Your future, our focus
Two Trappers Sign
For the first time since the program’s inception in 2010, Northwest College soccer will hold open tryouts for athletes looking to play beyond high school.
The tryouts will give athletes another chance to advance their playing careers while Northwest gets the benefit of scouting talent without travel.
“Not everybody knows about our program,” NWC head coach Rob Hill said. “Often they think because they didn’t get recruited by a four-year they maybe give up and stop looking. And we’re just opening up an opportunity.”
Men’s and women’s tryouts are scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 27 on NWC’s Trapper practice field. Men’s tryouts will run from 9 10:30 a.m. and 12:30-1:30 p.m. Women’s tryouts will go from 10:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. and 1:45-2:45 p.m.
Hill, who heads both the men’s and women’s programs, said he is expanding the tryouts beyond Wyoming’s borders.
“We did one when we first started the program in 2010, but this is the first one we’ve done (since), and to this extent,” Hill said. “Before, we just invited Wyoming kids, and now I’ve invited Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
Hill said he sent approximately 400 emails in an effort to spread the word about Northwest’s tryouts.
The five-year Trapper coach said the tryouts will be worth it even if only one or two players are signed as a result.
Hill entered this offseason with a new outlook on recruiting, and is hoping a couple of overlooked but capable prospects can give his programs a boost.
“Maybe there’s a few people — men and women — out there that maybe got missed. It happens all the time,” Hill said.
Character and work ethic will be weighed more heavily than talent, compared to years past, and that has made filling out two rosters a more laborious task.
“On the men’s side, I’ve only signed one guy because we’ve been more careful and more selective about it,” Hill said. “On the women’s side, we’ve signed a few more than that. Just doing the research and making sure we’re getting the right people.”
Athletes must bring indoor and outdoor clothing, a water bottle and proof of a current physical to the tryouts.
To reserve a spot in the tryouts, contact Hill at 307-250-4893 or robert.hill@ nwc.edu. Attendees can request a tour of the campus, which will be given at 3:30 p.m. following the tryouts.
Hill was named the NJCAA Region IX Coach of the Year in 2010 and Co-Coach in 2011; those same years his teams were Region IX runners-up and Region IX champions.
TWO TRAPPERS MOVE ON
Northwest sophomores Sam White and Travis Hopkins signed to play at four-year NAIA schools in the fall.
White, from Bracknell, England, will head east to play at University of Alabama-Mobile.
Hopkins, a native of Sutherlin, Oregon, will move back to his home state to play at Southern Oregon University.
Hill said he expects a couple of other players on the men’s team and a handful from the women’s team to sign letters of intent in the coming weeks.