Two college soccer champions are coming to KC’s pro teams (one sooner than the other)

When Alex Loera stepped off the Santa Clara bus upon her team’s return to campus, she was greeted by a red carpet of student-athletes, college faculty and administration, plus dozens upon dozens of cameras.

For the past week, Jamil Roberts hasn’t been able to step out of his house at Marshall University without being cheered or shouted at by random passersby.

“It’s been mental, to be honest,” Roberts said in disbelief.

That’s what life has been like for the pair of future Kansas City soccer stars since they returned home victorious from their respective 2021 NCAA soccer tournaments.

Loera helped Santa Clara to the NCAA women’s championship last Monday. Hours later, Roberts scored the overtime game-winner in the men’s title game to give Marshall its first national title in soccer.

Loera was selected 36th overall by Kansas City NWSL in this year’s league draft; Roberts was picked 77th overall by Sporting KC in the 2021 MLS SuperDraft.

“It’s just been a whirlwind of emotion,” Loera told The Star.

After being selected by the respective pro teams in January, the pair opted to remain with their schools for the spring sports seasons.

“The decision paid off,” Roberts said. “It hasn’t been too bad.”

Championship moments

All positive thoughts, all positive thoughts.

That was the mantra Santa Clara coach Jerry Smith repeated to his players as they prepared for a penalty shootout in the title match. The Broncos had already spent 20 minutes down a goal and were seven minutes from heartbreak before Kelsey Turnbow, a second-round pick of the Chicago Red Stars, scored the equalizer.

Goalless overtime ensued, and Santa Clara was five penalty kicks away from defeating top-seeded Florida State for college soccer’s ultimate prize.

Loera, a senior defender for the Broncos, would take the fifth penalty, if it was needed.

“You can’t let the negative thoughts and what-ifs creep into your mind,” she said. “Although I was a little bit nervous, I was pretty confident in my abilities.”

Florida State hit the post on its first two penalties, however, and Santa Clara made four straight, relieving Loera of what would’ve been the biggest moment of her career.

“I trusted each and every one of them (teammates), and it was kind of like this calm sense that was with us,” Loera said. “Which was strange, especially with a PK shootout in a national championship (game).”

Not long after, and also in Cary, North Carolina — site of the men’s and women’s NCAA College Cups — Roberts became perhaps the happiest man on Earth for a few seconds.

His rush of emotions was so intense he literally blacked out.

Mirroring the Santa Clara game, huge underdog Marshall had pushed No. 3 Indiana to a goalless overtime period. With just three minutes remaining in OT, Marshall midfielder Vitor Dias found a pocket of space in the middle of Indiana’s box.

First shot: blocked.

Second shot: saved onto the crossbar and then the post.

The ball was right there, on the goal line, and the closest player to it was Roberts.

Time stood still.

“In the moment, it was, like, so much slower and way more quiet,” he said. “That ball sat there for an eternity.”

The decisive sequence — ball hitting post, then Roberts stabbing it into the back of the net — lasted no more than two seconds.

The only thought in Roberts’ head at the time: Don’t miss.

He didn’t miss, and that’s when he blacked out for a couple of seconds, wheeling away in celebration.

“The whole team has jumped on top of me and then we’ve got a couple of thousand fans rush the field and they’ve all decided to jump on top,” Roberts said. “And there was a brief five seconds where I couldn’t breathe at the bottom of it. I was pretty scared. I was like, ‘Is this it? Is this my time? Have I just gone out at the top?’”

Escaping the huddle, Roberts walked over to the goal in which he’d just made history.

He dropped to his knees and broke down in tears.

“It didn’t really set in what I’d just done until I removed myself from that craziness,” he said.

Fulfilling a dream

When Roberts made the move from his home in Langport, England, to play college soccer in America, he had but one goal in mind: going pro.

Even leading up to the MLS SuperDraft, his plan was to get drafted and forego his senior year of college with the Thundering Herd.

For most of the last decade, all Roberts had known was rejection. He’d spent four years playing in the Portsmouth youth academy before unsuccessful stints with Chelsea, Plymouth Argyle and a couple of semi-pro teams as as teen.

“Those months leading up to the draft and draft day and the week after, my only thinking was, ‘I’m gone. This is my chance, I don’t want to let it slip,’” Roberts admitted.

But he, like thousands of other collegians around the nation, hadn’t played soccer in more than a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. After conversations with Sporting KC director of player personnel Brian Bliss, as well as the coaching staff at Marshall, he decided to stay in school for his senior year.

Roberts wanted to put his best foot forward with Sporting KC and not waste his opportunity. It ended up being a great decision.

In his first nine games, Roberts tallied just one goal and two assists — all in a 10-1 win over West Virginia Tech in the second game of the season.

“My first nine games, my output was nowhere near my usual level,” Roberts said.

But he got off to a great start in the second half of the season, scoring four goals and three assists in Marshall’s final nine games. Three of those goals came as game-winners in 1-0 victories in the final three rounds of the NCAA tournament.

“I’ve always considering myself a big-game player — I don’t shy away from that occasion,” Roberts said.

That’s the mentality the 22-year-old aims to bring to Sporting Kansas City when he arrives in the next two weeks. It’ll be even longer until Loera arrives, though. She’s taking advantage of the extra year of eligibility offered by the NCAA, an allowance made during the pandemic.

“I don’t want to rush into professional soccer because I know that’s what I’m going to be doing for a while,” she said.

The senior is coming off a stellar season. She was nominated for the Honda Sports Award, given to the top female athletes in the NCAA for each sport.

The main reason she fell to the fourth and final round of the NWSL Draft was that teams knew she planned to stay in college for one more year.

“I just wanted to take my fifth year, and we’re only losing two people and so it’s going to be the same team again,” Loera said. “So I’m really hoping to make it back to the College Cup next fall.”

Loera will offer a versatile option for KC when she arrives for the 2022 season. She’s capable of playing both midfield and centerback.

“Wherever I’m at, I’m going to do my best that I can,” she said. “Coming into college, I’d never played center back. And my coach put me at centerback freshman year.”

“I would just say (Kansas City) is getting a very determined and versatile player who is committed to her team wholeheartedly.”

This story was originally published May 26, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Two college soccer champions are coming to KC’s pro teams (one sooner than the other)."