A Princeton soccer player describes his recruitment path through club soccer in the D.C. area under coach Pete Mellert, competing in Region 1 Premier League and national showcases like Disney and Surf Cup. Princeton coaches spotted him at Disney Showcase in his sophomore year, and he committed by the end of junior summer. Strong grades and ACT scores met the university's standards without needing a formal pre-read.
went to Princeton. Can you tell us how you got recruited to Princeton?
Yeah, I played club soccer in the DC area. I played for a coach named Pete Mellert, who used to be the coach at American University. We were the, like, final generation of non-academy. This was, like, just pure club soccer. I played— we played in the Region 1 Premier League, and we played, um, basically, like, showcase tournaments all around the country.
Disney—
trying to think of other ones— Surf Cup, like, just all of those like sort of older gen of tournaments.
And then did you, in your case, obviously you had to have a certain academic profile.
Yes, correct.
Do you remember, roughly speaking, if they did a pre-read prior to, or if they just said to you, hey, you need to have these grades? What did they tell you academically speaking?
They, they didn't tell me that there was like a, a margin at which point I would, would or wouldn't be eligible. Basically, I had good ACT scores and I had good grades, and so there was no— basically they were like, I at this level, you're good.
So they knew at that point you had the grades.
They knew that.
So then from a soccer perspective, was it— what would you give the most credit to them recruiting you, your club team, showcases, or ID case?
Um, it was my club team and showcases. It was basically that team. That's— we were a very, very good team in the area. Like, almost, almost the whole team played D1 or D3 in college. Had an amazing coach that had been a collegiate coach, so he really knew the, like, ins and outs of the system. Um, but yeah, he just got us, he got us out there. He, you know, put us in amazing tournaments. We played against really, really good teams. And I feel like Disney was like the really big one. Every right after Christmas, we would go to Orlando and play in the Disney Showcase. I don't know if it still exists.
Still the same.
Um, but yeah, that was a really, really big one. I remember talking to the Princeton coaches at that tournament, and then they came after that and saw me a bunch more.
Amazing. Did you send them any emails saying, hey, here's my profile, I'd like you to take a look? Or they saw you at the showcase and then they wanted to keep talking?
You know, I actually don't remember. I, I wouldn't be surprised if I did, uh, reach out to those people. I was, I was interested in, you know, Dartmouth and Georgetown and Princeton and that, like, that sort of type of school. And so I would be shocked, I guess, if I didn't reach out to them. But also, they pretty early on were, were clearly—
Do you remember how early on they started contacting you— was how they saw the showcase? Was it junior year, sophomore year?
It was before junior year. I think I was, I was talking to them, I was talking to them starting my sophomore year, and then by junior year it was basically wrapped, wrapped up. And I kind of like, end of, end of the summer after junior year, I like knew where I was going and I had committed and, you know, all that kind of stuff.
Amazing. Thanks, dude.
Thanks, brother.
