Forged by FAU - Giovanni De La Rosa
Wajih AlBaroudi
7/5/2020
I don’t even know how to say how humble I am and how blessed I am for that foundation that FAU has given me, that I’m back at my hometown club, MSVG. I’m coaching with people I truly trust, adore, admire. And now I’m sending somebody back to my alma mater – Gabrielle Cimino, to FAU, on a scholarship. I mean, you talk about the influence of FAU on me? There’s living proof.
I’m living proof that dreams do come true.
#ForgedbyFAU
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Florida Atlantic University alum Giovanni De La Rosa saw his “dream come true” in December 2016, when he became the Owls’ interim head soccer coach.
But another “dream opportunity” arose for De La Rosa two months later. Florida National University, a Hialeah-based NAIA school, offered him a chance to be its first ever women’s soccer coach.
For a Hialeah product whose soccer journey began in the city, De La Rosa couldn’t decline.
“Walking away from FAU is probably one of the hardest decisions I ever made, but walking into FNU was probably one the easiest decisions I’ve ever made,” said De La Rosa, who’s entering his fourth season at FNU. “I was blessed to coach at FAU, and now I’m blessed to coach in my hometown, where I grew up, that gave us opportunities as immigrants to become part of a city.”
De La Rosa emigrated from Colombia to Miami’s Virginia Gardens in 1972 along with his parents and four brothers. They moved to Hialeah a year later.
Competition among the brothers was fierce, De La Rosa says, and “all you had to do was wake up at my house” to experience it. And when De La Rosa learned he could channel the competitiveness into a college scholarship, that’s exactly what he aspired toward.
“Dream, set a goal and make it a reality – that’s the way I saw it,” De La Rosa said. “Once I saw when I was young, we could have scholarships for sports, my dream was to get a scholarship to play sports, to play soccer. And then I wrote it down and we set that goal. I set that goal with my family: let’s go after it.”
De La Rosa accomplished his goal by accepting a soccer scholarship from Miami-Dade College in the late 1980s. It wasn’t his dream school, but De La Rosa knew a productive two years at MDC could get him there.
And it did. De La Rosa earned three scholarship offers ahead of the 1989 season and signed with the one he says “fit” more than the rest: FAU. From childhood De La Rosa’s parents told him he could be part of a community, work hard, get an education and be a good citizen. All of which played an integral role in De La Rosa becoming an Owl.
“Those values they instilled in us are everlasting, and that’s how I got to FAU, just living the ‘American Dream,’” said De La Rosa, whose younger brother, David, also played at FAU. “People talk about earning a scholarship, and here’s a little guy from Colombia who probably never thought in his life he’d get a scholarship playing soccer, and here I am heading into FAU on a soccer scholarship. And it was just a dream. I’m super humble and blessed that someone took a chance on me, and like we say, the rest is history.”
FAU made history of its own after De La Rosa’s arrival. The Owls earned their first ever NCAA Division II ranking his first season (No. 15), and they surged to No. 9 by his final year in ‘91. Individually, De La Rosa made the NSCAA All-South Region Team and the FISAA All-Star game in ’89.
The De La Rosa-led Owls played many Division I teams over that three-year stretch, even beating a reigning Big South Champion Radford University squad in 1989. Those experiences helped ease their transition to Division I in 1993-94.
“The opportunity to be at FAU at that time was a blessing,” De La Rosa said. “It was an up-and-coming program, they were about to turn it around, and we were able to lay a foundation for the next couple (of) years in establishing a good soccer program at FAU. And I just felt lucky. I’m just going to say it: I felt lucky. It wasn’t just me coming into the program – it was a bunch of guys. But the opportunity, with the scholarship, helped changed my life altogether.”
De La Rosa realized his dream of earning a college scholarship, so when he left FAU with a liberal arts degree in ’91, he dedicated himself to helping others do the same. Over the past 34 years De La Rosa has been involved with club and high school soccer in South Florida.
Since 2008, De La Rosa has served as the director of coaching for his former club, Miami Springs Virginia Gardens.
As a coach De La Rosa helped over 100 of his players earn college scholarships. His formula: the same one that got him to FAU.
“I always say, ‘If you can dream and write that dream and make it a goal, let’s go chase it and make it a reality,’” De La Rosa said. “And that, when I say today, that foundation was laid on me at FAU because I was able to accomplish my dream, and my goal, of getting that scholarship and playing for a good school. And most importantly, getting an education.”
In 2013 De La Rosa returned to FAU as an assistant under his former coach, Kos Donev. De La Rosa says he “felt honored every second” he was back on campus. And when Donev and FAU parted ways three years later, leaving the interim job to De La Rosa, that feeling deepened.
“I never thought that day would come because we always think someone’s going to stay forever, being your mentor and your guide, so when I got elevated it was a dream come true,” De La Rosa said. “I rushed home like a little kid. I’m calling my wife, I’m calling my brothers and saying, ‘Dude, this is a dream.’”
De La Rosa became FNU’s first women’s soccer coach the following season. And although the team had no game experience, De La Rosa had it playing like anything but. The Conquistadors reached the USCAA National Championships in two of their first three seasons, experiences De La Rosa describes as “out-of-body.”
But winning isn’t the only reason why De La Rosa sought homecomings with FNU and MSVC. He wants to mentor young athletes and help his community, too. That’s why De La Rosa takes pride in offering scholarships through his college job and helping players earn them at the club level.
This past season, eight of De La Rosa’s 10 high school seniors from MSVC signed to play college soccer. One of which, Gabi Cimino, accepted a scholarship to FAU, bringing De La Rosa full-circle.
“I don’t even know how to say how humble I am and how blessed I am for that foundation that FAU has given me, that I’m back at my hometown club, MSVG,” De La Rosa said. “I’m coaching with people I truly trust, adore, admire. And now I’m sending somebody back to my alma mater – Gabrielle Cimino, to FAU, on a scholarship. I mean, you talk about the influence of FAU on me? There’s living proof.
“I’m living proof that dreams do come true,” he said.
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