Former US U17 MNT keeper commits Wow. At the bottom of the article check out how stacked that recruiting class is.
That is very impressive. Does anyone know about the academic/financial Aid packages at Akron? I can't imagine the entire squad is on a full ride, but they have an awful lot of what seem like full-ride guys on their squad (to their credit).
Akron soccer has a pretty high academic standard. I believe we had the second highest GPA in men's DI soccer this year, second only to Harvard (no, I'm serious). So I think a lot of the guys are probably on academic scholarships that supplement whatever soccer scholarships they have.
No, Akron has pretty low academic standards, even when you factor in their Honors College Caleb Porter, on the other hand, has high academic standards. He realizes that he can fill his team with really good players if he has some that are good students and qualify for the general academic scholarships. So the relatively low admission qualifications can actually help him to attract strong academic students, knowing they have good shots at getting academic scholarships. As an example, Chad Barson is pre-med Biology major with 3.99 GPA and could have made it into any school. Got both a great student and great player.
Yeah, that's what I meant, that's why I said Akron soccer, not the school in general. I'm a graduate of Akron and the Honors College and I'll be the first to admit it's not the most rigorous program our there, not by a long shot. I am shocked when I think of what players like Chad accomplish. Kofi was the same way. It honestly makes me feel kinda dumb that I didn't get a 3.9 and I wasn't a biology major and I also wasn't on the best college soccer team in the country last year. I think that's another reason our program has been so successful, because you have the athletes who are not only great soccer players, but overall as good of students as you can get while also being top players. I don't know how Caleb keeps them so motivated. Probably has something to do with the fact there isn't much else to do in Akron, but also I think these guys know that as far as college soccer goes, Akron is probably the best pipeline to the MLS.