STONY BROOK, N.Y. — Emilio Quevedo resolved that he had not finished playing soccer.

So after getting cut from the New York University men's soccer team following a late-summer tryout as a freshman, then spending the rest of the 2017-18 academic year at the Greenwich Village school without ties to the sport, Quevedo relocated to Guayaquil, Ecuador.

In his family's homeland, where his father and grandfather played professionally, Quevedo spent seven months training with a second-division club while competing as an amateur with its reserve team.

He then returned to the United States and eventually enrolled a year ago at Stony Brook as a biology major and Latin American and Caribbean studies minor with no promise of playing college soccer.

He spent the 2019 season as the men's soccer team's student manager.

Finally, after earning the trust of the coaching staff and sufficiently impressing in a tryout, Quevedo's perseverance paid off.

He is now a bona fide college player with the Seawolves.

"It's about not giving up and always showing your face," said Quevedo, a 5-foot-11, 150-pound back.

At Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale, N.J., Quevedo had been a two-year captain and had earned honorable mention all-state, first-team all-North Jersey and first-team all-county recognition as a senior. He had a Division I walk-on opportunity, but had always dreamed of attending college in Manhattan. Plus, he thought he had a secure spot as a starter with the Division III Violets.

Instead, Quevedo realized he was one of five newcomers at an already stocked position upon arriving at NYU. He was cut after three days.

He seriously weighed spending four years at NYU strictly as a student.

"I said, 'I'm just going to finish out the year. And if I think I can live without soccer, so be it. I'll finish my four years here and continue on with the rest of my life,'" Quevedo said. "It's a great school. I would recommend it to anybody."

Ultimately, though, he felt the tug of a sport that is in his blood.

Quevedo's father Yuri had played soccer professionally in Ecuador as a goalkeeper on multiple clubs, including first-division CS Emelec. Quevedo's grandfather Ernesto Quevedo represented the Ecuadorian national team at the youth level and played forward for first-division club CD Everest while a teenager.

Quevedo had been presented playing options in Ecuador out of high school. Immediately after completing his freshman year at NYU, he headed to South America.

After seven months training in Ecuador, Quevedo returned home around Christmastime in 2018. He spent the next several months searching for a Division I opportunity at a solid academic school while working as a substitute paraprofessional in elementary and middle schools in Bergen County as well as for a relative's diving academy at a nearby pool.

"I figured I'd shoot for the highest I could possibly go," Quevedo said. "And if it didn't work out, it didn't work out. But I didn't want to sell myself short."

Quevedo had no particular allegiance to Stony Brook besides an aunt who had graduated from the university. He attended a clinic during the summer of 2019 and informed the coaching staff that he already had been accepted to the school and planned to enroll.

"The contact was kind of on and off," Quevedo said. "We couldn't really establish anything before preseason, which is understandable. It was a short period of time."

He arrived on campus a week before classes started, determined to get noticed.

"I would just show up every day and watch their training sessions," Quevedo said. "And I showed up at the coaches' office and knocked on the door one of those days — maybe the first day I was there. I was like, 'Hey, I know you guys are doing preseason. I just want you to know I'll be around. I know there's probably nothing you can do at this point. It's late. But I want you to know I want to be a part of this, and I'm going to keep showing up until you tell me no, or until something happens.'"

He was appointed student manager, with recording games and setting up cones for training sessions among his responsibilities.

Last December, after the season ended, head coach Ryan Anatol instructed Quevedo to be prepared for a tryout following the holiday break.

That two-week audition last semester resulted in Quevedo earning a spot on the team — three college seasons after he first arrived at NYU intending to play.

"Watching other players train and play games when you want to be out there yourself is definitely a hard thing to deal with as an individual," Seawolves captain Stephen Turnbull said. "Nevertheless his mindset was always on being part of the team. He demonstrated that every day when he showed up on time and gave us everything he had as a manager. I'm very happy for him that he is now a player on our team. He brings 100 percent effort every day and is just grateful to be out there on the field with us. He's the type of person we need on this team."

Said Quevedo: "I couldn't let soccer go. It was too much of a passion for me. Having it taken away so abruptly was a bit blindsiding. I didn't want to give it up."