How a Post Grad Year Led to an Offer to Play College Soccer at Bowdoin

Luke Peltz, a 2022 graduate of Scarsdale High School, and a four-year varsity soccer player describes his journey to playing college soccer. For those who are wondering if a post -graduate year is right for your student athlete, see below for his description of his decision making process, the post graduate year and more.

Tell us about yourself and what you enjoyed at Scarsdale High School. What sports did you play and for how many years?

My name is Luke Peltz and I grew near Greenacres School. I thoroughly enjoyed my Scarsdale experience, particularly my time at Scarsdale High School. I made an incredible group of friends, who I still contact every day. I attended many athletic events as a spectator because of my deep passion for Scarsdale sports. I had great relationships with my teachers, especially my eleventh and twelfth grade English teachers Mrs. Rosenzweig and Mr. Paul. I played varsity soccer for four years and was the captain my junior and senior year. I was the male recipient of the 2022 Scarsdale High School Athlete Honor Society Award for my work as a student-athlete during my time at SHS.

Did you pursue recruitment to a college team while you were at SHS? Tell us about that process and what happened.

I pursued soccer recruitment during the spring of my junior year. It was a difficult process because while some schools would respond and I had set up zoom calls, they couldn’t move forward because of the dead period during COVID. The dead period during my junior year was extended until July 1. Colleges that I wanted to attend were not able to see me play until a couple of weeks before they had to make their final offers. I did attend many ID camps (Identification Day) to try to show my talents to colleges. I got some interest from colleges that I wasn’t interested in but my most intriguing offer was to the Berkshire School, a prep school in Massachusetts.

I started talking to Berkshire and in August, they offered me the opportunity to repeat my junior year there and attend for two years. Even with all that, I was very close to committing to Hamilton College in Clinton, New York for the class of 2026. I told the coach I would commit to playing for them and he said they wanted me on their team but needed to make sure that I could pass the pre-read process. The pre-read process is where colleges take a prospect’s academic materials (transcript, standardized test scores, resume) and submit it to admissions before actual applications to let the coaches know if their recruits would get into the school Early Decision. submitted my pre-read to Hamilton just before my senior year soccer preseason and was told the day of my first game against Mahopac that I didn’t have enough AT courses on my transcript. It was pretty devastating but I knew that my soccer recruitment did not have to end there because I was receiving interest from several top boarding schools for soccer in New England who had seen my highlight film or in person.

Why did you decide to do a post grad year? Which schools did you look at?

I decided to take a post-grad year after our devastating sectional final loss to Mamaroneck in late October of 2021. I did not want that match to be the last competitive soccer match I ever played. In my boarding school process, I visited Taft, Berkshire, Phillips Andover, Phillips Exeter, and Hotchkiss. I absolutely loved Andover, Exeter, and Hotchkiss. I ended up receiving offers from Exeter and Hotchkiss and thought I would attend Exeter. These schools were all great academic institutions. However, I went to an ID camp in February of 2022 in Danbury, Connecticut and received an offer from Owen Finberg at South Kent to play on their prep team, who won back-to-back prep school National Championships. I spoke to some South Kent Soccer alums and a college coach in California who told me that I should take the best Athletic Opportunity for my post-graduate year. I knew that Coach Owen Finberg had the most college contacts out of any boarding school and ran the most prestigious soccer program. Even though South Kent was the campus that I liked the least and its academic reputation didn’t compare to the other schools, I trusted that the athletic prestige of the soccer program and reputation of Coach Finberg allow me to achieve my goals of playing college soccer at a high academic college/university.

A fall 2022 game at South Kent

Do these prep schools have specific one year programs for post high school athletes? Did any of the schoolwork you did qualify for college credit?

The majority of prep schools that I reached out to took multiple post-graduate high school students every year. In fact, at South Kent I am one of twelve post-graduate students. This year I took three college level courses through Syracuse University Project Advancement but none of those courses will directly translate to college credits at Bowdoin. However, taking those classes helped tremendously with my pre-read at Bowdoin.

Did you play soccer at prep school?

Soccer is the biggest part of my life at prep school this year. We play six times a week. We were undefeated in the Fall season and won the 2022 Prep Soccer.com National Championship for the third year in a row. I started in half of our games in the fall and am now a regular starter for our u-19 spring club team. We also had success with our club team as we won the 2023 Jefferson Cup two weeks ago.

Tell us about the recruitment process there - and how it differed from the one at SHS.

My soccer recruitment process, coming out of South Kent, was so much easier coming from such a reputable program. The reputation of South Kent soccer is so renowned in the college world. I reached out in the same manner that I did a year ago as a SHS athlete and got faster responses than I did the year before because of the fact that I had “South Kent Post-Graduate Center-Back” in my subject line. Last year, I had four phone calls the first week after committing to South Kent and seven in total (Middlebury, Hamilton, Bates, Bowdoin, Vassar, Washington & Lee, Colby). I also had three programs follow me on Instagram after I reached out. So, as you can see, the recruiting process was robust after I committed to South Kent. I actually committed to Bowdoin after they saw me at an ID camp before I even touched a soccer ball at South Kent. The point is now that I was a South Kent player, coaches were looking out for me as opposed to the anonymity I experienced for the most part as an SHS player.

Where did you decide to go to college and why? Did you receive several offers? Do they offer scholarships as well?

I decided to attend Bowdoin College because I really loved the coach there, I had a friend on the team, I loved the campus, and I would be able to walk away with an amazing academic degree. Although I chose my boarding school based on athletic prestige, I always valued academics the most for where I would be choosing my college. I was very close to receiving offers from NYU and Vassar and was scheduled to speak with them sometime in early August but jumped on my offer from Bowdoin before I spoke to those schools. For Division III soccer, they don’t normally offer scholarships. NESCAC schools, in particular, are very good about offering financial aid and will sometimes offer “academic money” to prospects they really want. While Division III schools don’t offer scholarship money for athletics, they will find ways to make sure the prospects that they really want are able to attend their school.

What advice would you give to current SHS students considering this path?

My advice to current SHS students considering college soccer would be to reach out to colleges that interest you with an introductory email and attach your main highlight video. If a coach responds, you want to make yourself available to talk to them and send short clips from your games as your season progresses.

Is there anyone in the Dean’s office or athletic office at SHS who can help students who wish to pursue a post grad year?

I was very open with Athletic Director Ray Pappalardi about my intentions to do a post-graduate year. We just engaged in conversations about the schools I was considering and he was very interested in my process and knew of the schools I was talking about. My dean did give me the contact of other former SHS students who took a post-graduate year, but I would say my pursuit of a post-graduate year was largely independent.

Peltz, the sixth player on the right after an Adidas Classic Championship win.

Anything else you wish to add is welcome.

I only considered Division III schools because I wanted to find a place that would give me the best academic, athletic, and social experience. Another huge positive of playing Division III is that I am able to study abroad which wouldn’t be possible at a Division I school.

What really struck me about Bowdoin was the kindness from students and faculty, the passion they showed for learning, and the diversity of the student body. I have been in contact with my soon-to-be teammates who I know will be my life-long friends.

I owe a lot of credit to Coach Owen Finberg who was my coach this year at South Kent. He has worked here for 19 years, won 6 national championships, and 11 New England Championships. He will be moving on to Woodstock Academy, so they will become the most prestigious New England boarding school for soccer. In 2021-2022, he placed 11 of his players at Division One schools and this year he placed six of my teammates at division one schools. This year I was one of three NESCAC commits on the team (Colby and Middlebury were the others)

South Kent has been a wild experience. I am proudly Jewish and have gone to co-ed public school my whole life. However, South Kent is an all-boys, episcopal school, so I am required to go to church three times a week which teaches me to respect other beliefs and to do jobs/community service such as washing the dishes, doing recycling, doing laundry, etc.

I also love the diversity of our program at South Kent. There are forty players. Three players are from Spain, three from Bermuda, two from Ghana, two from Guatemala, two from Canada, one from the UAE, one from Mozambique, one from England, one from El Salvador, one from Jamaica, one from Hong Kong, one from South Korea, and one from Colombia.

I want to thank my parents who supported me throughout this process. They had a vision for me and belief that I would be able to play college soccer at a school that would be a great fit for me. There were many, many times where I wanted to give up and would argue with them about the value of postponing college by a year, but they were reassuring that it would all work out and it couldn’t have worked out better for me!

I’m so excited to start at Bowdoin College in the fall and plan to double major in Economics and Government Studies.