I always knew I wanted to play soccer in college, but it did not become a plausible reality until my junior year. I knew I had the skills to play in college, but I did not have anyone pushing me to succeed until I joined NCSA. I was the only sophomore to make the varsity team at Scarsdale High School; however, I had to work hard and develop to gain the respect of the older and more mature kids. In my junior year, I made All Section HM and All League and was a permanent starter for my team. As a Senior, I was voted captain, and pushed myself to the next level and achieved All Section and All League. As a junior, my team won the New York Section 1 Sectionals for the first time in 30 years. During my senior year we lost 16 seniors and I knew I would need to take a more assertive role as a leader to repeat our success. However we lost a “heartbreaker” in the sectional finals, which was still a significant achievement in my mind.
A friend of mine first introduced me to NCSA. He found his D-3 college through them, and highly recommended joining their recruiting program. My parents and I looked into the NCSA website and thought that this was terrific. We talked to some of their staff, and signed on. NCSA has helped me in so many ways. Whenever we had a question about how to answer a coach’s email or what to do on a visit to one of my favorite schools, NCSA always seemed to know exactly how to handle it. They are experts in so many situations that come up in the recruiting process that we relied on their judgment constantly.
I play on a Premier team and have traveled all over Europe and the United States to a variety of tournaments. But my team did not attend many of the significant tournaments that the important college coaches watched. So last year, NCSA encouraged me to go to the Potomac Tournament in Maryland during Memorial Day as a Guest Player. That was one of my best decisions. I played with a terrific team (State finalists from Pennsylvania) and got a lot of playing time as a left forward. I scored, and was noticed by many coaches from the schools I possibly wanted to attend, both D-1 and D-3. They contacted me and I narrowed my choices to three D-3 schools in the Northeast.
The reason that I only wanted to play for a D-3 school is that when I went to the D-1 soccer camps after my sophomore year, one coach said to me, “Adam, you’re a good player, but you need to know that if you ever play for us, you will be playing 49 weeks out of 52.” It’s not that I am not committed that much, but I really want to do well in college and to have a social and academic life along with playing soccer. So I decided then that D-3 would be better fit for me.
