By: Sean Farrell – Record Sports

The same question comes up over and over again.

From parents. Coaches. Scouts.

Everyone sees the kid with the infectious smile and curly hair, running with the endurance of the Energizer Bunny.

So they all ask the Garfield coach the same thing. Who’s No. 10?

“Everywhere I go,” Chad Sajnoski said.

The answer is Oscar Sanchez.

A captain. A fighter. An American success story.

Sanchez is the humble and outspoken high school senior, who made it out of a poor neighborhood in Honduras to become a state champion.

There were times when he had no food, no electricity and nowhere to sleep.

That shaped him into the man he is today.

It taught him to keep pushing.

“There were nights when my mom didn’t eat,” Sanchez said. “There were nights when we had to look for food in dumpsters. My mom is probably the best thing I have. I don’t have words to explain how she did it. She stayed positive. The thing I remember the most about her is to always keep pushing, no matter what. Look where she brought us. Look where I am right now.”

On Saturday mornings, he’s at Century Field in Garfield.

There, a 5-year-old boy named Trey follows his every move.

The Boilermakers mentor children with special needs and Sanchez is their ringleader.

It’s just after 8 o’clock when he begins the workout.

The smile is back on his face less than 24 hours after scoring an overtime goal that kept his senior season alive. He is ready to go.

“Hands to the left,” he shouts.

Sanchez has 21 goals and 18 assists this season for Garfield.

College soccer is surely in his future, possibly at Georgetown or Ramapo.

His speed and creativity make him hard to stop in the midfield.

And he’s inspired by young athletes who consider him a role model. He is careful about the way he acts, what he posts on social media.

“The kids like him for a reason,” said Sajnoski, in his second season. “He’s got a smile on his face. He’s got no care in the world. He’s a good kid and I’m happy that I have kids like that.”

Maybe no one has more hometown pride than Sanchez.

But it wasn’t always that way.

He grew up in a dangerous part of the capital city of Tegucigalpa as the second of five kids.

Gangs and drugsters were all around. Some of his cousins were killed.

And Sanchez didn’t have a steady home.

His parents had an “on-and-off relationship”. He describes his biological father as an alcoholic. So at age 5, Sanchez moved to the United States with his mother, Nely Avilez, who found work as a cook and with a delivery business.

“I look at it today and go ‘wow’. Look where I came from,” Sanchez said. “That’s a reason why I talk about Garfield. Where I came from, what I saw, it’s two different lives. It’s a nice town here. You don’t see turf [in Honduras]. You see dirt over there. It’s a big difference.”

There were challenges in New Jersey too.

At recess, Sanchez would have no one to talk to. He knew no English.

But he picked it up quickly, by recognizing words that sounded like Spanish ones and by watching television.

Then he started club soccer in third grade, and the rest was history.

He drew comparisons to Lionel Messi, another No. 10 who’s often the smallest player on the field.

“He’s like the big brother and we’re all his little siblings,” senior Enrique Nunez said. “Whenever you think you’re down, all you see are his little legs sprinting for the ball. That gives you momentum.”

“He’ll run up and down the field all day,” Sajnoski said. “And if we went in quadruple overtime, he would still be running.”

Garfield plays Dover on Tuesday in the North 2, Group 2 semifinal.

The Boilermakers have a strong offense with Nunez and Sebastian Medina also leading the way.

Sanchez will likely be heavily marked anyway and possibly triple-teamed, as he’s been at times this season.

But his teammates know that no matter what happens – no matter the score – Sanchez will keep pushing for his school and his town.

“I want people to know I’m a good player,” said Sanchez, who’s just 5-foot-5. “But hey look, this is a great town. There are amazing people in this town. It’s where I grew up. Anywhere in the future that I go, I’m always going to say that I’m from Garfield. That’s where I started. I want to give back to the town as much as they’ve given to me. It’s nothing but love and support.”