NNFC PLAYER SPOTLIGHT
Meet Alex Meade, College Dream Realized!
Alex Meade recently signed with Emory & Henry College

Alex Meade, had a simple goal when he first stepped on to the field for the U9/U10 Strikers in 2002 and that was to be simply be the best player he could be. Now in 2012, with Alex's senior season beginning as Captain of the York High School Falcons, he has already committed to play College Soccer for Emory & Henry College next Fall. This past Fall, Alex finished his 10 year travel soccer playing career with NNFC leading our U18 Academy Elite team (Strikers) to a final Virginia State ranking of 6th which is one of the highest rankings ever for a team from Newport News. Below you will find more specifics about Alex's journey from a young player with a love for the game to an accomplished player who has realizing his dream of playing college soccer! We hope in spotlighting Alex, it will inspires other young players to achieve the same level of success Alex has achieved.
Congratulations to Alex and his parents on a job well done.
The recruiting experience ....
As the NNFC Strikers players transitioned to juniors and seniors the team focused on playing in college showcase tournaments, like the Lynchburg Showcase, the Jefferson Cup and the CASL (Raleigh) Showcase. Alex was one of the players who was interested in playing college soccer and so a lot of time and effort went into researching various colleges, conferences and coaches. From there Alex would send coaches his athletic resume and an email expressing his interest in their program.
At one of the showcase tournaments held here in Hampton Roads, an assistant coach from a college in Washington DC saw Alex play and communicated with Alex after the tournament. Alex was not interested in living in DC and so that lead ended. However, that assistant coach later was selected to be the Head Men’s Soccer Coach for Emory & Henry College, near Abingdon, Virginia. Coach Kish then reached out to Alex who took an unofficial visit to Emory & Henry in October 2011 and really liked the school. After visiting several other schools and talking with other coaches, Alex selected Emory & Henry for his college soccer. Emory & Henry is Division III playing in the very competitive Old Dominion Athletic Conference.
The decision was driven by the quality of the academics at Emory & Henry, the opportunity to play and contribute to the team as a freshman and how comfortable Alex felt with the team and Coach Kish. They immediately made him feel like part of the team and part of Emory & Henry and Alex could see himself playing and growing friendships for life. Emory & Henry also has a strong Mass Communications program, which is Alex’s intended major, with national award winning professors and that played an important role in his decision too.
The recruiting process was very different from what we expected. Except for the national level elite players, most of the initial recruiting steps must be taken by the players. The player must email coaches, update the coaches with tournament/showcase schedules, attend camps and one-day recruiting clinics and then maintain communications with coaches where there is an interest, sometimes for many months. There is almost no feedback from many coaches and the continual nature of the process is emotionally exhausting. Alex was surprised to find there were several colleges where he could have played and where he also liked the school, the academics and, especially, the coaches. Making the final choice was more difficult than Alex had expected.
Alex spent all of his Club soccer years playing at Newport News FC. From age 9, NNFC and the Strikers were his home and his family. While he will missing playing with such close friends and such a high quality team, Alex believes that foundation and training with Coach Cousineau are what allowed him the opportunity to play college soccer.