1. Top recruits set to formalize plans

• by Soccer America , Feb 1, 2007

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).