From Monterey, With Purpose

This 2025 season has been the fastest of my professional career so far. I feel like I just made that 13-hour drive from Tucson to Monterey in January, and now it is already time to come back home. While this was probably the quickest year of my life, it has also been one that laid an empowering foundation for my future. In Monterey, I was able to create deep ties with the community, express myself on the pitch, cultivate leadership skills, and start a business. This season brought an ever growing vision for the person that I want to be and the impact that I want to have on society; and I wouldn’t have wanted this chapter to unfold anywhere but Monterey. 

The beginning of the season was filled with hope, optimism, and excitement. We were a new and young squad filled with immense talent. On a personal level, I was grateful to be in a new environment and part of a team that would take my career to the next level. I knew that we had something from the first day I met everyone in the locker room. We all just clicked, the vibes were great, and everyone was hungry to prove themselves. There is no better place to improve than to be in an environment built on shared ambition. 

While I had a strong start to the season by getting a decent amount of starts and assists, this time was really about getting acclimated and understanding the team’s identity. I needed to grasp what the coaches expected from the players (and from me specifically) while identifying areas in my game that needed improvement. Finding those areas can be humbling, but to me, it is also exciting. I honed in on those things, daily. I always talk about being intentional with your work ethic and relentless in the pursuit of what you want; and that is exactly what I had to embody this season, even when adversity would strike. That is what being a professional footballer is all about. 

When meeting my teammates for the first time, I realized just how small the football world really is. Everyone in the locker room seemed to know someone that I did, and some were even former teammates of mine from the academy days. My roommate Ilijah Paul, was someone that I had known for over a decade before we became teammates again this year. Starting the season with familiar faces and genuine connections made me feel confident that Monterey was exactly where I needed to be at this stage of my life. 

The start of the season was a huge transition not only in football but also from a personal perspective. In February, I started the official process of building We Move Mentoring into a living and breathing thing. That included forming an LLC, writing eBooks, building a website, developing mentoring lesson plans, and much more! It was an insanely busy time but once the foundation was built, I just needed to focus on shaping its identity. 

A question that I started asking myself since becoming a professional has been, “who do you want to be outside of football?” And this is something that I have struggled to answer, until this year. I realized I want to be someone who devotes his time and energy to supporting others in achieving their dreams, someone who is a deeply engaged member in the community, and leads others through both actions and words. Those values are what inspired me to create We Move Mentoring but are also what made volunteering weekly at Community Partnership for Youth (CPY) a natural fit. Their mission, which directly aligns with my personal goals, focuses on providing a safe and structured environment that encourages healthy boundaries, positive self-esteem, and the ability to make good choices for a full and successful life. 

I met with our team chaplain, who has been a great friend and spectacular supporter of mine throughout the season, for coffee one day and we got off to talking about a multitude of topics one of which was volunteering. He was actually the one who helped make introductions with people inside of CPY like Ben Bruce, who is the CPY Program Director. Mr. Ben (all the kids call CPY leaders Mr. or Ms., so I just got used to using prefixes when referring to leaders) is someone who I have a tremendous amount of respect for as he has dedicated his life to positively impacting youth and giving them the experiences, opportunities, and memories that every kid deserves. 

I volunteered at an Elementary school called Ord Terrace in Seaside where the kids would start by completing their schoolwork, then have food provided by CPY, and search for ten pieces of trash to pick up, before enjoying free time. Students could participate in arts and crafts, play sports, talk to CPY leaders, run in the playground, and do any other planned activities. There was always something for the students to do and it was also amazing to see how they all entertained themselves. As I started to become more familiar, students would come up and hug me, call me Mr. Miles (sometimes even Miles Morales lol), start talking about their day, and ask me to play games with them. One of the hardest things about not being in season anymore is being away from CPY and the people there. 

The middle and end of the season were when I really started to strengthen the relationships with many of my teammates. We spent more time together by going to the beach more often, eating Teriyaki Madness every Thursday, going on hikes, and hanging around at each other’s apartments. I explored many new places in Monterey with these guys and we shared so many laughs and memories. As I am writing this, I have an NFL game on in the background and it makes me nostalgic for all of the hours I spent over at Sam Gomez’s house watching games and stressing over Fantasy Football. I talked about this in my most recent post, but saying goodbye to people who you went through hardship with and spent everyday around for the better part of ten months never gets easier; even when you have to do it every year. 

From a football standpoint, the middle part of the season is what tested me the most. There was a large stint where I was left off of the roster and had to watch my teammates compete without me being involved. My mentality and character were tested daily. I always believe that I can contribute to any team, and that never wavered during this time. I knew that I could have helped the squad with my dynamism, especially since we were not winning games. While I am confident that I would have made a difference, I do recognize that there were parts of my game that needed to be improved. 

This was a time where I had to actually focus and enjoy the process of getting better rather than focusing on whether I was playing or not. When the opportunity came, I took advantage of it, starting five of the last six games. Seeing the fruits of that perseverance made for a fulfilling end to my season. Being able to look back now, I can see how the adversity I faced was necessary because it pushed me to improve at a high level and reinforced my desire to be great at what I do. 

During this same stretch, I continued developing We Move Mentoring, working with several clients and collaborating with other platforms like The Union Report and FcGameChanger to expand its reach. Seeing my clients resonate with the lessons and put certain topics that we discussed into action has been amazing to see and it inspires me to keep working hard to impact even more people. 

I also had the chance to run an after-school workshop at J.C. Crumpton with Ricardo Rodriguez-Ibañez, devoted member of the community and MBFC salesman, where we spoke about following your dreams, maintaining an active lifestyle, and leaning on others through challenges. Afterward, we set up drills for the students and I even signed autographs, which was a special moment.

Most recently, I was also fortunate enough to visit Pacific Grove Middle school to run a Q&A with the boys’ and girls’ soccer teams where I talked about adversity and what it can mean for us all.  It was pretty amazing to hear the intelligent questions the students asked me and it made me enthusiastic about what this next generation will grow up to achieve. 

As I reflect on this season, I feel no regrets about  the work that I put in, the way I carried myself, and the time I dedicated to the community. While I wish that the outcome of the season with MBFC was different, I hold so much gratitude for the experiences that I had and the lasting relationships that were created. Now as I transition into the offseason, I am excited for all of the family time, self-improvement, and new opportunities that will shape the next chapter of my journey. 

We Move,