This week was national signing day in recruiting for many sports. NCSA would like to congratulate all of our athletes who made commitments. We look forward to our athletes signing many more letters as the school year continues.
(below: Kellie Deremo signs her Letter of Intent with Regis University)
Hey everyone, Bobby Coburn checking in for the third time on NCSA. So far our record stands at 3-6; we ran into some tough teams the last few weeks and have been riddled with injuries the whole year. We have our last game this week against Western Reserve Academy (OH). We look at it as a great opportunity for the seniors on our team to go out on a good note.
Recruiting has picked up the last few weeks. My statistics have been good and I feel great about the film I’m sending out to schools. The schools I mentioned in my last two blogs are still expressing interest and some more schools have contacted me including Davidson, Wagner, Lafayette, Lehigh and Bucknell.
I also took a visit to Middlebury two weeks ago; I liked it because it’s in a nice area of the country and it’s one of the best schools in the country. I’m definitely very interested in them. I hope to take more visits once football seasons over and I plan on deciding on a school by the end of November so I can fully focus on my schoolwork, basketball season, and enjoying the end of my senior year.
NCSA has helped me immensely in showing all coaches at different levels my talent and letting me take care of the rest.
Hell week or also known as two-a-days started August 11th to August 21st. They started at 8 am; we practiced till 10 am then had lunch and some brainwork. We started back up at Noon and ended at 2 pm. This was my first hell week and I had no idea what to expect. 
Our first day was pretty hard and I felt sore but after the second day I think I started to get the hang of two-a-days. I was the underdog sophomore coming in so I had to prove something! So about the second or third day when I was playing Linebacker I blitzed like I never blitzed before and o’boy did I hit someone. That someone was an amazing 6ft junior linebacker, fullback, and tight end Kolby Fedder it was a hard hit! Ever since then I have not taken any practices easy.
10/13 Blog:
It’s officially Fall, my favorite season of the year, and that means homecoming, football…and, best of all, it means that high school basketball is a mere 3 weeks away! This is week #8 of school and that also means that next week is finals week. I can’t believe Term 1 is almost behind me and how fast my junior year seems to be passing by. Here’s what’s been going on…
10/14 College Info:
I just got home from attending my first college orientation (Pepperdine). There have been a few given at my school, but they seem to happen during a class period I haven’t been able to miss…Physics!! This particular session was held in the evening at a local hotel and was really helpful. I got real insight as to what they were looking for in their students, where I might fit in, and the areas I might want to work on. With SAT’s just a couple of months away, I now have a firmer goal in mind after listening to their college rep fill in the blanks. I feel I’m on target with my academics, and now I am just looking forward to going to a lot more of these!
Matt Nelson of Cibolo Steele High (Cibolo, TX) recently got on the NCSA Hot Seat with Recruiting Coach Matt Webb where he was put through a gauntlet of questions about recruiting, superstitions, and what it takes to be a kicker at the next level.
NCSA: Matt, Cibolo Steele is off to a great start and you’re kicking the daylights out of the ball. What are your thoughts on your performance this year?
Nelson: I’m kicking the ball great; I missed a 47 yarder recently. But will make up for it this Friday!
NCSA: What’s it going to be like kicking for Louisiana Tech next fall?
Nelson: It’s an awesome opportunity, La. Tech wants me to play early and they have a great history of placing kickers onto the NFL.
NCSA: What advice can you give student-athletes in the recruiting process?
Nelson: Don’t expect schools to come to you. You have to put out the effort and hard work to get noticed.
NCSA: How did NCSA help you in the recruiting process?
Nelson: NCSA got me a lot of initial contacts, Matt Webb gave me advice on how to talk to coaches and be confident in my abilities. 
NCSA: Its 4th down and you’re kicking a 40 yard field goal. What’s going through your mind?
Nelson: Think of it like any other kick and put the ball through the pipes.
NCSA: Who inspired you to play football? 
Nelson: John Elway and Brett Favre, I loved watching them in the Super Bowl which made me want to play.
NCSA: What is your post-game ritual?
Nelson: I always go out to eat with my family to Hooters, amazing wings!
NCSA: What opponents do you want to face at the next level?
Nelson: One of my teammates is a kick returner for Ole’miss right now. I would love to kick off to him. Another high school rival is a kick returner for Texas A&M, those would have to be my two.
NCSA: Most embarrassing play on the field?
Nelson: I was in practice one day where it was raining and the field was really muddy. I kicked a long field goal and then went flying on my can. That was pretty embarrassing. 
NCSA: Any superstitions?
Nelson: I wear a ring on my left hand and spin it twice before I kick!
NCSA: What does it take to be an outstanding kicker?
Nelson: Mental toughness over physical toughness. As a kicker you have to be strong upstairs.
Matt Nelson’s team faces Clemons High this Friday and will be proving to the Louisiana Tech Coaching staff why he is the kicker of the future. Thanks for letting NCSA help you in the recruiting process. Go Bulldogs!
Hey everyone, Bobby Coburn here from Lake Forest Academy (Chicago, IL) blogging for the second time for NCSA. Our season has gotten off to a rough start; so far we’ve lost 3 games and won 1 game, but with each loss we take away something to get better at as a team. Not only that, but we have the toughest part of our schedule out of the way. We’ve played Chicago Christian and Aurora Christian (the two top teams in our conference) and even though we lost, we’ve learned from our losses and intend on winning our last 6 games.
Individually I’ve had some success: In our first game against Wayland Academy (Wisconsin) I had 6 catches for 140 yards and a touchdown. The second game I had 3 catches for 60 yards and another touchdown. The third game was rough for our passing game because our quarterback injured his thumb, and it was pouring rain so I only had 3 catches for about 20 yards. This past week I had 4 catches for 90 yards. Additionally, I think I’ve made some plays that show my athleticism and good hands, so I feel good about the film I’ll be sending to coaches in the coming weeks.
Things have picked up for me recruiting wise. The NESCAC schools I mentioned in my last post (Colby, Middlebury, Wesleyan, and Tufts) are all calling me on a weekly basis. It feels great to have top academic schools recruiting me, even though they are Division 3. I’ve also spoken with some FCS schools, including Holy Cross, who lost by just 3 points to #4 ranked UMass. I called Coach Pedone from HC last week and he says they’re still very interested and they want to see my first 4 games on film, which is reassuring for me because I feel confident about my play this season so far.
I can’t emphasis enough the help that NCSA has given me in the recruiting process. By them circulating my recruiting profile to coaches across the nation I know that my talents are being shown to every level, which gives me ample opportunity to pick a school and a program that best suits me.
Coming out of my freshmen season I knew I wanted to play College Football. So I started working twice as hard at school and football. I studied for hours and hours and it was worth it by the end of my freshmen years. With straight A’s the whole entire freshmen year I was ranked 15 out of 166 students, and my GPA ended up to be 3.75.
Through the year I played two other sports wrestling, and track and field, also in my spare time we went to our local gym where I would work out. I lifted, ran sprints, and did drills with my Dad. The first combine that I attended in Pittsburgh, PA on April 28th was Schuman’s National Underclassman combine. I think I did well for my first time but not my best. Doing well was not enough for me so that makes me work even harder for next year. I will make it one of my best!
Preseason practice is in full swing right now. We had our first scrimmage last Friday. The team is looking pretty good right now. The offense has to work out a few kinks, but 
besides that they are rolling right now. The defense is looking good too. We’re flying to the ball.
I’m starting to get some more phone calls now that the season is about to start. I recently got a call from Middlebury College and Johns Hopkins. I like Johns Hopkins’s because of its good engineering program. Right now the top schools on my list are Princeton University, Georgetown University, and Johns Hopkins. I went to Princeton and Georgetown’s camps this summer and got to talk with my positional coaches. After the first few games they want me to send in the film for my senior season.
I’m very excited about the year ahead of me. I picked out some challenging classes again but I am prepared for them. At the moment I am working on a summer reading assignment for Honors English and selling ads for yearbook. I’m going to keep working hard and I hope it pays off this year.
I attended an Elite Soccer Camp at the University California Santa Barbara in California and had an awesome experience. I met people from all over the United States and a couple from around the world who came to this camp. This was the best camp that I’ve 
attended. The coaches and former players that helped out were very good. They had a lot of coaching tips, things to say about everyone’s performance, the training was intense and hard. If you didn’t come to play and work hard then you were in for a rude awaking because they treated us just like their own soccer players at Santa Barbara. There were two training groups, A and B. Group A was in the first training session so we had to wake up early at 7:00. We got a quick breakfast and then headed to the soccer fields. We trained for over 2 hours, then went back to the dorm and ate lunch. Afterwards we started the second training session of more drills and skills. They gave us a break before dinner at 6:00 and then back we headed to the soccer fields for 11 v. 11 games. There were 8 teams; Ireland, Germany, Japan, Italy, USA, Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal. I was on Ireland and we went 2-2-1. Overall our team held up fairly well. The finals were between Italy and Germany. That game was very exciting because there were 7 goals and Italy won 4-3.
This is an excellent read from an NCSA swimmer (Katleen Lyon, ‘09, King George, VA). A great example of what one can do to help themselves get a competitive advantage and gain valuable lessons of character building. I as a former coach, would love to see a high school athlete take on this type of adventure for their summer training!
I was never expecting to spend my whole summer in Colorado to train high altitude with my former coach. I was planning to go on several college visits and spend my summer the way a normal seventeen year old would. Everything changed at the beginning of April when my swim coach, Damon, told my swim team, the Potomac Raiders (Virginia) that he was leaving at the end of April. He was planning on moving out to Colorado to be closer to his family. Damon would reside in the Glenwood Springs area and coach the Sopris Barracudas.
After having my coach leave at the end of April I was stuck to train on my own. There was not another coach to take over but the Raiders board was searching frantically for another coach to take Damon’s place. Halfway through May and still no coach stepped in for the team. I was a little worried because what if I didn’t get one till winter? Thoughts such as that were running through my head.
My good friend and swim buddy, Jackie, came up with the idea to follow our coach out to Colorado. When I first heard this idea, I thought she was crazy. I had been on training trips several times for a week but not a whole summer! I kept thinking what am I going to do about college visits and what will happen when July 1st comes around and my parents aren’t with me to talk to these colleges?
Over the next several weeks my parents and I discussed the pros and cons of this trip. In the end I decided to take the trip. I think what really convinced me to go was I was emailing two college coaches and they said I should take the trip because it would change my life for the good. By the middle of May all of my plans were final. I was to leave June 8th, the day after school ends, spend seven weeks in Glenwood Springs, and have three separate host families. I would spend two weeks with my first two families and three weeks with my last. And each family had younger children, so I would be the adult in the family and it was going to be something new considering I am the youngest in my family. I never really dealt with younger siblings so it would be an experience.
June 8th came by quickly and before I knew it I was leaving my home for the airport and I would be in Glenwood Springs later that night. I was looking forward to the whole trip except when I arrived at the airport my coach told me that it was going to be about eleven when you arrive to your family’s house and there is practice at five-thirty in the morning, so be ready! I was not expecting that but I knew that training early in the morning was what I came out here for. Finally, after a three-hour flight and driving for another two hours, I arrived to my first host family. It was around eleven o’clock and the young ones were sleeping so the parents showed me my room and said they would see me in the morning.
Morning was rough because I was sleep deprived and I wasn’t ready for the cold weather. I walk outside in shorts and a shirt and didn’t realize that it was maybe a high of forty at that point. I ran back into the house and grabbed my sweatshirt. My coach ended up picking me up every morning because he lived maybe a mile away. Around 5:30 we arrived at the pool and it was empty which didn’t surprise me at all.
Jackie was already there and within five minutes our coach was yelling at us to jump into the pool. I figured the water would be refreshing but it was actually freezing! It got my body moving until I swam one length and realized I couldn’t breathe! I completely forgot that I was about 5,000 feet above sea level and my body was not used to it! I wanted to ask my coach if he could find me an oxygen tank or some sort of oxygen device that would give me air to breathe. I knew from that point on that this training was going to be harder than expected. It was one day down and fifty-six to go.
As the first week wrapped up I was becoming more comfortable with my first family. It was hard being the older sibling because I have never dealt with little kids and I have never been the oldest sibling in the family. Actually, looking back at it now I am so happy I am the youngest in my family! Then, my first weekend in Colorado my coach had a dual meet up in Aspen, but I did not participate in it because my coach felt that I was adjusted to the altitude yet. So I sat there with the younger kids and made sure that they got to their events and that relays were put together.
During the older kid’s session when my coach did not need me, my friend Jackie and I decided that we needed to tan so when we get home we look nice and brown. BAD IDEA!! We laid out there for a good two hours and afterwards we were extremely burnt. I realized then that we were closer to the sun and that made us burn even more then we normally would in Virginia. I ended up going back to my host family’s house looking like a lobster.
I ended up swimming my first meet the second weekend I was in Colorado and surprisingly enough I did exceptionally well in the meet. I swam the 800 free on a Thursday night and I dropped over fifteen seconds while taking first place, obtaining the fastest time throughout the whole meet and taking the pool record. That was more than likely my best swim throughout the whole weekend. The meet lasted till Sunday and I think my coach was extremely impressed considering it was only my second weekend training in high altitude.
Two weeks went by quickly and before I knew it I was off to my third family. This next family was going to be a little different because there were two twins that were fourteen years old and another that just turned sixteen. I was no longer taking care of younger ones so it was kind of nice. I actually ended up sleeping on a pull out bed in the basement, but it was in front of a huge screen T.V. so I couldn’t complain.
By then practice was running smoothly, I still had to practice from 5:30-8:00 every morning and 5:00-6:30 every night. It was a struggle and I was extremely exhausted every day but I kept thinking how this is going to greatly improve my swimming.
Half way through my journey I was ready to go home. I was exhausted from having a meet every weekend, swimming at 5:30 in the morning, and I was just home sick. I was really missing my family and friends. At that point I was starting to count down the days until I returned home, but it never seemed to make the days go by faster. Luckily, I made new friends out in Glenwood and they were extremely supportive and always made me feel better.
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