Avin Hernandez knows how to use his head.

Avin Hernandez College Signing Photo Gallery

In soccer, that could simply mean executing a header but means so much more when it comes to the Mexico native and Missouri Military Academy cadet. The all-state defender signed to play soccer for NCAA Division II Drury University in Springfield during a ceremony on Thursday in Barnard Hall on the MMA campus in Mexico.

Hernandez was two-time all-state and three-time all-district in his career and the regional defensive player of the year for this past season when the Colonels played in their firststate championship game after advancing to their first Final Four since 1992. He is the first MMA cadet to sign to play college soccer since Donald Williams for Cumberland University in Tennessee. 

“I worked really hard for the past three years noticing I could actually play college soccer,” Hernandez said. “There was growth and development as a person, maturing in my knowledge of the game, and playing with kids from all over the world and growing in the sport personally.”

Ever since he could walk at around 3- or 4-years-old, Hernandez said he has been playing soccer through the YMCA and the Mexico YMCA Fire Soccer Club and then four years at MMA. The Colonels being the state runners-up this past season only helped him be noticed. 

Jessica Andelin was a coach for Hernandez at the YMCA, and she played college soccer. Hernandez credits her for making the possibility of moving from Mexico to college athletics seem possible. 

“It helped me knowing that someone that coached me went and did it,” Hernandez said. “Coach Goodwin told me I have the ability to play college soccer.”

Head coach Elliot Goodwin said he “couldn’t be prouder” that Hernandez is his first player to sign for college. Goodwin said Hernandez has “something different” ever since he started coaching him as a freshman that will help make the jump to the next level.

“It’s his attitude, his mentality and the way he approaches the game on the field and off the field,” Goodwin said. “He’s got the basis of being a professional already. He knows what the mentality is. He wants others to learn and gain experience from himself and his own abilities. You can’t teach that.”

Goodwin said it is impressive that Hernandez possesses such maturity at such a young age and will only mature even more when he is tested by the college game. That “good head on his shoulders” will help him compete for playing time early, Goodwin thinks, and knows Hernandez will do well in college after finding a place where he’s comfortable, where he can be academically successful and where he can feel part of the team.

Hernandez will study business at Drury after he said he felt comfortable at the school by connecting with the environment and coaches, who actually remind him of Goodwin. While he will miss that “little British accent,” Hernandez said he is grateful and will miss many other aspects of being an MMA cadet.

“It is something that I will tell many generations of future alumni, my kids and family,” Hernandez said. “Learning new things as a team. Eleven people are on the field for a reason. Going through each game as a team winning and losing through the ups and downs, the downs really make the ups really up there.”

Hernandez said MMA was good the previous two seasons with 22 combined wins while averaging under two goals allowed in each season. He said the team took the next step when the various individual talent meshed together well to the Colonels’ most wins in nine years at 17 and the lowest goals against average in nine years at 1.4.

At the ceremony, Goodwin spoke about various times Hernandez prevented goals from happening with his play on the back line while conducting himself in a way that he made the captain patch on his uniform “his own.” He said he and Hernandez didn’t even need to exchange words from the sideline during games.

“He was the foundation of the success,” Goodwin said. “We had players around him, but if you’re looking for a quality leader and looking for somebody to lead by example on the field, that’s him. I don’t know if Mexico, Missouri, is going to make a better soccer player than him.”

Hernandez is looking forward to joining his new team at Drury later this year when he said the team plans to take a preseason trip to Scotland.

“Since running up at state, it was fun and we got really far,” Hernandez said. “In reality, you still left off short of the goal. I’m trying to push towards the goal in the next four years.”