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Recruiting: College Soccer Showcases

For high school and club soccer players, the arrival of spring signals the beginning of tournament season and, for many, attending the all-important college showcase tournaments. The stakes are high but it’s not bragging rights or a tournament trophy that’s on the line, these athletes are showcasing their soccer talent and skills hoping to attract the attention of the soccer coach from the college of their dreams.

College soccer showcase tournaments have rapidly grown in popularity over the past few years with major sponsorship support from companies like Under Armour, Nike, Puma, Adidas, Toyota, Gatorade, College Soccer Tours and SC Premiere Sports Management. The tournaments are designed to promote the highest levels of competition in youth soccer by drawing from the best state, regional and national level teams from all over the country. They provide college coaches a chance to evaluate young players for possible recruitment to their college teams and, for players, an important opportunity to be seen.

There are many additional benefits for soccer players attending these showcase tournaments: Exposure to top teams and players in the U.S and internationally, and to play at some of the best soccer facilities in the country. A few of the tournaments also feature great college teams playing in “friendly” or round robin games which provide young players and their families an opportunity to view a variety of elite college players and school teams in action.

The first thing to remember about college showcase soccer tournaments is that, no matter how well-run the event is, how well you play, and which coaches are present, simply showing up and playing is not nearly enough to have every division 1, II or III coach in the nation beating a path to your door. It’s important to do your homework, plan ahead and make informed choices.

Most of the top tournaments are invitational so getting accepted into the tournament may be the first obstacle a team must overcome. A little advance planning may be necessary to help your team collect the required tournament experience and points to get accepted into these tournaments. Some showcase tournaments are not truly competitive. That is, although the competition on the field may be top notch, the tournament subscribes to the ‘everyone plays’ approach to allow all the players on a team to get exposure to the college coaches. Often, there are no playoffs or finals and the team coach can choose the number of games the team will play during the tournament. This is especially good for the athletes since no one benefits from playing two games a day throughout the tournament and burning out, or possibly injuring, the athletes.

When choosing college showcase tournaments, it’s important to remember that the best ones are not necessarily the same for boys and girls. Find out which coaches will actually be attending. Coaches, not schools. Will it be the head coach, assistant coach, or a junior assistant at the tournament? Does the person attending have the power to recruit if they like what they see? Some of the top tournaments for women in the U.S. are:

Although the college coaches are not allowed, by NCAA rules, to speak directly with the athletes at these showcases, the athletes can contact the coaches directly by email or phone before the tournament to invite them to watch them play. It’s particularly important to note that college coaches expect to hear from the athletes themselves, not their parents. Contact the coaches early and update them about specifics on playing times and fields. Many of the tournaments also offer, for a fee, a player profile form for participating athletes to fill out and update for attending coaches to view.

For most college coaches, the trend for evaluating young soccer athletes has evolved from an emphasis on recruitment through high schools to club and tournament recruitment. Since most recruitment is based on play, the almost year-long club and tournament season provides coaches more time to see players in action and the showcases allow the coaches to cover more players in a shorter period of time. It’s far easier to make determinations of a player’s athleticism, size, speed, movement, technical skills, team and personal attitude at a showcase than by watching a video. But don’t forget to follow up after the tournament by providing the coaches with a well-produced highlights video, too!

Pretty Tough Podcast 001 – The Future of Women’s Sports Online

Show Notes

Interview with Jane Schonberger, founder of PrettyTough.com and co-founder of WomenTalkSports.com, two of the premier websites for female athletes and fans of women’s sports. Jane discusses:

• Inspiration for launching online communities for female athletes
• Use of social media to increase exposure for women’s sports
• Importance of having sports sites specifically for girls and women
• Differentiation between PrettyTough.com and WomenTalkSports.com
• Pretty Tough products and publishing program
• Source of content for each site
• Ambassador Sponsorship Program
• Frequency the sites are updated
• Editorial philosophy
• Goals for each site
• Goals for the future
• Future of women’s sports

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (0.0KB)

URLS:
www.prettytough.com
www.womentalksports.com
Pretty Tough Books

Silver Surfer: 72 year old Kitty Pechet wins ESA Open Women title

I love hearing stories like this:

Seventy-two-year-old Grand Legend Kitty Pechet (pronounced PECK-et) didn’t let the 32 degree water temperature and 28 degree air temperature stop her from winning the Open Women’s title at the 2009 New England Mid-Winter Regionals held February 20th in Narragansett, Rhode Island. Kitty is from Cambridge, Massachusetts.  She charged to the win by picking off two solid rights, working them into the beach for the title.

This year marked the 41st consecutive New England Mid-Winter Surfing Championships, making it the oldest and longest running winter surfing contest in the world. 

A quick search for info about surf champion Kitty and the story gets even better. 

The grandmother of four is a minor New England surfing legend. Petite (barely 5 feet tall) and self-effacing (”I’m a terrible surfer”), Kitty is a serious artist who challenged gender barriers at Harvard University in the pre-feminist era. She never touched a surfboard until paddling past age 50, when one of her sons caught the surfing bug and needed a lift to the beach.

In a Boston Globe article titled The Silver Surfer,

“Surfing has become a metaphor for life, my life” Pechet says during an interview at her spacious home in Cambridge, which she shares with her husband, Harvard University professor Dr. Maurice Pechet, a member of the medical school’s Board of Fellows . “You paddle out, turn around, choose a wave, and miss it or catch it. When you get up, you finish, fall off, turn around, and paddle out again.”

Surfing “is a survival skill for the body and the soul,” she continues, surrounded by her painting and calligraphy, examples of which cover the studio walls. “Surfing and art have kept me healthy, physically, emotionally, artistically, and spiritually.”

According to the article, the more Pechet surfed, the better and more confident she got. The better she got, the greater the spillover effect on her art was. Paintings once rendered in tight, calligraphic brushstrokes began exploding with energy and color. Small graph-paper squares gave way to sprawling canvases. Her paintings became both more personal and more political.

“It was like they’d been waiting all their lives to be painted,” says Pechet, who studies and teaches at Watertown’s Turtle Studios, an artist-run educational and cultural collaborative. She also teaches art classes at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education and Harvard Neighbors program.

Surfing and art – how much better can it get?

Hasay wins Final Footlocker Cross-Country Championship

Jordan Hasay ended her stunning high school career the same way she started it on Saturday as she took home a win at the Footlocker High School Cross-Country Championships.  But for once, she was faced with some competition.  

Pre-race, the competition was expected to be from 2006 Champ Kathy Kroeger and 2007 Champ Ashley Brasovan (Hasay was the 2005 champion herself).  But for all but the homestretch, Allie McLaughlin of Colorado Springs stole the show.  McLaughlin had taken the lead early and went through the 1st mile marker  seconds ahead of the next runner.  She had only finished 4th in her Regional and had only started running the previous year.

After 2 miles, McLaughlin’s lead had lengthened.  Hasay led the chase pack until finally Brasovan couldn’t stand it any longer and began to go after McLaughlin.  With 300 meters to go, Brasovan caught up to McLaughlin, who resisted but was futile in her attempts as Brasovan accelerated past her.

Meanwhile, Hasay was chasing from behind.  With 150m to go, she dug down for that extra power we all have seen her find before and blew by Brasovan to come home with the win in one of the greatest Footlocker showdowns ever.

Watch the video of the race courtesy of  Dyestat California 

A Fishy Soccer School

December 6, 2008 -

Needed a pick-me-up today and here it is: Training schools for goldfish!

The folks at R2 Fish School have put out a complete fish training system that allows the average person to teach the average goldfish to dribble a tiny soccer ball down a tiny court and even do a fish-y limbo. For $39.95 you get a 45-minute DVD and more than 20 training parts.

What’s next? An exercise wheel for hamsters? A treadmill for dogs?

World Snowboard Day Returns

December 5, 2008 – December 21st will be the date of the third annual World Snowboard Day which is an international event to celebrate snowboarding and its culture in more than twenty countries.

More than 60 resorts will take part in the event across Austria, Poland, Hungary, France, Croatia, Russia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Italy, Spain, and the United States. Events to look out for include snowboard initiations and demos, parties, concerts, BBQ’s, environmental awareness and a host of other surprises.

The event will enable snowboarders, from beginners to experts of all ages, to discover snowboarding for free. Professionals and volunteers of the sport will assemble everywhere in the world to share their passion for snowboarding.

 10 GOOD REASONS TO GO RIDING ON THAT DAY:
1. It is the first Sunday of Christmas holidays
2. Snow is falling everywhere
3. It is time to take your snowboard equipment out of storage
4. There certainly is a partner resort near you
5. It is the opportunity to discover a new riding experience
6. You could meet pro riders
7. or test the brand new snowboard equipment
8. It is a good way to warm you up
9. It is a reason to get together and have fun
10. And, above all, it is completely free

The event is taking place with the support of EuroSIMA (European Boardsports Industry Manufacturers Association) and the WSF (World Snowboard Federation).

Official Site

Kiwi MX champ Katherine Prumm badly injured in crash

November 19, 2008 – Not again.  Last week, New Zealand motocross star Katherine Prumm suffered a severe accident while training and is facing an uncertain future as far as her career goes.

Prumm mistimed a jump and fell nearly 10 feet, landing head-first with her bike crashing on her back. After waiting nearly an hour for an ambulance, the 20-year-old two-time world champion was transported to a local hospital where doctors discovered she fractured her back in three places. 

Riding since she was nine years old, Prumm had won two motocross world titles in a row. Her 2008 campaign began promisingly but a knee injury and broken collarbone ended her hopes of a third crown. Now she’s unsure of whether she will ever ride a motorcycle again.

“As far as recovery goes, I haven’t really been told too much yet, about walking or riding,” she said.

“I think I’m more anxious to find out whether I’ll be all right or not,” she told NZPA.  “Not a lot else matters at the moment.”

Prumm’s accident is the latest in a string of life-altering injuries to major action sports stars including mountain bike racer Tara Llanes.

Read more about her accident here.

Japanese pro team signs 16-year-old female pitcher

November 17, 2008 – The Japanese are always on the cutting edge and this time they’re making headlines by signing the first woman to play pro ball in Japan.

Sixteen year old high school student Eri Yoshida was drafted by the Kobe 9 Cruise, a pro team in the Kansai Independent League that will launch in April.

With a side-armed knuckleball in her arsenal, Yoshida took part in a tryout held earlier this month and passed with flying colors. She threw a hitless inning against male batters during a tryout this month and was among 33 players picked in the draft.

“I always dreamed of becoming a professional,” Yoshida told a news conference Monday. “I have only just been picked by the team and haven’t achieved anything yet.”

At five feet, 114 pounds, Yoshida says her inspiration is fellow knuckleballer Tim Wakefield of the Boston Red Sox.

A female professional baseball federation existed for a few years in the 1950s, but Yoshida will become Japan’s first-ever woman to play alongside professional male players.

No doubt we’ll be hearing much more about this young phenom in the future.

Soccer: 2008 FIFA Player of the Year

October 30, 2008 – A 10-name shortlist for the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year award has been published, including Arsenal’s Kelly Smith and Brazil’s Marta, who is aiming to win the award for the third year running.

Other female nominees include Canadian Christine Sinclair, Birgit Prinz of Germany and Americans Hope Solo and Shannon Boxx.

On the men’s side 23 players are in the running for the accolade including front-runner Cristiano Ronaldo.

Three finalists for each award will be named in December, before the winners are announced at a gala event Jan. 12 at the Zurich Opera House. Voting is done by head coaches and captains of men’s and women’s national teams.

Full Women’s List: Nadine Angerer (Germany), Shannon Boxx (United States), Cristiane (Brazil), Daniela (Brazil), Marta (Brazil), Birgit Prinz (Germany), Christine Sinclair (Burnaby, B.C.), Kelly Smith (England), Hope Solo (U.S.), Ingvild Stensland (Norway).

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