to Marist clearly translated when he officially enrolled. The two worked on having him be more confident on the ball, to demand it, and want to be the star.
“The freedom he gave me helped me so much,” Gavilanes said.
Gavilanes continued his hot form the next season, leading his team in assists with six and scoring five goals. These stats earned him another All-MAAC First Team award as well as an NCAA All-East Second Team spot.
Not only was he good on the field, though, but he was focused off of it. Gavilanes finished on the MAAC All-Academic team in both his sophomore and junior seasons.
His third year, in which he played and started a remarkable 19 games, Gavilanes put up seven goals and seven assists, including a five-game goal streak towards the end of the year. Against Saint Peter’s in November, Gavilanes became Marist’s Division I all-time assists leader, a very impressive feat in just 54 games.
Between seasons, as school let out and summer started, Gavilanes played for the New York Red Bulls’ Under-23 squad in the USL League Two, America’s fourth division. USL2, as it is known, features many Division I players every season, as it runs in the offseason and gives the players plenty of professional exposure and experience. Over his two seasons, Gavilanes logged 22 appearances and nearly 1,000 minutes, in which he scored twice from 19 shots and assisted three times.
One of the better aspects of playing for NYRB, who have since moved their U23 squad out of USL2 and into the recently created MLS Next Pro league, is the fact that it’s an MLS academy.
“[It was] a great environment under an MLS team. The standard was really high; we had a lot of big-time players there,” said Gavilanes.
Some of the larger names include Kevin O’Toole, who has made 80 appearances to date for fellow MLS club New York City FC, Brian Saramago, who’s played for clubs in Portugal and Slovenia’s second tier, and Omir Fernandez, who has bounced around MLS but played for the first team of three different teams.
Gavilanes was denied a senior season due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but he had not planned to play in it anyway. The midfielder lived off-campus that year and had already decided to leave the team to prepare for a professional career. He had had contact with varying MLS clubs, but in the end, the pandemic caused those discussions to close. Gavilanes did finish his studies, though, having taken summer and winter classes to ensure he would be able to complete his academic career without worrying about the impact on his professional career.
The professional contract did come, though, as he inked a deal with Greenville Triumph SC in April 2021. There, Gavilanes played under head coach John Harkes, a storied retired pro who made Premier League appearances for three different clubs and played in two World Cups for the United States.
Harkes and his staff invited Gavilanes to participate in their preseason before officially signing him, but when the young midfielder impressed, he was brought in. The impact was not immediate; it took more than half of the season before he got consistent, important minutes, but once they came, they never stopped.
“Slowly and slowly, I got the minutes I wanted and became a starter,”
Gavilanes also adjusted well despite his size, as he stands just below the male average height and a few inches below that of the average player in MLS. Instead of focusing on his size, which he knows is not a strength, Gavilanes works on his mind and tight technical skills.
“I feel like I make up for it with my technical ability,” he says. “I just try to be savvy and rely on the way I see the game.”
He spent three years at Greenville after racking up nearly 100 matches, eight goals and 18 assists. Gavilanes made it onto five Team of the Week squads, and Greenville made the playoffs in all three of his seasons.
Having reached the end of his contract, Gavilanes knew it was time to make a move up in the pyramid.
“I felt like I was ready to take that step forward,” he said.
That move did end up being to a higher league: The USL Championship. The USLC is the second division of American soccer, just below MLS. Although there is no promotion and relegation system active in America yet (that’s a debate for another time), the USL Championship is very highly regarded in the world of American soccer.
Gavilanes signed for Miami FC in 2024 on a one-year contract, but after an impressive first season, which included a Player of the Week award, he put pen to paper on another deal the year after.
Across two seasons in Miami and a higher league, Gavilanes scored and assisted six times each across 3,750 minutes in nearly 60 games. Although Miami did not qualify for the playoffs either year, Gavilanes’ impact was felt. His 57 total appearances nearly place him in the club’s top 10 all-time appearance leaders, as he sits at 12th.
Gavilanes’ second one-year deal expired, and he got a very intriguing offer. Indy Eleven, another club in the USLC, was interested. Gavilanes was immediately intrigued.
“[It’s a] higher standard; they have more history in the league,” he said. “A lot of people have a lot of good things to say. As soon as I heard they were interested, I was excited.”
Indy is led by another former pro in Sean McAuley. McAuley came up in the famed Carrington Manchester United academy and ended up as a journeyman across England’s lower levels. Since retiring, he has managed Sheffield Wednesday and Minnesota United, and is about to begin his third year in Indianapolis.
“He has a clear vision of the style he wants to play, and it’s simple: he wants to get more goals than the other team,” said Gavilanes about his very direct, attack-minded coach.
This deal is also a one-year contract, meaning Gavilanes will have to play well enough to earn a callback for next year and years beyond. The midfielder is not preoccupied with contract talks yet, though. For now, the goal is to show up in Indiana and perform as well as possible in the immediate, and make things happen on the field. The goal is obviously to win a championship, and Gavilanes believes that this year his team is primed to do so.
Edited by Ben Leeds
Graphic by Xavier Angel
Photos from Marist Athletics
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