Proactive soccer player is rewarded for hard work

When it came to deciding which university he would attend on a soccer scholarship this fall, St. Paul’s High School student Pablo Urbina had seven schools to choose from.

Urbina, 17, possesses the work ethic , skillset and attitude all coaches crave, but the fact he was proactive caught the attention of soccer programs across the country.

“Before my Flames team (from Boni-Vital) headed out to New Brunswick to play in nationals I sent out a resume and letter to all the teams out east. I also posted some footage of my game on YouTube,” Urbina said.

When he arrived at Nationals, several coaches were there to see Urbina play, and he impressed them all, earning player of the game honours in one of his matches.

“There were offers that came in from Dalhousie, Acadia, St. Mary’s, and Queens, but none of them compared to (the University of) New Brunswick because their involvement in soccer is so strong,” Urbina said.

In addition to a spot on the UNB team, Urbina was offered an athletic and academic scholarship.

Urbina has been able to maintain an 83% grade average this year despite missing over 80 classes while playing for the Winnipeg Alliance, a semi-pro indoor soccer team on which he is the youngest player.

“I really put the stone to grind because I had to make it work. I had to stay really disciplined and I am pretty happy with the results,” Urbina said.

Tony Butt has been Urbina’s coach since the player was 12. He says he’s always had high expectations for Urbina.

“It has been very rewarding to see one of my players go on to bigger and better things, that has always been my goal,” Butt said.

“Pablo took the initiative, he just needed the direction to know that it could be done and he took that to heart.

“He realized that he has talent, he just needed to set that bar high for himself.”

Despite the recent success Urbina has enjoyed, it hasn’t always come easy. He was cut from the provincial team in 2005, despite his exceptional skills.

“Pablo has always been a little bit of a clown and still is in a good way, but some of the provincial coaches took that as a negative and actually cut him, I couldn’t believe it,” Butt said.

Urbina accepted not making the team, but told himself it wouldn’t happen again.

“I think I became much more disciplined because of it. There were lots of things I learned, I realized I had to work harder for things and that has became my mentality,” Urbina said.

Butt believes the coaches at UNB will soon see first-hand that they’ve made a wise decision.

“He is the type of kid that when you ask him to do a drill he won’t go at 70%, he will always push it to 100% until it hurts,” Butt said.

“He would absolutely follow through on whatever was asked of him, he is an extremely coachable player.”