Thirteen years ago, Alex Smith, who had just completed his daCosta Cup career at Cornwall College, attended a football showcase at St Elizabeth Technical High (STETHS) hoping to catch the eye of US college coaches.

Last weekend he was among 25 coaches and recruiters from the US who were at STETHS for the ISSA football showcase and hoping to find players for his programme at NCAA Division 2 programme Concord University in West Virginia.

Also at STETHS last weekend was Kris Bertsch, head coach at NCAA Division 1 school, Lindenwood University, an institution with strong historical ties to Jamaica, in track and field.

Both coaches were attending their first scouting combine in Jamaica and were equally impressed with what they saw on display in two games.

Saturday’s events saw games between all-urban and all-rural selections. The first game was for the players with high academic credentials and the second between the top players across the daCosta and Manning Cup competitions.

At the behest of the US coaches, the games were played in three periods of 35 minutes each and a third game, which was a 20-minute scrimmage at the end of the day with players who they wanted to get a second look at.

Smith, who transferred from Anchovy High to Cornwall College where he played two seasons before attending the University of Maine at Fort Kent and Union College in Kentucky, said he knows the effect a US college degree can have on players from countries like Jamaica.

“I came through a similar showcase, as well; it not just changed my life, it changed the life of my family,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “So one of the biggest things is coming back to my home country to provide those opportunities that’s going to change your life and change your family’s life, and also give them a platform that they can continue to grow as not just students, but also footballers, and they can sustain a standard of living in the United States.”

Smith says he was trying to find a winger with speed and one that was able to match up with the increasing demands of US college football that was attracting players from all over the world who are coming from professional academies and going to the United States for the same opportunity.

“So one of the things that Jamaicans have over in World Soccer is that natural speed,” Smith says. “You know, when you hear Jamaican, you hear speed and aggression, as a winger, dominating, creating chances, scoring their chances as well.

“So coming here today, I’m looking for that creative pacey winger, there’s going to be a game-changer, an impact, not just one game, but every game as we play.

“I saw a central midfielder that caught my eye,” and while saying he could not call any names, “but definitely, I’m in talks with him right now and you know, this game is going to further concrete my decision if I’m going to proceed. But my primary position is a winger.”

Smith sees academics as crucial, as prospective students must have attained a minimum standard.

“We are technically at the second tier in the US system, so if a student doesn’t go to your classes and take care of their grades, that’s going to prevent them from going to the more prestigious leagues and they’re going to they have to go to lower division schools until they can matriculate to the NCAA,” he said.

He was impressed with the level of football on display.

“The standard hasn’t dropped one bit since I played,” he said. However, he was quick to add that the transition from high school to college requires more work.

“Going to the gym, there will be strict routines every day. There’s a schedule of things that need to do — film, weight, lifting, the food that you put into your body,” he said.

Bertsch has been at Lindenwood since 2023, where he has taken the programme to a higher level, capturing their first regular season and postseason championships in the Division I era. He won 14 games, tied for third in the country, and had the most wins in a single season for Lindenwood since 2013 when they won 18 games.

He is aware of the link between his school and Jamaica.

“I believe in the market,” he said.” Jamaica has sent a ton of players to America and to colleges and I have coached numerous players from Jamaica in the years past who have done very, very well at the collegiate level, and then represented their country internationally.”

Bertsch says former Harbour View player Akeem Priestly, and Brian White, who was named the top player in US soccer, are among the Jamaican players he coached.

He says his job was made easier for him as they were pointed in the right direction.

“The people are very friendly to help us to identify the right players,” he said. “They’ve done a great job before we’ve gotten here, identifying the right ones to be here that would satisfy coaches’ needs.

“So there’s a ton of coaches represented from all different divisions. I am an NCAA Division coach, one of the highest divisions, per se, but there are tons of great players at all the different levels and sometimes they start maybe at a different level and work their way up to division one, if they don’t start there originally.”

Lindenwood have worked their way up the classification in the US from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics level, to the NCAA Division 2 and recently into the Division 1.

“We’re the fastest-rising programme in the school, in the country, and this was the first year we were able to go the NCAA tournament, and we were there. We made the NCAA tournament our first year — the first programme ever in the history of the school and our conference regular season conference tournament. So we’re proud to represent Lindenwood University.”

Bertsch says he is impressed that while the second game had been hampered by rain and a muddy field, the effort was nevertheless consistent.

“You always got to give these guys credit,” he said. “It’s either hot, it’s raining, the fields getting a little bit sloppy, and I say that you got to give them a lot of slack, because that’s hard. Conditions are hard. The boys are competing very hard. But yes, there’s definitely players here.”

Bertsch says most of the players had never played alongside some of their teammates.

“So, you don’t know people’s habits,” he said. “They might be a little bit out of position at times that they’re sharing minutes, so sometimes rhythms are a little bit off. So, I always have to give them a little bit of slack.”

Justin Hayles of the all-daCosta team (second right) gets away from three all-Manning players in the ISSA football showcase at the STETHS Sports Complex in Santa Cruz on Saturday.(Photo: Paul Reid)

Concord University soccer recruiter Alex Smith (Photo: Paul Reid)

Lindenwood University soccer recruiter Kris Bertsch (Photo: Paul Reid)