Luis Marquez isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.

The Rochelle Township High School graduate has been around cars for most of his life, and as a four-year member of the Hubs soccer program, Marquez drove his team forward behind a strong right leg that sent balls from the penalty box across the midfield line with the greatest of ease.

But Marquez won’t be wearing an RTHS uniform when he takes the field this fall. Rather, he’ll be suiting up for the men’s soccer team at Rock Valley College, where he plans to obtain an education and pursue his goal of becoming an auto mechanic.

“I’m very excited to play at the college level and I’m looking forward to all the new teammates I’m going to work with and the higher level of competition,” Marquez said. “I chose Rock Valley College because it had the program I wanted and also because of the soccer program it has.”

Marquez was one of several seniors who helped turn the RTHS boys soccer team around this past season. The boys won 11 games after turning in just five victories during the 2015-16 season. Marquez will be following in the footsteps of his older sister Abbey, a RTHS graduate who played two years of soccer at Lincoln College.

“My sister gave me a lot of advice about college soccer,” Marquez said. “My sister is the main reason why I am going to college because I look up to her not only in the game of soccer but in education as well.”

While Marquez admitted it will be tough to part ways with many players he shared the field with at RTHS, he said his training with the high school team will help him stay in shape, and he said his overall experience as a Hub will be instrumental in adjusting to the college game.

“I got to play with many talented men and the coaches pushed us to better ourselves,” Marquez said. “It’s the players who I’m going to miss the most… The experience I had as a Hub was conditioning and that’s going to help me because of all the running I’ll have to do as a Golden Eagle.”