Ray Cuevas’ phone didn’t stop buzzing.
It was Feb. 25, and Cuevas – after two standout seasons at Division 3 Bowdoin – had just entered the NCAA transfer portal. He was fully prepared, tweeting out a three-minute highlight tape with his announcement that included his full season stats and contact information. Within minutes, his phone was flooded. Drexel called. Brown followed soon after.
Cuevas estimated that about 45-50 Division 1 schools reached out after he entered the portal. About a month later, on March 23, Cuevas committed to Brown as he realized his Division 1 dream.
It was a far cry from two years ago.
Then, Cuevas was coming off an All-NEPSAC season at the Pingree School. But his Div. 1 dream was stuck. He didn’t hold an offer as the season ended. The coaches who reached out to him this spring? He struggled to get responses from them when he called or messaged them two years ago. But Cuevas never felt sorry for himself. Instead, he accepted a Div. 3 opportunity, put his head down and worked and let the chips fall.
“Knowing in the back of my mind that it’s all going to work out in the end, I think it was just that mindset that helped me get through,” Cuevas said. “And to keep excelling and keep pushing towards the things I wanted.”
Cuevas’ story is proof that the Division 1 dream doesn’t have to be dead just because you didn’t get an opportunity out of high school. The same goes for Luke Soden, the former Phillips Exeter standout who excelled last season as a freshman at Division 2 Regis University in Colorado and earned himself a scholarship to Bucknell this spring.
