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The Operations Officer on the ship is Deer Park’s own Lt. Jeanine Benjamin, an Annapolis graduate and currently 3rd in command on the Reuben James. Jeanine grew up playing Soccer in the LIJSL and was a standout Soccer player at St. Anthony’s HS when she met LIJSL Director of College Bound Programs Pat Grecco.
"Jeanine was interested in attending the United States Naval Academy, and I developed a relationship with her," Pat says now. "Even back then, Jeanine was such an impressive young lady, both as a student and an athlete. My son had also attended St. Anthony's and played Soccer, and when I met Jeanine he was still at the academy playing Soccer, so I had a good feeling that she would be an excellent fit for the academy."Pat was right. Upon graduation from Annapolis, Jeanine was selected for the Nuclear Program, which is an assignment typically reserved for the most intelligent graduates. In that capacity she has served ashore and afloat with many deployments on various aircraft carriers, which are nuclear ships. Eventually, she landed her current leadership position on the James Reuben.
At this point, you’re probably thinking this is a very nice story about an LIJSL alum, but there’s more.
Although she did not play at Annapolis (she played Club Lacrosse), Jeanine’s love for Soccer is still evident in her involvement with her current ship’s Soccer Program. She was recently put in charge of the Reuben James’ Soccer Team, which plays in the Pacific Fleet League. Short on uniforms for a roster of players who are making minimum salary, Jeanine once again reached out to her friend Pat with an e-mail asking for help.
Pat contacted Beth Scafuri (Director of the Exceptional HS Seniors Program), and LIJSL Executive Director Joan Czach to see if the league could help. They found extra, unused uniforms and a week later two full sets of socks, shirts, and shorts (home and away colors) were on their way to Hawaii. Jeanine was kind enough to send back a framed photo of the team in their new threads, with a thank you note from her commanding officer, and commemorative USS Reuben James coins that will be proudly displayed in the LIJSL office in Ronkonkoma.
“We are so proud of Jeanine and all of our military personnel around the world for all they do for our country,” said LIJSL President Addie MatteiIaia. “Though this was just a small token of our appreciation, it was the least we could do for them in return for the courage and bravery they display in their work every single day.”
So we hope the entire league will join us in saying good luck to Lt. Jeanine Benjamin and the sailors of the USS Reuben James! May their new colors say, “Fast feet, nice unis, we’re coming to get you!”
- Mood:
optimistic
What are the first steps in the college athletic recruitment process?
Research colleges and universities that feature your intended major; also consider your level of competition and lastly demographics, (distance from home, size of the school, campus climate and social atmosphere).
How can I obtain an Athletic Scholarship?
Most important, be a good student first and play or compete at the higher level, begin networking with College Coaches in freshman year.
Should I ask my high school coach for a recommendation?
Yes, this is always a good plan.
Should I invest in a video? Will it improve my chances of being recruited?
A video is very important in team sports. In other sports such as Golf, Tennis, Track, and Fencing, video is less important as your ranking and personal best times is what will get the interest of the College Coach.
Will a video increase your chances of being recruited? I would say yes--it will prompt the College Coach to learn more about you and perhaps come and watch you play up close and personal.
How many schools should I choose?
Initially write to about 30 schools, all with your desired major, demographics, then narrow down your selections to approximately six to eight that you will apply to. Among those 30, have a reach school, lots of safety schools and financially affordable schools.
Will I get to meet College Coaches when they watch me play or compete or will they only contact me if they are interested?
College Coaches are really not allowed to speak with you during competitions. Usually they will only contact you if they are interested, but you can visit them at their school, call them on the phone or email them.
Is the National Letter of Intent a legally binding agreement? What happens if I change my mind after I sign?
Yes, NLI is legally binding, though if you change your mind for reason of hardship it might be negated.
- Mood:
peaceful
Rohini was the Net winner of the WMGA's Junior Girls' Open in 2010.
Garden City is the team to beat after winning the Long Island championship, its third in the past four years, and returning seven players this year.
The road to successfully defending its title will not be easy, and the Trojans are aware of the growing competition in Nassau.
"Syosset is always tough; they have two strong returning players and some other improving players behind them," senior Alex Michielini said. "There are a lot of new teams on the rise so it'll be interesting to see how they do. It should be fun."
Syosset poses the biggest threat to Garden City with three returning starters.
"We'll definitely be competitive," Coach Steve Naranjo said. "Syosset is a great team so it'll be difficult. They're the summit, they're the team we're looking up at."
Senior Rohini Rudra returns for her final year and she is looking to make it a good one. Rudra has not lost a regular-season match in her high school career, according to Naranjo. Elizabeth Choi also adds experience even though she is just a freshman; this will be her third year with the team. Naranjo also mentioned junior Emilie Cullen as an up-and-comer.
Senior Jamie Genatt and junior Augusta Mayer return to lead Friends Academy, which finished last season with a 10-0 record.
Manhasset is another young team on the rise that can be competitive this year after finishing third in the county last season. Seniors Catherine Blando, Regan McCooey and Alexa Lopez will lead the team.
- Mood: recumbent
Outdoor workshops on the field are somewhat of a challenge and last year I spoke to the entire Long Island Player Development Program, boys and girls at the Peter C. Collins Soccer Park in Plainview, NY. The largest crowds are always at the Long Island Junior Soccer League's annual convention, approximately 300 or more student-athletes and their parents. For the past three years we presented part of the program in Spanish due to the large Hispanic population of soccer players in the New York region. Each student-athlete is given an info. packet containing NCAA Guide for College Bound Player and various articles by your truly entitled: How to's of Contacting College Coaches, Parents’ Role in the College Search, Transferring Issues; How Competitive Club Coaches Help their Players Grow; How Videos Can Help you be Recruited.
The panel usually consists of seven to eight presenters including: College Coaches, former players, a Club Coach, an educator/teacher and me; I'm the MC. I like to invite College Coaches who represent various college programs such as Division I, Division II, Division III and NJCAA schools, junior college two-year programs and community colleges. A Power Point Presentation accompanies each panelist's presentation and topics can include:
- How to file for NCAA Eligibility
- What is it like to play on a college team?
- Athletic/Academic success in college
- Show me the $money$ - All about athletic-academic and financial aid packages
- What is a Coach looking for in a future player?
- Am I a Division I player?
- Nuts and bolts - When, where, how to begin the college search
- Which colleges and universities should I look at?
- College Search, the Parents' Role
The workshops usually last approximately sixty minutes, and includes a Question and Answer session from the audience.
The Long Island Junior Soccer League supports these workshops financially and offers their support to their 100 member clubs throughout Long Island and the New York City region.
One of my future goals is to have an all Spanish-speaking College Bound Player Workshop, I would call it
"Operation Olé!", but at this writing I have found it difficult to organize such a venue but with a little help from my friends in soccer, we will get this up and running. In the past I have given two Hispanic workshops, one was at the LIJSL Convention, but attendance was down as we found that student-athletes and their parents sometimes had transportation challenges, so after that I traveled to them and did a work shop in Southampton at a church, attendance improved greatly.
My message and my mantra: "There is a college/university for everyone to play and study."; "Better grades get more attention from College Coaches.”; select the schools that will provide the best academic opportunities.
Club Presidents, contact me if you would like to schedule a workshop for your club. I would recommend you invite all high school age student-athletes, this way you won't have to repeat this venue for three years.
Workshops are a tremendous information-gathering opportunity for players, parents and coaches; made available to you through the generosity and kindness of the Long Island Junior Soccer League.
Fugees College Workshop at Agnes
Scott College, Georgia
Nardin Academy Workshop, Buffalo, NY
Northport Cow Harbor Soccer Club
College Workshop
- Mood:
accomplished
I began working with Sam on 1/1/11, when I received a phone call from Brenda Manfredi, Sam's guidance counselor in Thailand. Brenda and I have a mutual friend, her former Principal at Southold High School, Mary Fitzpatrick that was the connection; Brenda worked at Southold prior to her current post in Thailand.In June 2011 Samantha attended IGA Academy in Florida for a week, under the direction of Kim Dean, which was her first experience with American Soccer.
I would say that the major break happened when Paul Riley agreed to allow Sam to guest play with his Fury team, who were headed to Disney College Showcase in Florida. Thank you Paul Riley, Anna Choffel and Nick Fitzpatrick for helping make this happen.
Sam had many other colleges and universities interested in her, but the final selection was Hofstra University, an outstanding academic institution with a strong Soccer history, now under the leadership of Simon Riddiough; from a selfish point of view, I can say I'm thrilled with Sam's choice since I live a short drive away and can be of assistance to Sam if she needs me.
Never under estimate the power of networking.
- Mood: accomplished
In order to academically qualify for an NAIA school as an entering freshman you must meet two out of the three criteria listed below:
- Achieve a minimum of 18 on the Enhanced ACT or 860 on the SAT.
- Achieve a minimum overall high school grade point average of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale.
- Graduate in the top half of your high school graduating class.
Although Bien did not score high enough on the SAT/ACT he was in the top half of his graduating class and had well over a 2.0 GPA; therefore, he was qualified to attend a NAIA school and receive an athletic scholarship/grant. Go to the NAIA website to learn more.
Other avenues for those who have difficulty qualifying is to attend a two-year college, play and then transfer to a four-year school, again bypassing the SAT/ACT regulations. Alfonso P. attended local community college, played and graduated; he was named to the National Junior College Athletic Associations All-America Team and then transferred; he received a generous scholarship to Fordham University in New York.
Lastly, there is no SAT/ACT criteria necessary for NCAA D-III schools and although they cannot offer you athletic scholarships/grants, you can receive academic scholarships and financial aid if you qualify.
Again, it's all about having options and knowing where to look. Contact me and I'll walk you through the process.
- Mood:
thoughtful
Babson Park, Mass.–Clark University freshman sensation Oscar Zapata (Lima, Peru) has been named to the New England Women's And Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Men's Soccer all-conference second-team; it has been announced by the conference office following a vote of the league's seven head coaches.Zapata was an instant scoring threat for the Cougars and wrapped up his inaugural campaign in Scarlet and White with team-bests in goal (10) and points (21), totals which ranked second and fourth, respectively in the NEWMAC.
He opened up his career with a hat trick in the season-opening win over Becker and never looked back, recording game-winning goals in three other contests, including an overtime strike in a thrilling 2-1 win over Eastern Nazarene.
How did Oscar from Lima, Peru find his way to Clark University in Massachusetts? It was late in the recruiting season when I was first contacted by Oscar and his parents. I asked how they had heard about my services and they explained Bob Collins of Student Athlete Magazine. I Skyped often with Oscar's parents and I tried to explain that since it was January, it would be a challenge to find Athletic Grants and that most scholarship money would already have been awarded; but we agreed to go ahead with the search. I sent his parents an info. packet and suggested they upload some video clips to YouTube.
Oscar was in a Post Graduate year of high school at The Tilton School in New Hampshire, a long way from Lima. At Colegio Santa Margarita High School in Lima, Oscar was #1 Striker in the high school league, played with a top club team, Ciclista Lima, his level play would be determined by his PG year at Tilton and his video.
He had an Aunt in New York City, so one cold weekend in March, I received a phone call and picked him up at the railroad station in Huntington, NY, about 7 miles from my home. Oscar joined my family for Sunday dinner; of course I made Italian food and he had many helpings. I found him to be well mannered, and very astute with a great command of English.
I researched schools that had Business majors and Soccer; some were D-I, a few D-II's and quite a few D-III's. I was concerned that it was late in the search and his better chance would be with high-level academic schools with strong D-III programs. On Skyping with parents, they were both in agreement that the most important aspect of the search would be to find a, "strong academic program."
At the end of the search, probably in early May, Oscar and his parents made the right choice in selecting Clark University. He had narrowed his search down to four schools, two D-IIs and two D-III's, in end, academic quality won out as it should.
I am really pleased that I was fortunate to help Oscar, even though we started late. Word of our success continues to spread around the globe, and am now working with a young woman from Ireland and a young man from Italy.
- Mood:
determined
I've come to believe that knowing someone at the school, such as a relative, often supports the decisions made to attend certain colleges. It's been my experience that in college sports decisions to attend certain colleges are based on meeting the Coach, the team and feeling wanted by both.Several of my clients are younger siblings following an older brother or sister to the same college or university and playing same sport. The first to get on board were brothers Matt and Jim, Lacrosse players who both attended Manhattan College; next came Veronica and Cynthia, Soccer players who both became Doctors and both went to Union College. I'm certain the reason was that the younger sister saw how successful her older sibling was academically, making getting into medical school a breeze.
Twins, Brianna and Dawn didn’t originally plan to attend the same college. They played Soccer/Lacrosse and when Brianna made the decision to go to Saint Mary's College of Maryland, Dawn followed. Three sisters from TN, all played Lacrosse and all found their way to Howard University in DC, with older sister Cheryse leading the way followed by Desiree and Jaymie. That's certainly a family affair. Michael, Matthew and Mark all went to Clarkson to play Soccer, following big brother Mike's lead, although little brother Mark went to another college first and then transferred in. That’s destiny. John and Denise, brother and sister, played Soccer at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut and sisters Victoria and Angelica rowed at Boston College; Victoria first, followed two years later by Angelica.Some of the benefits of having multiple children at the same college is that some schools actually give you a tuition break called a family discount; also, when visiting on Parents' Weekend or going to watch a game, it can't hurt the parents economically to have two kids in one place. The family that plays together stays together.
- Mood: accomplished
- Mood:
curious
I immediately began to research Fencing at the collegiate level and discovered both men and women participated and there were three categories in Fencing; three different types of weapons were used:
- Foil
- Epi
- Saber
In addition to NCAA Fencing, many schools offered USFA (United States Fencing Association) club programs, which were also competitive. I also found out that in Europe, Fencing is extremely and highly regarded.
All the federal service academies at one time had Varsity Fencing Teams, but presently only U.S. Air Force Academy offers Fencing; U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis still have a remnant of their once highly competitive Fencing programs but now only at the club level.
Varsity Fencing is offered at some high schools; most Fencers also train with a Fencing Master, who brings them to the higher level. This would mean Fencing in a club situation.
There were not many schools that offered Fencing at the Varsity level; here are a few:
Boston College
Brandeis University
Brown University
California Institute of Technology
City College of New York
Cleveland State University
Columbia University/Barnard College
Cornell University Men's Team
Cornell University Women's Team
Drew University
Duke University
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Harvard University
Haverford College
Hunter College
John Hopkins University Men's Fencing
John Hopkins University Women's Fencing
Lafayette College
Lawrence University
MIT Fencing
New Jersey Institute of Technology
New York University
Northwestern University
Ohio State University
Penn State University
Princeton University
Queens College
Sacred Heart University
St. Francis College
St. Johns University
Stanford Fencing Club
Steven Institute of Technology
Temple University Women's Fencing Team
Tufts University
U. of California- San Diego
U. of Detroit Mercy
U. of North Carolina Chapel Hill
U. of Notre Dame
U. of Pennsylvania
U.S. Air Force Academy (Falcon FC)
Vassar College
Wayne State University
Wellesley College
Yale University
Yeshiva University
Schools with contact information available are linked to the attached spreadsheet. To view this information click on the school name, or open the spreadsheet to your right.
Dan attended Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT where he Fenced, received a scholarship and lived happily ever after.
- Mood: busy
