Dylan Watson of Southern Cross Athletes on the US college soccer pathway for NPL players: NCAA Division I, NAIA, junior college and scholarships.
Dylan grew up playing in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, stepped away from football as a teenager, and was working construction when a scholarship offer took him to a college in Tennessee in 2014. He went in without doing his research, learned the hard way about weak programs and transfer credits, and spent five years in the US before coming home to build an agency that helps young Australians avoid the same mistakes.
He breaks down every level of US college soccer, from NCAA Division I, II and III to the NAIA and junior college, and where an under-18s NPL 2 player realistically fits. He explains how Rex Pierce went from NPL 2 to NCAA Division I through junior college, and why Lachie Middleton left Sydney FC for Liberty University.
Dylan and Jan also talk about why 18 to 21 should be the most intense training years of a player's life, why so many Australians drop to two sessions a week instead, what to research before contacting any agent, and why he believes a 20-year-old outside an A-League environment may have a better chance of going pro in America. Plus his advice to every young footballer: get off your phone.
