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Soccer recruiting is completely different than football recruiting. I’m not sure of the exact numbers but I would guess if you would look at the top 25 high school soccer players only probably about 20-25% actually go to college while the remaining go pro in some capacity. College soccer recruiting is different than when Porter was here and most of those same high schoolers went to college albeit for a year or two. I think college soccer recruiting is similar to college basketball recruiting. College basketball recruiting is changing and now some of the top high schoolers and going to the G-League. Even if you get a 5 star recruit in basketball they will only be in college for a year. So that is what makes it so difficult to recruit in the college soccer game. Top kids are going pro and also the college soccer game is different than the pro game. One other item, you don’t even get 11 scholarships in college soccer, it is something like 9.1 or some strange number like that. So here is the dilemma, go after the few 5 stars and 4 stars that make it to college but knowing that they won’t be in the program long or go after the 3 and 2 stars and try to develop them because they will be in the program longer. Also one key here is foreign players. If you get a foreign player they might be able to get a scholarship under a different program than a soccer scholarship which keeps a scholarship for another player. In addition the foreign academy system is significantly better than any US system. So if you notice that is why there are a bunch of foreign players playing college soccer. They aren’t quite good enough to go pro in their country but they can continue to play in the US and get an education and maybe play in then MLS one day. Lastly, the college recruiting sites are a crapshoot. Unlike college football recruiting in which a recruit is analyzed and analyzed and analyzed at a young age, there really aren’t that many websites that have the money to actually rate recruits. So sometimes I would take the star number with a grain of salt. That being said I completely agree with you and wish we would get more 5 star recruits, I just think that is a thing of the past even for a good college program. I am curious to hear other thoughts on this.

In case you need a good laugh during quarantine, here you go.

Groce's tallest contributors on his Sweet Sixteen Ohio team were Baltic & Keely at 6'8". Meanwhile we had Zeke. Big guys are luxuries, not necessities. However, I'd really like someone in the 6'10" range.

Yes.