Feb. 7 is the National Letter of Intent Day for men's and women's
soccer. That's the day players can formalize agreements with colleges
to play in their programs, though most of the top prospects made up
their minds about their college plans a long time ago.
Among the top men's prospects is 2006 NSCAA/adidas Youth National
Player of the Year Corben Bone,
who's headed to Wake Forest. Solar teammate Cameron Brown will play at North
Carolina, while other top prospects include 2006 Parade All-Americans Bob Warshaw (Stanford) and Doug Ferner (Duke). The 2006 NSCAA/adidas Boys High
School Player of the Year Andrew Duran
will attend Creighton. Kyle Davies,
a U-20 national team defender, is reportedly considering a move to the
youth academy at English club Southampton.
Virginia cleaned up on U.S. U-18 national team prospects, nabbing
goalie Dan Louisignau,
defenders T.J. Cyrus and Colin Givens and midfielder Jimmy Simpson. U-18s Cameron Lamming and Ryan Thomas from three-time USYS
national champion Arsenal FC are slated to join Warshaw at Stanford.
Perhaps the best
known U-18 player is Mexican-born Jose
Gonzalez. The MVP of the 2006 adidas/ESP camp is a junior at
Santa Cruz (Calif.) Harbor High School.
Hannah Cerrone, the 2006
NSCAA/adidas High School Girls Player of the Year and a member of the
U.S. U-17 national team, will attend Boston College. Among the other
top seniors is UCLA-bound Lauren
Barnes,
who plays for Upland (Calif.) High School, the top-ranked NSCAA/adidas
winter girls prep team, and the U.S. U-17 national team. Other U-17s
who are college-bound in the fall include goalie Wendy Balogun (Maryland),
midfielders Amanda DaCosta
(Florida State) and Sinead Farrelly (Virginia)
and forward Elli Reed (Portland).
On the girls side, 2006 NSCAA/adidas Youth National Player of the Year
was junior Teresa Noyola of
Palo Alto, Calif. She is undecided about her college plans. This year's
girls junior class is considered by some to be deeper than the senior
class. Juniors who have already committed for '08 include U-17
standouts Ella Stephan
(Florida State), Melissa Henderson (Notre
Dame) and Merritt Mathias
(North Carolina).