Photo by Trevor Ruszkowski
REGULAR INDY ELEVEN fans are likely familiar with local play-by-play personality Greg Rakestraw’s broadcast alongside Brad Ring or Dan Kapsalis on WISH-TV and MyIndy-TV 23, but across Michael A. Carroll Field and up in the press box, the voices of another broadcast can be heard on game nights in Spanish.
Polo Muedas, who came to the United States from Peru in 2003, and Gustavo Ochoa, who came from Mexico in 2008, have been broadcasting Indy Eleven games for Radio Indianapolis since 2017. They also air other sports around the city, including the Indianapolis 500, and even international events like the 2018 World Cup in Russia, when Peru was included in the field of 32 competing nations.
“People are always sending us messages,” Muedas says about his audience. “Like, they’re aware of the match. They’re giving us feedback, positive or negative. They always want to be part of it. … It’s like, ‘Hey, [the Eleven] are going to win. They’re going to make it to the playoffs.’”
As Muedas and Ochoa often do, they recently called 25-year-old Eleven player Bruno Rendón’s name when he came into the Eleven’s 2-1 comeback win in the second half against Birmingham Legion FC, a night that doubled as the team’s Hispanic Heritage Night.
“He comes in, and he works hard,” Eleven coach Sean McAuley says about Rendón, who can play both up front or in the back, and is in his first team with the club after playing last season for the Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC. “I would say he’s found it tough this season, adjusting to the different level. He’s probably got another level in him as well. …You’ve got to remember, in League One last season, he was the best player in their competition. … He’s finding his feet, but yeah, we’re really pleased to have him.”
Rendón was 18 years old when he and 11 other teammates from Cuba’s U20 team stayed in the U.S. after playing in a tournament in Sarasota. Even though the choice meant long-term geographic disconnection from his family, Rendón has never looked back. He is one of two from the original group that stayed—Rhode Island FC’s Frank Nodarse is the other—and still plays high-level soccer competitively.
“Last November, I turned seven years living here in the States,” Rendón says. “I really love this country.”
Before solidifying his path in professional soccer, Rendón lived for three years in Miami working as a valet driver, building up his English skills, and submitting paperwork for a green card. He speaks with his family every day, and when he needs a taste of his roots, he eats at Havana Cafe.
“It’s really, really good,” he says. “That’s my favorite place right now.”
On Hispanic Heritage Night, held Sunday, September 21, Alejandro Chavez, who has been a member of the Brickyard Battalion since the days when the Eleven played at Lucas Oil Stadium, says he comes to every home game—except for ones that overlap with his wedding anniversary (as one game will later in the 2025 season). He came to the U.S. from Mexico City nearly 20 years ago; now, he performs duties at one of the smoke stations behind the stadium’s west goal to mark the start of the game.
“They are like family,” Chavez says of the BYB. Of his fellow Spanish-speaking fans, he says, “We’re not very different from anyone else. It’s just that we come with accents and subtitles.”
As a part of Hispanic Heritage Night, the Eleven partners with Morales Group and Financial Center First Credit Union to celebrate “peer-nominated leaders across a variety of civic and industry categories” through the Campeones de la Comunidad Awards.
Maria De Leon is one of this year’s winners. Born in Indianapolis to Guatemalan immigrants, she is a recent Butler graduate who works in human relations at Eli Lilly and Company and is also the founder of Indy Networking, an organization that aims to provide young Latinos with professional relationship-building opportunities.
De Leon says she first learned about the concept of networking when she was 15 years old and saw the power it played in helping her earn a major college scholarship, an internship, and her first job. But while her organization works to bring some of those opportunities to her peers, the mission is two-directional: It also highlights what members of the Latino American population offer to Indianapolis.
“We want to continue to share our traditions and what I like to call our “sazón,” our special spice to things,” De Leon says.
While De Leon may not attend Eleven games as often as Chavez does, this is her second year attending Hispanic Heritage Night, and she’s well aware of the importance of the game to her community.
“Soccer is definitely the sport,” she says, “It’s exciting to see that Indy Eleven is supporting the community by being able to not only host a game, but also to recognize leaders who are doing great work across the city of Indianapolis.”
