2011 Boys Soccer Verbal Commitments

[Unregistered]

No where in the post you are replying to is "putting it down" written. It was an opinion about the pros/cons of a PG year, when a student is already being accepted into colleges as a 2011 graduate.

This opinion threw a sarcastic "good luck" at anyone who could afford $40 for a PG program, and accuses (and I do mean accuses) anyone who went this route of putting the "wrong" focus on athletics over academics.

That, in case you were wondering, is a put down. It clearly indicates that this poster thinks the only people who do this are over indulgent rich folks (factually inaccurate), and states outright that these people are also making the mistake of emphasizing athletics over academics (also factually inaccurate). If this poster had direct experience with these programs they would not made a post with these factual errors in it. SO, again, why post? Save your opinions for something you actually know something about.

[Unregistered]

This opinion threw a sarcastic "good luck" at anyone who could afford $40 for a PG program, and accuses (and I do mean accuses) anyone who went this route of putting the "wrong" focus on athletics over academics.

That, in case you were wondering, is a put down. It clearly indicates that this poster thinks the only people who do this are over indulgent rich folks (factually inaccurate), and states outright that these people are also making the mistake of emphasizing athletics over academics (also factually inaccurate). If this poster had direct experience with these programs they would not made a post with these factual errors in it. SO, again, why post? Save your opinions for something you actually know something about.

Talk about being overly defensive. Any sarcasm must be in the reader's mind, not writer's since there were no quotes around the words good luck. That said, post #929 started this whole mess. Take a look and report back what you think it means and where the focus is.

[Unregistered]

Talk about being overly defensive. Any sarcasm must be in the reader's mind, not writer's since there were no quotes around the words good luck. That said, post #929 started this whole mess. Take a look and report back what you think it means and where the focus is.

That's pretty simple. Say you are a top student and athlete who is looking at UVA and Brown, and you have coaches there who want you but your GPA and test scores are close but don't quite cut it. These coaches will give you a roster spot, but they are either not willing to give you a tip or you don't quite qualify even with their tip. If you do a PG year at a top school, take a bunch of AP courses, and hit the books hard, chances are excellent they will be able to get you in next year. Meanwhile, the schools you are in touch with who say you are a definite in are a disappointment to you. So you decide to do th ePG year go for your top choices again next year.

[Unregistered]

That's pretty simple. Say you are a top student and athlete who is looking at UVA and Brown, and you have coaches there who want you but your GPA and test scores are close but don't quite cut it. These coaches will give you a roster spot, but they are either not willing to give you a tip or you don't quite qualify even with their tip. If you do a PG year at a top school, take a bunch of AP courses, and hit the books hard, chances are excellent they will be able to get you in next year. Meanwhile, the schools you are in touch with who say you are a definite in are a disappointment to you. So you decide to do th ePG year go for your top choices again next year.

To be clear, we are not discussing any particular student, we are debating the sceanrio.

A student is all of a sudden going to take AP courses? Why hasn't the student taken them in HS?

The student is in touch with schools which are also a disappointment? How does this happen? If a student initates contact, there is interest by the student. If a school contacts the student, the student does not have to reply if the school is not what the student is looking for. (location, size, etc..) I don't see how any school a kid is in touch with can be a disappointment.

Lastly, unless the student has applied to the Brown's and UVA's early, the decision of acceptance isn't known yet.

[Unregistered]

Added: Zach Hutchinson - Ithaca College - NEFC

[Unregistered]

Lastly, unless the student has applied to the Brown's and UVA's early, the decision of acceptance isn't known yet.

At the D1 level, certainly at schools like UVA and Harvard, admissions pre-reads candidates regarding qualifications for admission. Their is no mystique at this point in the process, well before formal admission. The only thing that can derail things once admissions approves of a candidate is if the student applicant does not maintain academic performance.

Again, with pre-reads there is no mystery.

[Unregistered]

A pre-read is still no guarantee. It's an indication of acceptablity.

[Unregistered]

Heard KS was definitely doing a PG year. Looking at NMH & Phillips.

[Unregistered]

To be clear, we are not discussing any particular student, we are debating the sceanrio.

A student is all of a sudden going to take AP courses? Why hasn't the student taken them in HS?

The student is in touch with schools which are also a disappointment? How does this happen? If a student initates contact, there is interest by the student. If a school contacts the student, the student does not have to reply if the school is not what the student is looking for. (location, size, etc..) I don't see how any school a kid is in touch with can be a disappointment.

Lastly, unless the student has applied to the Brown's and UVA's early, the decision of acceptance isn't known yet.

This is a complicated dance. A player often has to juggle various possibilities until he gets solid sense of what his choices are. Somestimes you like those choices sometimes you don't. A PG year at a good school has always been a good way to get better choices the next year.

[Unregistered]

To be clear, we are not discussing any particular student, we are debating the sceanrio.

A student is all of a sudden going to take AP courses? Why hasn't the student taken them in HS?

The student is in touch with schools which are also a disappointment? How does this happen? If a student initates contact, there is interest by the student. If a school contacts the student, the student does not have to reply if the school is not what the student is looking for. (location, size, etc..) I don't see how any school a kid is in touch with can be a disappointment.

Lastly, unless the student has applied to the Brown's and UVA's early, the decision of acceptance isn't known yet.

You haven't done this yet have you. This post is lame.

[Unregistered]

You haven't done this yet have you. This post is lame.

How is the post you replied to "lame"? Looks to me like someone is trying to have a discussion and you don't know how to do that, so you come up with "This post is lame". Thanks for the contribution

[Unregistered]

Heard KS was definitely doing a PG year. Looking at NMH & Phillips.

So I assume posters like this read the thread and see (if they couldn't figure out for themselves) that these kind of posts are bad form, and yet they continue to post stuff like anyway. Why don't you just link us to the kid's facebook account and/or tell us what his family discussed at dinner tonight?

[Unregistered]

That's pretty simple. Say you are a top student and athlete who is looking at UVA and Brown, and you have coaches there who want you but your GPA and test scores are close but don't quite cut it. These coaches will give you a roster spot, but they are either not willing to give you a tip or you don't quite qualify even with their tip. If you do a PG year at a top school, take a bunch of AP courses, and hit the books hard, chances are excellent they will be able to get you in next year. Meanwhile, the schools you are in touch with who say you are a definite in are a disappointment to you. So you decide to do th ePG year go for your top choices again next year.

A couple of points...

1) I think the key phrase above is "schools you are in touch with who say you are a definite in are a disappointment to you". One poster asked why how you could be pursuing or involved with schools that you're disappointed in, but I think the more interesting question is where does disappointment come from? What environment is a kid living in where schools become disappointments, and compared to what? How does disappointment develop and become constituted as disappointment?

2) If you live life according to tiers, and even if you cross the hurdle to the tier you dream about on this occasion, where do you eventually end up if you organize and perceive the world this way? One would think that disappointment is the ultimate destination of such a mind-set, eventually.

3) The post above distorts the reality. Kids don't go from not eligible even with a "tip" to eligible the next year because of a PG year. One perhaps moves from a so-called average school to above average or from very good to excellent. We're talking incremental and maybe he extra year helps physically in terms of soccer.

4) It does seem that with the soccer demographic PG (or changing schools and repeating a grade) most often is used in an effort to get from already good to better. The kids who really could benefit are the ones who are DAP or near-DAP level who are struggling to just graduate from high school and truly have few choices because of academics (our 1.93 friend from Seacoast DAP comes to mind). Maybe some of these kids are doing PG years, but the ones we always seem to hear about are in an entirely different category -- the looking for the frosting on the cake, resume topper category as opposed to really in need category.

[Unregistered]

alpha by college

Class of 2011

Aaron Nickelsburg- Concord-Carlisle- No Club- Bates
Will Toczlowski- Concord-Carlisle- Blazers- Bates
Matt Wallace -- Weymouth -- Crusaders United – Bates
Tebs Maqubela - Phillips Academy - Bolts DAP - BC
Diego Medina-Mendez - NMH - BC
Michael DiFronzo - Phillips Academy - SFV - BC
Andy Bennie -- Cape Cod Academy -- Crusaders United -- Brandeis
John Miller (2010) - Masconomet Regional (HS)/Worcester Academy(PG) - Bolts DAP - Bucknell
Cole Denormandie - Lincoln-Sudbury - Revs DAP - Cincinnati
Travis Barker - Middlesex - Inter FC - Colby
Doug Garabedian MF Salem, Mass. Bishop Fenwick SF Vikings Conn College
Mattheus Goncalves (2010) - Framingham(HS)/Worcester Academy(PG) - Bolts DAP - Drexel
Brian Wholihan- Concord-Carlisle- No Club- Emory
Andrew Buttersworth (2010) - Central Catholic(HS)/IMG(PG) - Holy Cross
Zach Hutchinson - NEFC - Ithaca
Jon Stronach - Brooks - Bolts DAP - Kenyon
Levi Newbury - NMH - Seacoast - Kenyon
Dan Skayne - Middlesex- FC Stars - Middlebury
Thomas Ballenthin D Lexington, Mass. Lexington FC Greater Boston Bolts Providence College
Jeff Kilday D (2010) -Marshfield (HS) /Worcester Academy (PG) Crusaders United Providence College
Andrew Sheridan -- Marshfield -- Crusaders United -- Rochester
Keegan Campbell - Norton - NEFC - SNHU
Nicholas Cotter - Sandwich - MPS Crusaders - SNHU
Chris Pereira - Ludlow - ? - SNHU
Jason Katz - Masconomet - Bolts - Trinity
Kyle Johnston -- Bourne -- Crusaders United -- Trinity
Gas Santos -(2010) Framingham (HS)/NMH (PG)- Revs DAP -- Tufts
Peter Lee Kramer - Phillips Academy - Revs DAP - Tufts
Mike Miele - Middlesex - Bolts - Tufts
Tyler Savonen - Nauset - Crusaders – Tufts
Matt Keys D King Philip Revs Dap UMass-Amherst
Cam Bielski - Dover-Sherborn - Revs DAP - UNH
Ben Altneu - Nauset Regional - Crusaders United -- UVM
Ben Bratt - Winchester - Blast - Wesleyan
Sam Meyers - Belmont Hill - Stars - Wesleyan
Luke Finkelstein - Peabody - Bolts DAP - Wheaton
Ryan Connolly - Wincester - Bolts - Wheaton
Tim Marchese - Phillips Academy - Bolts - Williams
Andres Burbank-Crump - Brooks - Bolts DAP - Williams
Zach Grady (2010) - Thayer(HS)/Hotchkiss(PG) - Crusaders - Williams

[Unregistered]

A couple of points...

1) I think the key phrase above is "schools you are in touch with who say you are a definite in are a disappointment to you". One poster asked why how you could be pursuing or involved with schools that you're disappointed in, but I think the more interesting question is where does disappointment come from? What environment is a kid living in where schools become disappointments, and compared to what? How does disappointment develop and become constituted as disappointment?

2) If you live life according to tiers, and even if you cross the hurdle to the tier you dream about on this occasion, where do you eventually end up if you organize and perceive the world this way? One would think that disappointment is the ultimate destination of such a mind-set, eventually.

3) The post above distorts the reality. Kids don't go from not eligible even with a "tip" to eligible the next year because of a PG year. One perhaps moves from a so-called average school to above average or from very good to excellent. We're talking incremental and maybe he extra year helps physically in terms of soccer.

4) It does seem that with the soccer demographic PG (or changing schools and repeating a grade) most often is used in an effort to get from already good to better. The kids who really could benefit are the ones who are DAP or near-DAP level who are struggling to just graduate from high school and truly have few choices because of academics (our 1.93 friend from Seacoast DAP comes to mind). Maybe some of these kids are doing PG years, but the ones we always seem to hear about are in an entirely different category -- the looking for the frosting on the cake, resume topper category as opposed to really in need category.

That post does not distort reality. I was specifically talking about a player pursuing their dream school. And yes, everyone has an absolute right to pursue their dream and try to do their best. One minute posts on here are criticizing club soccer players who want to "settle" for D3 college soccer, and the next minute they are criticizing someone for holding out for one of the top colleges in the country. Total hypocrisy.

See below. OK to better to best, which is exactly the point I was trying to illustrate. I rest my case.

Zach Grady (2010) - Thayer(HS)/Hotchkiss(PG) - Crusaders - Williams