Dominic Morello '21 Recruiting Profile

11/2019 - RECENT - Force 03B Academy, Coached by Ryan Masch, playing as #21, trained in the 6, 8, and 10 positions, but playing in forward positions as our team has had some injuries.  Although I miss playing in my usual positions, my coach relies on me to be the versatile one, so I've taken up the challenge.  My strengths are my technical vision of the field and one touch passes.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE - 

  *11/23 & 11/24/2019 - 2019 NorCal NPL Fall Showcase - playing Saturday and Sunday at 1:30pm on field 3 at Mary Grogan fields in Modesto California

  *11/29-12/1/2019 - San Diego Surf College Cup Showcase -

            11/29 8am field #12 Oceanside

            11/30 1:30pm field #13 Oceanside

            12/1 1:20pm field #15 Oceanside

Recent Accolades

• 2018-19 NorCal NPL Spring: Boys - Boys U17 NPL 2 Ranking
  • I was a U16 player, team was mostly U16 Academy players in our gap year.  We played in a U17 NPL 2 league finishing in 1st place

• May 25-27, 2019 Nexen Manchester City Cup, San Diego, California - 2019 Nexen Manchester City Cup Results

• We played our age group at U16 level and were devastated to come in 2nd place, or as they say “finalist” after a 2-1 loss.  Here is our photo, I’m the redhead in the front, 2nd from the left.  I just couldn’t smile, none of us could.

• 2017/2018 - Playing as a U15 player, I played on the U17 San Jose Earthquakes Pre-Academy team as well as the U16 Pre-Academy team, up 1+ and 2+ years under Coach Jeff Jenkins.

• 2017 Rose City Futsal Tournament Champions

• 2016/2017 - U14 San Jose Earthquakes Academy team under our MLS San Jose Earthquakes

      

11/2019 ABOUT ME - I’m in my junior year as a new transfer at Woodside High School in Redwood City.  Woodside has a as I’ve just finished my sophomore year at Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo California, the high school great athletes like Barry Bonds and Tom Brady attended.  I’m considering transferring to my public school of Woodside High School for my junior and senior years as they have a better college prep math program and will let me take more AP classes. My goal is to be the best candidate in soccer and academics for any college’s acceptance.  I'd like to find a D1 or D2 soccer program in a college that is known for their academics.

    I've been kicking the soccer ball since I started walking.  At 4 years old in my preschool graduation I announced to the crowd that I wanted to grow up to be a professional soccer player.  I’ve got goals! I still love this sport with a passion and have dedicated most of my free time to playing competitive soccer. I've had a lot of success, NorCAL State Championships, too many tournament championships to count, an England trip and tournament championship in Manchester, team captain, team corner kicker, team penalty kicker, getting called up for playoffs at varsity my freshman season, PDP, ID2 ODP and Academy U14 at the San Jose Earthquakes.  I've had some great coaches too, Simon Tobin D1 head coach at San Jose State who brought us to England when I played for him on the U13 Pre-Academy team for the San Jose Earthquakes. When I played for the SJ Earthquakes U14 Academy, my coach was Andre Luiz Moreira, who just came off the SJ Earthquakes MLS team and had played professionally all over the world and has a bronze medal for playing in the Olympics for Brazil. In 2017/2018 (U15) season I was the only player rostered on 3 teams; the SJ Earthquakes Pre Academy NPL 2001/U17, 2002/U16, and 2003/U15.   I tried out for the SJ Earthquakes Academy team for fall 2018/U16-17, but they struggled to get back to me while they had two of their coaches quit, the U15Academy and U17Academy coaches. I scrambled and got a tryout with DeAnza Force for their gap year (previously AcademyU15) team. De Anza Force weren't holding tryouts, but agreed to see me and I earned a spot on this team under Coach Jeff Baicher. Coach Jeff also had a long career as a college, then professional soccer player. We were mostly U16 players but played U17 NPL 2 under the name Force 03B Academy.  I played my high school season and suffered a hairline fracture in my ankle. In 3/2019, Coach Noah Delgado took over the team, he also played college before playing professional soccer internationally. My goal was to work hard on my U16 team and line myself up to earn a spot on the U16/U17 Academy team for fall 2019 but I came back after months off the field I was still getting my strength back as cuts were made. I didn’t make the U16/17 Academy, but I’m proud of my progress of getting stronger every week and ramping up in a safe way as not to injure myself again.  I won’t let this stop me in making my goals come true of landing on a good team for college.  I'm currently on the U17 De Anza Force 03B NPL team, which has 2003 and 2004 players under Coach Ryan Masch.

    I'm high achieving in math, it just makes sense to me.  I love science too, but I don’t know where I want to focus on for a major in college yet.  Over the summer of 2018 I did the Geometry jump and finished a year of Geometry in 5 weeks of summer school, earning an A- in the class.  It was .04% from an A, so frustrating as I really wanted that 4.0 to add to my GPA. Regardless, that class put me in line with having calculus my senior year.  My spring/2019 semester GPA was 3.61 and I qualified for the California Scholarship Federation. I decided to do another math jump summer/2019 and taught myself trigonometry online with Khan Academy and enrolled in pre-calculus at my local junior college, College of San Mateo.  Woodside High School tested me, recommended this path, and fully supported me in this ambitious challenge last summer. Serra High School did not recommend it and would not accept this path. It was at this point, that I made the decision to transfer to Woodside High School as they have a better math program, and fully support me in challenging myself.  I have to admit, pre-calculus at a Jr College was challenging. I decided to take the class for enrichment and take it again this year as a junior so I fully master it.  My goal is to take Calculus AP my senior year, a class I would have never been allowed to get to at Serra.   One thing is for sure, I like a good challenge and I'm not afraid to change my path in order to accomplish my goals.

    I grew up Catholic but I spent so much time on soccer fields that I didn't know as much about being Catholic as I wished.  Serra High School is Catholic, and I learned a lot more about my faith in school. I decided to get confirmed January 2019 through St Charles Church in San Carlos from Fr Dave, who is also our priest at Serra High School.  Being a good role model to my friend's younger siblings, neighbors, and my younger sister is something that is always on my mind. I've had the pleasure of being around Chris Wondolowski in social gatherings and I see how he treats people who are fans and friends.  He has been a role model for me. At my lowest point last year, I got a facetime call from Wondo. I was so frustrated after weeks on crutches and not being able to play soccer. My mom was at a party celebrating Wondo’s accomplishments with his friends when she was telling him how down I was. He took time out of his party to call me and tell me what a mental challenge it is to have an injury and come out of it.  He told me to let the physical part heal and just work on the mental part. I want to have that impact on the people I talk to. So I gave what I could and worked on giving back by completing my volunteer hours for Serra. I worked 5 hours at Alpha Pregnancy Center in San Francisco, helping low income women with services and supplies. I had completed 23 volunteer hours last school year instead of just the 20 hours required, 10 of those hours working at the Alpha Pregnancy Center as I really enjoyed making a difference in a person’s life who really needs help.  The feeling I get from helping them, is like a gift I give to myself.  This year I've been volunteering at Bay Area Lyme Foundation.  Both my parents have lyme disease.  My dad got diagnosed with lyme disease within 2 weeks from the tick bite and is fine, but my mom didn't get it diagnosed for 3 years and has struggled to put this disease into remission permanently.  Bay Area Lyme Foundation raises money to help fund Stanford scientist in their research projects to help make lyme disease easy to diagnose and cure.  

    As you look at your team and wonder if I would be a good fit, I want to share with you a winning college soccer recipe from two very successful D1 coaches, Simon Tobin of San Jose State and Jeremy Gunn of Stanford.  Simon used to be Jeremy’s coach, and passed on this very crucial piece of advice that Jeremy has since tested and adopted as a winning recipe for the Stanford Men’s soccer program. All of their best teams, although all very talented have always needed a bit of luck, and for some reason all of their most successful teams have had at least one redhead on the team.  Talent, academics and luck - that’s what I can bring to your team!

    Here's a poem from my English class that I wrote freshman year....shocker it's about soccer.  Our referees freshman year were all in their 80s for our home games at Serra, and I had been watching the Game of Thrones on HBO.

When the whistle blows I slip away from the reality of teenage life and stress

And become one with the game

I feel as if I am finally at home with my team behind my back

I start to recognize my opponent's weaknesses

The crowd's enthusiasm is muffled by my own conscience

We yell to each other as we maneuver through the opponents guarding us

I must create space from my opponent

I can hear my teammates shouting at me to get rid of the ball

As I sense the presence of someone quickly approaching me from behind

The game came to a halt as halftime began

I slowly jogged over to the bench as my team exchanged sorrow faces

I take a moment to think of the times where my opponent outplayed me

And think about what I could have done better

I see the board and I start to re-engage in the conversation that is happening around me

As I am encouraging myself I hear my coach's words rallying the team

I am going to push myself harder as I get back on the pitch

The white walker blows his whistle to begin the half

We are energized for the next half of the game

The nerves from the first half are gone

I look around as I see that we are ready to win this game

The second half is a gamble because the white walker can ruin everything

One bad call can make a win seem nearly impossible

I see us moving in a flow that is becoming telepathic

Finally there is a breach in the opponent's defense

We seize the moment with precision

As we score a goal to seal the win

I hear the roar of the crowd and the high pitched whistle from the white walker

The game has ended

We won

We reminisce about the plays and share the joy of our win

It is only when I walk off the pitch and into the car

That the dullness of my teenage life begins again

That's all for now, back on the pitch

Dom