Andre Roberts '18 Recruiting Profile

As a little boy growing up in Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas, I always dreamed of becoming a collegiate Division 1 athlete. Luckily, I have grown up and have realized that I would be blessed to play in any division in the United States.

Soccer has been the love of my life for about 7 years now. I have attended many summer camps, gone through many gruesome training sessions, bonding with so many young men and women over the years through "the beautiful game." God has in return allowed me to be a part of and play with the best team in New Providence going undefeated for 4 consecutive years. I have won the Golden Boot award each year for the highest number of goals scored as well as MVP.  This past year, I served as Co-Captain of my Warriors team as our team once again went undefeated for the season.  I have been blessed to play for The Bahamas national team and now I even get a chance to play varsity soccer at a top notch school with a stupendous programme. Yes,  I loved this game so much and I am so committed to being the best I can, that I recently moved from The Bahamas to Chattanooga, Tennessee to help me reach this goal.

I have only been here at The McCallie School for 5 months, but I began to value so many more things upon my arrival. I am coming into a team that went 17-0 through the regular season and lost in the semi-finals in the second period of golden goal to a relentless Montgomery Bell Academy squad. The national team player in me had to humble up, pull up his socks, and fight for a starting spot in the varsity eleven.

The spring of 2016 will begin, and I will become the second Bahamian who has a starting spot on our team. My goal is to score a minimum of 10 goals this year. I am currently in training and hopefully, the weight lifting that I did in the autumn and winter will pay off. Our weight room is geared on making us faster and building leg work, which is key in a soccer player's world. Also, I ran a 4.95 as my personal best time on my 40 yard dash but plan to have it lower by the time we test again in February, right before our season begins.

I am an explosive player who plans to get more agile, as I continue my training in Chattanooga. I am keen on the ball, a goal scorer, and a player that is never afraid to give or receive aggressive play.  Soccer is a contact sport, so I definitely plan on getting some contact.

Academics are also a very big part of my life. I may not like it sometimes but, my school work is and always will be more important than soccer. Why?  Because I truly want to give my best to all I do.  This means that I have had to find a balance of school work and soccer. I will never let soccer get in the way of me not performing well in school. My parents preached this to me non-stop as I got more and more serious about the "love of my life."  Besides academics, I am very involved in my charity called The Pink Penny Project.  This is a charity I started in The Bahamas after I lost 2 of my sisters to breast cancer.  They both did not have insurance to help get the treatment they needed.  All donations from The Pink Penny Project are given to a local cancer support group that assists women with breast cancer who need financial help.

Lastly, I am committed to getting better. I am a coachable young man, who strives for excellence with humility. No knowledge is useless, and I would love to hear anybody's opinion, no matter how harsh. I know that goals are not attained by strength but by perseverance and like I said, it is my dream and goal to be a collegiate athlete, I want to make that dream a reality, and I will continue to persevere to attain that goal.

Yours Truly,

Andre' M.T. Roberts