McRay Drong '19 Recruiting Profile

Hi, I'm McRay Drong, currently a Junior at St. Cloud Cathedral High School in St. Cloud, MN.  My club team is Minnesota TwinStars Academy located out of the Twin-Cities metro area.  I joined this team in the fall of 2015 and in the summer of 2016 we won US Club Regionals and lost in the Semifinals of US Club Nationals as well as having competed in various tournaments across the nation including Dallas Cup. During the 2016/17 season, my club team competed in the National Premier League, where we finished second in our NPL Regionals group and just missed out on NPL Nationals. We also won our Midwest Regional League for the second year running. On top of that,  my club team won Minnesota State Cup, competed at the US Youth Regionals in South Dakota, and were knocked out at the quarterfinal stage via shootout to eventual champions at the Las Vegas Mayor's Cup. For this upcoming 2017/18 season, we will again be competing in NPL and MRL as well as a number of major tournaments across the country. My primary position is Central Defensive Midfielder, however I am mobile and can play as a box-to-box midfielder, an attacking midfielder, and as a right back. For the past five years I have also competed for the Minnesota State Olympic Development Program (ODP) Team and this past March I was a part of the Minnesota Team who finished runners up at the ODP National Championships in Phoenix, Arizona. As for personal accomplishments, I have been selected to the Region II player pool for the past three years, and this year I was chosen for the second year in a row to be a part of the Region II ODP team competing in the IMG Interregional tournament in Sarasota, FL. At the 2016 Regional Showcase I started two of the three matches for the Region Team primarily playing as a box-to-box midfielder. I have been a member of my high school varsity team since the eighth grade and have started almost every game since my freshman year. During my sophomore year I finished second in goals (8) and first in Assists (11) playing attacking mid/box-to-box, as well as being named to the All-Conference and All-Area Teams. I was recently named team captain for the 2017 season. 

    I hope to continue my career past high school and play college soccer at the highest level. To accomplish that goal, it takes equal amount of effort in the classroom as out on the field, and I have high standards of myself at school. I want to find the right school that fits my needs academically as well as athletically.  Living in St. Cloud, it takes about an hour and ten minutes to drive to practice, which we have 3-4 days a week. This makes my homework schedule very rigorous and challenging to manage. However, I work very hard to keep up with my school work and pride myself on maintaining a solid high GPA.

    What sets me apart from other recruits is my willingness to learn and develop with the game every time I lace up. Since joining TwinStars Academy, my in-game knowledge has grown immensely, due to the fact that we are taught several different systems and how to play in and against them. I enjoy these training sessions because I know that at the college level you may have to adapt to a very different style of play than you are accustomed to playing. Our coaches also prepare us for the collegiate game by scheduling scrimmages and games against teams that are older than us.  I consider myself to be a very disciplined player, exhibiting maturity while still being very passionate about the game.

    Thank you for taking the time to review my profile.  I look forward to having the opportunity to speak with you and learn about your college program in the future.