Any Triton soccer fan, or any soccer fan for that matter, who has watched a collegiate soccer game can pick out the different vocal accents and, sometimes, languages that occur on the field during a game. Here at Eckerd College, we have had a wide variety of soccer players from all over the country and all over the world. Most colleges' men's soccer teams in the Sunshine State Conference hold a wide variety of international student-athletes, and Eckerd is a prime example. Most of our foreign soccer athletes seem to come from one specific area we all can recognize, not only by their accents, but by the strong bond in which they hold together: England
Eckerd's Men's Soccer team consists of five British players this season:
Will Thacker,
Luke Sheekey,
Joe Copland,
Alex Patterson, and
Matt Duffy, which is a relatively smaller number compared to past years at Eckerd College. These unique players range from different ages and different areas in England. Although each of them has their own story on how they arrived at Eckerd, they all share a distinctive trait; they made the decision to come to America to pursue their soccer career and a higher education.
Since soccer, (or, as the English refer to it, football) is the most popular sport in their country, it is also the most played. Men in England are less willing to pick up a tennis racket, football, or baseball than Americans are. So with most teenage and adult men pursuing Soccer in England, a few questions can arise. How can American coaches recruit players from England, when there are so many of them to choose from, or how hard is it to recruit a player from out of the country? Learning each of their stories may make it easier to understand the logistics.
The Senior Citizens
Looking at the three British seniors, each of them have come a long way since the beginning of their soccer career. Not only has their time at Eckerd changed their outlook on life, but also their time in America has certainly been a life-changing experience.
Will Thacker is a senior from Nottingham England, who attended West Bridgefore Comprehensive School in Nottinghamshire. When comparing soccer in America to England, Thacker stated, “It's a lot slower, probably because of the heat. It is competitive, but in England, there's only one sport so it's a little more competitive.”
With the weather and competition being two distinct differences, Thacker did not encounter any other complications as he adjusted quite well. During his freshman year, there were more British soccer players, so that made it easier for him to adjust, make friends, and be able to comfortably settle in. Thacker has been a major asset to the team from the beginning, playing in every game since he's been here. Unfortunately, this season, Thacker suffered a catastrophic knee injury requiring surgery and bringing his Eckerd College soccer career to an end. With the season affecting him and the team, Thacker still has a great outlook on the way things have turned out. He does not view his injury as a down point in his life; rather, he uses this time to look at all of the great accomplishments he has had in the past.
“It's affected me in a way in which I've sort of sat back and looked at how lucky I've been to have the last three and a half years of playing. I've not really looked at it as a negative, I've looked at it as these things happen and I'm really just enjoying looking back at the last years and to be so lucky previously not to have injuries since this is the only time really I have had a serious injury.”
With this outlook, Thacker certainly can overcome any obstacles faced. Although he cannot play this year, he still has the faith and confidence in his team and believes the players can and will put forth great accomplishments.
Sheekey, from London, England, attended Drayton Manor High School, where he led the team to county and cup victories. Sheekey had many offers from different schools all over America, but after discussing his plans with family friend, John Fletcher (graduated Eckerd in'09), and talking to Eckerd College Men's Soccer Coach Jeremy Wisdo, he decided that attending Eckerd would be the right for him. Without visiting Eckerd, he took Fletcher's word, “this place was amazing,” and moved to America to pursue soccer here at Eckerd. Sheekey admitted that playing soccer in America is a lot different than what he was used to back home.
“Playing soccer there in England, I've supported that all of my life, it was kind of a big end-all thing, and you know soccer's life over there whereas, over here, soccer's kind of like the fourth or fifth big sport behind American sports, so it was a lot more intense back home.”
Although the changes were significant, he got used to them easily, and right away gained an important role on the team. In the 2008 season, Sheekey was named to the All-SSC First Team for the first time in his career, where he also led the Tritons with 17 goals, 10 assists, and 44 points. A major accomplishment in his soccer career was scoring the game-winning goal in extra-time against Lynn last October. With soccer being a major part of Sheekey's life, he hopes to continue to carry on his soccer career either with playing or coaching.
Copland, a defender from Solihull, England, was on a traveling squad, with Sheekey, that came to North Carolina to play against eight colleges that included Wake Forest and UNC-Greensboro. At that time, Wisdo was the assistant coach at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, when he first saw Copland play. When Wisdo was appointed head coach at Eckerd , he emailed Copland, stating that he saw him play, was very impressed, and sent him the link to their website.
Looking back on his four years, and the choice in which he made on choosing this college, Copland stated, “It's always good to have a coach that really wants you, and he clearly showed me that he really wanted me to come, so I emailed some of the guys on the team that were previously there, asked them what they felt, and they said that it was unbelievable. Between that, as well as the photos that I saw on the website, it was ridiculous. There was no way that I wasn't coming to this college when I had a choice of going to a rubbish college in England where it would be dull and gloomy all day.”
Copland's decision to attend Eckerd College was a benefit towards our soccer program, as Copland has been a main part of the team since the beginning. He admits, “You know, freshman year I was quite naïve and young and didn't really know the system, but as you grow into it, you kind of feel like everyone matures through the system and understands a bit more. “
The Underclassmen
With the three British seniors entering the final games of the season, we are left with two younger British players who are still learning and transitioning into the American lifestyle. Sophomore
Alex Patterson, from Newcastle, England, admits that living here, more so than soccer itself, was a bit harder to adjust to.
Patterson first made it aware that he wanted to pursue coming to America for a scholarship opportunity a few years back. After talking to a family friend who was the former head coach at Eckerd College, he got in touch with Widso. After watching a few videos of Patterson play in England, Wisdo knew he wanted him for his soccer team, and Patterson entered his first year at Eckerd last August. Playing soccer in America for over a year now has certainly brought a lot of changes for Patterson. Not only is he far away from his family and friends, but he accounts for some differences in playing soccer as well.
“It's a lot different here because of the weather, and where I'm from in England, northern England, it's generally a lot cooler. Here we play on turf, and back home we play on grass. And also, here you have that different age range where any 18-year-old kid is a freshman all the way up to like 27, so you can end up playing with someone who is five, six years older.”
Even with these soccer variations, Patterson's abilities have certainly helped out the Tritons, as he still has two more seasons left, there is still much more to be accomplished.
Out of the nine freshmen currently on the team,
Matt Duffy is the only British player who is from Knaresborough, England. With the first season coming to an end, Duffy has seemed to transition very well, partially due to the fact that he moved away from home when he was 16 to go to school and play soccer in Carla, England, which is a few hours away from his hometown. Deciding whether or not to stay in England, Duffy got in contact with a family friend who was friends with Wisdo, who, after further discussion, gave him an opportunity to play in America. Once Duffy saw the pictures, and the location, he got in contact with some players who are currently on the team, and he was sold. Being the only freshman British player could be tough, but Duffy was able to establish fast friendships with the older British players, as well as the rest of the team.
Duffy stated, “When I first come over here, Will was amazing, and Sheekey is amazing as well, I mean we've all been through the same thing playing in England because it is a bit of a different experience. When you do your two-year scholarship from like when you're 16 to 18, that is an experience that only people who've done it know what it's like, so over here they've all been amazing, all of them.” Sharing the same experiences can certainly be a means of determining and establishing a well-formed friendship.
The Coaches' Challenge
Looking at each of their stories about their previous years, and how they came to be at Eckerd, there still may be some questions that can arise on how coaches go about choosing specific players. Of course, the recruiting process in any college can be a vigorous and ongoing procedure, but to one's surprise, the process of recruiting an English soccer player, or any foreign soccer player is not entirely different than recruiting a soccer player from the states.
Coach Wisdo stated, “It's really not overly different than how we go and evaluate players in any area. The issue with them is that they usually have amateurism issues that we have to walk through the NCAA that a lot of the American players don't have because of the way club sports work here.”
Well, certainly coming to America for the first time to play soccer could be a bit of a change, not only in the weather and lifestyle, but of the way sports differ in each country. Luckily, Wisdo has done a great job with helping his players get used to the gist of things, as each of them has gotten used to living and playing in America.
In previous seasons at Eckerd, there have been many English players at a time, some rosters having as many as 11 or 12, yet recently the number has withered. Wisdo claims that the process is not entirely about looking for English soccer players first, but rather to try and find the best players you can find locally then explore elsewhere. Wisdo tries to recruit players inside of Pinellas County, then expands his search to all players in Florida and the southeast, moving on to the rest of the United States, then finally looking at players in different countries, especially England.
“I think we are having a lot of success right now with recruiting a lot of American players that are interested in Eckerd College and are high-level players. Because of that we, don't need to go out and find international players, where in the past we may have had to go looking for them.”
With a total of nine international players, and only one a freshman, Wisdo seems to be recruiting much more in-state and in-country players.
As the recruiting process continues throughout the year, Wisdo constantly receives emails and calls multiple times a day from national and international men interested in playing for his team. Obviously, not every player will be a match for what the team needs. Since the recruiting process for English players is not entirely different than in America, Wisdo uses the same tactics for both when looking at a player.
“A lot [of what I look for] depends on what position they play. That's the biggest thing, depending on what we need on our team and in terms of the characteristic of a player.”
Although that is the major determinate in the recruiting process, there are other ways in which international players have been recruited in the past. Thacker was actually involved with an agency called Sports Ed, which is an organization that specializes in providing sporting and academic scholarships for outstanding athletes. Coaching colleagues in America are constantly go to them to recruit athletes from overseas. Through Sports Ed, Thacker knew a man named Jamie Beniot, who played soccer in America, and he was the one to introduce Eckerd to him. There are also many other agencies such as these that coaching staffs around the United States are interested in.
Agencies such as Sports Ed make it much easier for coaches around the world to get in contact with athletics. Not only are there hundreds of athletes a year trying to play soccer in America, but also there are also hundreds and thousands of colleges to choose from. Why decide to come to Eckerd? As most of the men stated the location for their answer, Coach Wisdo had to agree since his persuasion tactics include simply sending recruits a picture of campus.
“It's not too difficult to convince someone to come from a colder environment into the south.”
“My Life Has Changed 100%”
Even though most players have commented on the weather being different, it certainly, in the long run, is one of the main reasons in which they attend this school.
With the three seniors off into the real world in less than a year, Sheekey has stated, “My life has changed 100%. I always imagined myself going back to live in London, but now I think I'm going to try to stay in America.”
Eckerd has, in fact, changed his life, as well as those of his teammates. Traveling to a distant country to play a sport is one challenge, but the idea of living in America for four years can be quite a culture shock. Living in the college environment is not something that anyone is immediately used to, but these five players do not have the advantage of going home every weekend, or going home on some holidays. These five players have gone through the struggles of living far away from home, and throughout this experience, each of them has learned how to rely on each other for support and have begun to view each other as family.
