Jojea Kwizera - Rhode Island FC & Rwanda National Team (2019-21)

Kwizera recently finished his fourth season at the professional level in his second campaign with Rhode Island FC in the USL Championship. Kwizera has appeared in 33 games across all competitions for RIFC, and helped lead the club to an improbable Eastern Conference title as the No. 5 seed in the club’s inaugural season in 2024. This season, RIFC has gone on another playoff run — this time as the No. 7 seed — to reach the Eastern Conference finals.

In June of 2024, Kwizera became the first-ever Utah Valley men’s soccer player to be called up by a senior national team when he debuted with Rwanda. Since then, Kwizera has earned 15 caps and scored two goals with The Wasps, including the game-winner against Lesotho in his second appearance.

Kwizera spent three seasons at Utah Valley, earning All-WAC second team honors in the Spring 2021 season. In his final year as a Wolverine in fall 2021, Kwizera recorded 11 assists, the second-most in a single season in program history and the fifth-most in the nation in that year. Kwizera’s 0.65 assists per game that season are a program record. Kwizera became Utah Valley’s first-ever MLS SuperDraft pick when he was selected 15th overall by CF Montréal in the 2022 draft.

Zahir Vazquez - Chattanooga Redwolves SC (2018-21)

Vazquez just finished his third professional season and his first at CRSC. Vazquez appeared in 29 games across all competitions for the Redwolves this season, helping lead the club to its best-ever regular season, finishing second in the USL League One table. 2025 was also Vazquez’s best pro season to date, earning USL1 Team of the Week honors twice and scoring in CRSC’s upset win over Las Vegas Lights in the U.S. Open Cup. Vazquez reached 100 professional appearances earlier this season.

Vazquez played four seasons at Utah Valley, registering six goals and seven assists in that time. Vazquez was a four-time Academic All-WAC honoree, and was an All-WAC honorable mention during the spring 2021 season. Vazquez scored the game-winning goal in Kyle Beckerman’s first career win, a 2-1 victory at Niagara.

Matt Gay - San Francisco 49ers (2014-16)

Gay is currently in his seventh professional season with his fifth team. Gay reached 100 career NFL games played earlier this season, and won Super Bowl LVI in 2021 with the Los Angeles Rams. In 2023, Gay set the NFL record for most 50-yard field goals in a single game with four in the Indianapolis Colts’ win over the Baltimore Ravens.

As a Wolverine, Gay played two seasons, the inaugural 2014 season and the 2016 WAC championship season. As a freshman in 2014, Gay scored a team-high seven goals, which is still the record for the most by a freshman in program history. After missing the 2015 season, Gay came off the bench to help Utah Valley to their first and only conference championship to date, the 2016 WAC regular season title. After the 2016 season, Gay transferred to Utah to pursue his football career, where he won the 2017 Lou Groza Award as college football’s best placekicker.