Champion Soccer Players Graduate as a Team

Deciding whether to attend high school graduation with your entire class or play in your school’s first state soccer championship wasn’t easy for four Manassas Park High School seniors. But this predicament is exactly what faced Andres Cifuentes, Cesar Orellana, Edwin Lopez Bernal and Kelvin Ruiz this month.

School administrators decided earlier in the week that there would be a second graduation held Saturday night if the Cougars soccer team advanced to the state championship game in Radford—a game played Saturday morning in direct conflict with the high school’s morning commencement ceremony.

The Cougars not only made it to the championship, but won 3-2 against George Mason High School. Though the school offered the four seniors a chance to participate in a private commencement, it was still not an easy decision to miss the main ceremony, Bernal said.

“I had to choose between my team and graduation and wanting to be with my peers," Bernal said. "I thought of the team as being more important even though graduation is important, too; it was the first time we made it to states. I was excited and happy that we made it that far. It was a really hard choice for me and my parents … but they handled it well and I’m really excited that they believed in me.”

Bernal said his teammates made the decision together before they won Friday’s match that advanced them to the championship.

“Our team motto is 'family' and we have to stick together, so I made my decision based on that," he said.

Bernal said he mostly played defense for the team, but would step into other positions when a player got hurt.

Bernal’s parents, Jose and Sonia, and a small crowd of people filed into the gymnasium at sunset Saturday for the second commencement. The procession was marked with all the pomp and circumstance expected of a baccalaureate event, but was also very personal because the event was quite smaller than the original one.

The ceremony was as much of a celebration as it was a commencement, as the four graduating soccer players sat front and center on the stage along side the three trophies their team had won. Manassas Park High School Principal Tracey Shaver put an informal spin on the speech he’d delivered earlier to 173 graduates, by asking the remaining four, at times, to wave to their families and teachers from the stage.

Manassas Park City Schools Superintendent Dr. Bruce McDade supplemented his address with an anecdote, explaining how he promised the team in April that he would be at every one of its post-season games if it worked hard and made it that far.

“Gentleman, I am so pleased to have you home with yet another trophy,” McDade said.

Soccer coach and Manassas Park High Spanish teacher Michael Martinez delivered a special speech to his team Saturday night, reiterating that they are a family with members who each brought a little something special to the team.