Which Girls H.S. team will reign supreme this year?

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where did this ignorant OP get info connecting the NCAA rules with STJ? I never heard of such bull.

STJ don’t give $$$ to play soccer.
The above OP is right (Merit & Academics) and with that it’s not a full ride either.

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Jack hand picks his players and the recruitment starts at or before 7th grade. Significant money is given it's not need to based it soccer performance based. More than half tuition. If there is actual need then, even more, money is available. No NCAA recruitment rules to worry about, so he contacts players and families as much as needed.

Reputation is they will be dominate in highschool always be a contender even off performing years. Team is consistently nationally ranked and has a national reputation. This all draws players from surrounding towns and beyond. Jack may be a yeller but he also targeting kids looking for and chasing the D1 scholarship who will look past that because he claims to offer visibility and a better option than most mediocre town high school teams. There is truth to this however the claim this does not put the SJ team at the huge advantage is just ignoring the truth.

It's all legal but it's huge advantage. This team is not just special, God's amazing work, amazing coaching, there is amazing work being done but it's in the form of aggressive directed recruitment and soccer scholarship.

It's a very successful program that uses the biggest tool that is has that most schools in the area don't. Player recruitment. It's a win for STJ and Jack . Stj puts itself on the map for sport that primarily filled with daughters of wealthy families.
Also don't forget STJ collects a decent amount of money for field rental fees from Yankee teams that Jacks is a big part of.

It's a win, win for school and Jack good for them but claim that the is little or no advantage this program has over most of the state is silly.

Jack should play Choate or Loomis preseason and he can spank them then we start can start talking about a historic program or is not fair to compare?

Nothing amazing about any of it. He doesn't empower these girls, he demeans them. Nothing but a joysticker with a purse inside his handbag. He's a whiney old lady who also coaches the game OUT of great kids. Catholic school. Hah

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This whole talking soccer connecticut forum is very quiet now that wilton is out. I suspect once st. Joe loses there will be no more posts until after the holidays.

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This whole talking soccer connecticut forum is very quiet now that wilton is out. I suspect once st. Joe loses there will be no more posts until after the holidays.

No, then the club bashing starts in earnest. More FSA vs CFC ECNL/NPL battles, OW bashing, and so many other clubs.

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Nothing amazing about any of it. He doesn't empower these girls, he demeans them. Nothing but a joysticker with a purse inside his handbag. He's a whiney old lady who also coaches the game OUT of great kids. Catholic school. Hah

Either your kid wasnt a player or she never playedfor jack
Because you haveno idea what you are talking about

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Either your kid wasnt a player or she never playedfor jack
Because you haveno idea what you are talking about

Good Morning Jack. Try not to type and drive. Your students that you care so much about are on the road.

[Unregistered]

Nothing amazing about any of it. He doesn't empower these girls, he demeans them. Nothing but a joysticker with a purse inside his handbag. He's a whiney old lady who also coaches the game OUT of great kids. Catholic school. Hah

I noticed you said he coached the game out of great kids- not great players
That may be true, but arent they all great kids? They certainly are not all great players .the kids who are great players thrive in his system. And great players i mean kids who are serious about their game.
Dont waste your time if you like playing soccer, give it serious thought if you love playing soccer

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Either your kid wasnt a player or she never playedfor jack
Because you haveno idea what you are talking about

lol you guys are pathetic. yes we have experienced him. And we left. guy is a putz

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I noticed you said he coached the game out of great kids- not great players
That may be true, but arent they all great kids? They certainly are not all great players .the kids who are great players thrive in his system. And great players i mean kids who are serious about their game.
Dont waste your time if you like playing soccer, give it serious thought if you love playing soccer

The first accurate statement in a looooooong time!!! No better coach if your kid has a passion for soccer!! He is relentless in his pursuit of excellence!

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The first accurate statement in a looooooong time!!! No better coach if your kid has a passion for soccer!! He is relentless in his pursuit of excellence!

his pursuit of excellence! = recruitment of excellence

You keep claiming that sport recruitment is a myth but happens all the time. Situations are the article is worse as player poaching once is high school is worse.


When I began my professional career at Spring Valley High School and the East Ramapo Central School District as a physical education teacher and coach, I knew there would be many challenges. Along with those challenges would come many triumphs and frustration. I understood that both come with the job. Tough losses, upset parents, equipment and field issues, — it's all part of the role.

But I will admit that I never thought I would deal with recruiting of student athletes and student athletes leaving for athletic advantage from a public school to a private school.

Looking back, this has been around longer than I originally thought, but it is much more serious and more prominent because of the advancement of technology and social media.

My first experience with recruitment came in the 8th grade, when my little K-8 Catholic School had some visitors in the early spring. The 12 boys in my grade shuffled out into the auditorium to listen to two men speak about their Catholic all boys school in northern New Jersey.

One man was a priest who was also the principal. He spoke about the school in general, handing us pamphlets, asking us if we had any questions. He asked us our names, shook our hands and told us how we would love the school.

The second gentleman was in a suit and said nothing as the prinicpal spoke. He just looked at us and smiled.

When the talk was over, we started back to class. As we were almost out of the auditorium, the man in the suit called out three of us by first name and asked us to come back. We were confused, but went back.



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The man then asked us if we played sports, and in particular, did we play football? He then went on to tell us how we could be great athletes if we went to their school.

I thought it was pretty cool and I was proud — it wasn’t a coincidence that he asked the best three athletes in our class to hang back. For a day or two I wanted to go to the school, but it didn’t work out. I ended up going to their rival school, and the sole reason for that was our close family friend's son, who was three years older than me, attended that rival school and I thought he was the coolest guy I ever met. Back then, family friends trumped the recruitment efforts or lack thereof that went on.

Fast forward about 15 years, and I am an assistant coach for football at Spring Valley. We have challenges every day that we figure out and deal with — we don’t make excuses, we work hard and put in the time. Our proudest moments are when our student athletes graduate and continue their playing careers at the next level of education.

Towards the end of the season, we heard around the locker room that some of the best kids on our team are thinking about leaving to go to a private school. I took one of the kids into the office and asked him what was going on. The young man was pretty forthcoming telling me how a “coach” from a private catholic school was coming to our campus handing out shirts, as well as promising each boy he spoke to a gym membership to work out and possibly a scholarship.

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I had already known that a lot of our junior high kids who were strong athletes went to private schools. I knew that was their choice and something we had to deal with, just like any other school.

I also knew that it was completely illegal for a private school to recruit a student from a public high school, no less provide them with gear and gym memberships. I was able to intercept the gentleman the next time he was on campus and not so politely tell him to leave as he was in violation of some rules.

I decided to call the private school and let them know of the recruiting violations they were committing. I spoke to the principal of the school (another priest) who was aghast that this individual was doing this. He assured me that this gentleman was not a member of their coaching staff and he they had some issues with him being on their campus. He thanked me for the call.

I felt satisfied that I did my due diligence and that I was being told the truth... until months later, when I saw this same gentleman who was on my campus on television in a documentary, where he was standing on the sideline behind the head coach as they beat the team that was the subject of the program.

Since then, I have had to chase “recruiters” from our intra-squad scrimmage. I've seen some student-athletes who started out strongly for our team mysteriously leave in the middle of the season. I've even had a student who was kicked out of one of the private schools come back to us — and not play a sport because, as he told us, “the new private school he would be attending advised him not to so he could play right away next year.”

You can’t make this stuff up. I don’t think the kids themselves are coming up with these plans out of nowhere.

I wouldn’t feel so strongly about this if I didn’t see the other side of it. Most of kids do not go to play at Michigan or Notre Dame.

Let me be clear — I think it is great for kids to go to private schools if it is the right fit for them. I am a direct product of private education, and I loved every minute of my all-male private high school education. I think there are many kids, many of whom are from the community in which I work, that have chosen to do this and it is a great choice. They need a change of scenery. Some end up going to college, playing their sport at the next level of education. Our coaches have always been proud of any kids, from private or public schools, who are able to further their education.

The problem I have is that these schools are run like a college, and as we all know, colleges are businesses — especially when it comes to athletics. These kids are not old enough to realize that the promises and dreams they are being sold on is the same thing they are selling to multiple students at the same position. That is how college athletics works, not high school.

Many people would say that the private school education is better, but I am not one of those people. I would put my public school’s academics right on par and most likely above those schools. If you are a dedicated student who has the desire, you will absolutely be college ready after you leave. We have multiple kids who are admitted to Ivy League schools each and every year.

I am sure many will disagree with my stance and say I am attempting to hold kids back from great opportunity, but I'd never want to hold a kid back from any opportunity — if it was right for them. The kids are and never will be the problem. Like every other teenager, they want to feel wanted and that they are special.

All I am asking is that if we are going to teach impressionable young students, we have to do it where we, as adults, do not base it on lies and deceit.

In the eyes of the states of New York and New Jersey there are rules in place for students who transfer that play athletics. I am not talking about recruiting and leaving for athletic advantage — that happens every year. Kids are quoted on it in the paper and speak about it on social media.

I am talking about the loopholes schools administrators, coaches and parents knowingly use deceit to get kids on to the field without penalty. Everyone knows why they are transferring, yet there is no penalty.

We are teaching these kids that it is okay to break the rules and be deceitful in order to get what you want. I don’t think that any of these schools were founded upon these values, and it is sad to me, because I believed in and was proud of the moral standards of the school I attended 25 years ago.

But because of the competition between all of these schools, I don’t believe those standards exist anymore.

[Unregistered]

second news story. Girls soccer is much less money and less competition but the top 1% girls soccer players in the state know players recruitment goes on and scholarship for sports are there.


CHANTILLY, Va. — Coaches sat scattered across the bleachers at a basketball tournament here this month, interested observers determined to find the next big star.

With their polo shirts emblazoned with team logos, they could have passed for college recruiters out to woo top players. But these were coaches from some of the elite private high schools in Washington, and the players they were watching were in middle school.

The high caliber of high school basketball in this region and the resulting pressure placed on coaches to win have fostered a fierce recruiting environment focused on players who are much too young to drive anywhere but to the basket.

Although private schools recruit middle school students in other major metropolitan areas, both openly and discreetly, the minimal regulation of the practice here and the desire to uncover the next Kevin Durant — a product of a Washington-area private school who has blossomed into an N.B.A. star with Oklahoma City — has led to an aggressive pursuit of players beginning with fifth graders.

All of this, though, is a gamble, done even though coaches realize that, because of teenagers’ natural growth process, players who are stars in sixth grade may never make it past the junior varsity in high school.

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“It’s kind of flattering,” said Marvin Lykes, whose 13-year-old son, Chris, is being recruited by several high schools. “But it’s kind of weird, too.”

The courtship of junior high players by private schools has become so cutthroat that it has spawned tales of coaches’ throwing one another out of gyms, traveling across the country to recruit middle school prospects and ingratiating themselves with local travel teams, independent teams made up of higher-level players, in an attempt to gain better access to players.

“They can call as many times as they want, and some of the top kids playing for me get a little annoyed by the calls,” said Zach Suber, who coaches a highly successful travel team for players 14 and younger for the club D.C. Assault.

In contrast, the N.C.A.A. places limits on when college coaches can scout and engage with high school recruits. And coaches at public high schools are restricted to players who live in their schools’ districts. Now, some longtime observers of basketball in the Washington area are wondering if the recruiting atmosphere around private schools is too permissive.

“For the good of the game, it needs a good, long, hard look,” said Morgan Wootten, who won 1,274 games in 46 seasons as the coach at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Md., before retiring in 2002.

It is common to find as many as 15 coaches from Washington-area private schools watching a summer tournament game involving middle school players. Suber said nine of his players were recruited to the ultracompetitive Washington Catholic Athletic Conference, which features traditional powers like DeMatha, Gonzaga College High School and Archbishop Carroll High School.

Pete Strickland, an assistant coach at George Washington University who began his career as an assistant at DeMatha, said that high school recruiting in Washington was more frenetic than college recruiting because of the career goals of the young assistants involved.

“It’s almost like Nixon’s White House,” he said. “There’s a lot of guys with blind ambition.”

Suber said the schools used a “shotgun approach” to recruiting, focusing on as many players as they could, not just the stars. That means continual communications from coaches to players through social media, letters and phone calls. The process can be overwhelming for parents.

But players at a recent tournament seemed to enjoy the attention. Chris Lykes said he was “flattered” when he saw a coach watching him from the bleachers.

Andre Boykin, a 6-foot-3 center on a 13-and-younger travel team affiliated with the club Team Takeover, said: “It’s pretty cool to say a coach comes to my games. I know that’s when I’ve really got to play my hardest.”

Rhonda Green, whose son Samuel is a 6-5 eighth grader, said that high schools first began speaking with her about her son when he was in fifth grade and already 5-11. She said that when Samuel was in sixth grade, he asked, “Why are these coaches asking me to come to the camps?”

The family considered 13 schools but chose Bishop McNamara, in Forestville, Md., because Samuel preferred to attend a coeducational school. Rhonda Green said that even the local public school called to recruit him at one point. She stressed that 90 percent of the schools respected the family’s time and space.

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Samuel’s father preferred DeMatha, and Rhonda Green, an elementary school principal, wanted Samuel to go to Gonzaga. After making extensive lists detailing the pros and cons for each, they allowed Samuel to choose.

“A contented cow gives good milk,” Rhonda Green said, stressing that academics and how Samuel would fit in socially were a higher priority than basketball.

The Washington Catholic Athletic Conference permits its coaches to recruit middle school players. The league’s commissioner, Jim Leary, said there were restrictions — like not allowing coaches to visit homes — so the process would not feel like college recruiting.

But many coaches argue that it can be more competitive than college recruiting because there is no limit to how many games and practices they can attend.

In the Interstate Athletic Conference, which includes renowned schools like Landon, Georgetown Prep and Episcopal, coaches cannot initiate contact with a player. But once a player shows an interest in a school, communication can begin.

The high schools, some of which cost more than $30,000 a year to attend, do not offer athletic scholarships, but do provide need-based financial aid.

“Basketball ability isn’t supposed to play any role in how much aid you receive,” said Herb Krusen, the coach at Georgetown Prep. “It’s not supposed to, but I think at some of these schools, it does.”

Tony Thompson, who coaches Team Takeover’s 13-and-under team, said Washington-area private school coaches have traveled to Pennsylvania and Virginia Beach to watch his team.

Eric Edwards, who was an assistant at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington, Va., for five years and is now a coach with Team Takeover, said he followed local players to tournaments in New Jersey and Ohio when he was at O’Connell. He said the school eventually began reimbursing him for mileage.

“Division I guys have a dead period,” Edwards said. “There’s no dead periods when it comes to high school recruiting; it’s year-round. If you’re recruiting one of the best kids, you can go to every single one of his practices and games, whether it be in North Carolina or New York City.”

Coaches often invite entire travel teams to practice on their campuses. This can result in rival coaches, uneasy about losing traction with a prospect, arriving uninvited. Edwards said he went to Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax, Va., to watch a prospect whose team was working out there, knowing he would be thrown out. He said it was worth it because the player saw him and knew he was interested.

“I’ve seen Catholic league coaches practically square off with one another in a gym,” said Andy Luther, the coach at Landon School.

Many of the top middle school prospects in the Washington area already attend private schools. Teams are then put in the awkward position, Luther said, of re-recruiting players in their own programs. Two of Team Takeover’s 13-year-old stars, Chris Lykes and Aaron Thompson, are honor roll students at the Bullis School in Potomac, Md. Still, coaches from other schools are pursuing them, and both said they would consider all options.

“I want a school that’s going to let me go in and just play,” Aaron said. “They don’t run a lot of plays; they just let me run up and down the floor a lot and be the floor general.”

Of course, the recruitment of such young players is an imperfect science. A boy who is a burly 6-2 in eighth grade can be a dominant center. But if he stops growing, he could might end up sitting on the bench for most of his high school career .Edwards said that when he coached at O’Connell, he spent hundreds of hours recruiting a guard once considered among the top middle school players in the nation. The player enrolled at O’Connell but transferred last winter midway through his junior season after his playing time decreased significantly. What happened?

“He peaked,” Edwards said, “as an eighth grader.”

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They werent the 1 seed by tie breaker- they tied the team that got the 1 seed during the regular season, they only lost 1 game during the regular season
And they won the conference tournament.
They can certainly lay claim as the best team in the FCIAC and they have the hardware to prove it

So by these hardware standards, St Joes has only been the best in the FCIAC once in the past five years. That's pretty piss poor for a recruiting school.

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You guys are pathetic! Ask JB, ST, LL, SG, MG and now JM and MF others.... why they choose Saint Joes simple JN! They loved him and respected his coaching! You dont think these girls know who is a good, challenging coach? I would bet many of them would say he ranked high on there list! Haters!

[Unregistered]

So by these hardware standards, St Joes has only been the best in the FCIAC once in the past five years. That's pretty piss poor for a recruiting school.

BUILD IT and THEY WILL COME!

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[QUOTE=Unregistered;2147976]second news story. Girls soccer is much less money and less comper
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AAU hoops and football are notorious for this-mostly because of the dream of big pro contracts, baseball has its share as well at the club level but there is no hook in girls soccer
you get recruited from your tournaments,so in the grand scheme it doesnt matter where or how good your HS team is just how good you are during the half the college coach sees at some tourney.
if you want to know why good players go to stjs for HS, its simple
they dont get worse during the HS season,they get better