Quote from: NEsoccerfan on February 01, 2018, 12:12:56 AM
Just curious - which D1 teams did messiah face while your son was there and what were the results?

I don't want to give too much away but I'll say that messiah beat/tied bucknell several times. After fact checking, I need to correct myself. My son doesn't remember who messiah played his freshman year so it's possible they only played D1s 3 years instead of all 4.

Quote from: blooter442 on January 31, 2018, 04:00:24 PM
I've watched that Yarmouth HS team that Groothoff played for quite a few times over the years. That is a very good high school program which has produced a number of good D3 players over the years: Branden Neal (NYU), Johnny Murphy (Bates), Luke Pierce (Williams), Max Watson (Bates), Chandler Smith (Colby), and Adam LaBrie (Thomas), to name a few, as well as the elder Groothoff. Falmouth HS used to be the gold standard for soccer in Maine, but Yarmouth has taken that mantle with its record 12th state title this past fall.

Talent-wise and athletically they have been pretty consistent over that stretch, although I seem to remember the players being taller and bulkier on aggregate in the early-mid 2000s; perhaps it's because I was a kid back then. Yet while they have definitely been very good over the years, they are, understandably, not as athletic or skilled as, say, an upper-tier D3 team. Groothoff, however, is on a different level than the rest of his teammates, both in terms of skill and athleticism, and I'd agree with truenorth's son that he's definitely a D1-caliber player. For perspective, LaBrie is the program's single-season record goalscorer, and I think Groothoff is on the same level, so I would put him at least in the top 3 kids to ever come out of that program.

(Also note -- that 4:47 mile came as a sophomore, and on a very slow, old Fryeburg Academy track. Curious what he could run now.)

If he ran a 4:47 as a sophomore, he should challenge the best runners on the Messiah roster next preseason. The article Falconer found (https://www.pressherald.com/2017/12/17/boys-soccer-luke-groothoff-yarmouth/) says that he turned down multiple D1 scholarships from schools like New Hampshire and Vermont, the former of which lost to Indiana in the third round of the D1 tournament.

Quote from: Mr.Right on January 30, 2018, 11:28:06 AM
Well if Messiah had 10 private liberal arts schools that all had a similar Christian based mission in a 6 hour radius I can promise you they would HAVE to recruit. Recruiting for Nescac Schools is nothing like D1 Basketball in fact it has very strict rules. Coaches can not even make face to face contact with a kid until he steps 1 foot onto the campus. Also there are a ton of rules that I wont bore you with like official and unofficial visits, coaches need to get a preread on a kid with admissions before they can even contact the kid etc etc...Point is it is very restricted even compared to other D3 institutions. The one advantage they do have is they usually get the cream of the crop reaching out to them to begin with so they have a much better starting point than other D3 schools to begin with.

Maybe its me because I really do not understand the whole Christian mission but how is it good for a kid to matriculate to a school of 2,500 kids that are exactly like themselves? I would think the whole point of going to college is to surround yourself with all kinds of kids with different backgrounds and ideas. Not that Nescac schools are exactly a great example of that but you get my point. What is the reasoning for this?

As someone who has followed these boards for several years, I always find these discussions entertaining. I thought I would jump in to try and offer insight into Mr. Right's question.

Speaking from my son's experience, I don't think it's accurate to say that students at Messiah (or any other Christian school) are all the same. Students come from different denominations and have different spiritual, political, moral, etc. views, and not all students are even Christians. Though nowhere near the prestige of a nescac or ivy, Messiah has science, accounting, and engineering programs that are respected in the Mid-Atlantic and thus attract students (I believe I read somewhere that Groothoff scored around a 1500 of 1600 on his SAT). Messiah is certainly not homogenous just because it's a faith-based school, although it may appear so to outsiders. My son found students and faculty at Messiah to be actually more open to dialogue (and disagreement especially) than students at the secular university he attended after.

Academic environment aside, my son will readily admit that the biggest draw for him was the soccer program. It came down to what he valued most in his college experience. The opportunity to compete for national championships, play D1s every year, train 6-7 days a week throughout the winter/spring, and have good clean fun instead of drinking on weekends was more attractive to him than the lower-level D1s or other D3s interested. And it's no secret that Messiah players are held to a certain standard of character and work to integrate their faith into behavior on and off the field. The emphasis on team culture and de-emphasis on personal recognition convinced him as I assume it does recruits now.

For the younger Groothoff, I think his selection as a HS AA this year speaks for itself. As Mr. Right pointed out, his video shows athleticism and vision. I too have been told that he visited at least one Ivy, and I would assume maybe a few nescac's as well. There are openings on the field for him to contribute following the graduation of several starters. His older brother Jon should look to step up next year after seeing solid time as a sub in 22 games, but Luke's video and mile time suggests he'll be more ready physically for the college game.

As Rudy said, Luke Brautigam will be on the team next year, and if he's anything like his older brother, he should be able to contribute in the midfield or backline during his career. Reid Ruork is also coming out of the Wesleyan pipeline that produced the Robbins brothers and Bell. If next year's freshmen can adapt quickly, it will bode well for the Falcons come November.