By Doug Carroll

He has 14 siblings, and his high school graduating class had fewer than half that many members (six). So Ignatius DeMark knows what it feels like to be a little different.

But nothing had prepared him for the different feeling of watching soccer from the sidelines, as he did last fall for Colorado State University Pueblo when he was benched for not playing well.

"I'm kind of a head case, and I struggle with confidence," DeMark says. "There were games when I didn't even play."

The team won without him. He struggled with his diminished role and turned to Tom Hurdle, his former coach at Scottsdale Community College, for counsel. Hurdle had been coached years ago in community college by Oliver Twelvetrees, who is now DeMark's coach at CSU Pueblo.

"You can't give up, you've got to keep going," Hurdle would say in their conversations over the phone.

DeMark pressed on, doing extra work in practice and being a good teammate for the "No Moan Football Club," which is a Twelvetrees slogan intended to remind players that whiners and complainers aren't welcome.

"I know you're good enough," Twelvetrees told him. "You're struggling and we've got to fix it. Just keep working."

"I wasn't going to let him see my head hang low," DeMark says. "It can be hard seeing someone else play your position from the sidelines, but you have to look past yourself. The college years can be some of the most selfish times of your life. But you won't succeed if you just mope and complain all the time."

"Soccer is something I love, and you can't give up on something you love."

An 'incredible' experience

When the coach turned to him in the first game of the NCAA Division II playoffs, he was ready, playing well in a comeback victory over Cal Poly Pomona. He then started and played major minutes as CSU Pueblo won three more times to reach the championship game, where it lost to unbeaten Franklin Pierce University, concluding a 19-4-2 season.

Talk about a turnaround. DeMark didn't see the field in a game on Nov. 4. Less than two weeks later, he played the entire game, assisting on a goal in a 2-1 win.

"The whole experience was just incredible," DeMark says of the tournament run. "I've been very blessed. I thank God every day that I didn't give up."

The challenges he faced in his first year at CSU Pueblo — he is eligible to play two more seasons and expects to graduate in nursing in the spring of 2025 — underscore the importance of relationships formed along the way.

DeMark played club soccer for Hurdle and SCC's Bobby Smith with Phoenix Premier, which became a home away from home for the DeMark family. At one time, at least seven of the siblings were part of the program, and Ignatius' brother Sebastian is now a student-athlete at SCC, playing for Hurdle.

"Tommy Hurdle has always been part of our family through soccer," Ignatius says. "I didn't make it by myself. Tommy and Bobby developed me, and I'll always be thankful for it."

The 15 biological children of Dominic and Jessica DeMark range in age from 6 months to 25 years. (Ignatius, 21, is their fourth.) Dominic, an accountant by training who is a cofounder of DNG Construction in Phoenix, played baseball for Mesa Community College and briefly in the Colorado Rockies organization.

Opportunities to play college soccer weren't abundant for Ignatius when he graduated in 2020 from Holy Family Academy, a K-12 school that had only 65 students at the time.

SCC was affordable, the ACCAC soccer competition was good and the family thought there might be options down the road at four-year schools because of Hurdle's connections.

There were. When Hurdle asked Ignatius for a list of four-year schools that interested him, he added a bit of advice.

"Put CSU Pueblo on your list," he said. "Their coach was my coach, and he was incredible. I think it would be a great fit."

Education as the goal

Hurdle had gone from his native England to little Great Bend, Kan., to play for Twelvetrees at Barton Community College. He's not sure what would have happened in his life if he hadn't.

Once a teenager who had never given college much thought, Hurdle now has a bachelor's degree, in marketing, and two master's degrees, in business and leadership. He went on from Barton to play for Grand Canyon University.

"It's the best decision I ever made," he says of going to community college, adding that Twelvetrees "stressed the value of an education, and it got through to me. From there, my trajectory changed."

Hurdle says Twelvetrees had plenty of raw material in DeMark, a big defender and 4.0 student at SCC who never had trouble maintaining focus.

"He's a model student-athlete," Hurdle says. "He's a resilient kid who is able to put himself in situations that challenge him to grow. It's just the way he carries himself. His perspective is what you want to see."

Although that perspective was tested last fall, DeMark says it was worth it.

Hurdle and family provided support from long distance. Twelvetrees was honest but remained encouraging.

Faith played a big part.

"My dad has a saying," DeMark says. "Work as if everything depends on you, and pray as if everything depends on God."