Kenny Vasquez expected to be part of the Schoolcraft College soccer team last fall. But the 2008 Pioneer High School graduate needed a new plan once he was ruled ineligible after having to repeat a credit over the summer.

Plan B: Vasquez is going to spend the next six weeks in the UK-Football Academy in England where he’ll try to impress officials with the newly formed semiprofessional squad Luton Athletic Football Club.

Vasquez was invited to participate in the training program by club officials on the recommendation of his former Schoolcraft teammate George Chamakov, who was captain of the club’s developmental academy squad last year.

“The club needed defenders, and George recommended me and they contacted me,” said Vasquez, who will leave for England on Thursday. “At Schoolcraft, George and I were about even and the head guys trusted him because of his prestige as the captain.”

To help with the cost of airfare and the fees associated with the Academy, Ann Arbor’s soccer community came together over the holiday season to help Vasquez chase his dream. A fund-raising party raised nearly $1,500. Vasquez says the cost of the Academy, plus airfare, was around $3,800.

“Kenny is very proud and asking for help, you could tell wasn’t something he wanted to do,” said Mounir Bibleche, who has had Kenny play with teams he’s organized in Ann Arbor the past couple of years. “But I let him know that if there is anything we could do, we were going to and brainstormed to try and help him.

“He a good player and an all-around pleasant person, and you want to see someone like that succeed,” Biblech said. “He’s homegrown talent, this is a big chance that he’s getting, and we wanted to help.”

Mounir and others organized the party and last Monday decided to try to mobilize Vasquez’s soccer playing friends and former teammates. An e-mail was sent last Monday afternoon, and less than 24 hours later close to 60 people showed up at Wide World Sports Center. More than $400 was raised by staging three hours of pay-to-play pickup games.

“You don’t know how many people pay attention to you and care about you until this sort of thing happens,” Vasquez said. “All I’ve done is be polite and nice to them, and to have them help me out like this really feels good.”

Peter Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at petercunningham@annarbor.com or 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.