The USA Football International Student Program (ISP), which is run in conjunction with IFAF, is now accepting nominations for the 2010-2011 academic year.

The ISP is currently in its fourth year of helping student-athletes to attend preparatory schools in the United States where their academic success is as important as their success on the football field.

This program is for your elite junior players who are of the right age (16 or 17 years old) to enroll for their junior and senior years provided they meet the academic standard demanded by these schools. They must be players who have the potential to play at the Division I college level.

Student-athletes from Australia, China, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Mexico and Sweden have taken part in the ISP and some have realized their ambitions of going on to attend such US universities as Boston College and West Virginia on football scholarships.

In previous years the ISP has benefited from funding to cover the cost of school fees, which is no longer available. The third party that manages the ISP will instead assist accepted students in efforts to secure financial aid from their chosen host school.

Please review the attached application form and forward it to suitable candidates. They must then submit the form to Patrick Steenberge (psteenberge@usafootball.com) for the process to continue. There are no guaranteed placements and all nominations will be considered on merit with the top 8-10 student athletes accepted into the ISP and suggested to schools predominantly in the New England region. New to the revised ISP process is a request for video footage of all prospective student-athletes.

You will receive ongoing updates and more information on the ISP through the weekly IFAF ISP e-newsletter and can also review this pdf: http://www.usafootball.com/app/webroot/files/international/SM-XXX23_ISP_brocure.pdf and read about the ISP at www.IFAF.org.

IFAF is conscious that club and national teams do not wish to lose their best players to the US schools system, so encourage all ISP athletes to remain members of their junior national program and to use the experience they gain to assist the development of the game at home.

Please give this matter your immediate attention and submit nominations by the deadline of October 31, 2009. We also anticipate some players will apply directly to USA Football and will inform respective federations of those cases.

Yours truly,
Michael Preston
IFAF Managing Director
Michael.Preston@IFAF.org