Jakub Samelko commits to Bucknell University for soccer

Jakub Samelko (´23) has committed to Bucknell University for men’s soccer. Samelko has been playing soccer for about eight years, he plays for Real Jersey Football club and used to play for Cherry Hill High School East´s soccer team.

¨I played for East my sophomore year, but my club team made me choose and I chose club.¨

Samelko has been playing soccer for eight years and plays year-round. His position is forward. Samelko started the recruitment process his junior year and the way he described it was ¨extremely stressful.¨

Samelko toured other schools before making his final decision. ¨I had a friend going to Bucknell so I decided to reach out to the coach.¨

Samelko has always known he wanted to play soccer in college so after reaching out to the coach he toured the school and got an offer within the same month.

Being an athlete and a high school student is not an easy thing to manage ¨I do my school work during the day and at school if I can and focus on soccer when I’m out of school.¨

Samelko said his biggest struggle with the recruitment process is that Covid drained a lot of money out of most of the programs so the offers weren´t as good as they should have been.¨

Having a support system is also a super crucial part of the recruitment process. Samelko says his biggest supporters are, ¨[his] parents, coaches, and teammates.¨

Samelko shared that his biggest struggle with soccer is always maintaining consistency while his biggest strengths are that he is very athletic, technical, and fast.

Samelko´s biggest advice to any players that are considering starting the recruitment process is ¨don´t give up and contact coaches to get your name out there.¨

Samelko plans on majoring in finance and East wishes him the best as he continues his athletic and academic journey.