Nathaniel (Nat) Ballard '15 Recruiting Profile

As background, I am American but live in London (I have UK citizenship too) and so my entire soccer career has been in England. This has been a unique experience and one that I think would add diversity to any college team I would get the privilege to play with.  I want to attend an academic US university where I can play soccer, not only to get back to my American roots, but also to take my soccer to the collegiate level.  While soccer is an all-encompassing sport in England, you can't have the same type of experience during your college years that you get in the US, and college soccer is not celebrated in the same way here. This is something I would really like to experience.

I currently play in the Premier Elite Division of the Surrey Youth League in London and my team is within the top 10 youth clubs in England. We finished third place this year and are regularly asked to play against academy teams. We played Fulham academy and won 4-3 (footage shown in video). My club team and I were also invited to the Gothia World Football Youth Cup in Sweden both last year and this year. As Goalkeeper, I maintained a clean sheet throughout both Gothia tournaments. This year in u18 we finished in the quarter-finals out of 116+ teams and last year in u16 we placed in the final 32 out of 256 teams.  We were also champions in the u16 Futsal Tournament for London, Middlesex and Nationals.

I am versatile and able to play well in many positions. On my club team I have been primarily Goalkeeper in the past. On my school team I am a Winger playing in a 4-2-3-1 formation (and back-up GK), and when I was s a sophomore I received the Golden Boot award for being the top goal scorer as Winger (I scored 16 goals) across all of the teams at my high school. My school team also reached the quarter-finals in both the England Schools Football Association Tournament (ESFA) and the Independent Schools Football Association (ISFA), as well as being semi-finalists in the London Trinity Cup.  While I slightly prefer the Winger position over Goalkeeper, I am happy to play any position for my team if I get the opportunity to play at the college level.

I am 6'3", about 70kg and am also a Professional Tennis Registry (PTR) qualified tennis coach. I started my own little business coaching tennis so I could help young kids and adults learn a new sport, stay fit and have fun, as well as making my own money to help pay for college. I know college can be really expensive and I have 4 other brothers and a sister so I want to try to help. I have worked throughout high school during holidays and part of the weekends, when I am not playing football or studying, so I am a motivated and disciplined athlete.

Academically, I currently have a 4.0 GPA and I took my first ACT plus writing and got a composite score of 30, but am willing to take again if requested. At A-level (2 years of intense study taken during equivalent of Junior and Senior years), I study Economics, Maths, Philosophy and Ethics, and Geography. With my predicted A-level grades, I will finish high school with a minimum GPA of 3.85 unweighted and a maximum of 4.28 weighted. I anticipate that I will probably want to get a degree in  International Relations or Economics. 

Thank you for your consideration.