“I’m obsessed with the game, and I don’t want a backup plan. Plan B always has a way of distracting us from what we really want.”
For Robel Dent, plan A is to play professional soccer. Dent is currently a senior psychology major and forward for the Union University men’s soccer team. With a fresh fade, a crystal stud nose piercing and a most contagious smile, Dent openly shared his life story—his dreams, setbacks, successes, challenges, upbringing, and personal conviction.
Dent was born in Ethiopia in the capital city of Addis Ababa.
“It means new flower. Kinda cute, right?” he chuckles.
Dent explained the challenges that came with growing up in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is one the poorest cities, so life was very hard. His parents separated very early on in his childhood. Dent and his family were not the poorest in their country, and they lived a good life by Ethiopian standards. Nevertheless, suffering was still omnipresent. To make ends meet, his mother moved to Dubai to work and send money back home to take care of Dent and his older brother, who lived with distant family while she was away.
“She didn’t work a great job,” Dent said. “But any job in Dubai is better than one in Ethiopia.”
While his mom did not make much money while in Dubai, the exchange rate to Ethiopia was excellent, which allowed Dent to attend a British private school, Sandford International School. It was there that he first learned English. Dent doesn’t remember many details from his early years in Ethiopia but does remember a move that changed everything.
After much time working in Dubai, his mother met someone and remarried, and Dent and his brother moved with the newlyweds all the way to Scotland.
“We were excited for a new adventure,” Dent said. “But ultimately, we just wanted her to be happy.”
The move to Scotland was a major adjustment. Dent was the only non-white student at his school, a huge shift from the school he had just attended in Ethiopia. Additionally, the dominant religion in Ethiopia is Orthodox Christianity, and the people are deeply engraved in the religion there while Scotland is a much more secular country.
Dent told of the challenges he faced in trying to assimilate into the Scottish culture. The desire to fit in and belong was the driving force behind this assimilation. He admitted that he dropped much of what he valued in Ethiopia once he got Scotland so that he could fit in.
It wasn’t until he moved to Scotland, though, that he fell in love with soccer. Back in Ethiopia, Dent played very little soccer because resources were so limited.
“Every kid in the world has dreams, but in Ethiopia, you’re not taught to follow a dream. You’re taught to get a job and provide.”
His stepfather bought him a season ticket for a professional soccer team in Scotland. At the first game, he fell madly in love with the crowd, the atmosphere and the game. Shortly after this game, he joined his first soccer team. Dent explained how deep his obsession with the game became, as he was training literally every day and significantly improving well beyond his teammates.
Dent moved from team to team, playing for various professional academies, but moving on to another academy when he didn’t receive the final contract to play long-term. A teammate told him about the opportunity to pursue professional soccer by attending school in the United States on scholarship. He quickly turned to an agency, who helped him find a junior college, Feather River College, for which to play in Quincy, California.
Quincy, California became Dent’s new home in 2014, but it was far more quiet and rural than his perception of stereotypical, sunny California.
“Everywhere I turned, it seemed like there were deer. There were even reports of mountain lions in the area,” he laughed as he shared with bewilderment. “I found myself in this new country constantly asking myself, What is going on?”
He attended school and played soccer in Quincy for two years. Feather River College was a good school for the two years, but Dent knew he needed to look to making another major move. In his second year, his coach began emailing every men’s soccer coach for both NAIA and NCAA Division II schools. Union University was one of the schools that responded with great interest. After considering his options, Union was able to offer the largest scholarship and most promise to grow as a player.
Union University men’s soccer head coach, Steve Cox, officially joined the program in February 2017. He was not the head coach who recruited Dent, but he has watched Dent bring a lot of value to the team.
“Robel’s unique life experiences give him an unparalleled responsibility and maturity as well as drive to persevere, and that’s valuable for our team,” Cox said. “Playing professionally is a hard and nasty world, but he can make it.”
Dent played semi-professional soccer with National Premier Soccer League in Little Rock, Arkansas this past summer, where he won all-conference at the end of the season. He plans to attend tryouts in December for a chance to play professional soccer with the North American Soccer League as a left or right mid-fielder. Dent loves this position because it allows him to be creative, take people on and contribute much throughout the entire game.
Time is limited to make it professional, but Dent has decided to give himself until 25 before he considers moving on to another career path.
“I’m obsessed. I don’t really care about anything else.”
Dent has team as well as personal goals for the remainder of his final soccer season at Union. Collectively, he hopes to see their team continue working hard to do well in the remaining conference play and then enter playoffs to finish well there. Personally, he is determined to train harder and perform even better for the rest of the season. Dent explained that it’s crucial for him to remember that regardless of any circumstance or separation from family, he is here to pursue his dream of playing professionally, so it’s worth it to him to stick with the dream.
For Dent, home is really not a place. He has spent much of his life in the headspace of knowing he will eventually move somewhere else if he is going to seriously pursue his dreams. And this means not making too many major attachments in any one place. But this doesn’t seem to be much of an issue for Dent because the obsession with chasing a fulfilling dream has a way of making any potential cost seem wildly insignificant.
“I always try to picture myself at 30. I don’t want to play it safe in life and take the easy way out so that when I get there I think, ‘Oh my gosh, why didn’t I…?’ Life’s just too beautiful to live with those regrets.”
