BROWNSVILLE — The Brownsville Hanna Golden Eagles’ soccer team is sending Jorge Pineda, another player from its 2021-2022 District 32-6A title team, to play college soccer.
Pineda will attend Austin College in Sherman, near the border with Oklahoma.
“I am exhilarated,” he said. “The school I am going to is a high-risk, high-reward situation. They have 32 players on the roster including me, so it is going to be a competition to play.”
Pineda is excited for the prospects of the competition before the season. He is hungry to continue his soccer career and grab a spot on the team.
He spent the past three years playing for Hanna. This year, Pineda played in the backline to help the Eagles lift a trophy. The senior said he had fun playing for Hanna and winning a title, and he hopes to win more at the next level.
The defender at Hanna is ready to go back to what he feels like is a more natural position on the pitch.
“I do not think my strength was in the backline,” he said. “But I was able to have the capabilities to help us win district this year and help us get far last year.”
Pineda prefers playing as a defensive midfielder so he can pick out a pass, something he was not able to do much in defense. He said his best trait is his passing.
The work is not yet done, Pineda said. He acknowledged it was hard to get to this point, especially during the recruiting process.
“I knew it was going to happen eventually, I just had to grind it out,” he said. “It is a process to be able to play college soccer, for anybody. It is difficult if you cannot instantly show if you are very talented, very few picked immediately. Everyone else has to grind out, emailing coaches and getting your film done.”
Pineda will go into Austin College as a computer science major, hoping to work in the tech industry one day. He hopes to be mentored by his uncle, who works in what Pineda called a booming tech industry.
This was the fourth signing from the Eagles’ soccer team this spring.
