94 Class In College Soccer Updates

There's one thing that hasn't been adressed with regards to a pro career.

A player is still developing at 18. Some kids are physically at their peak at 18. Some aren't.

I remember reading in soccernomics (with "Moneyball" references) that there were plenty of cases of Golden Ball winners at u17 world cup didn't equate to having a successful pro career.

If you look at the kids who have gone through bradenton (u17 national program) around 30% eventually went on to pro careers. (MLS or overseas)

It's not 'over' at 18.

That's why, in addition to improving college soccer, that there should be an alternate path for players who opt out.

Other than ethnic/adult leagues.

Maybe more players should opt for USLPro and NASL opportunities out of youth/high school. Those leagues need to be expanded to 9 and 10 months instead of 6.

I'd rather see an up and coming 19-21 year old playing there than a 28-30 yr old that is as good as they will ever be. or past their prime.

indyfc wrote:

soccergrinder wrote:Most "Gringos" realize that the pipe dream of playing pro soccer is just that. So they play for clubs where the focus is playing in college and working towards a college education. FC Dallas focuses on going pro. If you play for a club like Solar on the DA team you have a 90% or better chance at playing in college. If you play for FC Dallas on the DA team you have a .005% chance of playing pro. I think FC Dallas has maybe 4 of their DA players going to play in college this upcoming year. The rest go directly into the work force. It has nothing to do with the quality of player. It has to do with focus in life. By the way the top "pro" prospect this year played for Solar, not FC Dallas.

Grinder, where did you get this stat??? I am blown away if this is true...

At the begining of the soccer year the Solar U18 DA team had 22 players on their roster. 19 were Seniors and 3 were Juniors. Of the 19 Seniors 18 (posted earlier in this thread) have college commitments. The vast majority are at D1 schools. The one Senior who has not commited to a college at this pojnt was out for pretty much the entire Fall season with an injury. My understanding is he will come back next year and play for the team while attending a local college to capitalize his opportunities. I am no longer associated with the team so I am uncertain. There was also 1 Senior who was with Solar his entire soccer career and was on the DA teams for two years. This year he left to go to Andromeda where he felt he would get more playing time. He signed with a D1 school who had come to one of the Solar practices and was impressed with him.

Well, if that's true, that's quite an impressive testimonial to Solar's DA program.

I'm curious, has Chelsea (UK...the pro club) ever seriously looked at any Solar players? Signed any?

For that matter, is this just a branding thing for Chelsea or does Solar see measurable benefit?

KS is very good at working to help his kids get into college soccer.

In the past it was mostly a marketing decision. Chelsea furnishes all game, practice and travel uniforms which is a lot. About $1500 worth of clothing per player. They sent coaches over here for some coach training. But very little if any player development. The players have been invited to train with them over there. However, the players have to pay their way and so far the club has not taken a team over there. Two years ago Chelsea sponsored the Disney Cup. I tried to get them to wave our entry fee. No luck. That didn't seem right to me. Oh, well. At least at the Disney Showcase the Solar Chelsea U16 team got to play an ESPN televised match with the Chelsea Developmental team.

Thanks for the info grinder, now I see how you got to those numbers (I guess I should have read the thread from the beginning!).

I had been very skeptical of DA, but #'s don't lie. The only thing I would say based on your feedback is that you don't have to be with the big club from U6-U18.

I still feel you can save your $$ until U14. There should be plenty of options from U6 to U13 where your bb can develop and shine and then jump into a program like Solar's at U14 and up.

Regarding the comments about Chelsea and their involvement with Solar, the same can be said about DT & Man U. It is all at arms lenght, no real direct involvement. But I will tell you this, I can gaurantee you that if any of these clubs had a real stud, they would already be over there.

Yes and if you are with a Top Classic League team with a good program and coach a good percentage of your players can also play college soccer on scholarships. You will get less visibility than the Solar Academy players but can still land DI and DII athletic scholarships. I will say this Solar Chelsea team is very special because they have great student athletes (GPA and SAT scores). We had some players that may have gone DI if they were as good as students as the Solar Academy players. Lesson learned for players is grades and academics are #1. That along with playing for a great program and coach will lead to DI scholarship offers. Academy players more visibility than club. Club can still lead to college soccer if you play at highest levels with right coach and program and to play DI great academic record. Strong academics means the coach knows he want be waving by to you your freshmen semester because the player could not keep up with the rigor, discipline, and time management skills required to be successful student athlete in a DI program.

This brings up another debate.

Are UK really THAT much better?

Very few of the big EPL clubs academies graduate players into the first team. Been a few but they are rare. Arsenal, ManU, Liverpool and Chelsea often sign foreign players as early as 16.

Usually, at u19 an academy grad either progresses into the b team/reserves. Or drops to a lower league team. (Definitely more of the latter.)

Or, sometimes the players come to the states and play college soccer. Sometimes they find themselves playing in the lower leagues after their college careers are over. (Championship or league 1/2.)

On average I have to believe that the typical British player is better. At least smarter due to the culture and exposure.

But the very cream of the crop? Tough to say.

indyfc wrote:Thanks for the info grinder, now I see how you got to those numbers (I guess I should have read the thread from the beginning!).

I had been very skeptical of DA, but #'s don't lie. The only thing I would say based on your feedback is that you don't have to be with the big club from U6-U18.

I still feel you can save your $$ until U14. There should be plenty of options from U6 to U13 where your bb can develop and shine and then jump into a program like Solar's at U14 and up.

Regarding the comments about Chelsea and their involvement with Solar, the same can be said about DT & Man U. It is all at arms lenght, no real direct involvement. But I will tell you this, I can gaurantee you that if any of these clubs had a real stud, they would already be over there.

Can't say I agree. How many 16 or younger are ready to pack up and move to Europe by themselves. How many families would allow it. How many families can afford to move or send one parent with them. The answer to all is very few.

the rules also aren't quite that simple

Laimport wrote:This brings up another debate.

Are UK really THAT much better?

Very few of the big EPL clubs academies graduate players into the first team. Been a few but they are rare. Arsenal, ManU, Liverpool and Chelsea often sign foreign players as early as 16.

Usually, at u19 an academy grad either progresses into the b team/reserves. Or drops to a lower league team. (Definitely more of the latter.)

Or, sometimes the players come to the states and play college soccer. Sometimes they find themselves playing in the lower leagues after their college careers are over. (Championship or league 1/2.)

On average I have to believe that the typical British player is better. At least smarter due to the culture and exposure.

But the very cream of the crop? Tough to say.

In England you have about 90 football league clubs in a very small area and it is easy to sign on with your local club without huge sacrifices of education or a regular childhood. Many of the British EPL players start out as youths at their local League 1 or Championship club and move to an EPL club at 16 or 17 (Rooney Everton to Man Utd, Bale Southampton to Tottenham, Oxlade-Chamberlain & Walcott Southampton to Arsenal). Others stick with their initial club until 21 or so and then move up into the EPL teams (Darren Bent - Ipswich to Tottenham via Charlton, Michael Carrick - West Ham to Man Utd).

Not many actually develop within the top EPL teams from a young age. Beckham, Scholes, Giggs etc. were very rare. The margins between top EPL player and Championship player are fairly slim and it is impossible to tell which 12 year olds will be at the top of the EPL or bottom of the Championship when they are 24.

Soccernovice wrote:Yes and if you are with a Top Classic League team with a good program and coach a good percentage of your players can also play college soccer on scholarships. You will get less visibility than the Solar Academy players but can still land DI and DII athletic scholarships. I will say this Solar Chelsea team is very special because they have great student athletes (GPA and SAT scores). We had some players that may have gone DI if they were as good as students as the Solar Academy players. Lesson learned for players is grades and academics are #1. That along with playing for a great program and coach will lead to DI scholarship offers. Academy players more visibility than club. Club can still lead to college soccer if you play at highest levels with right coach and program and to play DI great academic record. Strong academics means the coach knows he want be waving by to you your freshmen semester because the player could not keep up with the rigor, discipline, and time management skills required to be successful student athlete in a DI program.

Thank you for putting some sanity into the mix. There is little $$ to go around for scholarships, especially coming in as freshman. Doesn't mean you can't make the team, but without grades you won't get $$.

I am pleased to announce a 9th AYSES 94 Gold soccer team member has committed to play college soccer. Ramon Gallegos has committed to play for the University of Incarnate Word men's soccer program for the 2012 season which plays in the NCAA Division II in the Lone Star Conference. The University of Incarnate Word's men's Cardinals soccer program Head Coach is Vince Martinez and Ramon joins a program with much tradition including being ranked in the top 25 of NCAA Division II most of the last decade. Coach Martinez and his staff attended many of the AYSES games including the Disney Showcase, FC Dallas Showcase, and Dallas Cup. Coach Martinez has been very interested in AYSES players and the pedigree of players coming out from our AYSES Soccer Club program.

Ramon is an excellent student with a 3.4 GPA and plans to major in engineering.

Ramon’s official commitment will be updated soon on ESPN RISE men’s college commitments list. Here is a link to these college commitments where Ramon’s name should show up in the next 24 hours proudly representing the AYSES Soccer Club and Plano High School.

http://espn.go.com/blog/high-school/boys-soccer/post/_/id/908/boys-soccer-recent-commitments

We have several players in the final stages of making their decisions on where they will commit to play men's soccer in college. We also have three 2013 graduates on this team who have already attracted alot of college coach interest including NCAA Division I men's soccer programs. Two 2012 graduates on this team who had NCAA Division I program interest from college showcases decided to attend the University of Texas at Austin and play club soccer.

AYSES 94 Gold College Men's Soccer Program Commitments Summary:

PLAYER COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL
1. Josh Dillon-----St. John's University, DI --------Jesuit College Preparatory School
2. Tony Santibanez-------Furman University, DI ------Plano High School
3. Phillip Lassiter---Florida Southern College, DII ---McKinney Boyd High School
4. Jordan Koeppe---- Dallas Baptist University, DII ---Prince of Peace Christian School
5. Kenneth Santibanez --- Southern Methodist University, DI ------ Allen High School
6. Jordan Rubel --- University of Texas at Dallas, DIII ----- McKinney Boyd High School
7. Eric Shephard --- Northeastern State University, DII --- Lovejoy High School
8. Haaroon Ismail ---- Austin College, DIII ---- Brighter Horizons Academy
9. Ramon Gallegos ---- University of Incarnate Word, DII ---- Plano High School
10.Coming soon
11.Coming soon

Ramon and his team the AYSES 94 Gold are representing North Texas in the US Youth Soccer Regional Championship starting Friday, June 14.

We are real close to player #10 and #11 finalizing their college soccer plans. This AYSES Soccer Club will have helped 11 classic league Division I players continue the soccer careers in college. There were 16 active members of the team for the 2012 North Texas State Cup and Southern Regional Championship. Eleven will continue to play men's college soccer for NCAA Division I, II, and III programs, two will play club soccer at the University of Texas at Austin by choice (both had ability to play college soccer in DI programs), and three are Juniors who will return next year to play for AYSES 95 Gold.

AYSES 94 Gold ranked #1 North Texas, #4 Region III, and #29 Nationally in www.gotsoccer.com.

http://rankings.gotsport.com/rankings/team.aspx?teamid=36996

Great for the boys, Novice. Now that you've graduated a lot of your players into the collegiate ranks, your status has risen above your screen name.

How many of the kids have been together since first year Select, U11?

Of the 16 active players that played in state cup and regionals, nine has been with the AYSES Soccer Club since pre-select and all of those seniors will be playing men's college soccer most with athletic and academic scholarships the rest academic only.

Soccernovice wrote:Of the 16 active players that played in state cup and regionals, nine has been with the AYSES Soccer Club since pre-select and all of those seniors will be playing men's college soccer most with athletic and academic scholarships the rest academic only.

you mean with olali? wasnt he with andromeda a few years back?

These weren't all athletic scholarships?????

Please read the post closely starbuck "most" with combination athletic and academic scholarships (ranging from 50% to 100%) and some academic only up to 100%. Multiple players with 100% scholarships for college some at DI programs.

Soccernovice wrote:Please read the post closely starbuck "most" with combination athletic and academic scholarships (ranging from 50% to 100%) and some academic only up to 100%. Multiple players with 100% scholarships for college some at DI programs.

Whew....that's better. Can you provide the breakdown please?

The colleges are listed above so assume they did real well.

Soccernovice wrote:The colleges are listed above so assume they did real well.

Well, some of those colleges don't offer athletic scholarships in soccer....so was just interested in the breakdown of athletic vs academic....that will certainly provide evidence of a strong developmental program....in either academics or soccer....

The DI and DII programs included academic and athletic scholarships the DIII programs were academic only. No player received 100% athletic it always involved a combination of athletic and academic scholarships. A full scholarship DI player has combination of academic and athletic to get to 100%. That is very typical of the top recruits for most college programs. They need good students who are great players. The athletic amount can get pretty high for a top recruit in a DI program. That was our experience with our players.

DIII programs can not award athletic scholarships. You can get 100% academic award and play college soccer in DIII which was our case on our team. The private schools award more academic scholarships than public schools. Thus, a player with a full athletic scholarship to a public university did quite well since there is limited academic money only for the very best students in public institutions(top 10% and better typically in their class).

Soccernovice wrote:The DI and DII programs included academic and athletic scholarships the DIII programs were academic only. No player received 100% athletic it always involved a combination of athletic and academic scholarships. A full scholarship DI player has combination of academic and athletic to get to 100%. That is very typical of the top recruits for most college programs. They need good students who are great players. The athletic amount can get pretty high for a top recruit in a DI program. That was our experience with our players.

DIII programs can not award athletic scholarships. You can get 100% academic award and play college soccer in DIII which was our case on our team. The private schools award more academic scholarships than public schools. Thus, a player with a full athletic scholarship to a public university did quite well since there is limited academic money only for the very best students in public institutions(top 10% and better typically in their class).

Well, not all the DII universities on your list can offer athletic scholarships (Dallas Baptist, for example, and the DI colleges often save athletic scholarship money for overseas players) so I'm really looking forward to your scholarship breakdown for each player. It's always neat to emphasize to the parents how important it is for players to keep a very tight perspective on how important grades are in the whole scheme of things. It certainly gives them something to use to encourage their kids to take studying seriously!

As I recalls, D1 schools can only have, by NCAA rules, 9.99 scholarships out at a time for the entire program (all undergraduates). That means, generally speaking, coaches are loathe to offer 'full soccer scholorships' to anyone and prefer to mix in a little sports money with something else...academics being the norm. Also, most programs want their soccer programs to contribute to the athletic GPA having already surrendered a lot of ground in football and basketball. NCAI schools have a lot more wiggle room and are allowed a lot more international players.

It has been a couple of years since I reviewed the rules but that is how I remember it. Also struck me that soccer coaches recruited players on the basis they would get to play...and that many schools hoped to bring in tuition paying athletes for the most part.

Problem is that you may not have an ambition for your kid to go to Akron or central Arkansas or Dakota Wesleyn...D1 soccer programs are not necessarily someplace you want to go to school if you get good grades...so there is the rub.