Kent-Meridian High School soccer player Binyam Ayele is grateful for the opportunities he has had since his parents decided to move from Ethiopia to the United States in 2005.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“Back in Ethiopia the education system isn’t really the best,” the senior said. “They saw that coming to the U.S. would give me and my brother a better opportunity at life and also getting a better education. They wanted to support me and my brother.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ayele strives to make the most of the opportunities afforded to him. After high school graduation, he plans to attend a four-year university \u2013 Seattle Pacific and Central Washington are his top picks \u2013 and would like to become an architect.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“My parents are proud,” he said. “They want me to achieve higher than they achieved. So as long as I am achieving their goals and my expectations, also I want to give back to them.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Living in the U.S. has allowed Ayele to follow his passion for soccer.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“To be in America, playing the sport I love, is a great feeling,” he said. “I know that back home not everybody gets this opportunity.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
From street soccer to high school<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Ayele played street soccer in Africa. He played on the C-team his freshman year at Kent-Meridian and played junior varsity his sophomore year before making the varsity squad as a junior.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “When I first started off, I was playing in a midfield position,” he said. “When I moved over to varsity, I started playing a more defensive role – center back or right back.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Ayele has adjusted to playing defense.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “I used to prefer playing midfield, but now I just like playing defense because I like to get my body in there and get physical,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n A team player, Ayele is willing to play where he is needed.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “He always wants to be a midfielder but I’m like ‘No, we need you in the defense,'” coach Brian Gabert said. “So he has always kind of been a reluctant defender but he will do whatever I want as a coach.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Always looking to improve, Ayele is easy to coach.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “He is one of those guys that will say ‘What can I do better? What can I do to get better?'” Gabert said. “He’s always got that attitude of understanding our relationship. He’s a player. I’m a coach, and he is asking what he can do to help his teammates out.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Likes brotherhood of the Royals<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n The team aspect of soccer appeals to Ayele.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “It is not decided upon by individuals,” Ayele said. “I like the collectiveness of the sport. You get the feeling of being in a family. At the end of the day it is not about one person. It is about coming home with the win as a team.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Ayele described his team as a tight-knit brotherhood.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “We have a great time with each other and you can tell by practices and our warm-up before the games,” he said. “It’s a good vibe around here.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n A team captain, Ayele, hopes the team finishes the season strong. The Royals have won just three games this year.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “We didn’t start out the best throughout the season,” Ayele said. “We did get better, so I just want to finish off and maybe get a couple more wins.”<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kent-Meridian High School soccer player Binyam Ayele is grateful for the opportunities he has had since his parents decided to move from Ethiopia to the United States in 2005.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":227,"featured_media":9925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-9924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9924"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/227"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9924"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}