Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007
If you follow the recruiting process in almost any sport, you’ve probably heard the word ‘‘pipeline.” You know — when a school goes somewhere to scout one player, they notice another. And then another. Before you know it, that scout is going back to that somewhere, all the time.
The George Washington University men’s soccer team is essentially a whole bunch of pipelines. The Colonials possess players from all over the world, including England, Nigeria and Poland, not to mention 13 from states that don’t border Washington, D.C.
Yet what’s also clear is that they seem to come in herds, which isn’t coincidental. Three Colonials come from the same high school in Wisconsin. And more locally, the Colonials feature five players from Montgomery County: freshman Marcus Ranney (Wootton); sophomores Erick Perez-Segnini (Watkins Mill) and Kyle Albrecht (DeMatha); junior Mike Rollings (Sherwood) and longtime teammate Greg McKay (Sherwood).
The bottom line is that college coaches don’t get to see that many high-school or club games. So when they do, they don’t just look for one player. And they often rely on word of mouth from their own players when choosing among prospects.
As all five county players were high-school standouts, they not only played against each other over the years, but were both intentionally and unintentionally reasons why they are all currently wearing the buff and blue.
McKay is GW’s grizzled veteran in the midfield, a co-captain who was named the team’s Most Valuable Player a year ago, ranking third on the team with six points. He also was named to the D.C. College Cup All-Tournament Team for the second year in a row, after notching a game-winning goal against rival Howard.
After McKay proved himself early in his collegiate career, the coaching staff thought highly enough of him to use his memories for personnel decision-making. Granted, he could only tell them what he remembered. But his words were important in the signing of a pair of county products.
‘‘It’s funny, they do tend to recruit in pairs,” said McKay. ‘‘I think definitely with me and Mike, they heard about Mike playing with me, and obviously he was awesome in high school. I gave him a great review to our assistant. And I remember they asked about Erick, so I asked Hector [Morales] and [longtime Magruder coach] Scott Alexander about him. I ask Hector all the time about certain players, what’s going on at Sherwood.”
Though just a sophomore, Perez-Segnini finds himself in a similar situation. In his freshman year, the Watkins Mill alum and 2005 Gazette Player of the Year quickly became a starter, opening 10 games in the midfield. He has come out like gangbusters as a sophomore — Perez-Segnini was named Atlantic-10 Conference Co-Player of the Week on Sept. 4 after netting a game-winning goal against Howard with three seconds to go in double overtime. He also assisted on the team’s other goal to earn D.C. College Cup Tournament MVP. The team’s leading goal-scorer (five) added another game-winner, this one in just the fourth minute, versus Longwood [Va.] despite playing with two impacted teeth.
Like McKay said, players are recruited in pairs. Perez-Segnini played in the same Bethesda United midfield with Albrecht, a native of Silver Spring. And he sees the cycle continuing.
‘‘It’s definitely not a coincidence that all these Montgomery County players are here,” he said. ‘‘With it being local, kids can easily take visits here, and coaches can go out and see them. Sometimes, coaches will ask you, ‘Who do you know from high school?’ So I still keep in touch with all our teammates from the Mill. I played with Ben [Hanson, now a high-school senior] — schools around here are all over him, and I think he’s been talking with our coaches.”
Then there are more direct connections that get players where they are. Ranney played club soccer for the Olney Pumas, and was coached by George Washington alum Matt Pilkington, who was twice selected to the A-10 All-Conference team. Pilkington told the staff, specifically Colonials assistant and Potomac Soccer Club coach Bryan Davis, about Ranney.
Eventually, Ranney found himself playing Division I soccer. And he’s adjusted quickly. Though he hasn’t gotten the playing time of his older teammates, he’s made the most of his time, scoring the game-winning goal just over a minute into overtime to get the team past Mount St. Mary’s on Sept. 29.
‘‘Erick played for Bethesda and at Watkins Mill, so I knew him and played against him; and actually Mike Rollings knocked us out of the playoffs my sophomore year in overtime,” said Ranney. ‘‘I’m having a lot of fun out here. The Pumas are a very good quality club team, but I never played against the likes of the top teams in nation. And that’s pretty much what I’m playing against right now.”
The Colonials are returning to the form that buoyed them to a 2004 NCAA Tournament berth. McKay was on that team, whose second-round appearance was the furthest a GW squad had gotten in 15 years.
With a 5-4 start, the Colonials may be on their way to similar horizons. And they owe a lot of that to their Montgomery County pipeline.
‘‘It is funny that we have so many guys from our area,” McKay said. ‘‘The county’s generally really talented, so I think it should continue.”
