His full name is Christopher Jo\u00e3o Downs Villegas, but to members of the Eastern Mennonite University men\u2019s soccer team, he\u2019s simply known as Chris.<\/p>\n
And to competitors around the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, Jo\u00e3o \u201cChris\u201d Downs is regarded as one of the top defenders in the league.<\/p>\n
The Costa Rican-born Old Dominion University transfer, who joined EMU following a freshman campaign with the Monarchs that was completely wiped out when he tore the ACL in his right knee, earned first-team all-league honors last year and will begin his senior season when the Royals visit Mary Washington in Fredericksburg on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a couple things that Chris does really, really well: He\u2019s very athletic \u2013 he\u2019s a Division I athlete. He\u2019s strong,\u201d longtime Royals coach Roger Mast said. \u201cI think his speed may have been affected a little bit from his ACL injury, but physically, he\u2019s strong. \u2026 He\u2019s very composed on the ball. Even under pressure, you never see him panic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pronounced JAY-ow, Jo\u00e3o \u2014 a Portuguese surname \u2013 is what the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Downs said he prefers to go by. But the difficult spelling and pronunciation of the name led him to adopt \u201cChris\u201d in Harrisonburg for the sake of simplicity.<\/p>\n
Downs was born in rural Lim\u00f3n, Costa Rica, and his father, Cristobal, who now works as a port agent in the Central American country, has raised cattle for both dairy and meat products as a hobby since Chris was a boy.<\/p>\n
In fact, Chris Downs said his father sold \u201ca couple\u201d of his livestock to pay for his son\u2019s plane ticket to the United States when he left for ODU prior to the 2011 season.<\/p>\n
That background, Mast said, made Downs\u2019 transition to the beach life in Norfolk \u2013 his first time being in the United States \u2013 immensely more challenging.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say growing up in Costa Rica was as hard for me as other kids because I had both parents that worked and provided for me all the time,\u201d Downs said. \u201cI can guarantee you that I was one of the kids playing in the streets that had shoes because my dad used to be like, \u2018I don\u2019t want you messing up your feet. You\u2019re going to wear shoes, no matter if they cheap shoes or whatever. Whenever you need shoes, we have to buy you shoes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Downs said he ended up with the Royals after his one-year scholarship at ODU was not renewed following his ACL injury. EMU turned out to be the one and only program Downs visited after leaving ODU, too, and Mast credited that to the down-to-earth atmosphere in Harrisonburg and its surrounding rural areas.<\/p>\n
Now at age 24, Downs \u2013 who admits his knee still gives him problems from time to time \u2013 is ready to play his final competitive season of soccer before hoping to parlay his eventual liberal arts degree into a sports management career.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I was like a 1-year-old, I can remember being obsessed with the game,\u201d Downs said. \u201cAnd for me, to keep playing, it\u2019s just the passion. No matter how hurt I am, I\u2019ll just try to recover and keep playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eastern Mennonite, picked to finish ninth this fall in the 12-team ODAC, was 5-13 a year ago and is entering its 24th season under Mast. During that time, Mast said he\u2019s had \u201cat least\u201d 20 foreign-born players compete at his program.<\/p>\n
Mast added another international athlete prior to this season in sophomore attacker Juan Luna, a Mexican-born former kicker on the Stonewall Jackson High School and James Madison football teams.<\/p>\n
Luna and Downs, who along with student assistant Juan Flores are the only Spanish-first speakers in EMU\u2019s program, often find themselves battling head-to-head in practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s very physical, very vocal,\u201d Luna said of Downs. \u201cI\u2019d say he\u2019s the general of his troops \u2013 he definitely knows how to rally everybody up. \u2026 His timing is just so precise, and that\u2019s something that really, really helps him.\u201d<\/p>\n