Leaderboard

Saw Eastsides schedule on Facebook. 8/25 vs Central 9/1 @ Hurley 9/8 @ Riverview 9/15 @ Chilhowie 9/29 @ JI Burton 10/6 vs Rye Cove 10/13 @ Twin Springs 10/20 vs Thomas Walker 10/27 vs Auburn 11/3 vs Castlewood

Sounds very good all around. One of my oldest son's LHS teammates played for Emory & Henry a few years ago. My observation is that they are very forthright in their approach to recruiting. And if they've said they'll be watching him then that's definitely a solid option for him. If he wants to broaden his horizons a bit or simply test the waters, then I'd highly recommend attending an ID camp. The likelihood of landing an offer from the host school may be a long shot, but he will at least get a chance to perform in front of their coaches as well as those from several other "lower level" schools who will be there. My 16 year old accepted an invitation to attend an ID camp at a Division I school last month. As a result he received 3 offers from Division II schools and one from a Division III coach who were there. The host school is actually still communicating with him but ultimately we don't really expect anything to come of that. The recruiting companies and sites are in business to make money (no surprise there). But there are sites where he can create a free profile that will garner immediate interest from schools who are looking for players with his particular metrics. Our high school coach prefers fieldlevel.com. Both of my sons also got a free profile from ncsa.com in conjunction with their participation in some travel tournaments. Both generated several hits and immediate invitations from several D-III type schools across the country. But the Division I schools generally operate on direct scouting of their own or recommendations/tips from their ID camp partners. All of this is offered based on my personal observation so far with my two older sons. My oldest decided pretty early in the process that he cared more about where he wanted to go college for reasons other than soccer, so he never seriously considered any of the offers he received. My 16 year old is at least looking into it -- but I wouldn't be surprised if things turn out the same way with him. Good luck!

It looks like SWCC is on his radar and evidently he can get 2 years tuition free there for an associates. I think he’s actually started talking to the school counselor about his options and learning some stuff 😃. He was invited to a camp at E&H last year and had had several invites to FCA tournaments the last few years. He has a friend that’s on the team there, I think that may be some of his reasoning for thinking E&H. Trying to get any info out of him is like pulling teeth at times 😂 but he did say the E&H coaches gave him a some stuff to work on and mentioned they’d be watching him this year. His brother and Sister are both King graduates and that’s where that comes in. He mentioned today that he’d enjoy going to one of those camps from the link you posted above at James Madison. I told him if he’s serious we can make it happen and to let me know. So he has some things to think about now. We were contacted before Christmas by some sort of recruitment company. Sat through about an hour and a half zoom meeting about how they were willing to help him get a recruitment video straightened out and a contact list. Turns out they were very expensive 😂 I think he’s starting to realize that we need to get moving on some of these plans and options if he’s wanting to play soccer at the college level. We also may have military options from my service that he can look into. Thanks so much for the link and advice !! Hopefully they have another stellar year like they did last year. We lost our keeper so that’s going to be a weak point for us but AFAIK most of the seniors came back this year and thankfully our coach decided to give it one more year for his “guys”. His son graduated last year.

I think they had 4 varsity (1 starter) , brought up a few jv players. Played pretty well considering the corcumstances.

I would love to see Roberts in Blue and Gold! Dude was a monster at the high school level and I think he would transition to D2 easily.

A few locals have seen action this fall for the Ferrum Panthers. Freshman LB Matthew Nelson (Marion) has 5 solo tackles and an interception. Freshman S Ian Ashworth (Galax) has 7 tackles. A couple of kids SWVA will recognize. Sophomore RB Zac Smiley (Riverheads) has 32 carries for 171 yards and 2 TD's. He also has 4 receptions for 63 yards and 1 TD. Freshman FB Noah Smiley (Riverheads) has 1 carry for 8 yards. He is also averaging 40.13 yards per punt, which ranks 22nd in NCAA D3.