Next Level U Sports is making dreams a reality
Holly McKenzie, Matt Hargest and McKenna Kelly are getting the chance to live out their dreams of being student athletes thanks to Next Level U Sports — a Kitchener sports school owned by Ryan Neceski, which specializes in recruiting top-level athletes and helping them receive scholarship opportunities in Canada and the U.S.
Neceski, who is from Kitchener, is an elite soccer player who had the opportunity to play at Cleary University in Michigan on a full ride scholarship. During his time there, he also had the opportunity to play for FK Rabotnic ki in Macedonia.
He started his business in April 2017 after noticing that there was a large gap particularly in Ontario, in regards to the knowledge surrounding the recruitment process. He said he wanted Canadian student athletes to be able to have the same opportunity as him.
“There are no resources, parents are not informed about what they have to do and guidance counsellors are not well versed (about the process) in Canada.”
Therefore, he created a process where he sits down with the athlete, goes over what they envision in a school and uses this criteria to reach out to schools for them.
“Not only do we place players at colleges and universities, but we help entirely with the admissions process, the visa process, really everything that has to do with athletic recruiting. We take them all the way through until they go to their dorm and cross the border.”
Neceski has partnered with places such as the Berlin Football Academy in Kitchener, Peak Performance Athletics in Guelph and the Academy at Deer Ridge Golf Club who do the recruiting for him. He said they currently have 50 athletes and are hoping to help athletes all across Ontario, eventually going Canada wide.
Kelly, who is a 2020 softball recruit, heard about Neceski through her training at Peak Performance Athletics. She said she reached out to him in June not knowing what to expect, but said she is grateful as he has been very helpful.
“Ryan really helps you get through the complicated process … I have some of my dream schools that I want to go to and he is really reaching out to them and I have been in contact with some of them,” said Kelly. “He is honestly helping a lot of athletes achieve their dreams.”
Kelly has visited Canisius College in Buffalo, Boston University and is soon going to visit the University of Pennsylvania. She is an achieved pitcher who recently won two awards for being the 2018 Ontario Provincial Pitcher of the Year and the Most Promising Pitcher of 2018.
She said she has enjoyed visiting the schools to meet the teams, coaches and to get a feel for the campus. Since she is in grade 11, she still has a year to decide and said she hopes to visit more schools. She said she is interested in studying biomedical science.
McKenzie, a 12th grader at Preston High School has signed to Bishop’s University in Quebec to a five-year full ride soccer scholarship thanks to the help of Neceski.
McKenzie was three years old when she started playing soccer and said she was around 13 when she started to want to play in school because she started noticing girls who were going off to schools to play soccer.
“I started seeing that you can actually do something with soccer and get money for it, so that really started to be one of my goals and then it really developed into a dream and a passion.”
Throughout her soccer career, she has played for Cambridge, Saltfleet Stoney Creek and Woolwich Wolfpack.
McKenzie said she first reached out to Neceski in March after hearing about him through word of mouth and social media. She said he has made the process easier for her because he is such a great listener.
“When I first went into it, it was pretty overwhelming … but the one thing that really stood out to me about Ryan is that he really listened to what I had to say and because of that the schools that he was talking to for me were more tailored to me,” said McKenzie.
She said after visiting Bishop’s she knew it was where she wanted to go as the coaches, the players and the facilities were amazing. She said she also got to talk to professors about her program of study, which is psychology.
“I am so grateful and I don’t think I would have the opportunities or the exposure without him,” said McKenzie.
Hargest, a 2019 soccer recruit, started playing when he was four years old and has recently been playing for the Kitchener Academy and the Berlin Football Academy. He said he always knew he wanted to play at the university level, which Neceski has made easier for him.
He said Neceski has been very helpful in navigating through the paperwork regarding going to school in the U.S, as he said he would have never been able to figure out all the deadlines for things such as taking the SAT tests.
Hargest has visited Lee University in Tennessee and is going to visit Cape Breton University in Nova Scotia, who are the men’s national soccer champions for U Sports. He said he has not yet made a decision between Canada or the U.S, but wants to attend a school that has the best balance between his education and playing soccer. He said he would like to study business.
“I would not have these opportunities at all without Ryan. If people have the opportunity to use him, I would for sure recommend it.”