Ben Hailes has signed a deal with Northeastern Junior College starting Fall 2022. Northeastern Junior College is in Sterling, Colorado and competes in the NJCAA. It is a two-year program and a fantastic stepping stone for athletes to then move on to compete in the NCAA or NAIA. NJC has right around 1,000 students and offers a number of different programs including Sports Management which is what Ben is looking to study. Their soccer team had a disrupted 2021 season due to Covid issues, but hopefully with the addition on Ben they will bring home some silverware this year.

Ben chose Northeastern over his other options due to the high level of soccer at NJC and his connection with Head Coach Chance Vang. Chance actually reached out to us over Instagram after he saw some of our content that we post there. From there we have built a very good relationship with him and we are super excited to have Ben joining his squad.

Ben is from Warkworth, New Zealand (just north of Auckland), and went to Pinehurst school. Ben is a soccer nut, when he is not playing soccer, you can usually find him playing futsal instead. He competes in the men’s superleague for the Northern Federation team. Ben is also very outdoorsy, loves biking and tramping too which is perfect for the rocky mountains of Colorado. I’m sure Ben will love his time at NJC and we can’t wait to see how his adventure goes!

From Ben:

“Platform Sports played a big part in helping me on my path to the American college system, which was finding the best school for me, Northeastern College. This being a school fitting for me due to its high level of Soccer and an environment which I will be able to fit in well. Platform played a big role in recommending me to colleges which would suit me best in order to provide the greatest options for me in my college recruitment process.”