Colin Nangle. WN photo
Ross McGibney. WN photoRoss McGibney and Colin Nangle, co-captains of the 2005 Staples High School boys’ soccer teams, have announced their college choices.
McGibney has accepted a full athletic scholarship to Division I Quinnipiac College, while Nangle will attend Division III powerhouse Middlebury College.
The two Wreckers will join more than 250 Staples players who have played college soccer since the Staples program began 48 years ago. More than 50 have become college captains.
McGibney, who recently returned from California, where he competed with the Olympic Development Program’s Region I team, will be the first Stapleite to play at Quinnipiac.
“That’s great,” said Staples head coach Dan Woog. “They’ve developed a solid program, and not only will Ross help tremendously, but his many Westport fans will be able to watch him do it.”
Nangle, a National Soccer Coaches Association of America Region I scholar-athlete, continues a Staples-Middlebury tradition that stretches over four decades. The Wreckers’ first-ever collegiate All-American, John Marks, played for the Vermont school.
Staples players have a long history of success at the college level. Former Wreckers have starred in the Ivy League, Atlantic Coast Conference, Patriot League, Little Three, and many other conferences, then gone on to achieve renown in medicine, law, business, education and many other fields.
Several have won national championships, at schools like Duke University and Williams College.
“It’s astonishing,” Woog said. “And with the 10 players we’ve got playing college soccer now, plus the ones who will join them in years to come, there is no sign of any letup. Soccer is a great game, and the experiences it leads to are phenomenal.”
