Starring Role

In sync with supporting cast, All-Stater Vasquez at new level

Posted 8/27/14

From the moment he stepped on the field for tryouts his freshman year, Dennis Vasquez was the best player in a Cranston East uniform. He was talented, skilled, experienced. On a young team, it was no …

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Starring Role

In sync with supporting cast, All-Stater Vasquez at new level

Posted

From the moment he stepped on the field for tryouts his freshman year, Dennis Vasquez was the best player in a Cranston East uniform. He was talented, skilled, experienced. On a young team, it was no surprise that he became a one-man band in his first two years as a ’Bolt.

Those years had their moments.

But this is better.

Last year, Vasquez finished second in the state in goals, but it was the moment when he started clicking with his teammates that paved the way for East’s surprise run to the Division III semifinals.

“All of a sudden, the light bulb went on last year,” said head coach Richard Grenier, who took over the program last season. “It was about midway through the year. Dennis realized he could trust his teammates.”

Before that, he wanted to trust them – “He was not this kid who was just a ball-hog,” Grenier said – but it was a tough sell. The ’Bolts didn’t win a game in Vasquez’s freshman year. They took a step forward for five wins when Vasquez was a sophomore, and most of their success rested on his quick feet.

“Freshman and sophomore year, the team tended to rely on Dennis all the time,” Grenier said. “In this game it’s not one on 11. It’s 11 on 11. It wasn’t Dennis’s fault. People who have coached him before put everything on his shoulders.”

Grenier, who went against Vasquez as a coach at West Warwick, knew even before he took over last season that the next step for his star junior was letting some of that responsibility shift to his teammates.

“My job will be getting Dennis to have confidence in everybody on the field,” Grenier said this time last year.

It worked. In the midst of a 9-5-1 season, Vasquez and his teammates found their balance.,

“I realized I could forget about me having the ball and give it up more,” Vasquez said. “It felt good to give it up and move and not be the target all the time. I had other players to help me.”

The realization allowed Vasquez to move without the ball, to dribble without double-teams and to celebrate when his teammates came through. In a sport where creativity and freedom can be major assets, Vasquez could spread his wings and truly become the best player on the field.

“This is my 25th year of being around soccer,” Grenier said. “Dennis is one of those special players. Keith Dorsey at Cranston West, he was a spectacular player and he passed the ball a lot. Another kid I coached at West Warwick was Michael Price. Those were two kids who were goal-scorers but they were also very unselfish. They were marked men all the time. The great players will move without the ball and be unselfish. Dennis reminds me of them.”

Vasquez has been playing soccer since he was four or five, when he used to kick the ball around with his dad. He plays year-round now, for premier teams and in recreational adult leagues – basically wherever and whenever he can.

“He’s a kid with a great work ethic and a lot of enthusiasm,” Grenier said.

Vasquez totaled 23 goals and nine assists last season, finishing second in the state goals and in points. He earned second-team All-State honors, a rare feat for a player in Division III.

With his success at East and on travel teams, Vasquez is hoping to find a spot to play at the next level.

“I think he could be a real good college player,” Grenier said. “He can distribute and he can finish.”

But that’s a ways off. Vasquez is focused on the task at hand.

“You’ve got to take it one season at a time,” Vasquez said. “We’ll see what happens.”

His team’s run to the semifinals was bigger than all the statistics and accolades. It had been a long time coming, and it marked the height of Vasquez’s improvement.

On East’s three-game postseason run, Vasquez scored a grand total of one goal.

And his team just kept winning.

“In the playoffs, we were two minutes away from winning a third playoff game,” Grenier said. “Dennis scored one goal in three playoff games. We had eight different players score.”

East is hoping to replicate its success this year.

Its best player will simply play his part.

“Back then, a lot of players wouldn’t come out for the team because they thought we weren’t very good,” Vasquez said. “Now we’ve got a lot of players coming up and stepping up. They want to wear the East jersey.”

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