St. Patrick accepts challenge
to maintain its high standards
By Patrick Z. McGavin
At Hoffman Estates High School during the first weekend of November 2019, Joshua Torres worked his own brand of magic.
Watching him is something special, the savvy, the moves, the presence on the ball, the ability to control and shape so much of the action.
He performs his magic without the benefit of the physical freakishness of a LeBron James. He is subtle and subversive, the one who attacks from within and does so much to bend the game to his side.
He starred on the biggest stage of the season, but it was not quite enough. The two nights folded on each other, ostensibly mirror actions.
The agile and explosive talent exhibited many of the best qualities of the game: he was humble and giving; he was also a competitor.
A forward at St. Patrick, Torres scored a lot of goals, including the final four of the 2018 season: two each in the semifinal and the third place game that ended the Shamrocks’ magical season.
A brilliant year concluded on a bittersweet note as the Shamrocks (25-4-3) went 0-2 at the Class 3A state tournament and finished fourth.
Torres finished the season with 40 goals and 19 assists.
“Not all the time is the game going to go the way you want,” said Torres, speaking more than a year after that game. “We wanted to win a state championship.
“We felt last year was our season to win one.”
Context is important. The cruelty of the ending could not dampen the significance of the larger achievement.
A two-time Chicagoland Soccer All-State selection, Torres is one of the most decorated players of his generation. He scored a combined 72 goals in his sophomore and junior seasons.
His career totals are beyond impressive He's amassed 80 goals and 55 assists; during that three-year time frame St. Patrick has gone 72-14-5.
Scoring goals is a talent, especially at that prodigious rate. Torres has finished with a skill that is natural and inherited. His work has played out in the framework of the team’s wider accomplishments.
“I have been around great players, and they gave me great assists,” he said. “With my team, they gave me better or easier opportunities to score.”
Torres personified the rise of a program that made winning a constant. He arrived at the school in the late summer of 2017. St. Patrick had won just 17 games combined the three previous years.
Joining an ambitious and precocious group, Torres made an instant impression with eight goals and a team-best 21 assists as St. Patrick advanced to the state finals for the first time in school history in Class AA.
That team won a school-record 23-games and captured a fourth place trophy.
“I already knew a lot of the guys who were there when I got to St. Patrick,” Torres said. “I felt I could help them out, and they could help me.
“They already knew how to play the game, and I felt, if I joined, they would help me to win more games.”
St. Patrick recorded one of the best three-year runs this millennial.
November, 2019, will go down in history. Since the pandemic start, it marks the last time Illinois high school soccer games were officially played. West Chicago beat Morton 2-0 in the final game, the Class 3A state championship match in an electric, sold-out stadium.
Due to the pandemic, the IHSA cancelled the girls’ season last spring.
Last summer, the IHSA, in consultations with Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Health, classified soccer as a medium-risk sport.
The boys normal fall season was pushed to the modified spring season, with the girls’ season scheduled for the special summer calendar session.
Illinois high school sports remain an open text. On December 2, following a meeting of its Board of Directors, the IHSA said sports are next scheduled to resume in January, 2021.
Torres and the rest of his teammates are planning for a February 15 start date to tryouts, a two-week training schedule and then beginning of a compressed schedule on March 1.
“At the moment, I have not really seen the guys,” Torres said. He had been training with the Fire Academy team. Even that had been scuttled by the pandemic.
In the fractured times and uncertainty of the moment, the promise of a new season is a moment worth rejoicing.
The two architects of the Shamrocks’ rise—coaches Kyle McClure and Melchor Castro—are girding up for the next stage of their grand plan.
“We did as much as we could during the summer,” McClure said. “We were able to have some open gyms and some other sessions.
“We haven’t done as much over the last few months. We have really encouraged our varsity players to play club club soccer. Even if there weren’t games, they were able to train two, three or four times a week.
“They are in good shape.”
St. Patrick graduated six starters, including three-time Chicagoland Soccer All-State defender Jonathan (Pollo) Rodriguez and All-Staters Aaron Moreno and LuisAngel Saucedo.
The Shamrocks scored a school-record 128 goals last year, averaging four tallies per game. Sixteen players scored at least one goal last year.
Ten of those 16 players back.
Senior forwards Jaden Buelvas and Sebastian Estrada are quick, athletic scorers and shot creators in their own right. Buelvas had 15 goals and six assists. Estrada finished with 12 goals and five assists last year.
Three of the top five scorers are back.
“The seniors we lost were a great group of guys, and they were all talented and did great things,” Estrada said. “The 2021 class has a special group of attack.
“Our offense will definitely be one of the strongest in the state. Losing those seniors is obviously going to hurt, but there is nothing but other players who are going to step up and fill the role.”
Estrada and Buelvas each were identified as Chicagoland Soccer Watch List players for their class.
Buelvas spent his first two years of high school in Germany, where his father was stationed with the armed services. Returning to Chicago and taking part in the rising St. Patrick program was a jolting experience.
He is ready to continue the run.
“I am extremely excited to see our new team,” he said. “I played with some of them here and there, in pickup games and stuff like that.”
The departures of some very talented players was hard to watch.
He also acknowledged that is the nature of the beast in high school soccer. He sees instead the expanding opportunities, and the chance to optimize his skill set in the fast and explosive attack McClure and Castor have put in place.
Even when top teams return a solid foundation, nothing ever stays exactly the same.
“I think my role is going to change, and I think I have to step it up a little,” Buelvas said. “We lost our two center midfielders with Aaron and Angel (Adame).
“We have to take care of that part of the field and create that same bond that we had the past couple of years.”
McClure and Castro have pushed the notion of positionless players; the team is more a symphony of interchangeable parts. Only five of the 25 players on last year’s roster were technically listed as defenders, for example.
That doesn’t mean a lot in their formation. Even Torres will push into the back if necessary. Senior Jorge Cebrero, who started 29 games last year, is back as a keeper.
He gave up, on average, just over one goal a game. That figure is a bit misleading. St. Patrick played at such a hellacious pace that it tended to give up a lot of shots.
Cebrero is gifted: athletic; quick; and dynamic in space. He has demonstrated great reaction movements, anticipation and the ability to read the game.
His backup, junior Bryant Alvarez, is also back.
Narcizo Ibarra (four goals in 2019) is the top returning back. Leonard Magana (four assists) is another gifted and experienced talent.
St. Patrick played 32 games last year. McClure and Castro made sure every player who was rostered saw action. Rotation and end-of-the-bench substitutes saw significant action, especially in some of the lopsided conference games.
Junior midfielders Ivan Guerrero and Adam Curie are emblematic of the Shamrocks’ depth and skill baseline. Guerrero, a 2022 Chicagoland Soccer Watch List member, had four goals and three assists.
Another junior, midfielder Benjamin Elvira, had a goal and assist last year.
Sophomore Jake Lane was the only freshman on the varsity a year ago. He scored two goals and contributed two assists.
“It was definitely a great experience,” Lane said. “Over the summer going into my freshman year, I made it a goal to be on the varsity.
“I felt like all of my hard work paid off," continued Lane, who ranks no. 1 academically in his class. "I earned the respect of my teammates, and I proved that I belonged. My mentality was to make every single moment on the field count.”
Last year had a heartbreaking finish, but the journey there was telling.
“We haven’t accomplished our goal of actually winning a state title, but that just keeps feeding into our hunger,” Lane said.
“When you look around the players we have, the work ethics, demands and competitiveness within the team is really high.”
All private schools like St. Patrick has dealt with profound social, economic and demographic changes that have put their institutions at risk. McClure said a couple of years ago, the enrollment at the school was 750.
Now that figure is down to just over 525 students. St. Patrick got pushed up to 3A following the fourth-place state finish in AA in 2017.
“We lost a lot of guys who helped us to where we are,” Castro said. “Our team is going to look a little different. It might not be exactly the same.
“Traditionally schools have one group, and they are really good for two or three years. Once that group leaves, there’s a downfall. We are trying to learn from that, and not let that happen and be steady and consistent with what we provide.”
McClure expects the 12 returners to be fortified by emerging talents. New players to be on the lookout are seniors Jacob Chachaj and Remy Stafford and three sophomores, Nicolas Leon, Javier Gamez and Gael Quinonez.
He is also excited by what he calls the best freshman class in program history. McClure said as many as six freshmen are positioned to play varsity: Giovanni Barron, Daniel Carrera, Stephen Gonzalez, Jorge Parra, Chriz Perez and Rafael Rios.
“Last year we had one freshman on varsity. (Now) we have six guys who are potentially good enough, and that tells you how strong the class is,” McClure said.
McClure and Castro said five of the 2019 graduates started every game over four years and played a majority of minutes. That is a lot of manpower to replace.
Nothing has changed for the coaches, who had a vision when they took over the program. Though a state championship has eluded them, three straight sectional titles have ensued. The win total has gone up every year, even after the number shot up into the twenties.
St. Patrick soccer has also become something of a cultural phenomenon. The team’s Instagram account has nearly 20,000 followers.
The Twitter page is also intensely active and deeply followed.
St. Patrick finished seventh in Chicagoland Soccer’s exclusive Final 50 state-wide ranking of the top Illinois teams. St. Patrick was sixth in the 2018 Final 50 ranking.
“We’ve finished in the top 10 the last two years, and that’s where I expect to stay,” McClure said. “We lost a good core of seniors, but we have a lot of pieces back.
“Castro and I always tell the players let the results do the talking. The numbers and the data and the tournament and conference championships tell the story.”
to maintain its high standards
By Patrick Z. McGavin
At Hoffman Estates High School during the first weekend of November 2019, Joshua Torres worked his own brand of magic.
Watching him is something special, the savvy, the moves, the presence on the ball, the ability to control and shape so much of the action.
He performs his magic without the benefit of the physical freakishness of a LeBron James. He is subtle and subversive, the one who attacks from within and does so much to bend the game to his side.
He starred on the biggest stage of the season, but it was not quite enough. The two nights folded on each other, ostensibly mirror actions.
The agile and explosive talent exhibited many of the best qualities of the game: he was humble and giving; he was also a competitor.
A forward at St. Patrick, Torres scored a lot of goals, including the final four of the 2018 season: two each in the semifinal and the third place game that ended the Shamrocks’ magical season.
A brilliant year concluded on a bittersweet note as the Shamrocks (25-4-3) went 0-2 at the Class 3A state tournament and finished fourth.
Torres finished the season with 40 goals and 19 assists.
“Not all the time is the game going to go the way you want,” said Torres, speaking more than a year after that game. “We wanted to win a state championship.
“We felt last year was our season to win one.”
Context is important. The cruelty of the ending could not dampen the significance of the larger achievement.
A two-time Chicagoland Soccer All-State selection, Torres is one of the most decorated players of his generation. He scored a combined 72 goals in his sophomore and junior seasons.
His career totals are beyond impressive He's amassed 80 goals and 55 assists; during that three-year time frame St. Patrick has gone 72-14-5.
Scoring goals is a talent, especially at that prodigious rate. Torres has finished with a skill that is natural and inherited. His work has played out in the framework of the team’s wider accomplishments.
“I have been around great players, and they gave me great assists,” he said. “With my team, they gave me better or easier opportunities to score.”
Torres personified the rise of a program that made winning a constant. He arrived at the school in the late summer of 2017. St. Patrick had won just 17 games combined the three previous years.
Joining an ambitious and precocious group, Torres made an instant impression with eight goals and a team-best 21 assists as St. Patrick advanced to the state finals for the first time in school history in Class AA.
That team won a school-record 23-games and captured a fourth place trophy.
“I already knew a lot of the guys who were there when I got to St. Patrick,” Torres said. “I felt I could help them out, and they could help me.
“They already knew how to play the game, and I felt, if I joined, they would help me to win more games.”
St. Patrick recorded one of the best three-year runs this millennial.
November, 2019, will go down in history. Since the pandemic start, it marks the last time Illinois high school soccer games were officially played. West Chicago beat Morton 2-0 in the final game, the Class 3A state championship match in an electric, sold-out stadium.
Due to the pandemic, the IHSA cancelled the girls’ season last spring.
Last summer, the IHSA, in consultations with Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Health, classified soccer as a medium-risk sport.
The boys normal fall season was pushed to the modified spring season, with the girls’ season scheduled for the special summer calendar session.
Illinois high school sports remain an open text. On December 2, following a meeting of its Board of Directors, the IHSA said sports are next scheduled to resume in January, 2021.
Torres and the rest of his teammates are planning for a February 15 start date to tryouts, a two-week training schedule and then beginning of a compressed schedule on March 1.
“At the moment, I have not really seen the guys,” Torres said. He had been training with the Fire Academy team. Even that had been scuttled by the pandemic.
In the fractured times and uncertainty of the moment, the promise of a new season is a moment worth rejoicing.
The two architects of the Shamrocks’ rise—coaches Kyle McClure and Melchor Castro—are girding up for the next stage of their grand plan.
“We did as much as we could during the summer,” McClure said. “We were able to have some open gyms and some other sessions.
“We haven’t done as much over the last few months. We have really encouraged our varsity players to play club club soccer. Even if there weren’t games, they were able to train two, three or four times a week.
“They are in good shape.”
St. Patrick graduated six starters, including three-time Chicagoland Soccer All-State defender Jonathan (Pollo) Rodriguez and All-Staters Aaron Moreno and LuisAngel Saucedo.
The Shamrocks scored a school-record 128 goals last year, averaging four tallies per game. Sixteen players scored at least one goal last year.
Ten of those 16 players back.
Senior forwards Jaden Buelvas and Sebastian Estrada are quick, athletic scorers and shot creators in their own right. Buelvas had 15 goals and six assists. Estrada finished with 12 goals and five assists last year.
Three of the top five scorers are back.
“The seniors we lost were a great group of guys, and they were all talented and did great things,” Estrada said. “The 2021 class has a special group of attack.
“Our offense will definitely be one of the strongest in the state. Losing those seniors is obviously going to hurt, but there is nothing but other players who are going to step up and fill the role.”
Estrada and Buelvas each were identified as Chicagoland Soccer Watch List players for their class.
Buelvas spent his first two years of high school in Germany, where his father was stationed with the armed services. Returning to Chicago and taking part in the rising St. Patrick program was a jolting experience.
He is ready to continue the run.
“I am extremely excited to see our new team,” he said. “I played with some of them here and there, in pickup games and stuff like that.”
The departures of some very talented players was hard to watch.
He also acknowledged that is the nature of the beast in high school soccer. He sees instead the expanding opportunities, and the chance to optimize his skill set in the fast and explosive attack McClure and Castor have put in place.
Even when top teams return a solid foundation, nothing ever stays exactly the same.
“I think my role is going to change, and I think I have to step it up a little,” Buelvas said. “We lost our two center midfielders with Aaron and Angel (Adame).
“We have to take care of that part of the field and create that same bond that we had the past couple of years.”
McClure and Castro have pushed the notion of positionless players; the team is more a symphony of interchangeable parts. Only five of the 25 players on last year’s roster were technically listed as defenders, for example.
That doesn’t mean a lot in their formation. Even Torres will push into the back if necessary. Senior Jorge Cebrero, who started 29 games last year, is back as a keeper.
He gave up, on average, just over one goal a game. That figure is a bit misleading. St. Patrick played at such a hellacious pace that it tended to give up a lot of shots.
Cebrero is gifted: athletic; quick; and dynamic in space. He has demonstrated great reaction movements, anticipation and the ability to read the game.
His backup, junior Bryant Alvarez, is also back.
Narcizo Ibarra (four goals in 2019) is the top returning back. Leonard Magana (four assists) is another gifted and experienced talent.
St. Patrick played 32 games last year. McClure and Castro made sure every player who was rostered saw action. Rotation and end-of-the-bench substitutes saw significant action, especially in some of the lopsided conference games.
Junior midfielders Ivan Guerrero and Adam Curie are emblematic of the Shamrocks’ depth and skill baseline. Guerrero, a 2022 Chicagoland Soccer Watch List member, had four goals and three assists.
Another junior, midfielder Benjamin Elvira, had a goal and assist last year.
Sophomore Jake Lane was the only freshman on the varsity a year ago. He scored two goals and contributed two assists.
“It was definitely a great experience,” Lane said. “Over the summer going into my freshman year, I made it a goal to be on the varsity.
“I felt like all of my hard work paid off," continued Lane, who ranks no. 1 academically in his class. "I earned the respect of my teammates, and I proved that I belonged. My mentality was to make every single moment on the field count.”
Last year had a heartbreaking finish, but the journey there was telling.
“We haven’t accomplished our goal of actually winning a state title, but that just keeps feeding into our hunger,” Lane said.
“When you look around the players we have, the work ethics, demands and competitiveness within the team is really high.”
All private schools like St. Patrick has dealt with profound social, economic and demographic changes that have put their institutions at risk. McClure said a couple of years ago, the enrollment at the school was 750.
Now that figure is down to just over 525 students. St. Patrick got pushed up to 3A following the fourth-place state finish in AA in 2017.
“We lost a lot of guys who helped us to where we are,” Castro said. “Our team is going to look a little different. It might not be exactly the same.
“Traditionally schools have one group, and they are really good for two or three years. Once that group leaves, there’s a downfall. We are trying to learn from that, and not let that happen and be steady and consistent with what we provide.”
McClure expects the 12 returners to be fortified by emerging talents. New players to be on the lookout are seniors Jacob Chachaj and Remy Stafford and three sophomores, Nicolas Leon, Javier Gamez and Gael Quinonez.
He is also excited by what he calls the best freshman class in program history. McClure said as many as six freshmen are positioned to play varsity: Giovanni Barron, Daniel Carrera, Stephen Gonzalez, Jorge Parra, Chriz Perez and Rafael Rios.
“Last year we had one freshman on varsity. (Now) we have six guys who are potentially good enough, and that tells you how strong the class is,” McClure said.
McClure and Castro said five of the 2019 graduates started every game over four years and played a majority of minutes. That is a lot of manpower to replace.
Nothing has changed for the coaches, who had a vision when they took over the program. Though a state championship has eluded them, three straight sectional titles have ensued. The win total has gone up every year, even after the number shot up into the twenties.
St. Patrick soccer has also become something of a cultural phenomenon. The team’s Instagram account has nearly 20,000 followers.
The Twitter page is also intensely active and deeply followed.
St. Patrick finished seventh in Chicagoland Soccer’s exclusive Final 50 state-wide ranking of the top Illinois teams. St. Patrick was sixth in the 2018 Final 50 ranking.
“We’ve finished in the top 10 the last two years, and that’s where I expect to stay,” McClure said. “We lost a good core of seniors, but we have a lot of pieces back.
“Castro and I always tell the players let the results do the talking. The numbers and the data and the tournament and conference championships tell the story.”