Matt Cameron, as academy director for Oakwood, knows how the story can go for seniors in high school – especially with those committed to play in college. It can be a “throwaway year” where players’ focus and commitment levels start to waver, thinking club soccer’s purpose has come and gone.
But Cameron found that all spring, even as college preseasons neared, Oakwood’s U-19 team adopted a different tact.
Oakwood’s year-end game against New York City FC, originally scheduled for the last weekend of June, was approaching. But there was a problem: A sizable chunk of players on the Development Academy club from Glastonbury, Conn., had a prom to attend.
“I’m not going to tell them they're not going to a prom,” Cameron said.