Rocky Mountain High: Andre Shinyashiki

Former Denver men’s soccer forward Andre Shinyashiki is one of the most decorated student-athletes in the Pioneer's brief Summit League history. After earning a plethora of awards as a DU student-athlete, he was drafted fifth overall by the Colorado Rapids in the 2019 MLS SuperDraft. 

But before he became a revered Pioneer and cashing paychecks on the professional level, Shinyashiki began his soccer journey thousands of miles away in his hometown of São Paulo, Brazil – a city known for its affinity of the game it's residents call futbol'..

Although São Paulo has a lot of poverty, traffic and is a very busy city, he loved being a part of that community and it certainly groomed him into the man he is today. 

“As far as I can remember, I’ve always been playing soccer since I was a little kid,” Shinyashiki recalled. “Brazil is a country where everybody plays soccer. To me, it was natural. There was really no other sport. Everything was about soccer.”

During his youth, Shinyashiki played for the Brazilian Club Pequeninos do Jockey, helping guide it to the Gothia Cup. This placement helped lead to opportunities abroad and he took his talents to Montverde Academy in Montverde, Fla., where he was the 79th-ranked player in the class of 2015 according to College Soccer News. Once in Florida, his play continued to improve. He earned the MAST (Montverde Academy Soccer Tournament) Golden Boot award, given to the leading scorer and helped lead Montverde to a 117-match unbeaten streak and back-to-back national championships following his final two years at the academy.

Denver head coach Jamie Franks had his sights set on Shinyashiki early on. In one scouting match, he saw Shinyashiki bury four goals in a match. But, Franks looked beyond the goal-scoring prowess and saw something special in the young Brazilian, especially with how he carried himself.

“When we were recruiting him, and went to go watch him play and his team won by a lot,” Franks recalled. “However, it was the way that he warmed up his team, and the way he held everyone else accountable, even though it was seven or 8-0 in the game. To watch him be that bought into the process, you knew he had something deeper. He just got better and better.”

Shinyashiki had similar feelings for the coaching staff at Denver and knew they were the right group of people to make him grow as a not only a soccer player, but as a person too.

The DU staff sure did help him grow into a better player from the start. As a freshman, he appeared in all 19 matches and made 16 starts. Shinyashiki led the team with 48 shots and tied as the team leader in goals with five, earning himself first-team All-Summit League honors and the 2015 Summit League Newcomer of the Year.

And what followed next ended up being the best season in Denver men’s soccer history. Denver won its fourth-straight Summit League Tournament title in a 2-1 win against Omaha. Shinyashiki scored both goals, including the game-winner in the 90th-minute. Fort his efforts, he was named The Summit League Championship MVP.

In the 2016 NCAA Tournament, the Pioneers would go on to beat UNLV in the second round (3-0), No. 14 Washington (2-1) in the third round, where Shinyashiki scored the game-winning goal, and No. 3 Clemson (1-0) in the quarterfinals as the Pioneers advanced to their first Final Four in program history.

“We had so much depth and good leadership,” Shinyashiki said when recalling the 2016 season. “We had so many good players and the ultimate thing was that we had a lot of belief. We believed in ourselves and we believed that first of all, we were never going to give up any goals. We had the best defense in the country that year and that was the belief. The belief on the team is what got us there.”

The Pioneers' College Cup run was certainly a milestone for the program, and something Shinyashiki will never forget. 

“There were a lot of game-winning goals and overtime goals, but the run to the Final Four is most special because it was done as a team,” Shinyashiki said. “To beat a team from the ACC like Clemson, with the stadium packed, that really had never happened for Denver. For us, it was a special moment and it really turned the program around forever.”

His junior campaign saw him earn first-team All-Summit League and Summit League Offensive Player of the Year honors as he led league with 22 points and was tied for the league-lead with nine goals in the regular season. He also added four assists and notched two game-winning goals.

After defeating Eastern Illinois 1-0 in The Summit League Men's Soccer Tournament semifinals, the Pioneers faced third-seeded Omaha and the match was decided by penalty kicks. The Mavericks prevailed and beat Denver in penalty kicks, 9-8.

“After he missed the penalty in the 2017 Summit League Tournament, he put a lot of ownership on himself,” Franks said. “I saw a certain amount of grit and resiliency that ultimately turned into self-confidence for him and he started to really do the work, he really got fit and he started to take more ownership of the team. It was a holistic approach from him.”

And he certainly put in the work as he was the No. 1 Player in the Top Drawer Soccer Midseason Top-100 list in 2018.

After scoring 23 combined goals in his first three seasons, the team captain had one of the most memorable seasons in program and league history. He scored a program and league-best 28 goals in his senior campaign, including 11 game-winning goals. He also recorded a program and league-best 60 points and was named back-to-back Summit League Offensive Player of the Year. Shinyashiki was ranked first in the country in points per game (2.86), first in total points (60), goals per game (1.33), total goals (28), game-winning goals (11) and shots on goal per game (2.86). Furthermore, Shinyashiki recorded an impressive five hat tricks in his senior season.

“The guy never lost at anything,” Franks said. “It didn’t matter if we were playing 5v2 light or if it was soccer or tennis, the guy won. A lot of people think being a professional is about glitz and glamour, but it’s not. It’s about grit and it’s about being consistent with controlling what you can control. When I really saw him work on his fitness, clean up his diet and enhance his academics, that’s when I knew that there was nothing that was going to stop him.”

Franks pushed Andre to become the leader he was during his senior season, and it showed throughout the 2018 season.

“It all starts with extreme ownership and understanding whenever you are blaming people or making excuses, you’re just not looking internally enough to find out what you did,” Franks said. “For Andre, it was important for him to understand that because of the type of player he was and the type of leader he was, everything he said or did mattered. Every moment that he had in leadership, he was either building someone up or knocking them down. Once he had that ownership and he saw his leadership brought everyone else up around him, it was contagious for him.” 

Following Shinyashiki's senior season, he earned the 2018 Senior CLASS Award, was named the United Soccer Coaches' Scholar Athlete of the Year and was a finalist for the MAC Hermann Trophy, which is given annually to the nation's top player. He wrapped up his collegiate career as the all-time league leader in shots (285), points (117) and is tied for first in goals (51). Shinyashiki also netted 19 game-winning goals, which along with his goal and point-totals are DU records.

Shinyashiki certainly had quite the career with the Pioneers and was an elite member of the program. The part he is most proud of, however, is the good that the Denver Pioneers' soccer program has done for people.

As one of the nation's top players, everyone knew his soccer playing days would not end when his DU career was over and it turned out, those days would continue right there in the Mile High City. Shinyashiki was selected with the No. 5 overall pick by the Colorado Rapids in the 2019 Major League Soccer SuperDraft. He became the third top-five pick in any major sport in Summit League history joining Oral Roberts’ Jeff Heathcock (’80) and Mike Moore (’81) who were both drafted No. 1 overall in the MLB draft.

“It was a dream come true,” Shinyashiki said. “There was not a team I wanted to go to more than the Colorado Rapids. I wanted to stay in Colorado really bad and I was so grateful for the opportunity. Denver really prepared me for that and the relationship between Denver and the Rapids was very important for me to get drafted so high.”

Franks could not have been more happy with Shinyashiki's progression and his rise to make it to Major League Soccer.

“We won so many games and so many trophies during his time here, but we also got the top GPA in the country multiple times, we won the community service Gold Vest award here in the Denver community and we did it all with integrity,” Franks said. “To be as bought in as he was, it makes me proud.”

Just like he did at the University of Denver, he excelled with the Rapids in his rookie season in 2019. In 31 matches, Shinyashiki started 18 of them and netted seven goals and added three assists in 1,670 minutes.

Shinyashiki's rookie campaign was highlighted by scoring in his MLS debut in the snow in Denver against the Portland Timbers, and netting the first brace of his career against the Seattle Sounders, a performance that earned him MLS Player of the Week honors. He also scored the game-winning goal in the 82nd minute later in the season against the LA Galaxy.

For his efforts, Shinyashiki was named the 2019 MLS Rookie of the Year.

The announcement came as a surprise to Shinyashiki and his former college coach was the one to deliver him the great news.

“Jamie Franks means a lot to me,” Shinyashiki said. We still talk to this day. He’s always asking how I’m doing, asking about my family and he really cares a lot about his players as people. Jamie’s ultimate goal is to develop good people and good human beings. Soccer is just a means to an end. I do generally believe that he’ll cut players because of their attitude no matter how good they are. I think that’s a good mentality to have because it puts you in the position to always be reliable and that was something that came to mind when I think about Jamie Franks. He wants to make you a reliable soccer player and a good person. Through those things, I was able to develop extremely successfully here."

From first-team All-American honors, to being a two-time Summit League Offensive Player of the Year, to being drafted by the hometown Colorado Rapids, Shinyashiki is one humble individual and is proud to be a part of a historic program like the University of Denver.

When asked what is the biggest advice he could give younger players coming through the ranks at Denver, he mentioned the importance of understanding how to receive criticism and be open-minded.

“A lot of people that go to Denver are really talented kids and have a lot of quality. Sometimes, they come in with a closed mind, thinking they know everything and I think that’s the biggest mistake,” he said. “The most important part is really understanding what you’re doing wrong and really understanding that you’re a part of something bigger than yourself. If you understand those two things and really take the criticism and try to get better every single day, than you’ll be successful, not just at Denver, but in in your regular life too.”