Verbal I heard that Marin United forward Kamani Hill has made a verbal commitment to attend UCLA with a full scholarship. If this is true, then UCLA's future looks even brighter on the forward line as he will most definitely be an immediate starter as he was on his national championship runner-up club team this past summer.
Re: Verbal There are players with better pedigree that don't get any PT at UCLA. I'd hold off calling him an immediate starter.
Many kids are starting to verbally commit right after July 1. Specially some Juniors. Recruiting is changing. Teams to be competitive now have to put their trust on 16-17 years old. Did you remember when you where 16-17? Did you know where you wanted to go to college and spend 4 to 5 years of your life? Recruting is polutted by the "top youth clubs" wanting to add names to their list of accomplishments as their "recruting" advantage. They are pushing some of these young players to commit early and grab the financial aid.
Re: Verbal With a maximum of 9.9 soccer scholarships allowed at D-1 schools, it is unlikely that he is receiving a full ride from the athletic dept. With all the pedigrees on this large roster, most scholarships are split among several athletes. Yes, he probably will start next to Chad Barrett next year, as McKinley and Taylor are seniors.
Nice to see Dax McCarty listed as committed to UNC. I know absolutely nothing about him, but I vaguely remember seeing his name mentioned on BigSoccer at some point, so he must be good . A couple more U17s, Sloustcher and Germani, are also committed to UNC, and a few other youth teamers are listed as considering Carolina, so it looks like they could have a fairly strong recruiting class. Patrick Phelan to Wake Forest is a pretty big score for them, yes?
My good friend FanOfTwelve can shed a great deal more light on this than I. Let me just say it's no coincidence that all the U17's who don't turn pro, go to only a few schools.
Re: Re: Verbal Its the truth. With McKinley and Taylor gone I am sure that UCLA is anticipating Kamani Hill to be a starter. Also, I am positive that he is receiving a full ride there as he was offered full rides from nearly every program that recruited him which included Duke, Notre Dame, Cal, Stanford etc. Also, why would it be hard to believe that he is receiving a full ride if he is their top recruit and he is anticipated to start from freshman year onwards?
Huge score! Patrick is not your typical freshmen. He comes in ready to play. He should have turned pro.
Does this have anything to do with the fact that he changed high schools (Loomis to Choate) for his Senior year ?
Nah, its nothing to do about that, I just mean from a maturity and mental standpoint he's not ready to be a pro. Plus he knows the pro's will always be there for him and he wants to enjoy college and get a good degree.
mike videira I've seen this U-20 pool player beat up on my h.s. alma mater for a couple of years now. thank god he's going to college! Anybody heard where he's headed? btw, isl soccer (boston area prep league) isn't a historical powerhouse, but this is an unusually good year. (hate to say it but...) Nobles has at least 5 D-1 prospects and Brooks Rivers BB&N & St Pauls could ball with anybody in the N.E. are public or private.
Re: mike videira The top ISL teams usually ARE powerhouses, at least in the last few years. Nobles is quite good this year but realistically they only have 3 upper class players who are legitimate D-1 prospects. They have an 8th grader on the team who may be the best ever to come out of the school if he continues to develop. The rest of your post is correct with the exception of Rivers. They had a bit of a down year, especially since they won the ISL and the New Englands 2 years ago. Quite an accomplishment for a class C school. Perhaps you meant to put Belmont Hill on your list since they actually finished second in the ISL this year (ahead of Nobles, BBN, and St Pauls) and are playing Andover tomorrow in the New England Prep School League semis.
Andover 1-0 over Belmont Hill. Great game, BH missed a PK early. (wait til next year) The finals should be a really good game. Babson 1:30 pm tomorrow. Brooks beat Andover 1-0 during the regular season.
isl rep Dr Jay - I'm glad somebody here has heard of the ISL! I played in the league a decade ago (for Milton, a perenially mid-table squad...great school though). I thought then that it had a lot of polished players, and the top schools - esp. Bel. Hill, SPS, and Middlesex were among the best in the state. thx for the update on the NEPSAC playoffs. tough luck for BH, the big boarding schools are very difficult to beat inthe postseason. if you want to keep tabs on the league in the future, there's a nice little site devoted to the ISL game at: islboyssoccer.sps.edu
the hartford courent listed him at Wilbraham-monson academy. i believe he went there after fermi and never actually went to loomis or choate