G Guerrieri breaks down Aggie Soccer's 2016 signing class

Texas A&M Soccer Coach G Guerrieri

On the excitement of the new signing class...

"Well, for us it's always an exciting time when people are turning their attention to college soccer – and for the players who are signing and their families, it's a great time. They enjoy it and it's a good chance for them to be acknowledged by all the hard work they've had.

As far as the way soccer goes, it's a lot different than football and basketball where kids flip-flop on their 'commitments.' Pretty much with soccer, you don't really hear that. Typically once they get into that last year of their senior year there is really no flip-flopping, they know what they want to do. The kids that we have signed here, five of them are already enrolled at Texas A&M and the other two have been committed with us — Grace Corey since the summer and Grace Piper for quite a while.

"With our sport, we could sign our 2017 class this morning and sign our 2018 class pretty soon. That's just the nature of the way that college soccer has gone. It's almost a relief to finally get it done so we can really start to focus on what's going to happen this particular fall."

On Grace Piper and Grace Corey...

"They will play the role that a lot of our midfielders are, and that's to be able to play-make, to be able to stop what the other team does a little bit and get the ball back in rhythm and possession for us. The nice thing for us is that we are going to return pretty much all our starters, so this class only makes us that much deeper and that much better.

"All of these players, we think, will be able to come in and compete immediately for playing time but it will be a very competitive situation."

On the individual skill sets of this signing class...

"By them graduating a semester early and being here, we start training the second Monday in February which will be a situation for them where they will get the chance to step up to what we do. There is a huge difference between high school soccer and college soccer. It is training wheels to Ferrari.

"You have got a big difference in the way club soccer is done as far as the way players are developed and the focus of what is going on, so they will be in an environment that we take a lot of pride in — in the individual development of what they are doing, focusing on them particularly as players, what they can do to improve to be competitive enough to play here, but also things that can help them to help us win more championships."

On what sums up this years signing class...

"Solid. I think it is a class of great representatives for Texas A&M. We've got three players that have Aggie blood in their system, we've got players who can play on the national stage and we've got some players that we think have huge upsides coming in the next couple years in this environment. So, it's kind of business as usual.

"There are some great, great people in this, and great families that are coming to Aggieland."