Soccer lands two-time Parade All-American

TAMPA -- Aubrey "Trey" Perry, a member of the U.S. under-17 national team and two-time Parade All-American, said Thursday he has signed with USF and will play for the Bulls this fall.

"When I went on my visit, I loved the environment, and it's close to home," said Perry, a 5-foot-9 defender who lives in Ocoee but has trained the last two years at IMG Academy as part of the U.S. Under-17 Residency Program.

Perry, who has played for the United States in events in Spain, Japan, the Ukraine and Northern Ireland, said he also strongly considered Duke, North Carolina, Wake Forest and UCLA. He graduated with a 4.45 grade-point average as salutatorian at Bradenton's Edison Academic Center, where IMG's athletes attend classes.

USF coach George Kiefer is expected to announce its class of incoming recruits in the next week. That class includes Seminole midfielder Sebastien Thuriere, the Times' Pinellas County Player of the Year, as well as Tampa Prep goalkeeper Brad Sienkiewicz.

Comments

[702JV]

I would have never guessed in a million years that such a discussion would take place over GPA's. It is classic. When we went to USF in the 80's and 90's how many students do you think really even cared about their GPA's?

[Terry Lucas]

Oh... the memories Brandon... instead of the GPA being in the thousand because of some excellent college moments, its now a strip club tab with my old age. Oh well... someone has to put these girls through college.

They did give Miss Teen South Carolina a chance to rebutt her answer on a morning show Greg (gotta love YouTube)... You gotta admit though, your dad would high five you for bringing her home to dinner, but your mom would be in utter dispair once she opened her mouth.

There are some pretty good parodies on YouTube about her... gotta love the sense of humor of people in our nation!

[Ari Hinkelberger]

A 6.0 GPA sounds more like a Mustang to me..

Could be the line of the year on the blog.

Really funny... Terry Lucas.

[TJ]

Either way, it sounds like a great pickup for the bulls futbol squad. And Spurs > City

[Brandon]

Terry! Great to hear you're still doin good man. I love the business name, I never knew. Hey, if success with the ladies was worth extra credit, your GPA totally would have been in the thousands...

[G.A.]

Poor Miss Teen South Carolina ... so many U.S. Americans hating on her ...

[Terry Lucas]

Gotta agree with Ari on this one... Graduated high school with a 2.19 GPA in a Northern Virginia school system. Pretty much took all honors classes, and was writing for a city newspaper my senior year before joining the military. At USF, graduated with a 3.41 GPA with a degree in Finance. It took two years for my GPA to fall that far down at USF, but I had a lot of fun my last two years while living on the beach and could care less about the GPA. Currently, I own an appraisal firm that shares the initials of the best university in the world... USF Appraisals, LLC. I'd say my firm is doing all right for the big 2.19 GPA I was swinging back in the early '90s. A 6.0 GPA... sounds more like a mustang. Florida GPA's are laughable... but if you think Florida students are lacking, spend a month in Arizona. You would actually consider Miss Teen South Carolina smart if you lived out here long enough.

[Rueben Horowitz]

Fortunately for you, the grading system is a relative performance measure Greg; which is why it has worked so well.

Will Hunting was a fictional character, just saying.

[Ari Hinkelberger]

Good to see Rueb back contributing.

[G.A.]

My, what a discourse we're engaged in. For the record, in the course of nearly any single day, I am smart, capable, lazy and dumb. Will Hunting was a janitor, just saying.

[Rueben Horowitz]

This +4.0 GPA nonsense is not helping anyone out. Sure it was created with the best of intentions, but so were DTD and asbestos.

The old system wasn't broken.

A,B,C,D,F = Smart, capable, lazy, dumb, and janitor.

Keep it simple stupid.

[Brandon]

I could be wrong, but I think I heard that the average GPA of an incoming freshman at UF is over 4.0; in fact, the middle 50% of freshmen are between 4.0 and 4.4. Is that nuts or what?

Ari, I guess I didn't stop to think you were poking fun more than being serious. I've been up all night, and when things get slow around here and I get a chance, I surf Greg's blog. Perhaps if I wasn't so sleep-deprived I wouldn't have responded so defensively... my apologies. In the end we're all Bulls fans anyways... so it's all good man.

[Ari Hinkelberger]

I can only speak to Fairfax County, VA (which happens to have one of the best public school systems in the country).

Nobody in my class of 600 had a 4.0+ GPA.

It really is a Florida thing. Its comical. I wasn't trying to rile up the clan, but a 4.5 GPA makes me laugh. How about the guy who got a 4.0 in high school?? I guess he is middle of the pack.

As for the AP and advanced level courses. In VA they count for college credit and they are shown on your transcripts. When I was in high school they did not give you extra credit as far as I know. I do know that you needed to take them to be considered for UVA and a few of the other big time schools. It was just an understood point. And anyone who took those classes knew what they were getting into.. pure hell.

But I just think its funny that a kid can graduate from a Florida high school with a 4.5 GPA but scores 1030 on his SAT.

Anyone who had a 3.8 or higher in my school was pulling 1400+ on the SAT.

Just my 2 cents.

[Steve H]

I totally didn't read that rebuttal which was longer than the original blog.

Just Sayin...

[Reality]

Brandon, calm down, it is just a blog with a bunch of blowhards that are trying to kill time. Thanks for the update on how these kids get these obscene GPA's. Back in the good old days of the 1990's, these were not as widespread as now.

Nice to see that Greg has such intelligent readers that can trade such immense knowledge. Then of course there is The Champ.

[Brandon]

Greg,

Hillsborough County weighted an IB class with an 0.08 and an AP class with an 0.04, I don't know if those have changed now. That's added to the overall GPA; so when you take a year of IB classes (7) and you pass them, that's adding 0.56 to the GPA overall. IB students take 4 years of those, so that's already over a 6.0 possible with a 4.0 unweighted. There's room for 8 classes on the schedule, so many students opt to take extra IB or AP classes, which adds more extra weight. There's also summer school, but I don't know if AP classes are available then. I do know that classmates of mine at the top of the class took online courses and summer courses (pretty much had no life), so they must have picked up extra weight somewhere. I don't know if the calculation I'm giving is completely correct, but that's the best I can remember it.

Scott,

The reason I chose to post is because I had to stringently disagree with Ari's sarcastic, incorrect, negative post. I'm not elitist, I don't feel that I'm better than anyone else. Believe me, after living in Miami as a poor kid, I couldn't be arrogant about my background. I chose a service profession, and it would betray the values of that profession to feel otherwise. Ari said it was stupid to get over a 4.0. "So you had an AP class." Well, actually, those are really tough classes, and I think this recruit should be praised for an excellent GPA, especially as an athlete with more than academics as a priority. I could never have balanced an athletic career in high school and kept up my workload; the vast majority of IB students cannot (though there are a few exceptional ones who do).

"The Truth,"

Yes, a high school diploma alone does not necessarily predispose one to immediate placement in a high-demand job. BUT, the premise behind IB and AP classes is not that students will stop at a high school diploma. It is that they will be better prepared to be successful in whatever they move on to; typically, if you're going to put yourself though the grind of tough classes for extra credit, you're doing it because you're planning on a higher education. My public speaking skills, science background, study and time management skills, and particularly my formal writing ability were all truly significantly enhanced by the program I was in. I believe that it was a big factor in helping me through a successful college career at USF and now in graduate school. That's all I was saying.

- Brandon

[G.A.]

"Equivalate" is an outstanding word.

Ken, didn't even notice the double posts. Typepad.com gets excited sometimes and does that. Thanks. Just impressed to get 20 comments already ...

[Herman Momart]

Did you know they say the average millionaires GPA is 2.7

Herman Momart - a lifetime 2.7 GPA, from New York public schooling, so I would say that would equivalate to a 4.5 in Florida.

[Ken]

Greg, Good post with excellent news, but is it worth posting twice?

[The Truth]

Hey Brandon

An IB course is still high school. So that person is "much more prepared for the world as a result of it", and the only job they are qualified for with a high school diploma - normal, AP, IB, or whatever - is flipping burgers.

[G.A.]

It's coming Adam, don't worry ...

[Adam]

AP classes are great. My calc class in HS counted toward calc 1 in college and took me through most of calc 2 when I got to USF. Honestly, I can't remember what my HS GPA was, probably over 4.0, but it doesn't matter now. USF GPA I remember, but also not important. The point is that the HS scale is pretty consistent across the board and that is all anyone has to go on at this point. College GPA may be important in the first job, but if Greg weren't the best beat writer for the Bulls, his GPA wouldn't mean squat.

Speaking of which, how about a little softball stadium fund donation shout out Greg?

[The Truth]

A GPA over 4.0? That is why they call the state "Floriduh"

When I was in school there were no extra GPA points for AP classes and all that tripe. The colleges saw the AP classes on your transcript and gave them extra consideration.

I can just see Ivy League schools like Harvard and Yale responding to an 8.3 from a Floriduh high school. They roll their eyes and file it into the circular filing cabinet.

[Scott]

Wow Brandon, Your post started very insightful and then you had to put people on blast. I wouldn't say the post were "pessimistic" or "lambasted" the the process. Having not attended an IB program though I may not fully understand the meaning of those words.

[G.A.]

Brandon, how do they adjust the GPA scale for an IB class? When I was in school -- I sound 80 when I say that -- they bumped each grade one point in an honors/AP class, so an A was worth five points, B four and so on. Just curious how you can average higher than a 6.0 on even a weighted scale ... don't get me wrong, congrats, just curious.

[Brandon]

Ari,

I graduated from the IB Program with a 6.2 and frankly, after sitting in on a few traditional Florida high school classes, the small amount of extra credit they give per IB/AP class is more than worth it. They really bust your butt, and every IB/AP grad and I are much more prepared for the world as a result of it. The public school system in Florida is as pathetic as it gets when compared nationally, and in my humble opinion, you can't come close to comparing a 4.0 from a traditional setting with a 4.0 in an IB/AP setting. It's just not fair, which is why Hillsborough County ranks the IB classes separately from the traditional classes and gives extra GPA points for the tougher courses. I'm currently a year from graduating with an MD/MBA and still drawing on skills I learned in high school in IB. It's by far the best education money can't buy. Does that mean that traditional grads aren't prepared, or are less intelligent? NO. Plenty of my colleagues about to graduate med school come from traditional high schools, and most successful people in this world did not come from advanced high school programs (just talking numbers here). BUT, I can assert that they did not have to work nearly as hard in high school. Your pessimistic lambasting of GPAs that exceed 4.0 is shortsighted; there weren't such programs until the last 10-20 years, and your experience in the matter likely doesn't give you the breadth of understanding to adequately formulate a well-educated opinion.

[Reality]

Greg, no need for boasting about our GPA's now, we are all older and we believe you that you got good grades by the quality of the blog.

Reality:4.03 GPA, 1470 SAT, 34 ACT

[G.A.]

And the GPAs over 4 aren't anything new. I suppose I should clarify it as a "weighted" GPA. It's been a while, but I think my high school GPA was over a 4 ... I know that wasn't an issue in college.

[G.A.]

Former USF coach John Hackworth is likely a good reason why the Residency Program has sent some top players toward the Bulls ...

I think you guys have to avoid the "less than" and "greater than" signs together in the same post. I think it confuses the stuff between as being code of some kind. It means your smiley faces can't have pointy chins. My apologies.

[Kyle]

I'm starting to think IMG should be known as the U-17 USF Residency program. Kiefer has had good luck recruiting out of IMG.

[Jim]

Thanks Greg, it was worth the wait. What a great catch for the USF soccer team.

[Steve H]

Great news!
He's coming from the same training as American (NOTE: not International) greats such as DeMarcus Beasley, Landon Donovan, Johnson, Adu. If we can set up a decent attack, the soccer team will go far this year.

[Mike Lakeland]

WHOA...apparently, you cannot do the Internet symbol for heart (less-than sign [Shift+comma] and the number 3) and have a greater-than sign. Everything inbetween got erased! My post should have read:

"crambone [insert Internet symbol for heart]'s soccer. A lot.

Although my career was short-lived, I am always glad to catch games at USF. Soccer is one sport where we have always excelled.

Oh, and City [insert greater-than sign] United."

[Mike Lakeland]

crambone United.

[TJ]

Lol, internet noobz with their double post and whatnot

But you can end up with technically a 5.0 if you take all AP classes but don't think it's possible.

G.A. any word on when the home jersey will be revealed for football?

[Ari Hinkelberger]

A 4.45 Greg?

I bet he gave 150% too.

Did he run the extra mile too.

Only in Florida can you get a 4.5

When I grew up a 4.0 was a perfect score. Now you got these kids getting 4.7's

So stupid. So you to an AP class. Somebody has to tell me what a perfect GPA is.

At USF its a 4.0
In Florida's public school system it seems to be a 8.3