Reigning Big East Player of the Year and former Cate School soccer star Joshua Yaro is one of 30 NCAA soccer players named to the preseason MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List. The award is given to the best college soccer player in the country at the end of the season on January 8 at the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis.
Yaro, who won two CIF championships at Cate and was Presidio Sports’ All-City MVP in 2013, was a Hermann Trophy semifinalist as a sophomore. His junior season will begin with the Hoyas ranked No. 3 in the country in the NSCAA poll.
Georgetown began its season on Saturday with a 3-0 victory at Syracuse.
The defender led the Hoyas to six shutouts in nine Big East Conference games last season.
Taylor Rochestie signs with Maccabi Tel Aviv
Russia, Italy, France, Germany, Turkey and Spain. Taylor Rochestie’s next international basketball experience will be in Israel with Maccabi Tel Aviv. The Santa Barbara High alum, who later excelled at Washington State, has signed a two-year contract with the premier Israeli club following a season in which he was the Euroleague’s leading scorer representing Russian club Nizhny Novgorod.
The Jerusalem Post reported that it was a two-year contract with a third-year option:
The 29-year-old left-handed guard is coming off a breakout season at where he averaged a Euroleague-high 18.9 points per game. He did so extremely efficiently, hitting 52 percent of his shots from two-point range, 50% from beyond the arc and 92.5% from the foul line. Rochestie also averaged 5.7 assists per game (sixth in the Euroleague).
“I’m very excited and proud to be joining Maccabi Tel Aviv, not only to play basketball at the highest levels in Europe, but also to experience the country of Israel and play for the best fans in the world,” said Rochestie, who played with Israeli Gal Mekel last season.
“Maccabi has an amazing tradition. Everyone in Europe and the US knows it, and I’m ready for the big challenge. I’m well aware of the high level of expectations in Maccabi Tel Aviv; I’ve talked about it a lot with Tyrese Rice and Gal Mekel.”
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Alex Mack Returns to Browns
Alex Mack, a two-sport All-CIF athlete while at San Marcos High School, is participating in training camp for the Cleveland Browns after missing a majority of last season with a broken leg.
“I’m pretty happy it felt pretty normal,” Mack told the Lorain County Chronicle-Telegram. “It felt like I was just back in training camp, new year, new start, let’s get after it. It felt good to be out there with my teammates, doing everything, I was pretty happy with how normal everything felt.
“We’ll see how it feels, I think we’ll go day by day,” Mack said, sweat dripping down his nose and from his thick beard. “I think there’s a conversation that’s going to go on between me, the trainers and the coaching staff about how much needs to happen where and how it’s feeling. The main goal is just to be healthy for the first game. So whatever it takes to get there, that’s what we’re wanting to do.”
Browns head coach Mike Pettine apparently trusts Mack, a two-time Pro Bowler at the center position.
“He knows his body better than anybody else,” he said. “We will depend on him to let us know when he does need to scale it back.
“We’ve used the phrase ‘Save him from himself’ before. That might be the case. I think he will be smart about it. He will be smart about it.”
