The Soccer Academy 2024 season has had its ups and downs, but has managed to pull off 10 wins. The team has around 20 games left for this season. Chad Liddle is one of the coaches for the soccer team with more than 25 years of experienced coaching. It takes multiple of years of practice and training in hopes of being recruited by a college. Many of the senior players still have a journey ahead of them.
Jaeden Gordon is a senior on the Soccer Academy team and is committed to playing at Rutgers University next year. The Soccer Academy has 19 players, 14 being seniors. Both the seniors and upcoming team members have a journey ahead of them. The soccer team has added several new players to the team, which can make it hard to work together as a team. Having new team members can be challenging to work together because you do not know everyone’s strengths.
“This year, so far it has been a little bit of a struggle because we have added a lot of new players to the team and we just have to build up our chemistry again and play well as a team,” Gordon said.
Some of the players say that this season has been hard because many soccer players are out with injuries. The most common injuries in soccer are the knee, ankle or hamstring. Those can take them out for the rest of the season.
“We have had our ups and downs, struggling with a few injuries, but we have stuck together,” senior Ailan Panton said.
Most soccer players play for their whole life if they want to be recruited to a D1 school. Gordon has played soccer for 16 years. Currently, Gordon is committed to play at Rutgers University, a college located in New Jersey.
Panton has played soccer for 18 years. He is now looking to be recruited by a some promising D1 schools the same as his teammate Gordon. Panton explains where these school can look for him and that D1 schools are not the only good offers to receive.
“We had a showcase in Albany, New York, and I got recruited by a few good D1 schools including Rutgers and Holy Cross. I also have a few offers from D2 schools.”