Player’s Club welcomes the country’s finest
Coming out of high school he was regarded as one of the top midfield players in the country. As a freshman on the Mustang squad he was asked to become an immediate part of the game plan. Seems like an awful lot of pressure to be resting on one player’s shoulder.
For Brazilian born Diego Walsh there is no pressure playing the game he loves. When he moved to Miami, prior to high school, the rest of the soccer world soon found out that he had arrived. After a stellar high school soccer career Walsh joined the Mustangs for the start of the 1999 season.
Head coach Schellas Hyndman thinks Walsh has handled the pressure and developed into a great soccer player.
“I have seen a lot of players at this level and none of them can do for much as a team and have such the impact he does,” Hyndman said. “Diego is the premier soccer player in the country right now.”
As a freshman at SMU he played in 19 games starting 16 times. He was fifth on the team with 10 total points. He quickly established himself as a scoring threat, recording 15 shots on goal. Walsh hit the game-winner against San Jose State on Nov. 12, 1999 and at the end of the season received the WAC Freshman of the Year honor.
In 2000, SMU moved from the WAC conference into the Missouri Valley Conference. The move brought more difficult competition and a tougher year-round schedule. Walsh had no problem with the transition from WAC play to the more physical MVC style of soccer.
Teammate Tom Dolan said Walsh is the kind of person that handles change well.
“He is the jokester in the locker room, always loud and saying funny things,” Dolan said. “But he treats all the guys on the team with respect.”
Walsh already handled moving from South America to the U.S., moving from the WAC to the MVC was a walk in the park. Without skipping a beat he continued his offensive production. Like clockwork the Mustang offense stopped for nothing and busted through the competition, including a 14-game win streak. Walsh was third on the team with 10 goals, second on the team with 14 assists. He was third on the team with 34 total points and had 33 shots on goal to go along with four game-winners.
More important than Walsh’s offensive production was his ability to control the play in the midfield and run the offense. His quick feet and knowledge for the game of soccer allows him to constantly distribute the ball and create scoring chances. Defenses have found it is as hard to stop Walsh as it is to fit a square peg in a round hole.
In just his first year in the MVC Walsh was named MVC Player of the Year. At the end of the season he was named to the NSCAA All-Midwest Region second team.
CollegeSoccer.com and Soccer-Times.com also named Walsh an honorable mention All-American. Walsh was a key part in the Mustangs run for the national title. He helped the Mustangs reach the Final Four for the first time in school history.
The 2001 season was Walsh’s best season in a Mustang uniform. He was second on the team in scoring with 10 goals and 11 assists. The Mustang set the cruise control and rolled through the regular season. A 21-game unbeaten streak came to an end in 2-0 loss to St. John’s in the quarterfinals. The loss did little to erase the accomplishments of the past season. Walsh along with former teammates Byron Foss, Mohamed Fahim, Carl Bussey and Gonzalez gathered enough post season awards to open an art gallery.
He was a NSCAA All-America first team selection along with being named to the NSCAA All-Midwest Region first team. If former teammate Luchi Gonzalez hadn’t swept all of the major national awards Walsh could have possibly taken home more individual hardware. However, Walsh would be the first player to tell you he is more concerned about the well fare of the team than his personal success.
Yet his most important accomplishments came off the field and in the classroom. Walsh was named to the Verizon Academic All-America soccer team and the Missouri Valley. Conference Scholar-Athlete men’s soccer team. A true player knows how to get the job done on the field and in the real world.
In 2002 Walsh already has the Mustangs ranked sixth in the nation. The ponies are currently on a 4-game winning streak and Walsh leads the team in scoring with five goals and three assists. He is pleased with the way the team is playing and thinks only good things are to come.
“We are getting better with every game,” Walsh said. “We have beaten some good teams and everyone is starting to come together.”
