94 Class In College Soccer Updates

There are still 94 players in process of making their college commitments. It has been a long journey for these players and alot of fun. Here is an update on the 94 AYSES Gold team. AYSES 94 Gold participated in the Classic League from U-11 to U-19 finishing 3rd in Division I their final season this last fall.

We have multiple players with DI offers in hand including full academic & athletic scholarship offers and some with partial academic & athletic offers at DII programs. All of our players who want to play soccer in college have interest from DI, DII, or DIII programs.

Most players are waiting until after the Dallas Cup to make their commitments.

We have had our first player sign a National Letter of Intent to play for St. John's University the #18 2011 NCAA Division I RPI ranked program. St. John's was attracted to our player since he would fit in exceptionally well with their high quality possession style soccer program in the Big East Conference. Our coach feels there is no other team in the NCAA that plays the quality of possession soccer as St. John's and that the AYSES style of play and training since his pre-select years prepared Josh for this opportunity. Josh has been a member of the AYSES Soccer Club since pre-select in the academy program and has stayed with the club through U-19 on the AYSES Gold 94 team. AYSES Gold 94 played in the Classic League Division I, 2011 Disney Showcase Champions, and 2010 Gothia World Cup Quarterfinalist, Gothenberg, Sweden. The link below takes you to the write up today in ESPN RISE.

http://espn.go.com/blog/high-school/boys-soccer/post/_/id/4906/st-johns-picks-up-midfielder-from-texas#more

Great to hear!! Keep us updated, and we'd love to know who goes to which schools...when it's time for ours to be recruited, it could be helpful to know which local boy is where. A friendly face, or a reminder to that coach that we come from the same leagues could be helpful~

Nice job, go Ayses!!

We have had our second player on our AYSES 94 Gold team sign a National Letter of Intent to play for a prominent NCAA Division I program. Tony Santibanez committed to play for Furman University the college where Clint Dempsey played before turning professional. Furman University was attracted to our player since he would fit in exceptionally well with their high quality possession style soccer program. Tony was highly sought after recruit by multiple top level Division I programs. He has played with the ASYES 94 Gold team in the Classic League since U-11 and with the AYSES academy program prior to select. Tony's credits his experience with the AYSES Soccer Club for his development as a player which has led to the opportunity to sign with Furman University.

We have additional players making DI, DII, and DIII college commitments soon. All of these players decided to stay in the classic league and with the AYSES Soccer Club instead of playing in the US Development Academy program. They have found the Club programs and Classic League has provided outstanding visibility with college coaches. The have also got to participate in High School soccer while fulfilling their dreams to play at the highest level in college soccer next year.

Another college commitment from the AYSES 94 Gold team. Phillip Lassiter, Forward, has committed to play for Florida Southern College, NCAA DII in the highly competitive Sunshine State Conference. Phillip will join two other North Texas players on the team one from the Andromeda 90 National Championship squad and a U-18 Dallas Texas Development Academy graduate. Florida Southern has a strong athletic tradition with 27 DII NCAA Championships and the leading scorer in NCAA Division II for 2011 soccer season. Florida Southern has also been in the top 5 NCAA Division II rankings for academic performance with a DII leading 3.3 average team GPA. Phillip credits his participation in the AYSES Soccer Club since pre-select years for his preparation for playing in college. Phillip is the 3rd player on our team to receive both athletic and academic scholarships to continue playing soccer in college. We expect more DI, DII, and DIII signings to be announced soon.

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

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

PLAYER COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL
1. Josh Dillon-----St. John's University--------Jesuit
2. Tony Santibanez-------Furman University------Plano
3. Phillip Lassiter---Florida Southern College---McKinney Boyd
4. Coming soon
5. Coming soon
6. Coming soon
7. Coming soon
8. Coming soon

We expect to have 8 to 10 players commit to college soccer programs over the next two months. Most within next month. We have 3 2013 graduates. Several highly recruited prospects have decided to not play NCAA level instead to play club in college to attend their school of choice.

Still love to hear where the kids that are going to play college club are going, too!

Two players have been accepted to University of Texas Austin for engineering programs and decided to play club soccer at UT Austin versus take offers from other colleges. One player who has decided to attend UT Austin had significant interest from DI programs including SUNY Stony Brook, Hofstra, and many others. Both of these players play for the Allen High School varsity team.

We have just reported to ESPN RISE our 4th college commitment. Jordan Koeppe, a AYSES 94 Gold player since pre-select academy days, has verbally committed to Dallas Baptist University who will play in the NCAA Division II Heartland Conference in the 2012 soccer season. The Heartland Conference includes men's soccer teams from Incarnate Word and St. Edward's University. Jordan bypassed offers from other programs to stay locally in Texas.

We have multiple players in the final stages of making their decisions on athletic scholarship offers from DI and DII programs.

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

PLAYER COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL
1. Josh Dillon-----St. John's University, DI --------Jesuit
2. Tony Santibanez-------Furman University, DI ------Plano
3. Phillip Lassiter---Florida Southern College, DII ---McKinney Boyd
4. Jordan Koeppe---- Dallas Baptist University, DII ---Prince of Peace Christian School
5. Coming soon
6. Coming soon
7. Coming soon
8. Coming soon
9. Coming soon
10.Coming soon

We have just reported to ESPN RISE our 5th college commitment from the AYSES Gold 94 team. Kenneth Santibanez, a AYSES 94 Gold player since pre-select academy days, has committed to Southern Methodist University (SMU)in the NCAA Division I for the 2012 soccer season. Kenneth bypassed offers from other programs to stay locally in North Texas. Kenneth is an excellent student who plays in the center back position for the team.

Players on the AYSES 94 Gold team which played in the North Texas Classic League Division I have had tremendous interest from college coaches in the recruiting process. The college coaches were most impressed with the highly technical style of possession soccer the AYSES team displayed in showcases. All of the AYSES players who have committed to date have been with the AYSES Soccer Club in their development program since pre-select academy days. All of these players would credit Sammy Olali their coach for his training, mentoring, and support from U-11 to U-19 in their youth soccer career for their success.

We have multiple players in the final stages of making their decisions on athletic scholarship offers from DI and DII programs.

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

PLAYER COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL
1. Josh Dillon-----St. John's University, DI --------Jesuit
2. Tony Santibanez-------Furman University, DI ------Plano
3. Phillip Lassiter---Florida Southern College, DII ---McKinney Boyd
4. Jordan Koeppe---- Dallas Baptist University, DII ---Prince of Peace Christian School
5. Kenneth Santibanez --- Southern Methodist University, DI ------ Allen High School
6. Coming soon
7. Coming soon
8. Coming soon
9. Coming soon
10.Coming soon

Congratulations. So nice to see their High School they represented with their name. And the fact they are still getting to sign with a college despite the fact they played high school.

That is correct. These players felt they would get the best development training in North Texas playing for the AYSES Soccer Club and Coach Olali. They bypassed opportunities to move to USSF DA in North Texas. They have been able to land full and partial college scholarships while enjoying the years of getting to play for their High School. The USSF DA does provide players with alot of visibility with college coaches. Our lesson learned is that if you pick the right club and coach pre-select and focus on development, on the long-term we were able to do very well in the college recruiting process, get plenty of visibility with college coaches at all levels, while staying in the club and playing High School soccer. We did not have to go down the USSF DA route to be successful in providing great opportunities and return on investment for our players in their youth soccer career. A player in USSF DA does not receive better training then our players received. What I have learned through this process is that some USSF DA teams have outstanding students and great individual players who got excellent visibility through USSF DA program and as a result landed college scholarships. We have done the same for our players particularly those who are outstanding students.

WOW!!! SO WELL SAID. IM SENDING THIS TO ALL MY SOCCER FRIENDS.
ANy chance that when My kid (11yr old) is in high school he can come play for yall??? Ill make the longview drive.

People need to understand that good players come from everywhere. No one league/venue has a monopoly on all the elite soccer talent.

It would be different if there were more professional academies bringing players into residency...without the parents paying the bill.

As it is now, the soccer talent is much more spread out.

Even more so than most could even conceive.

Yes but a good reputation of delivering quality players is a major plus. If I send a kid to college and he does well then they will come back for more.

I am pleased to announce a 6th AYSES 94 Gold soccer team member has committed to play college soccer. Jordan Rubel has committed to play for the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) men's soccer program for the 2012 season which plays in the NCAA Division III. The UTD men's Comets soccer program Head Coach is Jack Peel. Coach Peel and Assistant Coach Jason Hirsch attended many of the AYSES games including the Disney Showcase, FC Dallas Showcase, Dallas Cup and Coach Teel and his wife came to watch Jordan play in a McKinney Boyd High School game at the McKinney Boyd campus. The UTD coaches have been very interested in AYSES players and the pedigree of players coming out from our AYSES Soccer Club program.

Jordan played High School soccer for the McKinney Boyd High School Bronco’s, was a Team Captain, and was selected as the Most Valuable Player in District 10-5A and the All State Tournament team for his senior season. Jordan is an excellent student who had multiple college athletic and academic scholarhsip offers and decided to stay and go to college locally. Jordan plans to major in engineering.

Jordan’s official commitment will be updated soon on ESPN RISE men’s college commitments list.

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

We have multiple players in the final stages of making their decisions on athletic scholarship offers from DI and DII programs.

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. Coming soon
8. Coming soon
9. Coming soon
10.Coming soon

Just to keep all of the 2012 boys college commitments together, here are the commitments for Solar Chelsea U18. I won't describe the colleges. I think they speak for themselves.

1.Adam Bonville - St. Edwards University
2.Alfred Koroma - University of Akron
3.Blake Elder - Air Force Academy
4.Brenden Lee - Southern Methodist University
5.Chachi Mathers - Duke University
6.Chandler Crosswait - University of Denver
7.Cole Missimo - Northwestern University
8.Connor Webb - Carnegie Mellon University
9.Dalton Eudy - Providence College
10.Eric Dinka - Georgia Southern University
11.Mason Miller - University of Central Florida
12.Murphy Short - Southern Methodist University
13.Reagan Dunk - University of Denver
14.Ryan Condotta - Old Dominion University
15.ZB Bennett - Michigan State University


Sorry. I don't have any "Coming Soons".

Soccergrinder you left at least one off your list of college commitments. This Solar Chelsea U18 USSF Academy player signed with Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, Oklahoma plays in NCAA Division DII.

http://www.goriverhawksgo.com/sports/msoc/2011-12/releases/2012_MSOC_Signees

Joel Mendoza – M/F - 5-9 - 145 – Mesquite, Tex./Lake Highlands – Solar Chelsea U18 USSF Academy

Mendoza plays for Solar Chelsea U18 Academy, one of the top teams in Dallas, and all of Texas. His team competes in the top youth soccer league in the nation. Joel has been a member of this team since 2008 during which time he has won a State Cup (2009) and won the Region III premiere league (2009).

Czlonka on Mendoza: "We've seen Joel play several times and feel he's a very good player. He's is a left-footed player with good speed, crafty skill and tremendous quickness. He moves well with the ball. He's a midfielder/forward and he can attack, but he can play anywhere. It's great to have someone with a left foot. He gives the team a nice balance on the outside."

Novice,

There may be some others too. I am not up to date since my son left academy to play with his friends in high school. Thanks for the update. By the way, Joel also left Chelsea to play high school too. He no longer is with Solar. Solar Chelsea U18 lost 3 players to high school.

It's interesting that Joel signed with them since they cannot offer him a scholarship or any form of federal aid. Good for Joel.

Soccergrinder... you make it sound like you are not in favor of high school yet you post your son left academy to play high school. Can you elaborate?

Congratulations Joel. He is an exceptional player and pleased a college team will get to showcase his talent further.

Tiger,

I'm sure my views are quite complicated and hard to follow at any given time. However, I am not sure why you got the idea I was against high school soccer. I am not against high school soccer. I have many thoughts on the subject. And all of them are pro high school. I don't see any benefits from eliminating high school soccer but I see many aspects that are detrimental to not only the success of soccer in the US in general but to the players as well.

The thing to keep in mind is that the people that run DA do not care anything about the individual players in the DA program. They have stated so many times. You have to be able to read between the lines. They only have one purpose. That is to hopefully find a handful of players out of the thousands that might go pro and possibly help win a World Cup. There is no reason to eliminate high school soccer. None. They also have an agenda to eliminate all competition (other leagues or organizations) for those few players. What I mean is they don't want those players to play for anyone else but them. They have barred them from playing for US Club Soccer, US Youth Soccer, Premier League, State Cup, ODP, limited participation in non DA Showcase tournaments (2) and I suspect these will eventually be eliminated. Now they are eliminating High School soccer and their next goal is to eliminate College soccer. They are trying to set up a monopoly. And so far they are being very successful at it.

The thing I have learned about soccer is that whatever it is today it will not be that tomorrow. When I came up with the idea for PAL (Premiere Academy League) many years ago I saw it as an opportunity for kids to be able to get better training at a younger age. But still thought it was important for the kids to be able to play for fun with their initial rec team. And that is the way we set it up. We never thought of it as a way to eliminate rec. To me this is a similar situation. I just have different morals than the people that run DA. I believe in diversity. Everyone following the same monkey around in circles just trains monkeys to be monkeys.

grinder, I appreciate your insight. However, I do question the role of the DA to "prepare players for pro careers".

The reason is simple. There aren't enough pro teams to go around. The best case scenario is that the top 1 or 2% of DA players have the opportunity to go straight to the professional ranks.

Where I live, the best players still play high school soccer in addition to their club teams. Most of the high school coaches also coach club as well.

It's also relevant to point out that there are no DA clubs in our state. (And probably never will be.)

A handful of the top players here do move on to D1 collegiate programs. I feel that more could but don't get the exposure. They usually end up at D2, D3 and NAIA programs. (The best of which can and do compete and compare favorably with most midlevel D1 programs.)

The DA's primary selling point imo is the "exposure" to college and sometimes professional coaches. Other than that, I see little if any difference than some of the better club teams.

Winning and developing the "club brand" are their primary concern.

As the consumer (parents) educate themselves, hopefully this create positive changes.

My personal take on high school soccer is that it can benefit even the most elite of players. Albeit primarily the freshman and sophomore years. Possibly the junior year if the player is fortunate enough to play for a top level hs team.

I feel that at 17+ the top players should no longer compete exclusively in single or even 2 year age group venues. In other words, they need to begin training with older, better players.

This is one of the main advantages of being overseas in a vertically integrated system. (Youth/academy, reserve and first team.)

Laimport,

I think you are too kind. I would say it is more like .005% of DA players will ever make it to the professional ranks directly from DA. FC Dallas has been in the DA for 5 years and I don't think they have ever had a DA player develop into a starter for their pro team.

I too believe there is a lot to be gained by playing high school for some* but more importantly I see no down side to allowing them to do so.

And I am totally with you on the DA being the place to get exposure to college. Without this incentive I think the DA would have kids leaving in droves for high school.

*Not all high school teams are the same. Some have awesome programs, others do not. But why punish those kids who are at schools with great programs because some schools are substandard.

You're right. Very few DA players have ended up signing pro contracts directly.

Which means college and PDL are still the primary developmental venues for players.

What needs to happen is the pro clubs should field under 20 teams and drastically expand their 'reserve' teams.

Chicago Fire is the only club I am aware of that is somewhat vertically integrated. They have youth, DA, PDL (which they call "reserves") and of course their first team.