Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Antonio Garcinuno in action for the Huskies last season.

By Ray Hamill — Two local high school soccer players will get to compete against some of the best young talent in the nation after being named to the West Region Olympic Development Program roster.

Fortuna senior Antonio Garcinuno and McKinleyville junior Alejandro Benavides-Garb were both recently included on the prestigious squads in their respective age groups after a series of tryouts and a West Region tournament appearance with the NorCal ODP team.

They will travel together to Arizona in November to represent the West Region against the other three regions in the nation, with the opportunity to make the national ODP roster.

Perseverance has paid off for both players, who are childhood friends but have taken different paths along their ODP journey.

Garcinuno, who was the Humboldt Sports boys soccer Player of the Year in the spring, has played a pivotal role for the Huskies for the past three years and has been one of the most dynamic players on the North Coast in that time.

He first made the ODP NorCal squad in 2017, traveling down for the tryouts at his father’s suggestion.

“He first told me about the program and he kind of encouraged me to try out,” the Fortuna senior said. “So I went down and made the team.”

Unfortunately, he was unable to successfully navigate his way through the tryouts again a year later and did not try out in 2019, before the program was put on hold in 2020 because of the pandemic.

This year, however, Garcinuno traveled back down for the state tryouts with a renewed ambition.

“Coming into my senior year in high school I really wanted the most exposure I could get,” he said.

It’s worked out well for Garcinuno, who not only made the NorCal program, but now also the West Region team, which features the best players in ODP from 13 states.

Submitted photo – Alejandro Benavides-Garb in action for the NorCal ODP team.

“To be honest, it was just amazing,” he said of last month’s tryouts and tournament, which took place at a five-day camp. “That’s the only way I can describe it. It was just amazing.”

Despite being a year younger than Garcinuno, Benavides-Garb is now a veteran of the program, first making the level as an eighth grader and now in his third year with the state team.

“Playing ODP has really helped my game,” he said. “It gave me a whole new perspective of how many good players are out there and what level you have to be to be a part of the program.”

The two players and their families have been close since they were young, growing up playing together and traveling to compete together with Santa Rosa United.

“Me and Antonio are really good friends,” Benavides-Garb said. “We’ve been playing on the same team for a while. All of my soccer journey has been with Antonio.”

“Alejandro is like my best friend,” said Garcinuno, who was born in Chile and shares that heritage with Benavides-Garb. “And our families are super good friends.”

Benavides-Garb received rave reviews from many opposing coaches while playing for the Panthers the past two seasons, but he will not play for the high school team this fall as he focuses on travel team and ODP commitments.

A very busy Garcinuno, on the other hand, is expected to play a huge role for the Huskies, who are looking for an eighth straight H-DNL title and another North Coast Section championship. 

“I’m super busy,” he said. “But it’s what I love to do.”

The senior standout got the new season off to a flying start with the Huskies on Saturday, scoring all three goals in a 3-1 win at Gateway.

“I’m super grateful we can practice as a team this year. Last year was crazy,” he said. “It was a good start to the season. All the boys did really good.”

Both Garcinuno and Benavides-Garb hope to play at the pro level some day, but in the meantime they expect to take their talents to the college level, although neither knows where yet.

Submitted photo – Antonio Garcinuno

Benavides-Garb still has two years to decide and would like to play for a D-I program somewhere in California, while Garcinuno has received offers from a number of D-II schools already and is considering Humboldt State and Stanislaus State, among others.

“The end goal for soccer is obviously to go pro, but I also want to to take care of my academics and play in college,” said Garcinuno, who’s a 4.0 GPA student.

“It’s hard to see where my future lies in soccer as of right now,” Benavides-Garb said. “But I want to go as high as I possibly can, and hopefully pro.”

Playing for the West Region team will no doubt help both players toward that goal.

“The more games you play at a high level, you can only get better,” Garcinuno said.