SPENCER— Chico Sanchez dreams of becoming an architect some day, which doesn’t seem like a bad idea. He’s already shown remarkable skill rebuilding bridges once burned.

Sanchez’s soccer season at North Rowan lasted all of 40 minutes last year. In the opening game of the Rowan County Soccer Tournament, he got into a loud and decidedly unpleasant verbal confrontation with one of the Cavalier coaches and was asked to leave the team.

All the progress the talented junior had made on the field went unrealized, but a world of good came from that one heated moment.

“Last year I was trying to be all bad, playing hard ball,”said Sanchez, back for his senior season. “I didn’t know if I’d get a second chance, but now that Coach let me come back to the team and play, I’m not gonna let him down, or the team either. They gave me another chance.”

Vincent Connolly’s gamble isn’t one all coaches willingly take. The “once a troublemaker, always a troublemaker” label often sticks with a player.

But it’s Connolly’s job, as a guidance counselor at North, to know kids, and know them pretty well. And he saw a lot more in Sanchez than Chico likes to let on.

“Chico likes to present an image that’s a lot different from reality. He likes to present that tough image,”Connolly said. “When you sit down and talk with him and finally get through that outer shell, you find a really neat kid.”

Sanchez didn’t sulk about the season he would miss. He continued working hard in the class room and on the soccer field — just on his own time.

The confrontation gnawed at him. He’d let his teammates down and a lot of parents heard what went on loud and clear from the stands. Would his coach take him back?

“What happened the year before is the year before. The hatchet’s buried and everyone starts afresh the next year,”Connolly said. “I said that’s fine, we’d love to have you, but we’ve got to have you on different terms.”

Sanchez knew exactly what Connolly meant, and knew he could do it. Sanchez enjoyed a year of growth and maturity, which he admitted has made a big difference in the player he is today.

“He asked me if everything was going to be OK, if I had my head clean and everything. I told him I was,”Sanchez said. “This year I’ve been getting fouled and I just get up and smile. Last year I would’ve gotten up and started pushing around, trying to get in a fight.”

With Connolly’s forgiveness out of the way, Sanchez had little trouble reuniting with his old teammates. After all, he’d been there throughout the offseason at every optional practice and workout, proving himself time and again with a tireless work ethic.

“We’re like a family out here. We stick up for each other,”Sanchez said. “Something goes wrong we try to help each other out.”

The moment of truth finally arrived Aug. 14 in an eerily familiar setting: opening game of the Rowan County tournament against East Rowan.

At halftime of this one, Sanchez had plenty to think about once again. Mainly, it was how to top the two goals and two assists he netted in the first 40 minutes of a 5-0 Cavalier victory.

“Chico,” as he’s been called ever since a sixth-grade teammate couldn’t pronounce “Antonio,” continues to impress. He currently owns seven goals and six assists — five to fellow forward Jordan Littleton —and worked so hard this summer that Connolly made him a co-captain alongside Michael Smith.

“He’s really an exceptional person and he has really provided a lot of leadership on this team this year,”Connolly said. “He’s been a workhorse, and he’s also led in terms of character.”

Remnants of Sanchez’s old tough-guy image still come through, like the gold chains and shaved head Connolly remarked upon with a laugh before a recent practice. But the outer shell is all that remains.

“He’s always been good in the classroom. We never hear any complaints. He takes tough classes like calculus, A.P.English,”Connolly said. “When you say that in the locker room, even his teammates who are with him three months a year, three hours a day, they’re all shocked to find that he’d take those kinds of classes.”

Sanchez, who ranks in the top 25 percent academically at North, hopes to combine his love of soccer and an interest in architecture after graduation. The native of Mexico — he’s been in Rowan County since first grade at Woodleaf Elementary — wouldn’t mind going to college back home, where he can find more opportunities to play soccer.

As his guidance counselor and soccer coach, Connolly will be heavily involved in helping Sanchez take the next step. After the leaps and bounds he’s already seen Chico make, it’s a process he’s more than happy to help in.

“He’s really turned himself around in a lot of ways,”Connolly said. “I’m real glad to have him back, and I’m real glad to have him back with the way he’s grown up in the past six months.”

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Sportswriter Steve Hanf covers soccer for the Post.