Youth Soccer National Championships
College coaches scout youth soccer tournament in Rock Hill
By Shawn Cetrone —
scetrone@heraldonline.comSweating in humid, 100-degree weather, Spencer Smith stood, pen and paper in hand, at the edge of soccer field three at Manchester Meadows watching players.
It was third day of the U.S. Youth Soccer National Championship Series in Rock Hill. He watched the under-16 girls’ match between Mountain View Los Angeles Lightning and BRYC 95 Elite from Fairfax, Va.. Both teams were strong enough to have already a secured a spot against each other in Sunday’s championship game.
A Lightning attacker charged toward her opponents and stole the ball. She failed to set up a scoring play, but the coach scribbled quickly.
“She had an aggressive mindset,” said Smith, head coach of the Winthrop University women’s soccer team. “She showed some speed and pace. I like attacking players.”
By the championship series’ end on Sunday, Smith and the cadre of college scouts who visited the 70-acre soccer complex this week will have a stack of notes about prospects – potential stars who one day may lead a college or university to national acclaim.
On top of the financial boost and thrilling match play the tournament brought to town, the series offered a glimpse into the well-oiled machine that is youth soccer.
It’s a system in which development academies and thousands of soccer clubs across the country form a pipeline for college and professional leagues.
Some elite players attend one of 78 development academies. But soccer clubs – the ones that made up the field at this week’s Rock Hill tournament – also feature elite level talent.
“Some of our top players are nonacademy kids,” said Doug Allison, head coach of Furman University men’s soccer team.
Big futures
Paul Caligiuri, a former professional soccer player who emerged from U.S. Youth Soccer leagues to start in every match for the U.S. in the 1990 and 1994 World Cups, predicts that players in town this week will move on to greatness.
“There are players in this room that will be on the covers of magazines someday,” he told participants during the tournament opening luncheon.
Although coaches occasionally travel to high school games to see a stellar athlete play, many prefer to scout regional and championship tournaments that draw the top soccer clubs.
Through state and regional tournaments, some 10,000 club teams with players ages 14 to 19 were whittled to the 60 teams competing through Sunday in the U.S. Youth Soccer National Championships at Manchester Meadows.
More than 30 colleges from around the country sent scouts. The roster of schools includes Wake Forest, Marquette, Harvard, Georgetown, Furman, Clemson and South Carolina.
Many planned to follow up on emails from teenagers asking the coaches to come see them play. Winthrop’s men’s coach Rich Posipanko said that in the weeks leading to the tournament, he received eight to 20 emails a day from players.
For Winthrop coaches, the tournament is a rare chance to scout a national pool of top talent in their own backyard.
“This is a first, actually, to have the quality of play and players and number of teams this good so close,” Smith said.
Coaches said they had several objectives this week:
• Get a look at players who emailed asking coaches to watch them play.
• Follow up on players they’ve been watching for years.
• Keep an eye out for undiscovered talent.
“You want to see how some kids developed since last year,” Allison said. “We’re confirming a couple of kids and maybe finding one or two we didn’t know about.”
With preseason practice for college teams starting next week, scouts are looking to the future.
Coaches mostly are watching matches between teams in the under-15, U16 and U17 brackets. Most of the U19 players already play for colleges, and U18 players are typically committed to a schools already.
“You’re always a year to two years ahead in recruiting,” Posipanko said. “If not, you’re going to be lost.”
For teens on the field, the stakes can be high.
High expectations
With college coaches watching and with scholarships up for grabs, pressure mounts.
“You’re nervous because everyone expects so much,” said Hannah Reed, 16, an MVLA Lightning captain.
“Everyone focuses on being a hero,” Lightning captain Caitlyn Wong, 16, said.
But that’s part of it, the teens agree.
Lightning players, most of whom have been together since they were 7, said they manage to rise above that and play as a unit. Smith praised their cohesive play as he watched the team – ranked third nationally – take a 4-0 lead over BRYC 95 Elite.
Though NCAA rules bar college coaches from contacting teens before their junior year of high school, players as young as 16 make “verbal commitments” to universities.
Blake Steele, a 19-year-old center back for West Coast FC from Laguna Hills, Calif., said he often emailed college coaches when he was playing on a U17 team asking them to come see him play.
He received several offers, he said, and chose to attend the University of California-Davis.
Steele doesn’t think the scouting process hurts play.
“You play soccer,” he said. “If you change what you do (for scouts), you’re not going to play as well.”
Throughout the year, coaches winnow their lists of prospects to the players they want to contact either directly or through club and academy coaches.
They’re not allowed to approach players at tournaments.
The Winthrop Eagles men’s team maintains a database of 2,500 to 3,000 prospects – mostly players who have contacted coaches there and players whom scouts found remarkable.
That list is trimmed each year to about 200 or 300 names the school intends to pursue.
Posipanko said he wants players who can compete at the college level, maintain good grades and keep a positive attitude.
A lot of that requires extensive research, which can start by standing on the sidelines under a scorching sun.
