Finding the right fit for a college soccer player can be harder that you might think.
Fort Wayne, Indiana, resident and Shattuck-St. Marys player Emilie Huser is a good example. The dynamic attacking player received no shortage of attention from major college programs, but trying to juggle all the expectations a future student-athlete rightfully has of a potential school proved to be a challenge.
"It started out to be a difficult process for me to narrow down my college choices. I was trying to combine a strong academic program and a strong soccer program," Huser said. "I was looking at Santa Clara but my parents were uneasy about how far away I'd be and how little they'd see me play. I was looking at Boston College in the beginning, but they got 4 commitments in 24 hours and all their money was gone, so I was kind of bummed out about that.
"I wanted to go south a little bit and to be honest, I struggled with what I wanted. I almost went to a school with not-so-good academics, but the more I thought about it I wanted a fallback in case soccer didn't work out. So we went through all the letters I'd gotten to see if there was anyone that we had maybe missed."
As it turned out, Huser had an ideal fit bidding for her services all along.
"I'd kind of dismissed Miami at first because I thought Miami was a public university," she said. "I had no idea it was a private school. So when we talked to them, they said they had one more ‘09 to bring in. So basically we set up a time period when I could go and visit during my spring break. I went to Florida with my dad at the end of February and fell in love with the campus, coaching staff, facilities and everything. I knew right then and there I wanted to commit, but I wanted to talk with my mom about it. So I got home and sat down with mom and dad and we thought it was the right decision. So we called the next day to commit."
Along with the school's strong academic record and attractive campus life, Huser is looking forward to joining Tricia Taliaferro's NCAA qualifiers and playing in the vaunted Atlantic Coast Conference.
"As a player, I'm looking forward to playing in an attacking team," she said. "I can play outside left wing or right wing in a 3 front. They said they were looking for player who attacks and can be creative. I thought I could offer that as well, so I think I'll fit perfectly."
Huser is playing this summer with her hometown Fort Wayne Fever's W-League team, and has played club ball there in the past. But she's attended Shattuck-St. Mary's soccer academy in Minnesota for the past 2 years, which she says has been a big help in her development.
"Shattuck has been the best decision I could have made as a soccer player. The environment is perfect there. I can stay in shape for the entire season and being able to train with players like Chelsea Cline and Chelsea Stewart and Amy Harrison (Canada U17 WNT player) is a great opportunity. It's a great coaching staff with amazing facilities and the school provides a great education," she said. "I'm the same kind of player as I was before, but I can see how much the little parts of my game have improved, all the little details, and that's what I needed."
It's Huser's ability to beat players 1 on 1 that makes her standout on the soccer field. Her head coach at Shattuck, Dave Linenberger, agrees that this skill can almost be considered a curse in some schools of thought within American elite soccer, as coaches prohibit a player from trying to do something special, or instill an overzealous fear of ever giving the ball away, even in the forward part of the field.
"In our current structure of soccer in the U .S., we're developing a lot of cookie-cutter players. They're all the same," he said. We don't' allow their personalities to come out. If you look at the way the schedule of games are structured, for three and four per weekend, you can see that they are asked to play so many games, something you'd never see asked of players anywhere else in the world."
Linenberger said the Shattuck program has provided something different for Huser.
"We want to bring out their personalities and creative instincts. We don't' try to play so many games and we want to have good training to game ratio that will produce a higher caliber player who is more exciting and skillful," he said. "That's Emilie. When she first came to us it was obvious she was an attacking skilful player, the kind of player who catches your eye in a game. We didn't want to change that, but I think we've helped her become more effective in the game, to be more decisive in taking players on and more decisive in going to goal. She gets herself in lot of good situations, and we've worked to help her improve her percentage of goalscoring when she has those chances."
Linenberger also points out the other very noticeable thing about Huser. She's just plain happy.
"Personality-wise, she's the one who is always smiling. She's always happy and has a positive, cheerful personality," he said. "She gets along well with the players and her cheerfulness is contagious. She's a good player to have in the squad for sure."
Huser says she is determined to stay involved in soccer as a player coach or in some other capacity no matter what her career choice is.
"One thing for certain I know I want is to be around soccer the rest of my life," she said.
And as we know, knowing what we want is not always easy.
