High school news, features and notes
- Norwayne’s Kaleb Harris commits to Cincinnati for football
- Mount Union adds four local student-athletes
- High school notebook: St. V-M basketball player VJ King helps U.S. U16 team to gold medal
- VJ King earns gold medal with USA U-16 men's basketball team
- Lake's Chaese Vaudrin signs with Geneva
- Perry's Stefano Millin pledges to KSU for football
- WRA student nabs lacrosse honor
- Aurora athlete selects Mount Union for tennis
- Hoban tennis players set to play at Mount Union
- Mount Union football gains Ryan Ross, a OSU transfer & Hoban graduate
- Manchester's Richie Ashley commits to Heidelberg for football
- High school football: OHSAA approves seventh division; several schools drop into lower divisions
- Hudson Junior Invitational: Stow senior Ian Holt takes charge, leads by 6 strokes
- High school baseball: Team Summit tops Team Akron in all-star game
- Hudson Junior Invitational: Kent Roosevelt’s Kory Nielsen tackles first major tournament; Stow’s Ian Holt leads boys with opening 69
- High school all-star softball: Field’s Kerrie Trautman takes one for the team, then scores winning run
- High school notebook: Canal Park to host all-star baseball game Wednesday
- Canal Park set to host all-star baseball game Wednesday
- Hoban baseball players decide on college futures
- Hudson athletes make college decisions
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Five Zips - including Speas - picked for U.S. U-18 team
Five University of Akron men’s soccer players have been selected by the U.S. Under-18 men’s national team to train in Carson, Calif., from Apr. 18-26, Zips head coach Caleb Porter announced.
The five UA players are rising sophomore Kofi Sarkodie and incoming freshmen Chad Barson, Scott Caldwell, Ben Speas and Zarek Valentin. The quintet already has played within the U.S. national team system.
Speas is currently a senior at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy. He is the eighth-ranked prospect in the nation according to ESPN Rise.com and has played with U-18 and U-17 teams. The midfielder is a two-time Parade All-American (2007, 2008), an NSCAA High School Boys All-American in 2008 and an adidas ESP All-Star in 2007.
The U.S. U-18 team is comprised of 26 players from across the country all born on or after January 1, 1991. The team plays in against other countries and top college programs in the U.S.
Sarkodie, a Soccer America Freshman All-American and All-Mid-American Conference First Team pick last fall, started all 23 games for UA in 2008 as a defender. He helped the Zips to the best defensive season in school history with a team goals-against-average of 0.45, the top mark in the nation.
He scored a goal in his first collegiate game to help Akron defeat then-ranked No. 3 Notre Dame, 3-0, in the season opener and added two assists as the season progressed.
Barson, Caldwell, Speas and Valentin are part of UA's top-ranked 2009 recruiting class.
