PROVO, Utah (May 19, 2011) — BYU sophomore defender, Junior Lartey (pronounced LA-tay) was honorably mentioned on the USL Premier Development League Team of the Week today for the week of May 8-14.

He started both games last week as the Cougars opened the PDL season on the road against the Fresno Fuego on May 12 and the Orange County Blue Star on May 14.

Lartey and the Cougars lost to Fresno 2-0 and held the Blue Star to a 1-1 draw after Orange County had scored nine goals in its first two games. He has logged 162 minutes in two games and has recorded a shot, four fouls, and a yellow card.

Here’s a link to the full PDL release.Tweet

Freshman defender, Junior Lartey was featured in a Mormon Times article by Chris Peterson on August 3.  Read his compelling story at this link.

Junior cut his hair shortly after this picture in February and played in four games as a defender during the 2010 PDL season.Tweet

Junior forward, BJ Pugmire drops some of his writing skills on the blog with his weekly look at the different aspects of the BYU soccer program.

One benefit the BYU men’s soccer team has with regard to its incoming freshman is the opportunity for its recruits to join the team right after graduation in order to give them more experience, and often times help the Cougars win matches.

Matt Kurtz graduated June 10, exactly one week ago and has participated in three official practices with the BYU team.

“The pace of the game is a lot faster than it was in club,” Kurtz said. “The players have a much better touch on the ball and I have been very impressed with the caliber of soccer since I got here.”

That is quite the complement coming from Kurtz, who grew up playing for the Las Vegas Premier. According to gotsoccer.com L.V. Premier is ranked No. 2 in the nation and No. 1 in the western region. Kurtz club side won state cup in Nevada and is headed to the western regional finals, a tournament Kurtz will not be attending because of his commitment to BYU and the team. Also his mother did not think it would be a good idea.

“My mom told me she didn’t want me to miss a week of school,” Kurtz said. “We talked a lot about it and we decided that it was better to move on and come here to start school and join the team.”

Although Kurtz just graduated high school, he is one of the biggest and strongest players on the team. Kurtz is 6’2” and weighs in at 190 lbs. He used his height in high school as he played volleyball all four years along with basketball as a freshman and sophomore.

Although Kurtz played other sports growing up, he said he always knew he wanted to pursue soccer over other sports. After being recruited by colleges for soccer and volleyball, the center midfield player attended BYU camp where shortly after he committed to coach Watkins.

“One of the main reasons I wanted to come to BYU was because of the environment here,” he said. “Along with the high level of soccer, it’s also a great place to prepare to leave on a mission.”

Even though Kurtz is very excited to be here at BYU he does admit to feeling a little jealous as he watched his friends and teammates receive scholarships to play at division I schools across the country.

Players and coaches are impressed with the technical ability of Kurtz considering his size.

“He is a big strong central player,” said sophomore teammate Toni Niccoli. “He’s also very smooth with the ball and has great vision of the field.”

Kurtz is one of three freshmen that have joined the team since graduating high school this season. Junior Lartey (Mountain View HS in Orem, Utah) and Nate Stoven (Brighton HS in Sandy, UT) are the two other freshmen that have joined the team. It is often difficult for players to come right of high school and make a difference on the team, but Kurtz definitely has the potential to help our team improve.Tweet

BYU incoming freshman, Junior Lartey was recently featured in a story on BYUtv’s “True Blue”. Aaron Nilsson tells the story of Junior’s father and his conversion in Ghana, his father’s LDS mission and move to the USA and his son’s play at Mountain View.  It’s a great story because Junior passed up possibilities with North Carolina because he wanted to serve a mission.  

By the way, his last name is pronounced “La-TAY”.

Enjoy.

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