TicketsNov. 21, 2008
By MARK SCHMETZER
The only opportunity American football players have to show college recruiters what they can do in the heat of game action is the high school season.
Athletes in other sports — basketball, volleyball and baseball, as examples — have so-called second seasons to prove their mettle. The Amateur Athletic Union, the Junior Olympics, organizations of club teams and various summer baseball programs all give those athletes additional opportunities for second looks from college recruiters.
Soccer is no different, which made a big difference for University of Cincinnati men's soccer defender-midfielder D.J. Albert. The Bearcat freshman didn't even have a high school team on which to play. The Chicago-area native was home schooled from kindergarten all the way through completing — at age 16 — his requirements for a high school diploma. He then spent two years at a community college before joining the Bearcats this year.
So far, the transition has been virtually seamless. The 6-foot, 175-pound Albert played in every one of UC's first 10 games and started nine — most before UC started classes on Sept. 24.
"School-wise, it's working out really well," said Albert, who actually is Louis III. D.J. stands for Double Junior, he said. "Classes have been great, so far. I love the campus. From being a student to being an athlete, it's been a great experience, so far.
"The team is great. I've never been on a team that's so close, friend-wise and bonding. People said that, being a freshman, I would feel odd and the older guys would harass me, but I've never felt so much at home. I've had a great experience."
"We knew he was good player," said UC men's soccer head coach Hylton Dayes, for whom Albert played on a team in the Olympic Development Program. "We were very aware of D.J. and his abilities. We knew him from his club team. He played in Chicago soccer programs that were well respected. We knew he had the potential to come in and play right away."
Albert, 18, started playing soccer when he was four or five years old, he recalled. He also played youth basketball in the seventh and eighth grades and baseball until he was 11 years old before deciding to focus on one sport.
"Around eight years old, I started getting a little more competitive with soccer," he said. "I played two years on a traveling team when I was eight, one year with a team of guys two years older than me and the next with a team of guys a year older. I stuck with that team until high school. We finished second in a big tournament in Minnesota one year. When I had to choose a sport, I chose soccer. I love it."
Albert also "played up" academically. He started kindergarten in a Christian school, but that lasted just three months.
"I was sitting next to a person who had just been pulled out of public schools," he recalled. "He had a problem with behavior. Then my mom started seeing a change in my behavior and pulled me right out."
Albert's parents, Janet and Louis Jr., sent him to a friend for home schooling for two years until Janet — a runner at Iowa who missed making the Olympic team in the 800 meters by two seconds — was ready to take over at home with him and his three younger siblings.
D.J. completed his high school requirements by age 16, allowing him to start his transition to more traditional forms of education by attending classes at the College of Lake County. He left two classes short of qualifying for an associate degree.
"There was a positive and a negative," he said about moving from his living room to a classroom. "I really hadn't been in a real school, so the first semester was a hard adjustment. Home school really teaches you self discipline and how to learn on your own; getting information from a teacher was a struggle. Also, there were a lot more tests and quizzes. In home school, you move along at your own pace, so you can advance more quickly in some subjects than in others."
Knowing how much soccer exposure Albert could get outside of high school left him unconcerned about being overlooked — especially since he was talented enough to play at top levels. He played on the United States Youth Soccer Association Region II team for three years, being named state and regional team captain in 2007. He also was a starting center midfielder and team captain in the nationally-ranked Sockers FC Chicago Top Talent program from 2003 through '07. While he was with the Sockers, they won United States Midwest Regional and national championships in 2006, Midwest Regional League championships in '04 and '07 and the state championship in '05.
"It's for all the players who don't play high school," Albert said. "The majority of the players from the club team didn't do high school. The club team played at a higher pace. It was more competitive."
Sockers coaches David Richardson and Brett Hall also matched his team up with teams in a Chicago men's league.
"That really exposed me to the higher level," Albert said. "I've been in that for three years, since I was 16. They're great on helping guys move to the next level. This past summer, they took a team to Holland, and they took me along to get experience. We played against Division I and Division II teams over there — some really high competition. It was good for me."
That kind of background obviously left Albert ready for NCAA Division I competition. He was very close to accepting an offer from Northern Illinois of the Mid-American Conference, but that arrangement fell apart. Notre Dame recruited him, but wasn't prepared to accept his previous college credits. He was contacted by North Carolina and visited Dayton and Creighton. He also called his former coach.
"I knew Coach Dayes," he said. "It was a long shot, but I gave him a call. He still had some scholarship money and openings in my position. In a matter of five days, I switched from NIU to UC. Once I saw the campus, I fell in love with it. I was amazed. It was so much better than where I was going to go."
UC's prestigious College of Engineering is another reason Albert was drawn to Cincinnati.
"I'm actually going to be a mechanical engineer," he added, explaining that his current exploratory studies major is temporary. "That was the biggest plus."
"He's not the type to stand out, but he's also the type of player who the coaches and his teammates know his value," said Dayes, whose Bearcats have a non-league home match vs. Alabama A&M scheduled for Oct. 15 before returning to Big East competition against Rutgers — also at Gettler Stadium — on Oct. 18. "He doesn't stand out in terms of doing flashy things, but he does all of the right things and he does them well. He's very tactically sound. He knows where to be, he's a good passer, he's skilled at positioning and winning balls in the air, even though he's not super tall. He reads the game well. He does a lot of the dirty work in midfield for us, and that goes unnoticed most of the time."