By Elizabeth Lande, Reporter
As fall sports come to a close, many colleges are looking for potential seniors to recruit for their athletic programs. One student is already grabbing the attention of schools, despite only being 16.
Junior Dalia Aladin, a varsity soccer player, has already attracted multiple college scouts. In eighth grade, she participated in her first college ID camp, organized by her club team, Pacific Northwest (Pac NW) 00, for college scouts.
At the camp, Aladin received her first recruitment offer from a college team, a small D3 school in California.
While she wasn’t interested in accepting the offer, it left an impression.
“[I] just kind of took that like, ‘This is exciting, it’s starting already,’” Aladin said.
Since then, Aladin has fielded multiple recruitment offers from schools — though she’s not yet permitted to disclose which ones.
Throughout this process, Aladin has maintained her strong passion for soccer, a sport she grew up playing.
“I’ve been playing on a team since I was four,” Aladin said. “I’ve been playing since I can remember.”
For her, soccer began as a sport she played with her dad and brother, and her passion grew out of the family hobby.
“My dad, brother and I used to go play every day when we were younger,” she said.
Her brother, in particular, served as strong inspiration for her to begin playing competitively.
“My brother decided to play premier soccer when he was younger and then I used to go to his games,” Aladin said. “I was just kind of like, ‘I guess maybe I’ll try it,’ cause I liked it a lot. I didn’t really know much about playing at the next level until I saw him do it.”
Following this decision, Aladin made the move from recreational to premier soccer. Starting at Eastside Football Club (FC) for U11 to U12, she then moved to Crossfire Premier for U13 and has competed with the Pacific Northwest (Pac NW) 00 team since eighth grade.
With Pac NW, Aladin has traveled to multiple tournaments across the country including games in Las Vegas, San Diego, San Francisco, Oregon and Idaho.
“I’ve been honestly all over,” Aladin said. “My team definitely has an opportunity to travel a lot.”
As a premier-level athlete, the time required of Aladin not only to practice but also play in games and tournaments can take away from other pursuits, and the conditions are often very demanding.
“When you decide to play … premier club soccer, they make sure you are 100 percent putting time into the club, and that’s about it,” she said it.
If she misses one practice, she is benched during the next game.
“It’s super intense, honestly,” Aladin said.
Still, for Aladin, the work pays off.
“[It’s worth it] 100 percent,” she said. “I love it so much.”
Though the premier requirements may be high, most coaches give athletes the early fall off, so they can play soccer for their school team.
This is Aladin’s second season playing for the school, where she plays on the varsity team as a forward and midfielder. She’s also one of the team’s captains.
Soccer coach Scott Nicolino began coaching the varsity team this year, and notes that Aladin has as a high level of skill and has a promising career ahead of her.
“Dalia has definitely got the talent,” Nicolino said in regards to playing soccer at the college level.
Nicolino himself played soccer in college, but at a more casual level compared to what Aladin hopes to achieve.
“I want to go D1, preferably, unless it’s like a really good academic scholarship… for D3,” Aladin said.
Scholarships are rare, however; it’s much more common for a player to simply be guaranteed a spot on a school’s team. If the player accepts a spot, it’s called commitment.
The commitment process usually starts with college scouts making a player an offer. If the player accepts and agrees to go to that school, the only further requirement they have is to maintain a certain GPA and achieve a high enough SAT score, set by the college.
Academics are important to college scouts as well, almost more so than sports skill level. “They won’t really look at you unless your GPA is above … a 3.5,”Aladin said. “If they’re gonna decide between a couple players … they’re gonna pick the one with the better GPA because they want the player to not only be successful for their soccer [team] but also in the school.”
Aladin plans to take her SAT within the next few months, and hopefully commit soon after, partially due to convenience.
According to Aladin, an early commitment would be a big relief.
“I want to commit soon. I wanted to maybe commit … during the summer, but now that I’m getting more exposure … I wanted to wait a little bit longer,” Aladin said. “[If I] already know where I’m going to college … I don’t really have to play the waiting game anymore.”
However, finding the right college can be difficult and commitment can be stressful.
“Finding a place that’s not only good for soccer [and] good academically but [also] an environment you want … is probably the most stressful part.”
On the coaching side of things, both Aladin and Nicolino discussed how coaches are important to the commitment process.
“If you’re really interested [in playing for a school], you can talk to [your] coach, and they can talk to coaches and the schools that you’re interested in and kind of tell them to come back, or recommend you, which is a big thing,” Aladin said.
“Once in awhile I’ll get emails from colleges asking about what kind of talent we have on our team,” Nicolino said. “Sometimes I’ll provide the college scouts with that information and I’ll let them know our schedule, invite them out to the game, and sometimes they’ll come out and watch the game and kind of do their own evaluation at that point. Anything I can do to help the players further their career, especially if that’s what their desire is moving forward, then … I’m all for that.”
As Aladin hopes to continue playing soccer for the entirety of college, she’s glad that she began playing at a young age.
“I’m really happy that I started something when I was super young and that I’ve gotten a lot of opportunities from it,” Aladin said. “I remember having a lot of friends that were kind of like ‘I wish I had my thing.’ It’s kind of nice, it makes you an individual.”