Alejandro Lua was on a plane heading toward Guadalajara, Mexico in August, living the life.

Well, he was dreaming about the life.

The Biglerville High junior, a svelte striker on the Canner boys soccer team, ultimately didn't get his wish after earning a tryout with FC Atlas AC, one of the biggest professional soccer clubs in Mexico.

Lua didn't make the team. With 100 other boys - ranging as young as 13 and as old as 17 - vying for the same chance to play at the professional level, he ultimately was cut.

But to be in that position in the first place, to have the opportunity to try out for one of the most popular professional soccer clubs in Mexico in a country that lives and breathes soccer, is remarkable in its own right.

"I learned a lot from that tryout," Lua said. "I needed to improve my passing and my skill. It was a good experience for me."

Lua flew back to Biglerville after his tryout, one week into the Canners' 2008 preseason, and got back into the high school soccer scene, albeit quietly and without much mention of his rendezvous with glitz and glamour.

How did this all happen in the first place? How did Lua, a small town kid playing soccer for an equally small high school, get the chance to impress the big time scouts of FC Atlas AC, which plays in the Apertura, Mexico's first division league?

Turns out the Luas, who are from Mexico, have connections. Alex's brother, Adrian, who played for Biglerville in 2003

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also under head coach Rob Moore, was the facilitator in all of this.

He got in touch with a relative that lived in Mexico, Alex said, and they set up the tryout with Atlas. Alex interviewed with officials at Atlas before he was given the opportunity to try out.

Once the tryout was confirmed, Adrian came up with the money to fly Alex down for the tryout. As for the living arrangements, Alex stayed with a relative when he arrived in Guadalajara.

During the first day of tryouts, Alex said team officials grouped the prospective players into teams and placed them into open field game situations. The reason behind that logic, he said, was so team officials could see how the players stacked up technically and physically against each other.

Alex made the first round of cuts, when the group diminished from 100 to 50. But he failed to break into the third day of the process.

The experience in Mexico seems to have rubbed off on Alex. His numbers aren't overwhelmingly different, but the way he sees the field has changed, he says. He sees the bigger picture now, two and three steps ahead of the play instead of that quick 1-2 pass.

Moore said when Lua came back from Mexico it took at least one third of the season for him to really get back into the type of form he showed the previous year.

"He started our season a little bit behind," Moore said. "...when it came down to the end of the season...he just started to step forward. He's been on a roll ever since and has been doing great things for us."

This season, he leads the Canners with 12 goals and has three assists as his team heads into its much anticipated District 3 Class AA tournament showdown against Fairfield at Northeastern High today.

Last year as a sophomore, Lua scored 17 goals, which also led the team, and had three assists.

His brother, Adrian, who oversees his younger brother's high school career from afar, was quite the standout of his own in 2003. He led the Canners in scoring with 11 goals and had four assists.

Guess scoring runs in the family.

With his senior year ahead of him, Lua has plenty of time to figure out his future. Whether professional soccer is waiting for him, no one really knows. Alex doesn't seem to know himself. Would he like to play professionally some day?

Of course,

But more important right now is the task at hand for Biglerville. With a win over Fairfield, it can secure a place in the district finals, something it hasn't had a chance to do since 2003 - when Adrian played.

Maybe FC Atlas AC won't be there to see him play. But who knows, maybe some college scout will be there, waiting to stumble across the next gem.

Contact Cory Mull at cmull@eveningsun.com. You can read his blog, A Handful of Sports, at blogs.eveningsun.com/mull.