Tyler Engel Signs with SMU Soccer

[MrMustang1965]

When Tyler Engel entered Sandburg as a freshman, he certainly wasn't lacking self-confidence. "Hotshot," "cocky" and "unrealistic" was how Engel described himself when soccer practices first started in August. However, there was one little problem — Engel stood 5-foot-2 and weighed 110 pounds. And as soon as practices got underway, any expectations Engel may have had about staring on varsity as a freshman were quickly put to rest.

"It was a reality check for me," said Engel, who got called up to varsity early in his freshman year. "I knew I had to get a lot stronger and a lot tougher, because until high school I was always used to being one of the stars on every team that I played on.

"Going against guys older and bigger than me my first two years at Sandburg really made me realize what I needed to work on and get better at, and that was huge for me. It's funny to think back to where I was almost four years and where I am now."

Today, Engel is a 5-foot-9, 165-pound midfielder who is ranked as the No. 13 recruit in the Midwest Region by TopDrawerSoccer.com. This fall, he will also be a part of the nation's seventh-ranked recruiting class at Division I Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

"I've grown up a lot since when I first got to Sandburg, both physically and emotionally," Engel said. "I'm real excited to get a chance to be a part of a great program like SMU, but I have already told myself that I don't want to redshirt next year. My goal is to play right away and be a starter as a freshman."

The road Engel took to SMU wasn't always smooth sailing. It's very rare to see one of the top players in the state (in any sport) not play for their high school team as a senior, but that's exactly what Engel did. After a junior season that saw him lead Sandburg with 10 goals and nine assists and make third-team All-State, Engel figured to improve upon those number as a senior. Instead, a bigger and quite honestly, better opportunity came along, and Engel wasn't about to pass it up.

After playing for the Chicago Magic club team since he was 10 years old and helping them finish in third-place nationally his last year, a coaching controversy caused Engel to switch to the Chicago Fire Youth Program. Engel followed his Magic coach, Antonio Villa Serbaun over to the new program, along with three-fourths of his team.

The Fire is regarded as one of the top club teams in not only the state, but the entire U.S., despite this being just its third year of existence.

For Engel, he was forced to choose one or the other this fall — play his senior year at Sandburg or start training for the Fire's upcoming season, which starts March 6.

"You're not allowed to do both, so I wrestled with it for a little while, but I always knew that playing with the Fire was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up," Engel said. "Getting to play against some of the top players in the country and traveling across the U.S. for showcases will be a great experience for me and give me some great exposure to help prepare me for college.

"Plus, I basically knew almost everyone already when I joined the Fire since I played with a lot of them on the Magic, so I had a very strong comfort level with the guys."

Earlier this week, Engel and his team traveled to Mexico, where they will train with members of the Major League Soccer Chicago Fire team and then scrimmage a couple professional teams from Mexico. They will travel to Kansas, Colorado, Arizona and Florida during the 30-game season, which ends with nationals in July.

"Everyone's real excited to start playing games, because we're sick of seeing each other in practice everyday," Engel said. "I really do feel like with the talent we have, we should be one of the best teams in the country. I just want to do my part in trying to help our team win nationals."

http://www.opprairie.com/Articles-c-201 ... rsity.html

[Pony4Life]

Schellas Hyndman made his living with small-ish players like Bruno Guarda, Jeff Harwell, Luchi Gonzalez, Paulo da Silva, and many more ... hope this guy turns out to be another like those guys.

[mustangbill67]

Tyler is not a new signee. He was one of the 8 who signed in February. I assume he is a very good player but he is not one of the nationally ranked players we signed.

[MrMustang1965]

Tyler is not a new signee. He was one of the 8 who signed in February. I assume he is a very good player but he is not one of the nationally ranked players we signed.

Original post was in February. ^