Madison's 'Gooj' at home on pitch
Ghoja, who played in 20 of Montevallo’s 24 games this season, played with the Falcons in a limited spring schedule. He’s also coached at youth camps and will play in Raleigh, N.C. this weekend in the U.S. Youth Soccer Region 3 torunament with a U-19 team from Birmingham.
For the Bob Jones High School graduate, playing soccer comes almost as naturally as walking. In fact, he’s been playing the sport from the day when he learned to walk.
His mother, Ruth Ghoja, has a picture of him kicking a soccer ball when he was just 18 months old.
The game was just part of the Ghoja family. Alex’s father, David, played on a youth international team from Iran and he started playing with his two sons - brother Ash is seven years older - from the day they were old enough to kick a ball.
Ghoja, who affectionately goes by the nickname Gooj, earned his “E” soccer coaching license last summer and will take his National “D” license later this summer.
He often does individual and small-group skills training for young players during the off-season. He recently helped host a youth camp at Durbin Park with several Montevallo teammates, working on the basic skills of the game with the up-and-coming players.
“Camps are really good for young players,” Ghoja said. “Kids can actually see a college coach and hear stuff from someone different.
“At the Montevallo camp, we had such a great group of kids because they really wanted to learn more about the game,” Ghoja said.
The Ghoja family moved to Madison when Alex was a sixth grader after David Ghoja took a job with the Army Corps of Engineers.
He played for Valley Futbol Club - an organization that the Ghojas and several other parents started - until he graduated from high school.
He was part of the VFC 89 Arsenal team that played in Germany in 2005 before returning to Alabama to win five of six tournaments.
Ghoja’s soccer career was nearly put on hold when he was diagnosed with a benign tumor on one of his ribs that year. The tumor had wrapped itself around a rib and was causing his spine to curve.
It also gave him frequent chest pains.
“It was pretty painful,” Ghoja said. “I played through it, but if I got hit on that side I would have to take myself out of the game.”
Doctors cut out more than four inches of the rib to remove the tumor.
He never missed a game. He was back on the field for Bob Jones’ first game that spring.
Ghoja was a four-year starter for the Patriots during his prep career, earning all-metro and all-state honors.
Recruited by both West Florida and Montevallo, Ghoja decided to sign with the Falcons because of the school’s strong education program. He hopes to one day teach and coach high school soccer.
Montevallo won the 2007 NCAA Division II South Region tournament and was a national semifinalist in the fall after winning a school record 18 matches.
“We had a really good season,” Ghoja said. “We didn’t win our conference, but we did win the region and our region is very tough.”
UM concluded the 2007 season as champions of the NCAA Division II South Region and as national semifinalists in NCAA Division II Men's Soccer. The Falcons won a school-record 18 matches to finish at 18-4-2 overall.
Now the Falcons are setting their sights on taking the program to the next step this fall. Montevallo is losing just four players to graduation from the semifinalist team.
“I think we’ll have a very successful season this fall,” Ghoja said. “We’ve got some very good guys coming in that should help us. Hopefully, we’ll have another good season, if not better, this year.”
