And so it begins.... As always, please limit these to posts with official releases and not media accounts of verbal commitments. As they so often do, South Carolina is one of the first schools to announce. http://www.gamecocksonline.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/020514aab.html
A) I don't think it was an actual press conference as I can't imagine the press in Columbia caring enough to show up. It's just the coach in front of a camera speaking about his incoming players. And B) I suspect he just recorded sound on all of their verbals and they'll release the sound for each player when their paper work officially arrives. SC usually has a rolling announcement and they add to it as the LOIs arrive. It may be a flawed process but, believe me, it's a far better alternative than the coaches who announce nothing year after year.
Staying in the Palmetto State, College of Charleston doin' it right. http://www.cofcsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=14800&ATCLID=209396032
New Mexico announces its 2014 class as well. A few more NM players on this year's announcement. http://www.golobos.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=26000&ATCLID=209394367
Like WVU, SC and Charleston, Jeremy Fishbein and New Mexico traditionally announce quickly and this year is no exception. http://www.golobos.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=26000&ATCLID=209394367 EDIT: Flaves beat me to it!
BTW, to show I'm with the hip kids, I think we should post twitter announcements provided they are from an actual men's soccer program's account. It's not how we've usually done things but it's how the world communicates information much of the time now and there's no reason we shouldn't adapt on this page.
As expected, you will find that if you click on the SC link now that there are multiple new players listed and being discussed.
INSIDE INFO! My week night league team often plays after the palo alto club team at our main field. I think last night I saw Stanford coach Jeremy Gunn signing a palo alto player to a letter of intent on a bench next to the field while I was warming up my tired old legs for a nice game of "who can make the most late tackles possible without getting sent off" with a bunch of 30+ year olds
Grimes got his Strikers player and usual fill of NorCal players. But this time he got U17 Nats player and also a player that not only is from outside of California, but is also from outside the US - Ugo Rebecchini from FC Bologna in Rome. If Grimes is getting an international player, imagine what we are going to see from the usual suspects who troll the international waters.
Cal Poly Mustangs checking in on the first day: http://gopoly.com/sports/msoc/2013-14/releases/20140205a6ewc5 Absent from this list (was on TDS commitment list): Hugo Gutierrez.
Wondering if new LA Galaxy II team has something to do with Hugo's NLI absence since he is on Galaxy Academy team?
UCSB goes heavy with the MLS academies.... but still can't resist the foreign market a little bit. http://www.ucsbgauchos.com/sports/m-soccer/2013-14/releases/20140205mu8l72
Have official tweets reached the status of official releases? Regardless, UCLA has announced two of it recruits that way, and Gasper is a noteworthy one, a US U18 who had previously been listed as a UVa commit. UCLA welcomes left back Chase Gasper to Westwood! #GoBruins @ussoccer http://t.co/Z3oq5GxrBQ. pic.twitter.com/CtJBWmqfXM— UCLA Men's Soccer (@UCLAMSoccer) February 5, 2014 UCLA welcomes midfielder William Cline (Irvine, CA/Pateadores Academy) to Westwood! #GoBruins pic.twitter.com/XFQntubdu4— UCLA Men's Soccer (@UCLAMSoccer) February 6, 2014
If they're from the school, then I think it's safe to assume they're official and as I said in the other post, I'm cool with tweets. (I'm hip. I'm with it. Taca, taca, taca...)
From last year Day 1 (or possibly day 2 since late night posts show up as next): New Mexico (posted 2014) Charleston (posted 2014) West Virginia (posted 2014) Wake Forest Clemson Syracuse Indiana Louisville Evansville South Carolina (posted 2014) UCSB (posted 2014) Washington St. Louis Cincinatti Cal Poly (starting posted next day but likely late on West Coast) (posted 2014) Virginia Cal (posted 2014) Northwestern Marquette Some new early announcements for 2014 UCLA Oregon State Early news is that most of the announcement have been made by the usual suspects up but overall announcements are down (or Sandon is looking less thoroughly), Pac-12 has half of teams make official announcements and ACC is off to a later start this year.
Wofford http://athletics.wofford.edu/news/2014/2/5/MSOC_2014_Signees.aspx UC Davis http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/020514aaj.html Utah Valley (includes Lucas Cawley, as expected) http://www.wolverinegreen.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/020514aaa.html Evansville http://gopurpleaces.com/news/2014/2/5/MSOC_0205145004.aspx Oakland (lame) https://twitter.com/PogueOUsoccer Cornell (sort of) https://twitter.com/CornellMSoccer Cincinnati http://www.gobearcats.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/020514aae.html SIUE http://siuecougars.com/sports/m-soccer/2013-14/releases/201402058g1pez Northern Illinois http://www.niuhuskies.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/020514aaa.html
if i knew how to embed a tweet like @Hararea did, i'd embed this (from tues): Indiana Men's Soccer @IUMensSoccer Follow #NLI signing starts TOMORROW! Working on our release as we will announce our class on Feb. 10. #FutureHoosiers
We've discussed the possibility of a backlash against MLS academies, since they've been yanking away players with homegrown contracts, sometimes before they really helped their college team. So far, though, there's no sign of that. Colleges are snapping them up, and even a small-market MLS academy like Sporting KC is expected to send a ton of players headed into D-I soccer this fall. The biggest non-MLS academies are doing well, too. Seems like every current starter for the De Anza Force will be at a mid-major or better.