BELLEVUE, Neb. -- The Bellevue University men's soccer team, under Mark Heath-Preston, announced today the signing of Andy Janssen (Lincoln, England) to a National Letter of Intent to continue his academic and athletic career at Bellevue beginning in the fall of 2019.
Janssen is the son of Paul and Jackie Janssen and most recently played for the Lincoln College Men's First Team whom he helped to an unbeaten record in 12 games (9 wins, 3 draws) during the 2017/18 season. He started every game for the College First team as a junior and was the top goal-scorer during their unbeaten 2017/18 season.
He won Goal of the Year and was selected to the Lincolnshire County Schoolboys 2017/18 squad. His team has twice won the Schools County Cup and reached the Round of 32 in the National Schools Cup.
While playing for Lincoln United's U18 and Development Squad, Janssen totaled 11 goals in 10 appearances between league and cup ties. That U18 side have already qualified for the Lincolnshire FA County Cup Final (to be played in May), sit one point back of the leaders in league play, and have reached the quarterfinal round in two other cup competitions.
Janssen has been a part of many successful programs in his youth, even prior to finishing his last league season unbeaten. At the U15 Level he helped guide Lowlands JFC to a League and League Cup double and his side won the league they were placed in every year from ages 11-16.
Coach Heath-Preston on Janssen:
"We are excited to have someone like Andy join the Bruins this upcoming fall. He is a natural finisher with a tremendous attitude on and off the field. With the graduations of Travis Hurd and Renato Silva this year we are looking for Andy to come in and hit the ground running."
Janssen joins earlier signees Eli Brown (Lincoln, Neb./Lincoln East HS), Jan Scheiwiler (Diessenhofen, Switzerland/HKV Schauffenhausen), Brandon Hardy (Huddersfield, England/Northwest Kansas Technical College, Frederick Umani Ronchi (Segrate, Milan, Italy/Virgilio Scientific HS), and Ramy Katit (Frankfurt, Germany/Graf-Stauffenberg Gymnasium, Florsheim HS) in the Bruins' 2019 recruiting class.
BU completed the first unbeaten regular season in school history in 2018 en route to a final record of 18-2-2. The Bruins reached the A.I.I. Championship Game, hosted an NAIA National Tournament Opening Round match for the first time, and advanced to the NAIA National Tournament Round of 16.
