by Dorothée Durivage ’28 on October 8, 2026
Athlete of the Week
This week’s Providence College athlete of the week is Michael Vella ’28, a junior on the men’s soccer team. Vella is a midfielder from Westwood, MA, who started his collegiate career playing on Providence’s club soccer team.
Vella attended Buckingham Browne & Nichols school for the 2020–21 academic year before transferring to Westwood High School for the rest of his high school career. He played for the Boston Bolts’ MLS Next during all four years of high school. Vella was a part of the team that won the highly competitive MLS Next Northeast Division during the 2022–23 season. After arriving at Providence in the fall of 2024, Vella tried out for the men’s club soccer team and, after making it on the team, played consistently throughout the fall season. The club soccer team was not especially competitive for that season, but it allowed Vella to keep playing before trying out for the Division I varsity team.
Vella walked on the men’s varsity soccer team in the spring of 2025 and has been a part of the team ever since. Although he did not play in any games during the 2025–26 season, as he was out with a groin injury, he continued to put in the work this summer with the team and was able to play with Santa Cruz FC for the 2026 summer season. Santa Cruz FC is a free-to-play, semi-professional club in Lowell, MA, built to bridge the gap between collegiate and professional soccer. Santa Cruz FC describes Vella as a “dynamic winger from Providence College, [who] brings high-level NCAA Division I experience and attacking quality to our squad.” Vella has also been described as explosive on the wing, clean and confident on the ball, skillful in 1v1 situations, dangerous delivering the final pass, and a winner built in elite environments.
After a successful summer with Santa Cruz FC, Vella came back to Friartown with more skills under his belt and was ready to support the soccer team. A few games into the season, Vella played his first minutes on the NCAA Division I pitch. On Sept. 18, in an away game at Creighton University, he was a substitute and played for five minutes. He also played more recently, on Oct. 2, when the team traveled to Washington D.C. to play against Georgetown University, where he played for seven minutes. It is an inspiring story and exciting to see a player who walked onto the team his freshman year earn the opportunity to play only a season later.