AURORA | While there’s something of a family debate about who followed who, Joe and Emily Langenderfer will be playing soccer at Boston College.
A year apart at Regis Jesuit — Joe graduated in May and Emily begins her senior year in the fall — the sibling soccer standouts both decided that the venerable Division I school on the East Coast was the place for them, athletically and academically.
Emily verbally committed to Boston College last March as a sophomore and Joe in December as a senior, but Joe got the honor of signing his national athletic letter of intent first, which he did in February.
“Girls commit earlier, but it was on my list first,” Joe said. “Since seventh or eighth grade, B.C. has been in the top three on my list, so getting to not only go to school but play soccer at one of the top three schools on my list is awesome.
“She (Emily) basically almost replicated my list of schools, which is awesome … hopefully our younger brother (14-year-old John) will look deep into going there.”
Both chose Boston College to study and play over places such as Wake Forest and Notre Dame for very similar reasons.
Joe plans to major in finance and loves the networking possibilities of Boston College’s business school, while he enjoys the aesthetics of the picturesque campus and the historic city of Boston.
Emily has a similar take, while really enjoying the relatively small size of the student body.
“I liked the Jesuit feeling; I’ve gone to a Catholic school my entire life, so that was a factor,” said Emily, an all-state academic performer as a junior. “I don’t like the vibe of a large school, especially in the classroom, so being at a smaller school will be really helpful. I loved the coaches, the players and the campus.”
Joe signed at Regis Jesuit’s massive signing ceremony in February, which included more than 20 athletes in several sports — including offensive lineman Tim Lynott (Colorado), pitcher Brent Schwarz (Rice) and 12 boys lacrosse players — headed to play at a variety of Division I schools.
The signing came about three months after he had verbally committed to Boston College during a showcase tournament in Florida. It made his decision to skip playing for Regis Jesuit his senior season to play Academy soccer pay off.
The Academy soccer system has pulled many of Colorado’s top prep boys players away from playing for their schools in recent years, while allowing them greater exposure to college coaches.
Joe got the reluctant go-ahead from Regis Jesuit coach Rick Wolf to play Academy soccer and he made the most of it as two of his former teammates had. Kurtis Young and Ryley Llorente, both 2014 Regis Jesuit grads, played high school soccer for two years and exclusively Academy ball for their last two seasons, earning scholarships to Portland and New York University, respectively.
“It was a pretty easy decision, Mr. Wolf and I talked about it and decided that if the opportunity came up, I would take it,” said Joe, a first team All-Continental League performer as a defender in his junior season at Regis Jesuit.
“I know he doesn’t like the Academy system, but it really does have a wider capability for college coaches to watch you play,” he added. “That’s where I got scouted, so it’s the best decision I could have possibly made. I missed a year of high school soccer, but in the long run, it wasn’t too big of a deal.”
Emily Langenderfer had her own conflict between club and high school soccer, but she only had to miss her freshman year.
As a central midfielder, Emily earned All-Continental League second team honors twice for coach Will Cropper’s Regis Jesuit team. In the 2015 season, she notched three goals and added a team-high six assists.
The youngest Langenderfer, 14-year-old John, arrives at Regis Jesuit to begin his freshman year in the fall and plans to play for the school team. Joe and Emily both believe John is ahead of where Joe was as a freshman in terms of skill and should take off once he comes into his own.
All of the family’s success in soccer stems much from Joe’s decision to play soccer over the other sports he played as a youth, such as baseball, basketball and flag football.
“My dad let me choose between playing football and soccer and he told me I said I wanted to travel more, so he looked into both and soccer was it, flat out,” Joe said.
“Traveling is a huge part of playing soccer at a high level.”
Emily traveled with the family to watch Joe play and eventually developed her own interest in the sport, which was a vast departure from her previous activities.
“Joe set the path; I was into ballet and tap and jazz,” she said. “Those two are completely different things, obviously.”
Once both got seriously interested in soccer, they worked their way up from the lower levels of their club teams, benefiting from quality coaching.
Both have been working with Elite Speed Sports Performance in Centennial and the physical gains enhanced their knowledge of how to play the game. And being able to play with each other doesn’t hurt.
“We go out and pass the ball around and try to make each other better,” Joe said. “That’s one of the pros of having siblings that play soccer at a high level.”
Courtney Oakes is Sports Editor of the Aurora Sentinel. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Aurora Prep Sentinel
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