SAN ANTONIO – The Women’s Premier Soccer League is a proving ground for talent nationwide, and here in San Antonio, Corinthians FC is showing what it means to nurture homegrown stars.
This week, we spent time with the Corinthians to take a closer look at the local and international talent that makes up the team.
“We want to be a team or a club that finds local talent, state talent, regional talent and is basically the trampoline for young players to jump off to go into a higher level of play,” said Corinthians FC Head Coach and Director of Operations Joe Shafer.
Shafer’s vision is to unearth hidden potential in San Antonio’s overlooked communities. Take the South Side’s Diana Perez for example.
Perez, an incoming senior at South San High School, has already made an early impression by scoring in her debut with Corinthians FC on Saturday.
“We don’t really get a lot of attention over there, because we are more towards the South Side. So, coming to Corinthians has helped me,” said Perez.
“There’s things that I do now that I did not think I’d be able to do. If you asked freshman me what I’m doing now, I wouldn’t believe you,” she said.
There is football talent emerging all throughout the region—and the club is dedicated to finding it.
“There’s several players that go to Medina Valley, Lytle,” said Shafer. “We have a girl that went to Lytle and now she’s signed for Auburn. No one really goes to scout at Lytle, so it’s changing her environment and the culture there.”
For the players, the grind to climb the football ranks is a challenge but they say the payoff is worth it.
“I put in a lot of time, it’s basically like a job, Monday through Sunday,” said player Abigayle Rodriguez. “It’s a lot of work and effort to get to where a lot of us are at right now, but it shows how much work I’ve put in to say I’m becoming a college player.”
“I’ve always known Corinthians to be not just where they put players into college, but they’re known to have a lot of players go pro,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve had a lot of teammates over the years go to Mexico, go play at the next level.”
When Abigayle Rodriguez debuts with Texas A&M International next year, she’ll be competing against her sister, a St. Mary’s forward, for the first time.
“It’s been a family thing, it’s just my dad and my sister and me,” Rodriguez said. “That’s really how we’ve formed our bonds, always working out, going to the gym and we’re just very passionate about playing.”
The club’s sophisticated approach to the game is attracting international talent, taking their practices to the next level.
“At my old university they played straight football and it was just kicking it up and down,” shared Marta Forne, a Corinthians FC defender who recently inked a professional contract with a Spanish Club. “Coming here to Corinthians, they play with a different methodology where they like to build from the back, similar to tactics we use in Spain—which helped me sign with the pro team.”
While winning is valued in the WPSL season with nine games in a one-month span, the long-term goals are the learned core values that develop collegiate and professional talent.
Since joining the WPSL in 2022, Corinthians FC has produced 25 college players and six professional signings.
“I have been able to experience so many different kinds and styles of soccer just over the summer and I feel like it has really helped me grow as a goalkeeper and become more comfortable in the position,” said Kessler.
“They give dreams to a lot of us who are younger to going pro and I feel like they have a path for that,” said Southwest High School alumni Alondra Fernandez.
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