NESCAC

[MENESCACFAN]

Thanks Corazon

Great list.

[Corazon]

Yesterday was Colby's turn to shine in the recruiting wars.  Today, it is Tufts' day.  With a few more Academys reporting, http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2015/02/04/18/48/150204-across-the-academy, Tufts gets on the NESCAC score board with Ryan Friedman of San Diego Surf (CA).  Along with Seacoast Acadamy (NH) players Sterling Weatherbie and Henry Stevens, the national champs re-load with a strong Academy trio of their own.

[Brother Flounder]

Yesterday was Colby's turn to shine in the recruiting wars.  Today, it is Tufts' day.  With a few more Academys reporting,  http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2015/02/04/18/48/150204-across-the-academy , Tufts gets on the NESCAC score board with Ryan Friedman of San Diego Surf (CA).  Along with Seacoast Acadamy (NH) players Sterling Weatherbie and Henry Stevens, the national champs re-load with a strong Acadmey trio of their own.

Wow, 2 great days. Congrats to those programs.  I am impressed that these schools get USSDA players instead of the players opting for D1 programs.  They most likely had D1 options but chose schools where they could play (maybe right away) and get great educations.  I applaud these types of decisions.....

[Corazon]

Good point.  Not such a tough decision to go NESCAC for some families as D1 money is paltry relative to overall cost.  I guess it depends on which D1 programs are recruiting them.  You also have the impact player vs bench decision and the all-consuming soccer vs experience college decisions at play. Soccer is far different than say, basketball or football where you are competing with full rides.

I expect most of the NESCAC programs to land an Academy player or two.

[All NESCAC]

Good point.  Not such a tough decision to go NESCAC for some families as D1 money is paltry relative to overall cost.  I guess it depends on which D1 programs are recruiting them.  You also have the impact player vs bench decision and the all-consuming soccer vs experience college decisions at play. Soccer is far different than say, basketball or football where you are competing with full rides.

I expect most of the NESCAC programs to land an Academy player or two.

Agree.  Much easier decision on the Men's side than the Women's in soccer to chose D3 over D1 as there is very little $$ available, unlike FB or BB.  Chose NESCAC get a great education and play/start for 4 years.  Each NESCAC team will bring in 1 or 2 Academy players each year as has been the case for the past 3 or 4 years. 

[Nutmeg]

Yesterday was Colby's turn to shine in the recruiting wars.  Today, it is Tufts' day.  With a few more Academys reporting,  http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2015/02/04/18/48/150204-across-the-academy , Tufts gets on the NESCAC score board with Ryan Friedman of San Diego Surf (CA).  Along with Seacoast Acadamy (NH) players Sterling Weatherbie and Henry Stevens, the national champs re-load with a strong Acadmey trio of their own.

Wow, 2 great days. Congrats to those programs.  I am impressed that these schools get USSDA players instead of the players opting for D1 programs.  They most likely had D1 options but chose schools where they could play (maybe right away) and get great educations.  I applaud these types of decisions.....

spot on Flounder!

[Nutmeg]

Good point.  Not such a tough decision to go NESCAC for some families as D1 money is paltry relative to overall cost.  I guess it depends on which D1 programs are recruiting them.  You also have the impact player vs bench decision and the all-consuming soccer vs experience college decisions at play. Soccer is far different than say, basketball or football where you are competing with full rides.

I expect most of the NESCAC programs to land an Academy player or two.

Agree.  Much easier decision on the Men's side than the Women's in soccer to chose D3 over D1 as there is very little $$ available, unlike FB or BB.  Chose NESCAC get a great education and play/start for 4 years.  Each NESCAC team will bring in 1 or 2 Academy players each year as has been the case for the past 3 or 4 years.

I think the trend is getting higher. More academy players have chose the NESCAC lately...

[GarbageGoals33]

I had a chance to play with Gabriel Wirz the last few days at the Minnesota United FC (trial player training/tryout).  Seemed like a nice kid, not a bad player either.

[MENESCACFAN]

You can add one more USSDA to the NESCAC scoreboard.  The Bates soccer facebook page talks about Andrew Munoz of Dallas Texans as an incomer, has a photo of the kid playing against FC Dallas.

[Nutmeg]

It would be interesting to know how many USSDA players are on each team....

[4231CenterBack]

I would be careful about putting too much emphasis on USSDA clubs and the recruits coming out if them. There can be a tremendous difference in quality from one USSDA club to another. My experience here in the Boston area is that there are one or two that are excellent and the others are just like any other club.  The Revs academy is legit but teams like Bolts or Seacoast, while still very good, are not any better than a number of non-USSDA clubs in the area.

[D3soccerwatcher]

I would be careful about putting too much emphasis on USSDA clubs and the recruits coming out if them. There can be a tremendous difference in quality from one USSDA club to another. My experience here in the Boston area is that there are one or two that are excellent and the others are just like any other club.  The Revs academy is legit but teams like Bolts or Seacoast, while still very good, are not any better than a number of non-USSDA clubs in the area.

I think centerback is right...cant put too much emphasis on USSDA clubs and their players entering the college ranks.  There is certainly a big difference in quality between clubs in different parts of the country. Are all the best players really playing in the USSDA...of course not.  For some, if not many, playing on these teams has to do with the affluence of their family -- how much money, time, and family resources can be sacrificed to play in the USSDA?  Many of these USSDA clubs are true businesses (with all the politics that come along with that) - reaping real profits that get parlayed to their leadership and coaching staffs so that they can keep their "non-profit" status.  I think is many cases these clubs don't really develop good players as much as they simply attract good players (who were quite well developed in second level clubs) who think they have to be playing in the  USSDA to have a shot at college - and so their families sacrifice (dearly in many cases) to chase the dream.  And there are so many great players who simply don't live close enough to a USSDA club to make it work or whose families can't or won't make that kind of sacrifice for one child at the expense of the entire family.

What's happened numerous times in our area is players will travel to the closest USSDA club for a year or two - lock up their college offer - and then simply quit the USSDA to go back and play for their high school team and finish up with their home club.  It's pretty interesting.

[4231CenterBack]

Interesting article on the topic:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2014/08/25/youth-soccer-players-face-tough-choices-with-academy-system/iktagUJXCTKxITaiDl9VwM/story.html

[Nutmeg]

Interesting article on the topic:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2014/08/25/youth-soccer-players-face-tough-choices-with-academy-system/iktagUJXCTKxITaiDl9VwM/story.html

Very interesting and I agree with most points. If you are one of the top players with good college potential, I think, generally, USSDA, is the best way to go....given the training, traveling and commitment involved...prepares you better for college soccer....

[MENESCACFAN]

Not sure about the Boston Bolts comment.  The Tufts starting goalkeeper came from that academy.  If you read through D1 commitment pages, it is very obvious the better college players are coming from the USSDA system.  While there are exceptions, the concentration of talent is far higher and therefore kids are more college ready in most cases.  Seacoast recently produced freshman starters at Northeastern and Dartmouth.