ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico Lobo Men’s Soccer programhas long been filled with exceptional student-athletes who meet head coach Jeremy Fishbein’s lofty standards: they must be excellent teammates, leaders, and top level players. Of equal importance, they must be high-achieving students who are committed to community values.
The Lobos’ two seniors from 2015, Josh Dye and Adrian Mora Delgado, are perfect examples. Both are currently thriving in the early days following their graduation this past December.
An Albuquerque native, Dye is currently pursuing his master’s degree in electrical engineering while employed as an intern at Sandia Labs. Josh was the undergraduate speaker at the School of Engineering graduation ceremony in December.
“I can’t say what I’m working on,” he said with a laugh, “but I can say that it’s a tremendous working environment. The people are great, and what I’m doing is really interesting and exciting.”
Mora Delgado came to UNM from his native Costa Rica not speaking much English. But now, following his graduation with a civil engineering degree and a 3.95 GPA, he is working locally for Chavez-Grieves Consulting Engineers Inc.
“It’s going well,” he said. “We design and do consulting on commercial buildings both in New Mexico and throughout the country.”
He interned with Chavez-Grieves for six months before graduating, which meant he was working during the 2015 soccer season while finishing his coursework at the same time.
Both young men know all about time management, they finished with the top two GPAs on the team last season. Dye had a 4.07 GPA and was a two-time Academic All-American.
“What I did in school has granted me this opportunity,” Dye said. “You have to work hard in school to get this kind of job. My time at UNM taught me so many different things. Soccer dominated my life for a long time, so to do that and school, and now work and school plus ‘real life things,’ it’s the same concept. You have to manage each thing separately if you’re going to be successful.”
Dye played in 52 games in his career for the Lobos. The last two seasons he started 34 total games and played 3,539 minutes as a vital member of UNM’s midfield.
Mora Delgado made 46 appearances for UNM, but had a tumultuous journey during his time as a Lobo. After playing in 35 games with 10 starts during his first two seasons, he was forced to miss two in a row: one due to a knee injury and the second due to an NCAA ruling. He came back for his final season and played nearly 600 minutes for UNM in the midfield. Now he realizes how lucky he is to have been able to move so quickly from school and soccer to a career which he loves.
“It’s been a great blessing for me,” he said. “I knew I really wanted to stay in the U.S. and really wanted to work in the engineering industry, and finding a job right after graduation was amazing. The fact that I love what I do is really important to me. I don’t see it as a job. I see it more as something I enjoy, like I enjoyed soccer. My job is never a burden to me. Soccer never felt like a job to me either. It was something fun that I enjoyed that made me a better person and a better professional.”
Some of the recent projects he has worked on include a building for Catholic Charities that will be built later this year and a ski resort in Taos, N.M., that is currently under construction.
“I love what I do,” he said. “I like the fact that every single project is different with its own challenges. It never gets boring because you’re always working on something different. Working on a project on the East Coast is different than working on one here. Designing a hospital is different than designing a high school or a restaurant.
We have several projects going on at the same time, so I’ll do small tasks for one project while working on a bigger project. It’s great.”
Dye, meanwhile, is Albuquerque and New Mexico through and through. He was raised here and played at La Cueva High School before attending UNM. His master’s work should take another 12-18 months, but in the meantime he gets to continue to live and work in his hometown.
“I love Albuquerque,” he said. “I love being here. To be able to stay here, go to school here and get a job here is what I wanted. I’m really grateful things are playing out the way they are.”
Both he and Mora Delgado continue to exemplify the values of Lobo Men’s Soccer: excellence on the field, in the classroom and in the community.