As a freshman this year, Ryan Masch starts as attacking midfielder for Santa Clara’s Men’s Soccer Team. Coming from San Jose, California, Ryan has been playing soccer since he was four years old and it was his dedication to the sport since then that has led to his many accomplishments as an athlete.
Ryan grew up playing on the DeAnza Force with current Santa Clara teammates James Huffer, Max Ornstil, and Dylan Autran. However, this was not the only time Ryan got to play with future Broncos. While living in Florida to play on the U-17 National Team, Ryan also played with current Santa Clara freshmen, Jared Hegardt and Kendall McIntosh. Since arriving here, Ryan has already accomplished a lot. He scored the game winning goal against both Duke and Stanford, chipping the ball over the goalie’s head during the Stanford game. In addition, he has already been named WCC’s Player of the Week for the week of September 17th.
Much of Ryan’s success as a soccer player has stemmed from looking up to role models and listening to advice from others. He finds Andres Iniesta of Barcelona both motivating and inspiring and says that the best advice he’s been given is to “learn how to love to win.” For a little extra motivation, Ryan enjoys listening to Rick Ross as part of his pre-game routine.
Here at Santa Clara, Ryan is an undeclared business major living in Swig. He has one brother, who also played soccer for Santa Clara and graduated last year, as well as an older sister. Although he has not been at school for too long, what he has loved most about Santa Clara so far has been the pretty campus and friendly people. This year, he looks forward to meeting new people and has mentioned how “cool” and “pretty” the Santa Clara girls are (lucky for us, he’s single!). Be sure to watch out for Ryan, #27, and the rest of the team at their next home game against University of Portland on Friday, October 26th at 7:00pm!