LIJSL College Forum began about 1983, was the brain child of Mike Clark, long time soccer volunteer and member of the Board of Directors of the LIJSL and Girls Varsity soccer coach at Clark High School. That year, 1983, the League inaugurated an annual soccer convention; one of the major attractions was the College Bound Player Forum and College Fair. Mike saw a real need for players and their parents to learn about the college recruiting process and how to conduct an intelligent search and perhaps win a scholarship. I brought my daughter to one of the forums, that was in 1984, she graduated high school in 1985. I remember some of the colleges on the panel that year, Steve LaRosa representing Adelphi University, Len Tsantiris, of UCONN, Charles Drucelli of Rutgers University. For the men's soccer, I remember Frank Schnur of Fordham University, and Dieter Ficken from Columbia University.

Mike passed the torch to me and I still have it, though for a number of years Bill Roller and I ran it together. Unfortunately Bill's health has kept him away for the past few years. One of the challenges was to inform players and parents that this was not a recruiting venue but simply an information gathering forum. NCAA rules do not permit face to face contact with players before the end of their junior year.

Invitations both email and snail mail are sent out to all high school junior and sophomores; we encourage their parent to attend with them. For the past two years, we have made a special effort to invite the Spanish speaking community and have sent emails and snail mails in Spanish. In 2009 a segment of the College Forum was conducted in Spanish to a well attended crowd from the Hispanic community and we will continue this in 2010 inviting Ernesto Phan and Kieth Arce to speak in Spanish for a segment of their presentation.

We try to inform the student-athletes and their parents about important topics such as picking a school for the right reason, which of course if academics. We also talk about being a good student in high school and how that can help the college coach get you academic money. Very important to know also is that soccer can help open the heavy door to admission at the more competitive colleges and universities. We also tell parents that they should not take over and let their son or daughter network with the college coach. In keep with the modern world we added a quality Power Point Presentation, compliments of Sue Ryan, Head Coach at Stony Brook University.

I am very proud to be a part of the Long Island Junior Soccer League and in support of their efforts to help our players with college opportunities through the College Forum, College Work-Shops, Exceptional Senior Games and Scholarship Committee.