College: Bruins and Broncos reload

UCLA had a banner recruiting year in Region IV, picking up Player of the Year Sasha Venturine.

The cycle is a fact of life for college coaches — seniors leave and freshmen arrive.

The only thing they can do is try to even their team’s strength throughout its four classes so that from one year to the next there is some semblance of continuity.

Some years, though, the turnover is large.

After losing seven players from last season’s nationally ranked team, UCLA coach Sigi Schmid found himself in such a predicament. The only bonus was that Schmid had considerable scholarship money to work with.

Schmid has put together his class of 2000, and he’s quite pleased.

“I’m very happy,” Schmid says. “We’ve improved ourselves technically over last year, and we can get back to UCLA soccer, the way we want to play, controlling the ball. Last year we had to play a little more direct.”

Region IV was particularly bountiful for Schmid. His prize recruit is NSCAA/Umbro Player of the Year Sasha Venturine, a midfielder out of Sacramento. Schmid expects the U.S. U-20 player to come in and run the Bruins’ midfield as a freshman.

“He has leadership capabilities,” Schmid said. “We expect him to be a leader in the mold of Dale Ervine [or] Joe-Max Moore. He does the things that are needed to win…. he has an innate sense of what needs to be done.”

For his forward line, Schmid landed transplanted Dane, Martin Bruno, one of the leading scorers in the nation for Terra Linda (Calif.) High School.

Says Schmid, “He scores goals that goalscorers, true goalscorers score — the tap-in, getting to the ball a fraction of a second sooner than the other guy and putting it in…. he puts away trash. The thing I like about him is he’s different than the other forwards we have. I don’t want to put pressure on him, but he may be the best back-to-goal forward we’ve had since Jeff Hooker.”

In the back, Schmid welcomes Nick Paneno, one of seven players from La Canada High School to earn scholarships to Division I schools.

Other notables from La Canada are Derrick Dyslin, headed to the University of Richmond, and midfielder Gaston Haupert, bound for Duke.

Another winner in Region IV recruiting was Santa Clara, which, like UCLA, had some holes to plug.

Broncos coach Mitch Murray brings in two quality midfielders from the region in Shawn Purcell and Sean-Michael Callahan, to go with Alberto Montoya, who transferred from N.C. State.

“[Purcell] is a versatile player, who can play anywhere in midfield,” Murray said. “And he can get forward and score goals, we need that.

“[Callahan’s] biggest strength is his attitude, his competitiveness, and he’s also capable of scoring goals.”

by Soccer America Associate Editor Poul Swain

Soccer America Men’s Super XI Recruits (Region IV)