EDINBURG, Texas – Rio Grande Valley FC announced on Friday the club had signed defender Omar Ontiveros.

“We are pleased to sign Omar Ontiveros, a young and versatile defender who possesses a good mentality and a ton of potential,” said Dynamo Assistant General Manager Nick Kowba. “He is a local product from the Rio Grande Valley who was identified through our open tryout, which is a very positive sign for the community and is yet another example of the wealth of talent in the area. We look forward to seeing him develop and perform in front of his hometown fans.”

The Pharr, Texas native, grew up in the Rio Grande Valley before starting his soccer journey with Club Santos Laguna’s U20 squad in Mexico. In July 2015, he travelled across the Atlantic to join Club Sportif-Grevenmacher in Luxembourg, where he spent nearly two years. Ontiveros played in 12 matches, scored two goals in 1,054 minutes of action in Luxembourg.

“Our goal as a staff was to strengthen our depth in the center back position. As Kevin Garcia and Taylor Hunter have signed with the first team and continue to contribute to RGVFC, it is important that we also sign players that are based here with RGVFC. The fact that Omar is a local player who made it through our open tryout process makes it even more of positive for our club.”

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According to Gonzalez, the signing of Ontiveros may open doors for more local players to demonstrate their talent and have an opportunity to get to the professional level.

“I was impressed with the talent level of the participants. This is the perfect example of why you need to do them,” Gonzalez said. “There are local players that maybe got overlooked or have not been exposed to the professional level, in Omar’s case he played overseas and was in between contracts. It’s important that we do our best to see more local players and hopefully in the future we can have more signed to the first team.”