All about the school choice

Being raised in a small town in Florida I never really knew what was out side of Florida. When I first started looking at school I only looked at schools in Florida and no where outside of the state.I Emailed every D2 and NAIA school in the state. I heard back from most of them and met with just about every coach I heard back from. As i visited with each coach i tried to get an understanding of their personality's as well as a feel for their program. I liked each meeting I had and enjoyed the talks. It was becoming a very tough process to pick or even limit my school choice. I had a talk with my club coach and he gave me some great inside details on a lot of programs. this helped me limit my schools to about 4 in Florida. Then I went to a tournament in North Carolina and after that tourney I had a several emails from schools outside Florida. I emailed most back and started talking to them.  There was one school that stood out to me and that was Eastern University they were pursuing me pretty hard and we talked back and fourth a good but. The one major thing Eastern University had was class and knew exactly what there program represented.I then committed to Eastern to play I have zero regrets as the Men's soccer program is exactly what they say it is. My experience is great so far and I cannot wait until next season.

All you need is SLEEP, SLEEP, SLEEP; SLEEP is all you need

As an athlete the dumbest thing you can do is not sleep. This spring I did not sleep well going to bed at 4 Am and getting up 10 AM yes that is 6 hours but it is going to bed way to late. The nights I got a good night sleep or the days where I got a nap in before practice I preformed better. Sleep is something you may not think you need and at college its a joke about the amount of sleep that a person get. But as an athlete you NEED to sleep  . With an efficient amount of sleep your play on the field will increase greatly. I give you this piece of advise from a person who has learned the hard way and now knows that sleep is important.

It's a Grind

Playing a college sport is a grind. It is very tiring and stressful. Right now it is coming down to the end of the semester and there is a lot going on from test to big papers and just work. Just doing all that is tiring but add a soccer practice in there for 2 hours then dinner and shower a soccer practice turns into a 2.5-3 hour thing. This makes for late nights going to bed at 12-2AM every night. Just because you have classes till practice then dinner shower then you are starting homework. This makes it very stressful on the Student athlete.Last week we had practice from 4-6 then the next day we had practice from 6-730AM that was a very tough turn around with practice. I was up late the night before doing homework and working on papers. The night before the morning practice I did not sleep. This makes for a very tiring life and to be honest you don't want to do anything social or better yet anything but sleep. As a college athlete this is a life that is guaranteed to happen. What I said the other day on my twitter page and it was this:


My life consist of three things:
1.School
2.Soccer
3.Sleep


Those are in order of what happen in a life of a college athlete.

Mini Season

It's Spring Time which means means mini soccer season has started. In the spring we have a mini season. This means we only can practice 3 times a week and play only a limited number of games. This season last about a month and is way more relaxed than fall. Although it is more relaxed it is still soccer and still includes a ton of running. Our program here at Eastern is very intense and any time we have soccer practice fall or spring we go hard and work hard.There is no time for slacking everything we do is done with our hardest work and toughest mindset. Each game we play in practice if your team loses the game you have to run. Punishment running usually consisted of running 5 hills. If your team loses enough you can run up to 20 hills. If you have seen Eastern University's hill you would never want to run up it. Fall or Spring college soccer is a very demanding sport with all the conditioning involved in it. If you do not like to run than college soccer may not be your sport.

Rosco

In the sport of soccer there is lots of conditioning and running. I knew that playing college soccer there will be lots more running than high school. In fact there is a lot more running in college than high school. This off season we got a strength and conditioning coach named Rosco. Rosco is Eastern University's strength and conditioning coach. He indeed sucks!! Every Wednesday we wake up at 6:30 for conditioning we go down to the gym and he is waiting for us and we start right away going at with weights,abs and running. The worst was the first day when we each grabbed a 45lb plate weight and did numerous different exercises. I would say 3/4 of our team was throwing up! YUCK! Another day he set the treadmills to 15mph 4 minute mile time and a 7.0 incline. We had to run on them for 30 seconds then get off do pull ups and sit ups then get back on. We were getting on and off of these moving treadmills. Well my klutzy self slipped and got burns all over my leg. it hurt and Rosco said oh well they don't look bad. Each wednesday morning we do this and lets just say it is not fun at all here is a video that shows many of the plate weights exersies we use. 
 Now I do Not know who the Commandos are but I use the video as a little examples.

Rosko makes me regret playing soccer sometimes. College athletics makes you commit to working hard! if you do not want to put in the work do not play.

The Recruiting Process

(This is my recruiting video I sent to colleges)
High School athletes think the recruiting process is way different than what it is. Many parents and players think the recruiting process is where a college will contact you and then you go from there. That is completely wrong! Unless you are a very special player. If you are a special player than you will not have to worry about what I am going to say because college will contact you and you will have every school after you. Most players are not that lucky. The recruiting process is very difficult. in a lot of ways. I am going to go step by step to show you what you need to do to get recruited.
(Note: each sport is different and i can only go from the process of soccer)
Steps:
1. Freshman Year: start thinking if playing college soccer is what you want to do. It is important to decide weather you think you want to play college or not. You definitely do not have to decide if you are going to or not.

2. Sophomore Year: Make your Varsity team and try and become starting goalie! If your skills are good and you feel you can play at the next level then decide that is what you want to do. Your sophomore year you have to have a good idea what you want to do either play in college or not!! Also you want to find a competitive travel soccer team. Now when I say competitive I mean competitive that travels and plays high quality teams and goes to good tournaments. Just get a lot of time on the field. do lots of training and work extremely hard!!

3.JUNIOR YEAR!!!: I put caps lock on junior year because this year is by far the most important!!! In your junior year you have to know if you are going to play college soccer or not. You have to be on a ranked club team in your state at least top 25 at the lowest! and your team has to go to big college showcases so coaches can see your skills. Decide which part of the country you want to go play and search colleges that have soccer programs and are the right size for you. I wanted to go to a small school so I searched small school and emailed small school. Be realistic with yourself don't email all D1 school when your a D3 player. Biggest mistake is to not email school. YOU HAVE TO RECRUIT YOURSELF!!!!! make a video like I made up at the top that was my recruiting video. Once you make that you send that to the coaches your emailing than if they like you will talk to you about going to their school.

4. Senior Year: You should have 5 school that you are choosing from. Do not put off the junior year steps till the senior year BAD IDEA. You will be behind the 8ball. I did that it wasn't smart. just figure out what schools you really like and by November you should have 3 schools that you are deciding over.By early February decide what College you will be attending.

This process should be fun enjoy it. I know I did I loved hearing from coaches weather they wanted me or not. I loved visiting all the schools I was looking at.I choose Eastern because it was a perfect fit for me. Biggest mistake people make is choosing a school because of there sport. Choose a school you would go to if you weren't being recruited by them!!!!

Here is another little video on an introduction to Eastern Men's Soccer Team Enjoy!!


Introduction to EUMS from EU Athletics on Vimeo.

Introduction to myself

I am Kyle Nichols I play soccer for Eastern University. I am originally from Palm Bay, Florida and now I go to a school in St.Davids,PA. My life in the last year has changed so much. I went from being a high school athlete to now a college athlete in a completely different state. I went from playing soccer with my fiends that I went to high school with to playing with a bunch of new players. In high school I always knew where I stood in my position. In college it is completely different we now have four goalies and competing everyday. High school, I knew I was the only goalie guaranteeing me playing time.Now this year we had four goalies and I never played and never knowing if I was going to play. The biggest thing is that you work much harder in college to not guarantee playing time where as high school you work way less to always knowing you are getting playing time. I love the change in my life. Soccer is my passion and love and even not knowing if i am going to play I still love the program and playing college soccer. This blog will give you a look of what being a college athlete is all about from every aspect.