The exodus of underclassmen to the pro ranks is having a profound impact on the top college programs. Powerhouses like Virginia and Clemson were hit hard by defections. Indiana, Maryland and UCLA weathered the storm for now.
In the early ’90s, Virginia, under Coach Bruce Arena, lorded over the NCAA championship, lifting the trophy four consecutive seasons. Since the arrival of MLS, there have been four different winners in four years. Coincidence? Perhaps. But there is no doubt that the emergence of a professional league has had an effect on college soccer, at the very least among the elite teams. In the current college soccer environment, a dynasty, such as Virginia’s, will be almost impossible to achieve. Why? Success in the Division I college ranks has become a bit of a Catch-22 situation: The more success a team has, the more likely it is that it will lose its best players, which makes it difficult to maintain the continuity necessary to win. Could Virginia have strung together its run of four titles if key players like Richie Williams, A.J. Wood and Damian Silvera had left school early to go pro? Claudio Reyna won three titles in three years before turning pro. Today, a player of his caliber would play one year tops. In the pre-MLS days, all a college coach had to worry about was replacing graduating seniors, injured players and the occasional dropout or transfer. Now, coaches at big programs have to assume that key players with remaining eligibility will leave school early for the pros. George Gelnovatch, who took over for Arena at Virginia, has had six star players leave early over the last two years – Ben Olsen, Scott Vermillion, Brian West, Michael Green, Jason Moore and Chris Albright. “It’s been tough,” Gelnovatch said. “We’ll have to feel our way around. … I’m nervous but I think we have enough good players. It’s a situation where we have so many young guys, there are things we have to figure out. We’ll see what we have and form a team around that. The trick is to get off to a decent start by playing sound defensively.” This year, the defections included Albright, a U.S. under-20 national team striker who left late after impressing at the World Youth Championship. He had clubs in Germany and France interested in him, but he got an offer from MLS he couldn’t refuse, reportedly in the six-figure range. Midfielder Moore entered the collegiate draft with the promise that he would be picked first overall by D.C. United. Albright has since joined him there. Both would have had two years of eligibility left.
Proven record of producing pros
Gelnovatch does concede that having former Cavaliers in the pros helps him with his recruiting. “It’s a double-edged sword,” said Gelnovatch. “Losing great players hurts. … But we have a track record of helping players get sharp. We’ve demonstrated that [we can produce pros].” Gelnovatch hopes blue-chip recruit Ryan Gibbs can replace Albright in the lineup. Another school to get hit hard was Clemson, which went 22-2-0 last season. Coach Trevor Adair has to replace most of his offense after both Wojtek Krakowiak (31 goals) and Scott Bower (9 goals, 16 assists) decided not to return for their senior years. “Defensively and in midfield we are as strong as last season,” Adair said. “We’ll have to find out where the offensive firepower will come from.” In contrast, the trio of teams sitting on top of the
Soccer America preseason rankings, Indiana, Maryland and UCLA, weathered the offseason by keeping most of their talent. Although the Hoosiers did lose Dema Kovalenko to Project 40, sweeper Nick Garcia, who had offers on the table, opted to return, as did Kovalenko’s Ukrainian countrymen, Yuri Lavrinenko and Aleksey Korol. Maryland coach Sasho Cirovski could have been faced with a mass exodus. The Terrapins had three players on the U.S. U-20 team: striker Taylor Twellman and defenders Nick Downing and Dan Califf. But they’re all back for at least one more year. Likewise, new UCLA coach Todd Saldana will have the services of midfielders Sasha Victorine and Pete Vagenas and defenders Steve Shak and Carlos Bocanegra, all members of the U.S. U-23 team. There was no movement to follow Coach Sigi Schmid into the pros.
The pot of gold
As detrimental as MLS seems to be to the college game, reality is to the contrary. “MLS is the pot of gold, the dangling carrot,” Indiana coach Jerry Yeagley said. “The top college players are now highly motivated to prepare for the season and stay fit. The possibility of moving on to MLS changed that in a positive way. Kids aren’t putting their boots up on the shelf and waiting until two months before the season starts to get fit.” There are now several avenues open for collegiate players in the offseason, including the USL’s Premier Development League, the adidas Summer League and the U.S. Soccer Festival. “All of these things are reasons why [college players] are better prepared,” said Yeagley, who had several players playing in the PDL and the adidas league this year. “They’re getting extra experience and exposure.” College soccer has proved to be an ample provider for MLS. Even foreign clubs are now looking at college players. Stefano Miglioranzi of St. John’s signed with English club Portsmouth, while UNC Greensboro’s Siggi Eyjolfsson is at Walsall. Duke’s defender Evan Whitfield spent the spring at Ghent in the Belgian First Division. U.S. U-20 defender Steve Cherundolo left Portland after his sophomore season and immediately became a starter at German Second Division club Hannover. “People continually knock college soccer as not a place to produce players, but they don’t realize that college soccer had nothing to produce it for,” Stanford coach Bobby Clark said. “It produced players for college, but there was nothing to take them to the international level. “Now I think college soccer is proving that it can produce players for MLS, and then MLS is the vehicle that is going to produce international players.” Of MLS’s top six scorers, five played NCAA ball and the sixth, Stern John, played junior college ball at Mercer before turning pro. It is getting tougher for colleges to attract top players, though. Today, colleges could never lure a Reyna, who is starring at Scottish club Glasgow Rangers. “Maybe Claudio would have been where he is now two years ago,” Gelnovatch said. “He had to level off at some point. But he’s clearly a special case. There wasn’t international interest for American players when he came out of high school.”
A losing battle for U-17s?
There is now. U.S. U-17 scoring sensation Landon Donovan signed a lucrative deal with German club Bayer Leverkusen. “The U-17 team has a ton of talent coming up,” Gelnovatch said. “That recruiting class could be one of the best [ever]. I can see a bunch of those guys going straight to the pros, or going to college for only a little while.” Already four U-17s have turned pro, and they’re just juniors in high school. But there are others – the late bloomers who need some seasoning – for whom college ball is a good fit. “If you have a very talented player coming out of high school, he should be in a pro environment,” Gelnovatch said. “That’s fine. But there are some guys out there I don’t even know about, who after three or four years in college will become good players. The guy you totally missed, like an Eddie Pope.”
by Soccer America
associate editor Poul Swain
