Boys soccer: Elgin's Orozco earns Fox All-Area Captain

Julian Orozco made one heck of a first impression on first-year coach Jimmy Romano.

This season, he's been as impressive of a player as the area has seen, making life miserable for opponents on the pitch while guiding Elgin to an undefeated regular season and the program's first sectional title.

He has been named the Captain of the 2022 Fox All-Area Boys Soccer Team.

"He was one of the first guys I talked to and got insight and picked his brain when I got here," Romano said. "He's a humble kid and always happy. I don't think I've ever seen him mad other than getting mad at himself. He's so respected and he's made my job easier as a first-year coach that I can delegate some stuff and trust him with a leadership role."

During 19 regular season games, Orozco and the Maroons (20-1-3) only surrendered 7 goals and only three came during the run of play.

"He's one of the best defenders in the state, hands down," Romano said. "Everyone does respect him and he's such a great mentor and teacher for those younger sophomores and juniors on the defense because he's so positive and encouraging."

As an effective, inspiring leader, Orozco attracted Geovanny Catalan to join the team and the fellow senior was instantly impressed by the fun, competitive environment already in place. It was the kind of scene that would ultimately drive the team to success the program has never seen, falling just short of advancing to state.

"At that first practice as a new player with a new coach and a lot of new players, I could tell it was different here," Catalan said. "It was super competitive, which is very rare to find in training. Guys were pushing and shoving and pulling shirts, sprinting. There were about five of us near ready to fight, but as soon as we stopped we put on some Michael Jackson and were laughing, hugging and already closer than a lot of teams."

Teams "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" against the Maroons, but they haven't been able to because of the feisty, hungry play led by Orozco's team approach.

"I play with my heart, I play for the badge for the team and give everything in every game," he said. "I want to win every game for the team."

Senior midfielder Omar Saldana said that the leadership of this group is beyond compare and the group has maintained a high level of confidence since those summer training sessions.

"One of the biggest things driving this year is the commitment of the team," he said. "And Julian is the anchor in back. He's the one guy where when things get tough, he's there to pick you up. It's great to have someone so confident on the ball, someone we can rely on in the back to lead the back line and he's been a huge part of us not conceding many goals this year."

And during those rare occasions that an opponent is able to find the back of the net, Elgin has done a great job of refraining from panicking, but rather finding answers and responding.

"We really have done a nice job of keeping our cool when we give up a goal," Orozco said. "We understand that these things are going to happen. We cheer each other up and keep at it rather than yelling at each other and the team shutting down."

As a three-year starter at Elgin who has spent thousands of hours playing games and working on his craft to perform at such a high level, Orozco has experienced the many ups and downs of athletic competition. He understands the importance of finding a sense of calm amongst the chaos.

"I like to keep my cool throughout the game and I remind my teammates that even if we're losing, we're all good," he said. "Yelling bad words and stuff like that can bring your confidence down and cause a chain reaction on the team. My job is to help build the team up."

If this were a performance review, it would be remiss to not include a few of Orozco and his team's fantastic accomplishments, including the limited number of goals allowed as a team, a team-best 14 shutouts, the first sectional in program history, most wins (20), fewest losses (1) and an 82-13 scoring differential.

And let's not forget how attractive he's helped make Elgin soccer, which drew 120 kids to tryouts, including an all-conference, all-sectional kid like Catalan, who played with Orozco in club.

"He's a great leader and he's really good at communicating and bringing people together," he said. "And he's even brought me home after practice many times. He's a great guy. He loves his family and is a joy to be around. He adds so much to the team, not just as a player with his abilities and his stats, but he's like an older brother to us."

What definitely cannot get lost in this special season for Orozco and the Maroons is the amount of fun they are having, even as the season-ending supersectional loss to York lingers.

"I felt like it wouldn't be this fun, because of last year, but it's been really fun," Orozco said. "We've been just taking it one game at a time and never forgetting to have fun."

Orozco hasn't made plans for college right now, but he certainly is going to entertain the possibility of playing at the next level.

"College is the main goal and I really want to play D1," he said. "It's a good goal to have set and I believe I could make it and some teammates could as well."