With the season winding down, let's find the youngest side fielded by a D1 school this year. The term "young team" has been thrown about often. Time to find the youngest 11 to start for a college team - which team started the most freshmen this year? which game?
Big East Tournament teams I went through the box scores of the 8 Big East teams that will play in the quaterfinals this weekend. I had heard that Virginia Tech was fielding the youngest Big East team but my results showed other wise. Here are the number of freshmen who started in these games : Virginia Tech (5 frosh) vs. Syracuse (2) Seton Hall (6) vs. Providence (4) Rutgers (4) vs. St. John's (1) Villanova (1) vs. ND (2) UConn (4) *Steve Sealy who may be Freshman of the year in the Big East was born in '83, the oldest frosh in the Big East Seton Hall (6) and Virgina Tech (5) lead the BE quarterfinalists in young teams.
St. Louis started 7 freshmen in their game against Louisville. UVA has started 4 or 5 frosh. Any other teams start more freshmen?
I believe Clemson also has been starting a young Lineup.... I was checking the stats on their soccer site and it shows a number of freshman have been starting... Georgeff Holden Chevannes Marfuggi Ogunsola I'm checking the other ACC teams.. I believe UNC might be in a similar situation.
How are looking at this? Most Fr normally started, or maost started/played in any game (or even for several games). The reason I ask is some of the Clemson players mentioned are not regular starters, but have started some games - I don't know about the others listed. I do know ST. Lois has regularly started 7 , and at times have started and or played with as many as 9.... (there are only 4 players on the entire roster above So).
of the clemson freshmen listed, all have been regular starters until they suffered injuries with the exception of georgeff. marfuggi started off the season in goal, but then broke his hand and has been splitting time with hunter gilstrap. ogunsola was starting and playing really well until he got hurt. the same with stuart holden, who was playing 90 minutes in the 3 or 4 matches before he broke his foot, and even drew the penalty against south carolina. chevannes has started off and on all season, and has been the most versatile, playing defender and forward (wherever trevor needs him). recently, georgeff has moved into a usual starter position and has played well. definitely a young team, but then again, some of these guys are hurt and not playing now.
Saint Louis has started @ least 7 Freshman every match and some matches have started 8 freshman. SLU plays at least 9 Freshman every game. SLU also plays 3 or 4 Sophmores every game. 17 Freshman and 6 Sophmores are on the Bills roster. Of the Billikens 27 man roster 23 of the spots are Freshman and Sophmores. Of the 26 goals scored by Saint Louis Freshman have accounted for 22 of the 26 goals! In addition to that 2 of the Freshman John DiRaimondo and Brian Grazier are technically the age of Seniors in High School.
UVA starts 4 or 5 frosh every game Constant Starters: In Goal - Either Ryan Best or Ryan Burke Adam Cristman - Forward Will Hall - D-Mid Sometime Starters: Drew Harrison - LM Ian Holder - RM
UNC starts 2 or 3 Frosh Constant Starters: Jamie Watson-Forward Michael Harrington Sometime Starters: Ted Odgers-Midfield Corey Ashe -Forward
I would think it's gotta be Saint Louis, especially since two of their freshmen are 17-year olds. Basically, almost their entire MF and forwards are frosh. On top of that, they're actually doing well, a Top Ten team. (They are still in the Top Ten, right?) Certainly UVa and Clemson have some youth but I don't think they play as many kids as SLU and unlike the Bills, they haven't been able to overcome their lack of experience. I also think this shows that if given a choice between having all kids playing up front or all in the back, it's better to have an experienced back line. While SLU's attackers are barely old enough to vote, their defender are seniors and their GKs is a RS-Jr. (The exception to this, of course, is the 98 Maryland team which went to the Final Four with Califf, Downing and Hollenbach starting in the back as freshmen.)
True dat. However SC typically starts just 3 Freshman along with 6 Sophmores and a Jr and Senior. Of their 6 other Freshman the total cumulative starts among them are limited to 8 games with Makan Hislop making 5 of those 8 starts. So yes South Carolina is young but not nearly as youthful as the SLU crew.
Yes indeedy! NCSAA Ranked 6th. Soccer Times Ranked 7th. College Soccer News Ranked 8th. Soccer America Ranked 10th.
Very coincidently as if right on cue with this threads topic I came across this great article today highlighting the very youthful SLU team's accomplishments this season. Taken from the Front Page of the Sports Section of the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Enjoy http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sp...cument&Headline=Youth+movement+pays+dividends
Wes Shull also starts almost every game...and Ashe was consistently starting until he hurt his ankle. Odgers doesn't really start anymore. Also, Andrew Rhea is a junior and starts, though he transferred from some junior college in Kansas--this is his 1st year of D1 ball. David Boole is a sometime starter at left mid.
Vedad turned 19 three months ago. He's the age of a college freshman. He's a year and a half older than Diraimondo and Grazier.
He's closer to being the age of a sophmore in college than a senior in highschool. I just turned 19 4 months ago, and I'm a sophmore.
this is true- i know Chad Marshall for Stanford is a soph. and just turned 19 in August- less than 3 months ago
There is quite an age range in what we call a "freshman". The U17's were brought up as an example of this: most entered college as 17 year olds. One, Steven Curfman of Wake Forest, was actually 16 when he entered college this fall. By contrast, it is not unusual to have a 19 year old as an entering freshman. Perhaps a better title for a thread like this might be along the lines of "Newest 11" or "Least experienced 11" since we are using class designations rather than true ages to define "youngest." (Some of the current U17s won't be older than many incoming freshmen on their teams until the current U17s are in their junior year or later. Steven Curfman of Wake, for example, will be 19 in opening games of his senior year. The others, such as Brian Grazier and John DiRaimondo of SLU, will still be 19 throughout their junior year.) I suspect - but do not know for sure - that SLU or UNC would qualify as one of the youngest teams if you went by average age. I would, however, omit the "starting 11" part and instead weight the average by the percentage of total playing time each player received. It is not out of the question for a coach to "start" a player only to sub them out 10 or 15 minutes later for an equal or stronger player.
IU has been playing a ton of young players. They start across the back #2 Julien Dieterle (Fr.) #4 Jed Zedner (Fr.) #14 Drew Moor (So.) They also start Josh Tudela in the midfield (Fr.), and John Michael Hayden (Fr.) and Kevin Robson (Fr.) also get good minutes up front, and there are a lot of other sophmores who get minutes.
Robson hasn't started any games while Tudela and Hayden have both started only 8 out of 18 games. IU is a young team but not nearly as young as the SLU crew...
Robson has gotten some fill-in time up front, but not much I admit. Hayden and Tudela have gotten quality minutes though, and have been impressive in those minutes. This is a team that doesn't have many seniors at all, and is playing some great soccer right now. They might not be the youngest team out there, but they are an extremely young side and to be as successful as they are is a testament to the abilities of Yeagley.