Outside of the Florida Gators' national championship basketball team, it's not often you hear about student-athletes turning down the chance to play their respective sports professionally over continuing their education.
But this is precisely the case for Andrae Clarke, who after finishing his final season as a forward for the Buffalo Bulls men's soccer team, received a try out with Major League Soccer's Chicago Fire. After the try out the Fire offered a contract to Clarke, which he declined, deciding to finish his degree at Buffalo instead. Clarke would have had to give up his final semester at Buffalo to play for the Fire, a decision he was not satisfied with.
After opting not to sign with the Fire, Clarke was granted another chance to play professionally by the Philadelphia KiXX of the Major Indoor Soccer League. The KiXX made him the 21st pick in the second round of the 2007 MISL College Draft.
"It's crazy how it happened, to have a degree and give up a chance to play in the MLS," Clarke said. "Then I got a call from the indoor league saying I was drafted. I just got to keep my head up and keep moving on... I was on the U.S. Olympic developmental team and I'm looking forward to trying out to for the Jamaica under-23 team next year."
The decision to stay in school was a tough choice to make. Clarke received help from his parents on the decision to stay in school.
"My parents are the ones that helped me make the decision," Clarke said. "My parents said that I finished over three years of school, and that I might as well finish up with the rest of it."
Clarke will report to the KiXX in October with the season starting in November. This will allow him time to graduate in May. He hopes that a solid season in the indoor league will allow him to return to the MLS next summer.
One of the biggest factors influencing Clarke to stay at UB was the idea of having something to fall back on in case he got hurt from a freak injury or from the wear and tear as a whole from a career in athletics.
"There was some worrying by my mom if I got hurt. She didn't want me to be another number," Clarke said. "It's crazy to see professional life in how originally you think that everything that glitters is gold. It's nothing like that. Only the lucky ones are healthy when they are all done."
After receiving a contract offer from the Fire Clarke visited Chicago and participated in practices with the team. Clarke was surprised to see how few professional soccer players and coaches had stayed in school long enough to receive a diploma.
"Only two guys (in Chicago) had a college degree, that shows a lot," Clarke said.
The try-out with the Fire served as a valuable experience for Clarke and while in Chicago he had a chance to meet up with a close friend of his, Bakary Sourmare, who is on the Fire. Sourmare was a defender for the Virginia Cavaliers and was drafted second overall by the Fire in the 2007 MLS SuperDraft.
With pro soccer briefly out of the picture, Clarke plans to focus his concentration on graduating this May with a B.A. in Sociology.
After his degree is in hand, Buffalo's fourth leading career point scorer has ambitious plans outside of soccer but for now he sees the sport as his top objective for the next few years.
"I want to be a social worker, probably own a couple businesses and invest," Clarke said. " But soccer is my plan for the next 5-10 years."
Along with his parents, Clarke also credits men's soccer head coach John Astudillo and the UB community as a whole for his success on and off the field.
"Graduating from UB is great," Clarke said. "Coach Astudillo always said 'Being here will help you become a man."
Photo: Courtesy of SUNY
