2011 Boys Soccer Verbal Commitments

[Unregistered]

yea right, what options are they "weighing?" and only 3 mass bolts daps going d1? this has got to be one of the worst years for mass kids playing at the next level from a d1 standpoint. and don't say "they had many d1 options but chose to go d3 for academics beacause there are tons of d1 schools that have excellent academics.

There are many schools of thought on this perplexing question: 1) there really are not many D1 caliber players in Massachusetts in the Class of 2011; 2) the remaining D1 caliber players are not impact players and thus don't want to be walk ons/roster only with little chance of playing and are chosing to play D2/D3 were they will play for 4 years; 3) the small amount of remaining D1 caliber players who do not want (never did) any part of D1 athletics or a big school and would prefer to play at a smaller college D2/D3 which is a better fit academically/socially...for them; 4) Massachusetts boys soccer is not held in high esteem by the ruling "good old boys" of college soccer. IMHO I believe it is a combination of all four and possibly a few others. For those who have seen the games at DAP/Region 1/National Showcases/Regional ODP...and then look and see some of the players from NJ, NY, MD, PA, VA whose names you recognize are committed to D1 schools--you wonder why aren't the Mass players getting these opportunities when they seem to hold there own and perform just as well when playing against these same teams/players? Perhaps the Mass Clubs and their coaches don't have the same pull/influence with D1 coaches as those in the Mid-Atlantic states? The training and skills seem to be there. Certainly it leaves alot more questions than answers. Perhaps it's that more non-New Englander's are taking D1 spots in these highly sought after New England D1 schools. Perhaps in the same light very few of our Mass players want to attend college outside of New England and play D1 in Seattle (WA) or Evansville (IN) for example.
Having seen numerous Mass teams play their counterparts from the Mid-Atlantic states and perform well against them over the years at various tournaments/leagues it is quite perplexing that more Mass players are not listed as playing D1. Perhaps it's because the boys do not have two highly nationally recognized Clubs which concentrate 95% of the talent in any age group as do the Mass girls in the Stars and Scorpions. The Stars and Scorpions have been to the National Championships for many years and with that comes the cache as a nationally recognized "top club/team" (they also have had some National Team talent--which the boys side cannot say has had much). Neither one of the DAP teams have that national cache and certainly no other boys Club in Mass has anything else as close.
Of course if you mention Baltimore Bays, Weston FC, FC Delco...they have cache and carry clout and are always in the national picture. Perhaps we need one of the DAP teams to constantly be in the DAP Championships or a non-DAP club to continually win State Cup and be in the REgion 1 Finals and win it a few times to garner this cache to change the perception of Mass boys soccer. My guess it's a combination of all of these, and if so I don't think the #'s of boys playing D1 will change much going forward unless some Mass boys Club consistently become national players or a few National Team talents come along which pulls a team along and helps recruiting spotlight shine on some of his other teammates . Just some thoughts to a question that has no one answer.

[Unregistered]

There are many schools of thought on this perplexing question: 1) there really are not many D1 caliber players in Massachusetts in the Class of 2011; 2) the remaining D1 caliber players are not impact players and thus don't want to be walk ons/roster only with little chance of playing and are chosing to play D2/D3 were they will play for 4 years; 3) the small amount of remaining D1 caliber players who do not want (never did) any part of D1 athletics or a big school and would prefer to play at a smaller college D2/D3 which is a better fit academically/socially...for them; 4) Massachusetts boys soccer is not held in high esteem by the ruling "good old boys" of college soccer. IMHO I believe it is a combination of all four and possibly a few others. For those who have seen the games at DAP/Region 1/National Showcases/Regional ODP...and then look and see some of the players from NJ, NY, MD, PA, VA whose names you recognize are committed to D1 schools--you wonder why aren't the Mass players getting these opportunities when they seem to hold there own and perform just as well when playing against these same teams/players? Perhaps the Mass Clubs and their coaches don't have the same pull/influence with D1 coaches as those in the Mid-Atlantic states? The training and skills seem to be there. Certainly it leaves alot more questions than answers. Perhaps it's that more non-New Englander's are taking D1 spots in these highly sought after New England D1 schools. Perhaps in the same light very few of our Mass players want to attend college outside of New England and play D1 in Seattle (WA) or Evansville (IN) for example.
Having seen numerous Mass teams play their counterparts from the Mid-Atlantic states and perform well against them over the years at various tournaments/leagues it is quite perplexing that more Mass players are not listed as playing D1. Perhaps it's because the boys do not have two highly nationally recognized Clubs which concentrate 95% of the talent in any age group as do the Mass girls in the Stars and Scorpions. The Stars and Scorpions have been to the National Championships for many years and with that comes the cache as a nationally recognized "top club/team" (they also have had some National Team talent--which the boys side cannot say has had much). Neither one of the DAP teams have that national cache and certainly no other boys Club in Mass has anything else as close.
Of course if you mention Baltimore Bays, Weston FC, FC Delco...they have cache and carry clout and are always in the national picture. Perhaps we need one of the DAP teams to constantly be in the DAP Championships or a non-DAP club to continually win State Cup and be in the REgion 1 Finals and win it a few times to garner this cache to change the perception of Mass boys soccer. My guess it's a combination of all of these, and if so I don't think the #'s of boys playing D1 will change much going forward unless some Mass boys Club consistently become national players or a few National Team talents come along which pulls a team along and helps recruiting spotlight shine on some of his other teammates . Just some thoughts to a question that has no one answer.

great post, i like how your 4 diff takes and showed how they all come together. mass should have more than 8 d1's. if you look at youth natl team selections and reg 1 team pics throughout the years, mass has always been poorly represented on the boys' side. mass holds their own against the supposed reg 1 soccer hotbeds, but it's too bad we're overlooked when it comes to getting d1 players. if u look at the mass d1 schools, aside from umass amherst, BU, BC, HC, Harvard, Northeastern have very few mass kids on their rosters, where as in other parts of the u.s. local universities tend to take more local talent.

[Unregistered]

What does that tell you about our talent, it says that there are no impact D1 players.

[Unregistered]

great post, i like how your 4 diff takes and showed how they all come together. mass should have more than 8 d1's. if you look at youth natl team selections and reg 1 team pics throughout the years, mass has always been poorly represented on the boys' side. mass holds their own against the supposed reg 1 soccer hotbeds, but it's too bad we're overlooked when it comes to getting d1 players. if u look at the mass d1 schools, aside from umass amherst, BU, BC, HC, Harvard, Northeastern have very few mass kids on their rosters, where as in other parts of the u.s. local universities tend to take more local talent.

If you look at the UMass, BU, BC, HC, Harvard, & Northeastern rosters my guess is that well more than half of the rosters come from outside Mass and on most of them the % may be in the 75% range from outside of Mass. UMass may have a higher % of Mass players but it's still less than 50% from Mass. These observations are from the prior HS Classes of 2007, 2008, 2009 & 2010 which I believe is quite telling as to Mass soccer players are not highly regarded--not just the Class of 2011. Why I don't know but likely many of the reasons previously mentioned in a prior post. Only so many spots available in Mass colleges which are big destination schools, thus looks to me that unless the boys are willing to go outside Mass/New England for college then the D1 opportunities for Mass boys may be few and far between and that may be the biggest reason of them all--finding the right school fit and wanting to stay in New England may be outweighing the desire to play D1 soccer in some other area of the country.

[Unregistered]

great post, i like how your 4 diff takes and showed how they all come together. mass should have more than 8 d1's. if you look at youth natl team selections and reg 1 team pics throughout the years, mass has always been poorly represented on the boys' side. mass holds their own against the supposed reg 1 soccer hotbeds, but it's too bad we're overlooked when it comes to getting d1 players. if u look at the mass d1 schools, aside from umass amherst, BU, BC, HC, Harvard, Northeastern have very few mass kids on their rosters, where as in other parts of the u.s. local universities tend to take more local talent.

A rose is a rose by any other name...if there are skilled players at Baltimore Bays, Delco or Weston, they will be recruited. If there are skilled players at Seacoast, Rev's or Bolts, they will be recruited. Any college coach will recruit the best possible player they can based upon academic ability to get into their college and for their own needs regardless if they play DAP or a non-Dap club.

So choose any local college roster. I do not have a son on the BU college roster but I did see them play a couple times this year. Look at their highlighted players, you will see one common denominator amongst them all, they are all skilled players.

Look at BU's Kelvin Madzongwe (u20 Zimbabwe NT).

http://www.goterriers.com/sports/m-s...ccer-body.html

The kid played great this year. He supplanted an upper class Massachusetts player for the starting position as a centerback. If you are a 2011 Massachusetts (or anywhere for that matter) centerback, you had better realize that BU's need at this position is not that immediate and if you accept a spot on the BU roster, it will most likely be as a backup.

Looking at the same roster, the coach moves a player to a new position and he tears up the league. Massachusetts native Ben Berube is selected first team all-conference and receives more votes in the conference poll as the soccer fan's player choice of the season.

http://www.goterriers.com/sports/m-s...110210aaa.html

He gets more votes than UMBC's Levi Houapeu, granted this is a fans poll and he could have rallied support from his BU classmates. But, Houapeu led all D1 in scoring in 2009 and was drafted by the MLS. There are skilled players in Massachusetts equal to those on a national level. Also named to the all-conference team is Massachusetts native Michael Bustamante plus Stephen Knox ( Trinidad & Tobago u17 NT) and Aaron O'Neal (Virginia Beach). O'Neal did not play for a glamourous club , Beach FC and the nearest DAP teams would have been in Richmond. Berube and Bustmante did play for the Bolts. Don't slam me for mentioning them, my son did not play for them either, but the Bolts, Beach Fc, TnT national team and the Zimbabwean national team all required skilled players. College coaches will do the same.

2011 graduates are competing on a world standard when the play college ball. Whether it's BU, BC, Harvard, Holy Cross, Umass , Albany ,St. Bonaventure or school's further west. Skills and the ability to academically compete at that particular university will determine whether the players is invited to that school's soccer team. Not what club they play for or where they are from.

[Unregistered]

A rose is a rose by any other name...if there are skilled players at Baltimore Bays, Delco or Weston, they will be recruited. If there are skilled players at Seacoast, Rev's or Bolts, they will be recruited. Any college coach will recruit the best possible player they can based upon academic ability to get into their college and for their own needs regardless if they play DAP or a non-Dap club.

So choose any local college roster. I do not have a son on the BU college roster but I did see them play a couple times this year. Look at their highlighted players, you will see one common denominator amongst them all, they are all skilled players.

Look at BU's Kelvin Madzongwe (u20 Zimbabwe NT).

http://www.goterriers.com/sports/m-s...ccer-body.html

The kid played great this year. He supplanted an upper class Massachusetts player for the starting position as a centerback. If you are a 2011 Massachusetts (or anywhere for that matter) centerback, you had better realize that BU's need at this position is not that immediate and if you accept a spot on the BU roster, it will most likely be as a backup.

Looking at the same roster, the coach moves a player to a new position and he tears up the league. Massachusetts native Ben Berube is selected first team all-conference and receives more votes in the conference poll as the soccer fan's player choice of the season.

http://www.goterriers.com/sports/m-s...110210aaa.html

He gets more votes than UMBC's Levi Houapeu, granted this is a fans poll and he could have rallied support from his BU classmates. But, Houapeu led all D1 in scoring in 2009 and was drafted by the MLS. There are skilled players in Massachusetts equal to those on a national level. Also named to the all-conference team is Massachusetts native Michael Bustamante plus Stephen Knox ( Trinidad & Tobago u17 NT) and Aaron O'Neal (Virginia Beach). O'Neal did not play for a glamourous club , Beach FC and the nearest DAP teams would have been in Richmond. Berube and Bustmante did play for the Bolts. Don't slam me for mentioning them, my son did not play for them either, but the Bolts, Beach Fc, TnT national team and the Zimbabwean national team all required skilled players. College coaches will do the same.

2011 graduates are competing on a world standard when the play college ball. Whether it's BU, BC, Harvard, Holy Cross, Umass , Albany ,St. Bonaventure or school's further west. Skills and the ability to academically compete at that particular university will determine whether the players is invited to that school's soccer team. Not what club they play for or where they are from.

Agree that ultimately talent is the overall factor in recruiting and the D1 colleges in Mass are most definitely recruiting "globally", thus would you say that for Mass boys to have more D1 opportunities they should be looking outside the New England region for D1 schools? Or that there is very little talent overall in Mass?

[Unregistered]

Agree that ultimately talent is the overall factor in recruiting and the D1 colleges in Mass are most definitely recruiting "globally", thus would you say that for Mass boys to have more D1 opportunities they should be looking outside the New England region for D1 schools? Or that there is very little talent overall in Mass?

The talent level does not end at the Massachusetts border. They will face the same level of competition regardless if they attend school in Massachusetts or in California. I am not saying that all talent in Massachusetts is poor. I think you could on average get about 20 D1 players each year out of Massachusetts.

I am saying that it depends on the skills of the individual whetehr they are from Massachusetts or Florida. You then add in the ability to do the academics at a chosen school, the academic programs offeed by that school, the school's need for a player at that position, the depth chart at that school, the desire to attend a school out of the region, etc.

The previous center back at BU was perfectly fine at that role until a more skilled player (in this case a world class) came along. It happens every season at every school. if a player wants to play D1 soccer it is up to them to raise their skill level so that they are noticed by D1 coaches. A coach who will say, " That is the player that I looking for my team for the next season."

[Unregistered]

The talent level does not end at the Massachusetts border. They will face the same level of competition regardless if they attend school in Massachusetts or in California. I am not saying that all talent in Massachusetts is poor. I think you could on average get about 20 D1 players each year out of Massachusetts.

I am saying that it depends on the skills of the individual whetehr they are from Massachusetts or Florida. You then add in the ability to do the academics at a chosen school, the academic programs offeed by that school, the school's need for a player at that position, the depth chart at that school, the desire to attend a school out of the region, etc.

The previous center back at BU was perfectly fine at that role until a more skilled player (in this case a world class) came along. It happens every season at every school. if a player wants to play D1 soccer it is up to them to raise their skill level so that they are noticed by D1 coaches. A coach who will say, " That is the player that I looking for my team for the next season."

world class? let's not get ahead ourselves, good player, probably play mls. he is also 2yrs older than most frosh. bu couldn't even beat UNH.

[Unregistered]

world class? let's not get ahead ourselves, good player, probably play mls. he is also 2yrs older than most frosh. bu couldn't even beat UNH.

If he can play on his country's youth national team, he is world class. The USA (Fifa #18 USMNT) might be better than Zimbabwe (fifa #128 ZMNT).But, as George Orwell wrote in Animal Farm, " All animals are created equal but some animals are more equal than others."

[Unregistered]

If he can play on his country's youth national team, he is world class. The USA (Fifa #18 USMNT) might be better than Zimbabwe (fifa #128 ZMNT).But, as George Orwell wrote in Animal Farm, " All animals are created equal but some animals are more equal than others."

zimbabwe has 12 mill ppl (1 million more than ohio), usa has 300 mill. way easier to make zimbabwe team. world class players aren't playing college ball, they are in youth academies by age 13 and by 17 or 18 they are signed and close to making the first team debut. so if i had a parent born in guam, i would qualify for citizenship and could play for their national team and be considered world class? did u watch man utd vs aston villa today? that is world class soccer. instead of reading allegories on communism, watch a soccer match, you may learn something.

[Unregistered]

zimbabwe has 12 mill ppl (1 million more than ohio), usa has 300 mill. way easier to make zimbabwe team. world class players aren't playing college ball, they are in youth academies by age 13 and by 17 or 18 they are signed and close to making the first team debut. so if i had a parent born in guam, i would qualify for citizenship and could play for their national team and be considered world class? did u watch man utd vs aston villa today? that is world class soccer. instead of reading allegories on communism, watch a soccer match, you may learn something.

By your logic, any smaller populated country should be weaker than ours. You don't take into consideration the importance of soccer in a particular society. Have you tried out for any Zimbabwean teams recently? Certainly not a world beater but I bet they produce more pro's per capital than Massachusetts. Why didn't the USA crush Slovenia (population 2,000,000) at the world cup? Massachusetts has a population more than twice Slovenia's, let's send our u23 state team next time. Sorry, I missed the match, I am sure it was a cracker. I'll continue to read a variety of subjects including various political and economic systems. Remember what George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"

[Unregistered]

The talent level does not end at the Massachusetts border. They will face the same level of competition regardless if they attend school in Massachusetts or in California. I am not saying that all talent in Massachusetts is poor. I think you could on average get about 20 D1 players each year out of Massachusetts.

I am saying that it depends on the skills of the individual whetehr they are from Massachusetts or Florida. You then add in the ability to do the academics at a chosen school, the academic programs offeed by that school, the school's need for a player at that position, the depth chart at that school, the desire to attend a school out of the region, etc.

The previous center back at BU was perfectly fine at that role until a more skilled player (in this case a world class) came along. It happens every season at every school. if a player wants to play D1 soccer it is up to them to raise their skill level so that they are noticed by D1 coaches. A coach who will say, " That is the player that I looking for my team for the next season."

If on average there may be 20 mass players with D1 talent (for arguements sake based on your statement) then where are the other 12 D1 players from the class of 2011? Right now we only have 8. I tend to agree that Mass probably has 15 to 20 D1 level talented players from the HS class of 2011, but it is highly unlikely that we'll get to these numbers. Is it an aberation with this class that they are not looking to D1 (for whatever reasons) and are instead looking at D2/D3 or will this continue to be a trend?

[Unregistered]

Ballenthin of lexting and bolts DAP is going to providence.

[Unregistered]

If on average there may be 20 mass players with D1 talent (for arguements sake based on your statement) then where are the other 12 D1 players from the class of 2011? Right now we only have 8. I tend to agree that Mass probably has 15 to 20 D1 level talented players from the HS class of 2011, but it is highly unlikely that we'll get to these numbers. Is it an aberation with this class that they are not looking to D1 (for whatever reasons) and are instead looking at D2/D3 or will this continue to be a trend?

Yes, there appear to be only 8 at the moment and 3 of those are really 2010s, so presently there are only 5 true 2011s. Out of the 8, it is very unclear how many will actually be significant players at the D1 level. I suspect there are more that know they are going D1 but haven't announced, but I also suspect that 3-4 more of the unannounced or as yet undecided D1s will also turn out to be 2010s. And again, there are no superstars sitting out there where we're scratching our head that some big D1 hasn't landed them.

I think the poster who cited the 4 various reasons or categories had it right. There are a variety of factors impacting the 2011 group. In my opinion, the class is only weak at the very top. There are very few, if any, huge impact D1 prospects. For whatever reason, there appear to be some D1 caliber prospects who are weak academically, but they are not in the superstar category that would warrant many D1 coaches taking a risk on them given their mediocre to subpar academics. Just because they might qualify in terms in minimum NCAA standards doesn't mean a coach is going to commit spots to bench or role players who are marginal academically. I would expect some of the players in this category, as well as more marginal D1 prospects, to end up at D2s (SNHU, Franklin Pierce, Stonehill, etc).

My guess is that the 2011 will prove to be very strong in terms of the D3 contingent. There are a number of impressive D3 commitments that have not been named (or named by name) here, and there will be more. This group will be dominated by high to very high achieving academic kids who will be average to very good D3 players. Some might claim they could go D1, but the reality is that almost every single one will be exactly where they belong in terms of soccer ability (and who if they went D1 would be in the marginal to struggling to make an impact range at best). Just from this thread and newspapers, websites, etc, we know about 2 going to Williams and kids going to Wesleyan, Colby, Middlebury, Bates, Rochester, Trinity, and Wheaton. I would estimate that there are at least another 20-25 coming, and even more if we count lower-level D3s (e.g. regional state schools).

As a side note, the 2 top 2011s historically are playing overseas, although 1 of those I believe was a 2012 grade-wise.

[Unregistered]

^ Solid assessment. Only a couple of the named commits will see significant playing time next year.

Also, don't forget the PG's. I suspect we'll see a few notable players go that route.