Ashwin Menon '22 Recruiting Profile

My name is Ashwin Menon.  I am a Class of 2022 graduate currently playing for Solar Soccer Club in Dallas, Texas, and attend a charter school called Westlake Academy, located in Westlake, Texas, a suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. I have been playing for 9 years and have been blessed to be able to undergo my development process through the coaching of Adrian Solca, Shaun Ramsden, and Misail Tsapos. I am currently part of the Solar U19B MLS Next Team, and previously part of the Solar Development Academy teams since the U13 age group. Also, I was the youngest player on the U16/U17 Solar team to win the 2019 U.S. Development Academy Championship. 

In terms of a positional standpoint, I play as a fullback. I am a naturally right-footed player, but I have been featuring at left back for quite some time for Solar. The main reason for this is because of the lack of natural left footed players to play in the defense. I was chosen to play there because of my capability to play using my left foot and the ability to competitively play on either side of the field, which is one of my greatest strengths amongst other fullbacks in the league. This also highlights another strength I have: being a versatile player. Apart from playing on both sides as a fullback, I can play at a high level centrally in the midfield, or even fill in as a central defender if need be. One of my biggest attributes as a player is having a high understanding of the game which enables me to be capable of playing anywhere on the field.  I have taken the liberty to also attach two highlight films under the video section- one from 2019 -2020 season and the other 2020-2021 season for games played in the first half of the season. 

As for schooling, Westlake Academy is an International Baccalaureate (IB) School. This means that the current program I am undergoing is comparatively more vigorous to the traditional programs at high schools across the nation and includes a mix of IB classes and AP classes. The difference between IB classes and AP classes is the level of depth and understanding behind each subject, as well as the grading process and difficulty of the classes. For an IB class, every key aspect is emphatically looked at very in-depth in order to develop students as inquirers and knowledgeable leaders. I currently take all IB course classes, and 6 out of my 8 courses are a combination of IB and AP. The last two classes do not offer the option to do as AP due to them being solely IB classes. In addition, I have completed two AP classes in the past and taken the tests for both – World History and Human Geography.

Although there is plenty more for me to share about myself in both soccer and academics, I just wanted to introduce myself and express my interest in your institution's soccer and engineering programs