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).