Playing the Sport he Loves

There have been a lot of great athletes come out of the soccer program from Ridgeview. One of the standouts for these past years is Marco Ceja. He is now a senior who has played his last two years on the varsity soccer team. He has achieved a lot throughout his soccer career at Ridgeview, but also for club. 

Ceja has been playing soccer for 17 years. When asked why he played soccer he said,“I play soccer because it’s what made me happy since that age of three and God has given me a special talent so why not ride this through to the end.” He has come a long way from the first day he ever kicked a ball. He wouldn’t be able to achieve this without his parents. “My biggest inspiration is my parents. They made some huge sacrifices for me to live the life that I live and for that I’m forever grateful towards them.” he said. Their support and sacrifices were a key in his success.

Ceja played on the varsity team for only two years at Ridgeview simply because he used to play for the US National Team and LA Galaxy and those did not allow him to play in high school. His position was center forward so he was scoring goals almost every game. He scored 25 goals his junior year and 19 goals this year. “To prepare for a game I listen to some music really loud and focus on how I can be successful against my opponent, compare my strengths and weaknesses versus his.”  This was a key way Ceja was able to score most of his goals by taking advantage of his opponents weaknesses and using his strengths against them.

He had a lot of accomplishments throughout his career. “My biggest accomplishment has to be playing for the US National Team and getting to represent not only the US, but also Bakersfield California,”said Ceja. To play at the national level is a great accomplishment not many get the chance to do so. His favorite memory was traveling to Argentina with the US National Team. As for Ridgeview he accomplished winning Offensive Player Of The Year.

As for his future, Ceja  plans on attending Fresno City College after high school. He wants to continue playing soccer for as long as he can. 

Even after such a great career he has had so far he still wishes he could have helped Ridgeview soccer to their first D1 Valley Title. Other than that he has had a great career so far and has a bright future ahead of him. He also left a message to the future of the program, “A message I would like to give to the future of this program is that trust that this program is built to win, and most importantly to build fine young men, Coach Coulignon does his very best to make sure you represent Ridgeview as the best, makes sure you represent yourself at the highest manner possible so don’t take these years for granted.”