Gage Walker led Mexico’s offense this past season, and those efforts led into his future.

Gage Walker Signing Ceremony Photo Gallery

On Friday at the Mexico Sports Complex, the senior Walker signed to play college soccer at Central Christian College of the Bible in Moberly. Walker led the Bulldogs with 21 goals and graduated with 41 career goals.

Since Walker was young, he said he has wanted to play college soccer. Many years after he started at the YMCA at three years old, that dream was realized as the first signee to this year’s class for the National Christian College Athletics Association school. 

“The coach (Chase Gwynn) is a big part of it,” Walker said. “He’s a great guy. He reached out to me last year. I got to be on the campus and got to play with the guys. The guys are great, and it’s close to home. They’re building a program up, and I want to be part of that.”

“Anytime that the athlete that you’re coaching can make it to the next level, it’s pretty exciting,” head coach Bill Gleeson said. 

Walker has built himself up into a college soccer player after being introduced to varsity ball when he was a freshman. The Saints are aiming to improve the program after a 1-13-3 season as Walker goes into the school to study early childhood education.

Gleeson said there were some low numbers that season, but he also thought Walker was ready for that level of competition. As a senior, Gleeson said Walker was a player worthy of the captain title and his “dedication” makes him worthy for the college level. Sure, Walker led Mexico in goals on the way to his first all-North Central Missouri Conference season and had three hat tricks in his career, but his qualities that led to those goals explain his value to the program.

“The motivation and intensity that he brought, he helped everybody stay focused, especially as captain this year,” Gleeson said. “He really helped move us in the right direction.”

Walker took charge by scoring all three goals in Mexico’s 3-2 overtime victory over conference rival Fulton this season, which was the Bulldogs’ first victory over the Hornets in four years. His four goals were also part of Mexico’s greatest offensive day in seven years in the form of a 9-2 Senior Night win over Crocker. 

Going into the season, Walker believed he could score at least 20 goals this season and is proud he was able to accomplish that goal. However, he said his teammates and periods of time outside of games helped.

“It was really just working by myself, putting in effort and I went all-in training on my own lifting weights,” Walker said. “That boosted me to have the season that I did.”

Walker admits he was “terrified” playing in his varsity action as a freshman but said he was accustomed to it after the first couple of games. Knowing that, Walker enjoyed being that presence to the younger kids this season during an 8-13 campaign — three years removed from a 3-19 record in his freshman season. He is ready to build himself up into that player again in his college career.

“It’s being the guys everybody can count on, trying to coach the team and help other players to build them up and understand more to get to where I was at at their age,” Walker said while talking about what he'll miss most from the Mexico program. “The freshman coming in playing JV, it’s trying to help them get better and hopefully build them up and build a program.”