James Wood’s Stanford To Play Soccer At Lafayette

Posted: January 23, 2015
From Star staff reports

WINCHESTER — James Wood senior soccer player Alex Stanford will be signing with Division 1 Lafayette College at 3:30 p.m. on Feb. 4 in a ceremony at James Wood High School.

The Colonels’ first outright Northwestern District Player of the Year and the reigning Winchester Star Girls’ Soccer Player of the Year verbally committed to the Leopards over the summer after a quick recruitment.

“I actually hadn’t even heard of Lafayette before one of my mom’s friends mentioned to her that I might want to look at them,” Stanford said. “I had been looking at other schools in the Patriot League, like Bucknell, so I called the coach and asked if there were any spots left and he said he just had a girl turn down his last spot the day before.”

Stanford was invited up to a camp the next weekend and, after performing well in front of the Leopards coaching staff, she was offered a spot on the team. Lafayette is located in Easton, Pa.

After researching the school’s academic programs — Stanford plans to major in biology and eventually go to medical school — Stanford verbally committed to Lafayette in early July.

“It’s really a dream come true. I’ve been playing soccer since the age of 4 and I’ve been working all these years to play Division 1 soccer,” said Stanford, who scored a team-high 14 goals and had 11 assists as a junior last season.

“I’m just honored to have the chance to play at Lafayette. I really like the coaches, the campus and I felt like I clicked with the players at the camp. All the pieces were there for me.”