2021 in Review
Today marks the end of a certainly particular 2021, marked once again by the news related to a pandemic that has affected and continues to affect our lives, but at the same time by many satisfactions and new goals that YesWeCollege has achieved and shared together with those who have made these new steps of our project are possible.
After a winter and spring without the usual Showcase appointments, 2021 has started to give us the first smiles at the gates of summer. The first ray of sunshine arrived thanks to the Usl League 2 championship experienced in collaboration with FA Euro, which this year was able to count on eight YWC student-athletes. Cesare Marconi (Barry University), Luca Bulfon (USC Upstate), Tommaso Favro (Tiffin University), Orlando Zeqiri (University of Tampa), Kristian Colaci (Texas A&M), Francesco Caorsi (St. Bonaventure), Luca Tiozzo (St. Bonaventure ) and Filippo Begliardi (UMass) competed in the fourth series of the US championship, living a splendid experience of football and friendship with Brooklyn and Manhattan in the background.
Then, in July, great news arrived: YesWeCamp, the first YWC selection retreat. In the setting of Piancavallo, among the mountains of Friuli Venezia-Giulia, thirty young people experienced a real mini-summer retreat, also celebrating together the extraordinary victory of the European Championship centered on Roberto Mancini’s Italy.
We like to think that Piancavallo’s training sessions represented the springboard for the historic season of one of our boys. Yannick Bright, after being named to the team of best rookies at the end of his first year in New Hampshire, chose to join us in Friuli to put fuel in his legs for the new season. In an interview at the end of a session, Yannick declared that his goal for the 2021 championship would be to become an NCAA All-American, one of the best eleven players in collegiate soccer. A seemingly unthinkable goal, but which Bright achieved at the end of a season to remember with his Wildcats, which ended in the second round of the Nationals and with a historic recognition for an Italian student-athlete.
And Yannick is in good company, because two other YWC standard bearers have highlighted themselves during their sporting season. Giorgio Probo, NJCAA All-American in 2020, was in fact named league MVP at the end of a memorable year, in which he led Iowa Western to win the second national title in its history. Exceptional individual and team achievements, which not surprisingly earned Giorgio the call from the prestigious Creighton University.
But not only that, because Davide Romeo also presented himself in the best possible way on his debut in the collegiate championship. In his first season as a student-athlete, the midfielder who grew up in the youth teams of Parma and Sassuolo impressed everyone with the Florida Atlantic shirt, earning himself inclusion in the list of the best mid-season rookies drawn up by the Top Drawer experts as well as being nominated in the Top 11 Conference USA Rookies.
But satisfaction also came off the field, with the completion of the university career of many student-athletes who left for the USA thanks to the scholarships obtained through YesWeCollege. Luca Zannoni, Federico Scaglioni, Raffale Vio, Lorenzo Guagneli, Riccardo Rota, Ivan Santagiuliana and Filippo Begliardi achieved their diplomas, achieving the first major goal of their academic careers.
And it certainly doesn’t end here, because in saying goodbye to a 2021 to remember, YWC is preparing to welcome a new year that promises to be electrifying. In fact, a completely new and even more international International Showcase awaits us. Thanks to the collaboration with Eture Sports and Kumlin Recruiting, the EU Soccer Showcase will be inaugurated in 2022. The Modena stage on 30-31 will pave the way for the Valencia event on 1-2 February and the one in Trollhattan (Sweden) on 4-5 February, allowing the coaches of the American universities present to organize a real tour Europe on the hunt for new talents who dream of becoming student-athletes in the United States.
So fasten your seatbelts: we’re off to 2022 at full speed, to live the American dream always together with YesWeCollege.
