In his third year on The Bluff, Portland Pilots head soccer coach Nick Carlin-Voigt has brought in the no. 1 recruiting class in the nation, according to Top Drawer Soccer.
This comes just a year after the Pilots brought in the fifth-best recruiting class, according to College Soccer News and the sixth best according to Top Drawer Soccer.
The recruiting class includes nine players in total, featuring seven freshmen as well as two transfers. Of the seven freshmen, five of them were ranked in the top 100 nationally. The same five players also have experience playing for MLS academy teams, as well as experience as a part of the U.S. Men’s National system.
"I'm very excited about this 2018 recruiting class as we have worked diligently to attract talented student-athletes from around the country," Carlin-Voigt said about the class in a news release on Monday. "We have added young men with great character, elite soccer pedigrees and a very strong commitment to academic excellence that will fit well into our institutional mission.”
"What makes this class so impressive is that all of these players will fit into our team-first mindset driven from the values we teach daily," Carlin-Voigt continued. "I know our fans and supporters around the community will be excited to watch these new Pilots develop at Merlo Field.”
Portland is coming off another successful year, finishing second in the WCC with a 9-7-1 record after playing an extremely rigorous schedule that included matchups against seven teams that had made the postseason the previous year.
The Pilots also lost some key pieces over the off-season, with defensive stalwarts Kris Reaves and Paul Christensen leaving for the MLS. Carlin-Voigt noted how important it is to fill the void left by them, saying “important experienced players graduated the past two years moving onto the professional ranks so we knew we needed to bring in a strong class for the long-term development of the program.”
The Pilots will look to build off the successes of the past two seasons and hope this new recruiting class will continue this upward trend.
