Soccer
Favorite athlete: Lionel Messi
Favorite team: Everton
Favorite memory competing in sports: Making the National Final with my club team, PA Dominion, in 2019
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: During a game, my teammate swung and missed on a breakaway but made the keep dive, allowing him to dribble right into the goal
Music on playlist: Anything Eminem
Future plans: Attend University of Massachusetts and graduate with a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering
Words to live by: “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”
One goal before turning 30: Before I turn 30, I would like to have settled into a job and have purchased either a home or an apartment.
One thing people don’t know about me: I am very interested in golf
By Mary Jane Souder
It’s a story that’s made its rounds but somehow never gets old.
How Shane Velez happened to be with his older sisters when their parents dropped them off on day one of Pete Valimont’s youth soccer camp. Instead of leaving with his parents, the then five-year-old stayed and participated in the camp.
“His parents said, ‘Are you sure? We shouldn’t leave him here,’” recalled Valimont. I said, ‘No, leave him. I’ll watch him.’
“We joke about it to this day. He’s five years old, and he’s spending three hours a day from nine till noon for five days. I have a five-year-old right now – my kid would last about 45 minutes, and he stayed the full time.”
Velez doesn’t remember any of it, but he’s heard the story more times than he can count.
“I find it so funny that I was put in the camp at five years old – I think the next youngest might have been a 9- or 10-year old,” the Pennridge senior said. “My older sister was in high school at the time. My dad knew Valimont, and he offered the camp to us. I was just out there having fun playing a sport I love.”
That’s one thing that hasn’t changed. Velez is still passionate about soccer.
“I always loved the sport,” he said. “There’s always going to be a few moments where – maybe after a loss or an injury you start questioning.
“I always found – when I’m on the field, I’m always happy. I’m always looking forward to going to practice, and the connections you make being on a sports team are always great.”
If Velez needed a reminder how much the sport meant to him, he got one in eighth grade when – while playing for his middle school team – he broke his femur.
“It was really muddy, and I was running side by side with an opponent at the top of the eighteen,” Velez recalled. “I slipped, causing myself to fall and tripped the other guy who ended up falling on top of my leg, breaking my femur.
“I was in a full leg cast for about six weeks and then slowly began rehab with a leg brace. It took about two months out of the cast until I was able to walk completely unaided by crutches or a brace. Then the three-month process of regaining my strength and endurance began with rehab. It sucked to be sidelined, but I think being sidelined has made me cherish the game of soccer even more.
“I got to watch from a coach’s perspective and help out my teammates in ways I have never done before. The journey of breaking my femur was a difficult one but one that I do not regret. It taught me so much about myself and what I am capable of. It might sound weird to say but I think breaking my femur helped improve my game both mentally and physically because of how much it made me grow as a person.”
This fall, Velez is on the preseason All-American watch list, and next year, he will take his talents to the Division 1 level at the University of Massachusetts.
“My joke selfishly is that he learned everything that week of camp,” Valimont said with a laugh but then turned serious.
“He’s probably one of the top three players I’ve ever come in contact with in the program since I’ve been here,” said the Rams’ head coach, who is in his 15th year. “When I say that, I mean not just soccer skill-wise and IQ but a good person, smart kid and great teammate. He is the absolute full package. UMass has an absolute steal of a kid in Shane.”
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Although neither of his parents played soccer, Velez was introduced to the sport as a toddler.
“Growing up, both my older sisters played, so probably by the age of three or four, I was being drug along with my dad to go coach and to go to practices with my sisters,” Velez said. “From there, I started playing with a soccer ball.
“Everything around me was soccer. I just fell in love with it and continued with it. I started at Deep Run, and I played baseball, basketball and all the other sports there was, but slowly I focused more and had to dwindle it down, and it became soccer, soccer, soccer.”
He joined FC Bucks and competed in the ECNL (Elite Clubs National League). He is now competing with PA Dominion from Harleysville after a stint with Lehigh Valley United between the two.
“When I left FC Bucks to go to Lehigh Valley was really my big moment because that’s when I went to play in the academy, which is the highest level of youth soccer,” Velez said. “Everyone in that league was amazing and could play soccer. I feel like that’s when I really turned my focus, and I was like, ‘I can do something with this.’”
A high point on the club circuit was his PA Dominion squad advancing all the way to the final of the national championship for youth soccer, finishing second in the prestigious tournament in 2019.
As for his high school playing days, Velez immediately earned a spot in the starting lineup of the varsity as a freshman.
“It was a lot to adapt to,” he said. “I was so used to playing kids my size, my athleticism and then I had to play against seniors who were three years older than me, a lot bigger, a lot faster, a lot stronger, so it was definitely intimidating to start, but as the season progressed, I felt like I was able to settle in and try to pick up my speed of play and become physical enough where I could hold my own against anyone.”
Velez made an immediate impact, earning honorable mention all-league honors as a freshman and first team honors in each of the next two years.
“He played center back, and now he’s a hybrid of pretty much wherever we need him – he goes,” Valimont said. “Not many kids could handle that pressure.
“He knows the game probably more than most coaches. He’s played at the highest level. The last three years he’s been in the national championships in his age group. He’s travelled all over the country. For him to come back out – there are so many kids that really wouldn’t come out (for high school). They don’t want to get hurt, but he’s out, he’s a two-year captain, and he’s going to be my first player in 15 years that’s going to make all-league all four years.”
Velez’s decision to compete in middle school and high school soccer instead of academy soccer – the choice of many player his caliber - was a relatively easy one.
“I really chose high school soccer because I love the atmosphere,” he said. “I love being able to play for my school, being able to have my friends come out and watch me play and also just be able to play with my classmates.
“I feel like the best thing about high school soccer isn’t the soccer but playing with a team where everybody – all four grades are combined. I’ve made some great friendships - seniors my freshman year that I’m still great friends with and hang out with during the summer. It’s such a great bond to create.”
As for his preseason All-American selection, Velez is using that honor as motivation.
“I always aspired to have that, but I never knew it would actually come true,” he said. “I love the idea of setting a goal for yourself and giving yourself something to look to and try to accomplish, so I have a goal now to not just be named a watch list player but actually be named (an All-American) at the end of the season.”
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If Velez was just a gifted soccer player, the Pennridge senior would be special, but it’s more than that. The two-year captain is the consummate leader.
“He’s the kid that during the preseason, the kids were doing hills, and the kids that are at the end – he’s going back up the hill to run the kids down,” Valimont said. “He’s giving the extra effort. He’s going up there to motivate kids not to give up, not to quit but to come back down the hill.”
“I always try to have the mentality of no man left behind,” Velez said. “So if I’m able to finish a drill quicker or do the exercise faster, I always want to make sure everyone feels connected as a team and no one feels left out or feels worse about themselves because they’re in the back.
“Whenever I can, I try and join in at the end and motivate them and push them and get them through it and just be a leader and be a role model for the underclassmen for when they become leaders to do the same.”
Velez was on the wish list of many colleges, but the recruiting process was altered considerably by the COVID pandemic.
“With COVID, it was such a mess,” he said. “It kind of messed up each college’s timeline. I’d be talking to different coaches, and some of them would be really early in their process, some of them would want you to be committed already. It was strange with college to college how each coach interacted and what they wanted to know from you and how quickly they wanted to see you.”
Velez knew exactly what he was looking for in college, and in the end, it came down to UMass and Messiah University.
“My biggest thing was I wanted to go to a school where I felt I had a chance of getting some minutes my freshman year,” he said. “Also, academically, I’m going for engineering, so I wanted a really good engineering school where I would have a degree and be able to get a job right out of college, and UMass was able to check off those boxes. I loved the campus, and the coaches were great too. I completely love my decision.”
An excellent student, Velez has taken several AP classes and numerous honors classes.
“It’s definitely a challenge to balance everything,” he said. “Right after school I set the next hour, hour and a half just to get work done and do whatever I can academically to get done before that even when I have soccer practice or a game.
“Academics are always more important than soccer. I’d rather be able to stay home and miss a practice and study for a big test than go to practice and fail a test.”
Velez is active with his church youth group when his schedule permits, and he helps his father coach youth soccer.
“I do enjoy being able to teach kids and watch them progress from where they started to where they are now,” he said.
If the opportunity to play professional soccer presented itself, Velez said he would seize the opportunity, but for now, he’s focused on his final high school season, a season of high expectations.
“I’m so excited,” Velez said. “All summer I was just thinking about when high school was going to start and how much success we can have and how much fun it’s going to be.”
