UTRGV forward William Akio is having the season of his life.
Under his belt in the last few months? Western Athletic Conference Offensive Player-of-the-Year honors, a team that earned the second seed heading into the WAC tournament plus a sizeable following and more than half a million views on his soccer-centric YouTube channel.
But a couple of years ago after a devastating knee injury late in the 2019 season, he was in a completely different space.
“It happened so quick, everything was going well and all of a sudden I heard my knee explode. Right away I knew I wasn’t normal. I ran for a few minutes afterward, got some touches then knew I had to come off.”
That was in November 2019. Before the pandemic wiped out a season, before Akio’s breakout offensive season in 2021, and before he became a rising soccer YouTuber….but more about that later.
“College soccer has definitely been a roller coaster,” Akio, the Canadian national said. “I didn’t come with a lot of expectations. My goal was just to do my best and try to progress throughout the years. I knew everything wasn’t going to click right away. And it was tough, classes are tough, I had some problems with soccer, with coaches. As the years went on, I figured out the only way I’m going to be successful is I’m going to continue to fail and continue to learn. I feel super positive about this team and this year.”
Now, Akio is thriving under first-year UTRGV coach Bryheem Hancock, like really thriving. He’s a goal-a-game player this year with 9 goals in 9 matches. Hancock, who was goalkeeper for UConn’s 2000 NCAA championship, said that from day one he spoke to Akio about off and off the field leadership.
“His intensity never changes,” Hancock said. “It can be the re-entry day when we fly back in from travel and his intensity is the same. The extra work he does after practice, the preparation after the injury he had, the prehab to make sure he’s doing things the correct way.”
The time after his injury was some of Akio’s toughest. He was thousands of miles from home, unable to play with his team and things slowed to a snail’s pace.
“With the pandemic when it hit it was about the same time I was coming back from knee surgery,” Akio said. “That year sucked a lot. I didn’t feel as motivated as I did before, everything was just slowed down.”
While times were tough for the young striker, he didn’t run from the sport he loved, he doubled down, started focusing on healing and making soccer-related video content.
“That’s around the same time I started to work on YouTube, talking about soccer. I started to understand that you can’t take anything for granted in life.” Akio said.
His channel is a mix of mentorship for young players and vlogging about his training, matches and camaraderie with teammates. He gradually gained traction and “blew up” thanks to videos with professional footballers around Texas including Houston Dynamo signee Juan Castilla and his former teammate and roommate Kyle Edwards of RGV FC.
“I just continued to work and slowly followed the steps I needed to,” Akio said. “As this season started to come closer that motivation, that inspiration started to come back. It was good for me to kind of sit back and look at my life. Now I can lead the team the right way.”
While some NCAA players that found YouTube success, like football kicker Donald De La Haye, left their sport to pursue content creation, that’s not the case for Akio. His eyes remain laser-focused on the dream he’s had since childhood, pro soccer.
“I only have one goal right now and that’s to be a professional soccer player,” Akio said. “Since I started playing at 12 years old I’ve always had that goal. Every time someone asks that question that’s my answer. I’m going to continue to work to get that.”
The Vaqueros (6-1-2) get back on the pitch to a WAC championship and berth in the NCAA tournament. UTRGV has a bye and faces the winner of San Jose State (5-1-2) vs. Air Force (4-4-1) on Thursday.
