After being shut out 4-0 by Pompton Lakes in the quarterfinals of the soccer season, on Nov. 4, members of the Glen Rock High School varsity soccer team went home disappointed. However, senior and captain, Kenneth Vergel De Dios, notes that although he would have preferred a different result, it’s the memories from the night before at the team dinner that made it undoubtedly worthwhile.
The team dinner, hosted by Vergel De Dios himself, is an annual tradition where the members of the team bond. For him, it was making sure the team had memories off the field that mattered more than any score could. It was the nights playing video games in his basement and the team chemistry it would build that, in addition to training, furthered the team’s effort on the field.
While Vergel De Dios is certainly a well-respected leader on the soccer team, that’s not an isolated example. He has showcased his leadership skills in a multitude of ways and it has paid dividends as he committed to Duke University in December.
Vergel De Dios has an impressive resume as an athlete. He became a starter for the varsity soccer team as a sophomore and has had great success both on a team and individual level. Individually, he was awarded First Team All-League in his junior and senior years as well as Second Team All-County this past season as a senior. He also won the NJIC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Additionally, he has been a three-year varsity athlete on the GRHS basketball team, where he is currently the captain and starting center. However, athletic talents aside, sports is simply a means by which he demonstrates a much larger skill: the ability to effectively lead others and set an example for those around him.
This skill wasn’t developed instantly, it has taken years for Vergel De Dios to become the student leader and role model he is today. He is quick to credit the people around him when discussing his current leadership role.
“I would not have the leadership qualities I have today without the help of my family, friends, and past teammates,” Vergel De Dios noted. “When I was an underclassman I was fortunate enough to have amazing captains that taught me the importance of being a leader… their work has played a huge part in who I strive to be today.”
Vergel de Dios, who is now the student council president, has used his platform to create a better learning environment for students in GRHS. Former student council president, Connor Cunningham, is someone who Vergel de Dios attributed some of his development as a leader to. Vergel de Dios took inspiration from some of his ideas and has used them in his own endeavors. Cunningham assigned great value to the mental health of students and introduced Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) days as well as providing students with other resources such as the Less Stress group on Schoology that contains meditation videos and mindfulness exercises. Vergel De Dios was a key contributor to the foundation of the Inspiritave Collaboration Encouragement Discussions club or ICED as it is known. This club is geared towards men’s mental health.
“There is a stigma around males’ mental health in our world and how it’s not manly to speak about it, so I created the club with the hopes of eliminating this stigma in a comfortable environment.”
Not only is Vergel De Dios making an impact within the school, but he’s also active in the community. He created the We All Need Sports project, which collected sports equipment and gave it to those who are less fortunate, during quarantine in 2020.
“When COVID-19 hit our world, I wanted to help out and make a change just like the frontline workers were doing,” Vergel De Dios said. He also noted that while it’s easy to be a leader when things are going well, it’s when “morale is down where a leader has to step up and be a voice that people can look up to.”
This project ended up collecting around 600 pieces of equipment, including lacrosse sticks, basketballs, frisbees, baseball gloves, volleyballs, footballs, etc. A small portion was sent to Vietnam Veterans of America and the rest was sent to a local church in the Philippines where Vergel de Dios has relatives.
While Vergel de Dios is a role model for others based on his direct actions, such as creating ICED, he also leads by example. Hard work has been instilled in him for years by people including his mom, who was born and raised in Japan; English is not her first language.
“My mom is one of the most selfless and hardworking people I know,” he notes. “Coming home from a practice I always see my mom reading an English book with her little dictionary next to her taking notes and it motivates me to work hard every single day.”
Vergel de Dios admits that on the weekends he can be extremely lazy and he spends a lot of time lying on the couch watching NFL Redzone. There are also times when he is craving something like a smoothie but is too lazy to get up and make one – something most teenagers can relate to. However, his ability to go all out on the things that matter, such as his schoolwork or sports practice, is never in question.
“I try to go at everything I do with 100% effort and always try to be the best at whatever position I am in. Other than the times I’m blanking out and may make an easy error on a test or run a basketball play completely wrong, for the most part, I try to be as precise and diligent as I can when on a task.”
Vergel de Dios emphasized that he’s “in no way a perfect person,” and called himself “just the typical high schooler.” Like everyone, he has dealt with adversity but wants people to know that “it’s really easy when something goes on to get upset and be sad and go down but over time I learned that after all, everything will be okay and it’s okay to have bad games and bad grades. It’s just about how you respond and react to it.”
He’ll take his leadership qualities with him to Duke University in the fall where he’ll surely continue to make a positive impact on the people around him.
“After high school, I see myself going through college and hopefully after that attending medical school. I’ve always had a dream of becoming a radiologist but I believe that as long as I worry about the present and what I can control currently, everything else will fall into place.”