Dylan Young '23 Recruiting Profile

My name is Dylan Young and I am a senior at Santa Clara High School. I have been playing soccer since the age of 4 starting with Kidz Love Soccer. I joined Santa Clara Metro PAL at 5 and played for 3 years. As my love for soccer grew, at age 8, I began playing for Santa Clara Youth Soccer where I built strong foundational skills, primarily played in the role of striker but occasionally rotated into the goalie position. These 3 years helped me transition into my club career with strong striking skills, ball handling, an ability to play in an offensive, defensive and goalie position and learned how to play in all positions on the field. 

In 2017 I joined the world of Club Soccer where training, coaching and competition grew as did my love for the sport of soccer. My desire for higher level competition, tournament play, camps and skill building became a major focus. Over the last 5 years I've played for 4 clubs; Santa Clara Lions, Silicon Valley Eagles and San Jose Strikers who merged with San Jose Surf. Beginning as a bronze team, we moved up each year and won our Gold division last season in 2022. I have been in the starting position of striker or defender during 2017-2018 and the starting goalie from 2019-2022. 

My sophomore year I played on our Junior Varsity High School team where I was the starting goalie. I received goalie specific training, my skills significantly improved as did my desire to continue to compete at high levels. During my sophomore year, I even played in 2 Varsity games as their goalie. My high school career continued last season as a Junior on the Varsity Team. Though I wasn't a starter as there was already a starting senior goalie, I had significant play time in pre-season matches, continued weight training to build strength, continued learning techniques from the senior goalie, attended all trainings and subbed in to matches as needed. Being part of a SCVAL winning team and making it to CCS playoffs was an amazing accomplishment. This situation sets me apart from other recruits because many would have been discouraged not getting as much playtime as desired, though for me it only drove me to become an even stronger player both mentally and physically. This demonstrates that I will be a team player who trusts the coaching staff, values the need of the entire team and supports my fellow players in all situations. I now head in to my senior year knowing I will have earned the title of starting Varsity goalie.

My goals and aspirations include both academics in addition to playing soccer in college.  I have from the very beginning had complete support from my family in academics as well as athletics. From tournaments, to travel, to spending their time at weekend games and trainings in the rain, cold, wind and extreme heat. They are in full support of my next goal of playing soccer in college. They have helped me develop the discipline in academics and over the last 4 years, I have built consistent study habits which have contributed to my success in school. I currently have a non-weighted GPA of 3.27 and am taking Honors Human Physiology to get a jump start for college as I pursue a career in Kinesiology. A strong interest in the study of movement of the body, the desire to help others and having 12 years of competitive athletics under my belt make an excellent well rounded college candidate.

I look forward to the recruiting process and next steps.

-Dylan Young