Know your EagleNation: DeGrazia and Delgado

Photo by: Henoc Kivuye

 

Oklahoma Christian University’s soccer program brings new talent to the table each year, and this week’s top performers are no exception.

Juniors Domenico DeGrazia and Estefania Bermudez Delgado both came to Oklahoma Christian from outside the country, driven by their love for the game. Delgado, however, played previously for Division I Monmouth University – a place she and her sister could not quite settle into.

“We were trying to find a place we could have more impact to help the team,” Delgado said. “We weren’t as happy. It wasn’t what we expected. We came here, visited several schools and just fell in love here with not only the team, but the people.”

Estefania and her sister Areli reached out to Head Women’s Soccer Coach Randall Robison about playing for Oklahoma Christian.

After various interviews with Robison and Assistant Women’s Soccer Coach Neil Hilton, the sisters began the year as Lady Eagles – their quiet and persistent work ethic immediately making an impression on the coaching staff.

“You see a lot of their personality come out with their training and in their play,” Robison said. “I think they’re very, very disciplined and very professional. Practice starts at 4; to them, they hear that as ‘All right, we’re ready to play at 4.’ You can tell they’ve grown up with a soccer ball attached to them; they’re very technical.”

The sisters are so in sync that both Robison and Hilton tend to refer to them together instead of individually.

“They’re just simply nice girls – she’s just a very nice girl,” Hilton said. “It’s hard to say just Stef, because we just say both. They’re so together, it’s hard to kind of split them.”

Robison agreed that the two work well together.

“Sometimes you catch yourself sitting back watching them,” Robison said. “Not coaching or not managing, just watching. They’re just so incredibly comfortable with each other, with the ball, so sometimes it’s tough to separate them.”

Estefania Delgado follows close behind senior Somer Helms on the scoreboard, helping lead the team with two goals and three assists so far this season. Areli Delgado scored her own goal as well, alongside Helms in last week’s victory over Southwestern Christian University.

Though culture differs even from Oklahoma City to New Jersey, where she played last, Estefania Delgado notices America’s enthusiasm for college sports compared to Mexico’s the most. She spent her younger days training in Mexico’s women’s national under-17 team, in addition to winning four national titles with her high school Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Tamaulipas.

Culture differences are not all she has to deal with, however. Both the sisters are a long way from home, but discovered even distance could not stop their parents from getting behind them.

“In the beginning it was hard because we weren’t used to being so far away from home, away from my parents,” Estefania Delgado said. “It was what we wanted because we loved to play soccer; they’ve been supporting us all the way. They always know when we play, and what time … even though we are really far away, we are always together, if that makes sense.”

With such an influx of foreign talent coming to American teams from outside the United States, some squads find themselves plagued by problems of special treatment from the staff and players – something the Eagles did not come close to worrying about.

“We’ve had a handful of international kids, but I don’t know that you’d look at them any differently or treat them any differently or because of their culture, have to deal with them any differently,” Robison said. “They’re really, really great girls, and from that I don’t think they’ve ever walked into a situation needing special attention or needing special treatment, and so from that we don’t have to give them any different treatment than we would any other player.”

Hilton agreed, attributing the team’s cohesiveness in a large part to the girls’ influence. Above all that, he said, their example of conduct and skill drives the team to improve as well.

“They’re good girls – I agree with Neil,” Robison said. “If that’s the only thing people know about them, they’re good to go.”

On the men’s side, DeGrazia currently leads the Eagles with seven goals and two assists. The native Venezuelan played previously at C.S. Bolivar y G. Garibaldi School in Caracas, participating heavily in under-17 and under-20 farming system teams for a first division team.

“I could’ve gone pro, but this was my dream – to come and go to college,” DeGrazia said.

Thomas Anderson, DeGrazia’s friend and founder of University Sports Program, found Oklahoma Christian as one of the few potential schools that would let DeGrazia learn English while working to earn his degree.

“I didn’t know any English when I came here,” DeGrazia said. “I didn’t know any. I couldn’t communicate.”

The fall of 2010 found DeGrazia participating in the Language and Culture Institute’s intensive English program, unofficially practicing with the team when he was not writing essays in another language or doing finance – eventually engineering – homework. DeGrazia passed the program’s grueling final test, and was a ‘regular’ student by 2011.

“He’s a hard worker,” teammate sophomore Brandon Little Axe said. “That’s what I love more than anything in people, and it shows in the way he plays.”

After dealing with the isolation that comes with living in an area and not knowing the language around you, DeGrazia began growing roots. Traveling to different schools for games, he mostly notices the opportunities that come from Oklahoma Christian’s size.

“For some people it might get tiring, seeing the same people over and over, but when you come from another country not knowing the language, it’s such a helpful fact, that you can have that relationship with people,” DeGrazia said. “It’s such a small community that you actually feel like you’re at home with new friends. When they say OC is family, when you come from another country, you kind of realize why.”

Finding a new home with the men’s soccer team, DeGrazia began to become an integral part of the Eagles’ offense on the field and leadership off it. Little Axe noticed the shift his freshman year, and now that the team is playing Division II, the increased competition is just knitting the Eagles tighter together.

“He’s extremely friendly, I love the guy to death,” Little Axe said. “He’s a great player and a great guy. He’s always looking for us, we’re always looking for him; I think team chemistry’s at an all-time high.”

Estefania Delgado and DeGrazia, despite their different origins, both appreciate the sense of community so far away from home. Delgado in particular now looks for any way to help her newfound American family.

“Playing here with my sister, and now that we met this group of girls, they are like my family now too,” Delgado said. “They are like my family, each one of them; and just like my sister and I, I want to help them in everything I can.”