NJC Signs First Ever Soccer Player

***NJC Press Release***

Hinkley’s Christian Stout makes history for college’s newest sports program

This Tuesday was a big day for Northeastern Junior College. Big because it will go down in collegiate history as being the date that the school’s new soccer program signed its first player. Christian Stout, a senior soccer stand out at Hinkley High School in Aurora, inked a letter of intent in the lobby of the Bank of Colorado Event Center on campus as onlookers watched.

Stout, who has the grades to go Division I, was originally talking to Oregon State about playing there, but the coach there encouraged him to look at Northeastern’s new program and consider spending two years here before moving on to the West Coast. Stout attended a Discovery Day on campus in February, but returned to Sterling this week to make his decision final.

Admittedly, this Hinkley Thunderbird says he knew nothing about Northeastern prior to his first visit here. After spending time with NJC’s new soccer coach Jeremiah McNutt, this midfield specialist now has a sense of excitement about being the first soccer player to sign here. “It’s pretty cool,” he said, adding “And a lot of responsibility.” He didn’t quite realize that his signing would mark a historical moment for the college, which passionately embraces and documents its history. Photos were taken and notes jotted down for future reference. Stout admits he finds the idea of coming to such a rural area a bit daunting, but is up for the experience. He hasn’t decided on a major yet, so finds doing a two plus two program attractive. “I’ll come here for two years and hopefully figure out what I want to major in while I help build a soccer program at NJC.” In his player profile, he said he was leaning toward a future in engineering or mathematics.

Northeastern announced last year that it would begin a soccer program, recruiting players and having a game schedule in place by this coming Fall Semester 2011. The college hired McNutt, a soccer coach with nearly 10 years of collegiate competition experience at Owens Community College in Toledo, OH to champion the program. The NJC Plainsmen will begin competing this fall in Region IX of the National Junior College Athletic Association, playing teams in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming. McNutt has spent recent months networking with various high school and college programs and scouting regional high school tournaments to find prospective players. He has a number of recruits planning to come on board between now and July.

McNutt is excited to start the team with Stout. “Christian brings foot skills and vision of the field that will help him distribute beautiful balls to his teammates. A play maker like Christian is a great building block to start a new team around. I believe this kind of talent will help attract many more high caliber players to NJC.”

Stout says that making varsity as a sophomore at Hinkley is something he’s been very proud of in his high school playing career.”You can’t be varsity as a freshman, but I’ve played starting varsity center midfield for three years now,” Stout notes. The T-Birds, under the coaching of Kevin Daly, won their league three years in a row, which was Stout’s freshman, sophomore and junior years. The slight built player (5’9” 145 pounds) with brown locks draping across his forehead ever so much fits the soccer player image. He has been competing on the grass since he was 12 with competitive metro travel teams. During his high school years, he has been on a traveling team that went to some of the largest tournaments in the country including those in Las Vegas and California. He was nominated for the US Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program (ODP) in 2008 and played on an ODP team for one year. The ODP is a national program used to identify players for the state, regional and national teams. The program is a multi-step process that begins at the state level and continues to regional and national pools and teams.

Stout is solid on the field and in the classroom. He has been an honor roll student at Hinkley and is a participant in International Baccalaureate, being a diploma candidate. Among his extracurricular activities has been serving as a volunteer at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Before coming to NJC this fall, “Messi” as he is nicknamed, will travel to Spain this summer to visit relatives. Stout is the son of Teresa Stout and Kevin Stout of Aurora.