On Tuesday afternoon, 10 university students tried out for the UTRGV Men’s Soccer Team at the Soccer and Track & Field Complex in Edinburg.
Head Coach Paul Leese said the primary purpose of the open tryouts is to give students a chance to play at the collegiate level.
“There’s a lot of students that have played a lot of soccer here in the Valley and they don’t have too many opportunities, sometimes, to continue playing,” Leese said.
“They choose to go to UTRGV and here is an opportunity for them to show and get a taste of what the Division I level is like.”
During practice, those trying out are put through a process. They scrimmage against the men’s team to show the coaches and the team what they are capable of playing at the collegiate level. There are no imposed rules and no coaching. The purpose is to see the ability of the players.
Leese said when looking for a potential team player, he looks for three things.
“There are a couple of things, three things, that I tend to focus on,” he said. “Firstly, they’ve got to be a soccer player, meaning they have to have a soccer brain. I’ll look at the decisions they’ve made when they had the ball, decisions that they make off the ball, as well.
“After that, they certainly have to have good physical ability to keep up. The Division I level has very strong athletes, so you have to be fast, strong, athletic enough to keep up with that phase. In third, you certainly need to have technical ability.”
After the scrimmage, the coaching staff will make their decision. There is no limit on the number of athletes that can be recruited, but there is a roster limit of 25 players.
Players selected will begin the season in Spring 2019.
