Black Rock FC – Revisited

From 4/17/17 New England Soccer Journal

By Frank Dell’Apa

When it comes to coming out of nowhere, no team is quite like Black Rock FC. In fact, Black Rock FC is re-defining the label, and not just because the club is based in the pastoral expanses of Sheffield, Mass., near the Connecticut and New York borders.

Black Rock FC is the brainchild of Jon Moodey, who built the Berkshire School soccer program into a nationally-recognized power. Everything began in 2013 with Moodey trying to figure out a way to keep players involved in the game after the season ended. He hit on the idea of a sort of prep school all-star team that could take on all-comers, the initial group including current New York City FC midfielder Jack Harrison. Moodey and the players chose the name Black Rock FC, referring to an iconic hiking destination in the Appalachians, and put it on T-shirts. But Moodey had another fundamental issue: who to play against. The inaccessibility that inspired the club’s namesake worked against the team, as there were very few competitors nearby.

A year later, Black Rock FC got its first break. Moodey received an invitation for Berkshire School to play in the IMG Cup Super Group in Bradenton, Fla., after a Brazilian team had pulled out two weeks before the event kicked off. Moodey explained that prep schools were not allowed to compete after the end of the season, but he had another team called Black Rock FC that was actually better than the Berkshire squad.

“They said, ‘if they’re better than the Berkshire team we definitely want you to come down,’ ‘’ Moodey recalled. “All we had were T-Shirts and duffel bags. We had two weeks to get some uniforms and we started looking for a logo, got some donations from parents and, somehow, we got to the final against Tottenham, ahead of professional teams and the U.S. U-17 team. There was a buzz after that and it started to circulate. People could see the possibilities, including me, if someone put their mind to it and developed training.”

Black Rock FC, composed of players from Berkshire, Loomis Chaffee and South Kent, stormed through the group stage, defeating Brentford, Stevenage and the IMG Academy team to reach the finals. Against Spurs, Jack Harrison bounced a free kick off the bar and another off the post, before Shayon Harrison scored off a sequence involving Anton Walkes (now with NYC FC) for a 1-0 Tottenham win in extra time.

“To be able to compete with that caliber of team – we never trained together, some of us never met before – was something special,” said Jack Harrison, who turned 18 just before the start of the mid-December 2014 event. “Our chemistry was so good in such a short amount of time – they must have thought we had been playing together forever.”

After the final, Black Rock FC declined an offer from a major equipment sponsor, Moodey unsure if the team would continue. By the fall of 2015, with Berkshire on the way to another championship, Moodey decided to dedicate himself to the Black Rock project full-time.

“It was a big leap of faith,” Moodey said. “I realized what was occurring at Black Rock was special.”

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Prep schools have included soccer in athletic programs since the early 1900s. High level performers, future professionals and prominent national team players, both domestic and foreign, have competed. But the sport has been limited by abbreviated seasons, restrictions on off-season play and, especially in the case of Berkshire and its rivals, remote localities.

Moodey grew up in Wellesley and was a multiple-sport athlete at the Holderness School in New Hampshire, then captained the Kenyon College soccer team in the late 1990s. In 2005, Moodey took over a Berkshire program that had declined, despite a strong tradition established under Jackman Stewart. In 2012, Berkshire won the first of four New England Prep School titles in five years, capturing the Stewart Cup, named for the former Berkshire coach.

Along the way, it was becoming apparent some prep schools were pushing their competitive limits. Berkshire School was at the forefront, but others were right behind – such as The Hotchkiss School, which had several players from Ghana’s Right to Dream program.

For the top performers in the Western New England Prep School Association, off-season activities were not adding up.

“It was the craziest thing,” Moodey said of the club scene. “We had guys like Zeiko (Lewis) playing in the MAPLE League (now Northeast Soccer League) traveling 2½ hours for a bad game.”

Berkshire School players would also compete for the Manhattan Soccer Club, a nearly three-hour drive. (NYC FC later attempted to designate Jack Harrison as an MLS Home Grown player because he had played with Manhattan SC – the claim was turned down). In recent years, prep school rules have been relaxed, allowing coaches to be involved after the season, but Moodey still felt restricted.

“The last 10 years, the prep landscape has changed,” Moodey said. “Things have balanced out in the ISL. Milton Academy has a nice balance with a few international players and Lawrence and Brooks have figured it out with a few internationals mixed with a club base.

“But it’s the opposite out here – it’s an international base, and you also have some good domestic players.”

Moodey said Black Rock FC will include other facets, via Black Rock Leadership Academy, plus community services, and extra-curricular activities such as dance, hiking, mountain biking and white water rafting.

“We got to create ourselves,” Moodey said. “There is a special spot on the Berkshire campus. The Appalachian Mountains are right behind us, and it’s a 30-minute walk and you can be on the Appalachian Trail. There’s 500 acres surrounded by mountains and this massive ledge – we have a hike called Black Rock and every kid hikes to this outcropping. I always took the team there at sunrise.”

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Black Rock FC is becoming a destination for elite players and, as the club’s reputation grows, it could be coining a new description: a team from everywhere, due to the variety of players’ backgrounds. Moodey said Black Rock FC’s roster includes 20 nations. A bond has developed through the combination of high levels of skill and feeling part of a Prep School Brotherhood, Moodey said.

“Really, the prep school market is underserved,” said Nicco Roffo, an agent with Global Premier Management, which has affiliated with Black Rock FC. “It’s probably the last almost untapped market. Everything else is saturated and everyone knows everything about every kid from such a young age. Prep schools are isolated, geographically, and there’s turnover from year to year. There is a unique blend of styles and nationalities that makes it special. Most of big-time players have been foreign – Jack and Zeiko – but there are American boys, as well.

“The interesting thing is you just don’t know when and where they are coming from. It’s not the typical American path, where you’re watching them come through the ranks, seeing how they develop year by year. At prep schools, you could have an average team playing .500 ball and, all of a sudden, Zeiko Lewis shows up and he’s a must-see.”

Roffo began monitoring Black Rock matches soon after the club started. After the team’s success in the IMG tournament, college coaches arrived by the dozens for one-off matches involving Black Rock and the Right to Dreamers, despite the location – the nearest airport is Bradley International in Hartford, a nearly 90-minute drive from Berkshire.

“They are always well-attended, two or three dozen coaches,” Roffo said. “And they’re not getting a full day’s worth. They’re not somewhere convenient where they are popping over there in five minutes. Look at where some of the players are committed to going – Michigan, Duke – all those schools are coming out to see these boys.”

Black Rock FC and the opponents usually make the trip worthwhile.

“They want to see the best in the region going toe to toe,” Moodey said. “It’s a really fun match. It’s attack-oriented and it’s refreshing. We built an attacking brand of soccer at Berkshire, but sometimes creativity is being stifled by formulas and rigid tactics, safe soccer. These games are like you score two and we’ll score two.”

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The emergence of Harrison and the New York Red Bulls’ Zeiko Lewis has symbolized the game-changing nature of the prep school scene.

Little was expected of Harrison when he enrolled at Berkshire School as a 13-year-old. Harrison, who had played in Manchester United’s youth system, stood about 5-foot-2 and “he looked at that age like a chubby kid; his uniform hung down below his knees,” Moodey said. “He had good feet but he couldn’t keep up with the running. Before he came I had never seen a video of him but he was a top character kid, open-minded, thoughtful, a wonderful human being. Even if he were an average soccer player, we’re lucky to have a kid like that at Berkshire. I didn’t know how much he would help us in soccer but we were not gambling on getting a great kid – that’s how I pitched it to admissions.

“His freshman year he had three goals and three assists. His sophomore year, he had a growth spurt and his junior year, he developed physically. He was a man at 17. He had 15 goals and 27 assists in 20 games as a senior.”

Harrison went on to star for Wake Forest University, then became the No. 1 choice in the 2016 MLS draft. Lewis captained Boston College’s team, then was selected in the first round of last year’s MLS draft. There have been 20 NCAA Division 1 commitments from Black Rock since 2014, including Dartmouth junior Justin Donawa, who has earned five caps for the Bermuda national team.

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Moodey believes Harris and Lewis are “not one-offs,” and the level of soccer will continue to improve at Western New England prep schools.

“Hockey has traditionally been the dominant prep school sport, but soccer and lacrosse have come on strong,” Moodey said. “People are starting to see prep school as a pathway – the way the admissions market is changing, it’s much more global, and soccer lends itself because it’s a global game. More schools are looking for diversity in their student body, and prep schools are looking to mimic the top colleges, so soccer fits that very nicely.

“Soccer has really taken off in America in the last 20 years. Everyone grows up playing. The old prep school hockey thing as a flagship – soccer is challenging that, and for good reason. Soccer is a huge global game, bringing a different cultural lens, and refreshing the classroom.

“Everything is slow to change in prep schools, but the tide is turning. Coaches flying in from the ACC, Michigan, UCLA to prep schools – that wasn’t happening before. And now there are players in the pro ranks. It is what hockey once was and it’s a stronger product, because it attracts so many kids. They get to achieve their goal of being professional and get a great education, a prep school education, and a great soccer experience.”

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Things have moved quickly for Black Rock since it took on Tottenham. The team plays regularly against MLS Academy opposition and has been invited to join the Premier Development League.

“We expanded our reach, and now we have eight schools,” Moodey said. “The goal is 16 schools. That’s the total growth model. We’re not trying to take over the world, or anything. The goal is to have an Eastern and Western outpost in this region, to cut down travel time. Then, the goal would be two teams in the East, two in the West, U-15, U-17, U-19 in each, and for a girls’ team to start.

“This year is hard because we have so many players who want to participate. We have 26 maximum on the roster, but we also have eight players just training with us. People are realizing the opportunity and we’d like to accommodate more but we don’t want to dilute the quality.”

For Jack Harrison, Black Rock FC became a saving grace.

“It was massive for me, especially coming from England and playing year-round – I was always looking to play whenever I could,” said Harrison, who often makes the drive from New York to work out with the club. “My freshman year, we played indoors, 5 v 5, and it’s developed exponentially. It’s incredible. What (Moodey) has done is doing for kids outside the season is massive.”###