Eliott Shanks '20 Recruiting Profile

Hi Coach,

I am a duel American and French citizen, born December 2002 in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is my desire to play NCAA soccer at a university I can also obtain a 4 year BS degree. I am currently doing distance learning at Concordia University in Montreal Canada while living in Rockville, Maryland and I am playing for Montgomery Soccer Club 2002/2003 Academy Team in the NCSL league as a center forward. As of Oct 5, 2020 I played 4 out of 5 games, having missed one game due to injury, and we are undefeated so far. I lead the team in goals with 8 goals in the 4 games played. Last year I play for the French International High School in Bethesda Maryland where we went undefeated. The prior year I played soccer in Marseille, France for the U17 1st team of Union Sportive Marseille Endoume Catalan club (“Endoume” for short). I played most of my youth soccer in Bethesda, Maryland before moving to Marseille in the summer of 2018.    

In France Endoume plays in Ligue Mediterranee de Football region and my team played at the 2nd highest level of French youth soccer. Marseille is a soccer mad city and the league I played in was highly competitive. I played against several Ligue 1 Profession Academy teams including AS Monaco FC's U17 teams, which we played twice since they were in our division, and I played the full 90 minutes against Olympique de Marseille’s (OM) U17 1st team, which included several French youth national team players, in the French Coupe. For Endoume I usually played at right back. Prior to moving to France, I played in Maryland for Bethesda Soccer Club’s U16 Green team for the 2017/2018 season as a forward, usually as a winger at both left and right sides, and occasionally at center forward and scored I believe 11 goals. Prior to Bethesda SC I played 2 years for Montgomery Soccer Club’s Academy team, the same team I am playing for in 2020, as a left and right midi and as back up goalie. I consider my most natural position to be that of a winger but playing in France has vastly improved my defensive abilities. 

One of the highlights of the 2017/2018 season was my team winning the Maryland State Championship of US Youth Soccer's President's Cup. My Bethesda U16 Green team also were the champions in The Ultimate Cup (Richmond VA), Baltimore Mania, and Columbia (Maryland) Invitational Memorial tournaments. We won more tournaments and more games than any other Bethesda SC team during the 2017/2018 season and we placed 2nd in the National Capital Soccer League U16 2nd division in Spring 2018. I also played for the U16 French International School in Bethesda for the 2017/2018 season where we came in 2nd place in Montgomery Soccer League's U19 1st division. In 2016 I was selected to play for the Dutch Soccer School’s U15 USA team and we played 8 matches in the Netherlands against Dutch club teams including several profession academy teams. 

I uploaded a short highlight clip covering the weekend of Oct 3 & 4, 2020 where were we played two games and I scored 6 goals. My other video uploaded in 2019 contains a few clips from  the 2018-2019 season with Endoume vs Olympique de Marseille and vs Monaco FC. The French clubs do not normally videotape games and those included were from taken by my parents. There are more video highlights from 2017-2018 season when I was playing for Bethesda U16 Green with most of the videos taken from tournaments and the US Youth Soccer Presidents Cup games.