South Elgin’s Munoz, a ‘sponge for knowledge,’ is the 2026 Daily Herald Fox Valley All-Area soccer captain
Alan “Pelon” Munoz wanted to be the guy for South Elgin.
The captain of the Daily Herald’s 2026 Fox Valley All-Area boys soccer team, Munoz led the Storm (19-4-4) to an Upstate Eight Conference West Division title as well as regional and sectional titles.
He scored 32 goals as the Storm advanced to the Class 3A supersectional for the second consecutive season.
“He wants to be the guy,” Storm coach Jerzy Skowron said. “He wanted that responsibility and his teammates needed a guy to be the guy. He wanted that last year, but with the emergence of Matt Lipp, he never complained, he flew under the radar and that got him 22 goals.
“This year he said, ‘Coach, I’m going to do whatever it takes and I want to be the best.’ And I mean no disrespect to my predecessors, but based on the statistical data I’ve been able to access, no one’s been more talented and successful here than Alan.”
Munoz still wanted more.
“I was able to score a lot of goals with the help of my teammates and myself taking the role as a true striker,” Munoz said. “I had set a goal for myself and that goal was to try to reach 38 goals by the end of the season, but I fell a little short.”
Realizing he was the guy, the Storm got him the ball often and followed his lead.
“I got better because I had more people playing me the ball this year, and I got the confidence to start taking people one-on-one which really improved me by a lot,” he said. “Last year was just me making my own chances and putting them away.”
He collected three hat tricks and had braces in both the tie and win over Class 3A state runner-up East Aurora.
“In my eyes what makes him so lethal in front of the goal is his hunger to score,” senior Adam Kiel said. “Everyone can shoot a ball, but Pelon needs to see it hit the back of the net to be satisfied.”
Munoz was named MVP of the conference and received all-state accolades. He finished with 60 goals in three seasons.
“To coach a human being like him is a blessing,” Skowron said. “He’s a kid that is a sponge for knowledge. He said he would do anything to be great and that’s Alan. It’s my eighth year here and I’ve had some great kids in this program, but I’ve only had one Alan.”
His work ethic and drive certainly caught on.
“The main reason Pelon is a good teammate is he makes everyone around him better,” Kiel said. “He never fails to make people laugh and also makes sure everything gets done.”
Munoz made the team accountable and success followed.
“I think I am a good teammate because I push all my other teammates to be better than me,” Munoz said. “We all have standards to take everything serious no matter what we are doing, and I think the role of the captain made me feel like I have to make everyone around me feel comfortable and better no matter what happened in games.”