NSCAA Youth All Americans

The NSCAA came out with its lists for Youth and High School All Americans. several UP recruits are on the lists.
The former is voted by coaches in clubs in club programs, the latter is voted by High school coaches.

Charney Burke, Cloee Colohan, Lindsi Lisonbee, and Michelle Olivier made the Youth list:

Youth All Americans list

Danielle Foxhoven made the High school list:

High School All Americans List

Great work, Geezer!!!

This is wonderful news. Although the going is definitely slow during the off-season, Pilots Women's Soccer is a 12 month a year deal for me. I follow a few other sports teams, but the Pilots are my passion.

You've listed three 2008 recruits and two 2009 recruits. The "Pipeline" is looking better than ever, and shows we are keeping up with the "Jones's".

It's a wonderful feeling knowing we do lose great seniors, but continue to add more gifted players with size, speed and terrific resumes. But as we've seen, our "other" recruits sometimes create exciting surprises for us. (I know that Keelin was not a "big-time" recruit, and I don't believe Jessica was either. Elli and Sophie did have the accolades coming in, so I expected fireworks from them.)

Thanks for the "feel good" updates, as usual!

Hmmm...I thought Keelin Winters was a Top 50 recruit, which was a higher ranking than the rest of this year's freshmen, with the notable exception of Elli Reed.

It's quite possible I'm wrong, but I thought Winters and Reed were two of the bigger players we had landed last year.

pms268: one thing to remember about these Youth All-American squads, is that the kids on the list were nominated by their high school coaches. If the coach did not fill out a nomination form and submit it, to the NSCAA in this case, then a player is not considered. Take, for example, the '08 goalkeepers from Region IV, MacKinzie Olsen from Utah and Cody Miles from Oregon. Both of them have been in the Regional Pool for the past 2 or 3 years (and a call-up to an under-16 National Camp in Miles' case), and both have had standout high school careers, yet neither make this list because neither one's high school coach nominated them through the application process to the NSCAA. When choosing the group of players to be Youth/High-School All-Americans, the NSCAA only considers the best of what's submitted to them, not the best of everyone out there. My guess is that's why Keelin Winters wasn't an NSCAA Youth All-American--her coach didn't nominate her.

According to Soccer Buzz, Reed was top 25, Winters top 50, De Young top 75 and Jackman, Kelly, Tsao were top 150.

For what that's worth.

If you look at the prior year I think Chandhoke was rated higher than Enyeart.

FYI - it's no big deal, but I got my info on the 2007 recruits from a person involved in the process about a year ago. And thanks, KFTC. I didn't know players had to be nominated by their coaches for the NSCAA lists. That, to me, renders any rankings from NSCAA incomplete. (Geezer - I'm still very grateful for the info. It's fun to think about and chew on these little tidbits. And I believe all the players you mentioned are on youth national teams and doing very well. Everything I've read about these recruits has been very positive.)

As far as Soccer Buzz rankings, I use to take them very seriously until I was recently informed that the Pilots don't take them seriously at all. They believe in finding the right people to play for the team, and don't trust any ranking publication to be their guide. There are just too many intangibles in finding "True Pilots": Great team players that fit into our system; as opposed to just highly ranked players. They find their recruits the old fashioned way: contacts, networking, word of mouth, alumni, etc.,etc.. They get to know the "whole" person, and current players meet the recruits and have a say as to whether or not the player might fit in with the chemistry the team has already established. (Martin - I still use Soccer Buzz as a resource. I'm not dissing your post at all.)

I was told specifically that Keelin was not being recruited by other schools like the Pilots believed she deserved to be. They were more than happy to scoop her up, and I'm sure several schools are shaking their heads on how she turned out. I was told to "watch out" for Keelin and that she had the potential to become something very special.

When Garrett releases his "statement" introducing the 2008 recruits sometime this spring on the Pilots web site, look for the order in which he comments on them. I have noticed that he always lists the most highly touted player first, the next best second, and so on. I know the first two players he mentioned last spring were Elli and Hailee. Sara was third and Keelin fourth. Jessica was next and Kristen last. I recall that in 2006, Kendra was first and Michelle second. Megan was first in her class. Wozzie and Steph were one, two in their class.

I apologize if this is confusing.

Correction on my last post:

For the 2006 class of recruits, although she redshirted her freshman season, Sophie was rated the top recruit on Garrett's list. Kendra was second, Michelle third; followed by Megan Sweeney and Janelle Jacka.

I think some people read too Much into the rankings and reports. Sometimes the coaches are trying for players that haven't fully developed, but show promise down the road. It's having those players pan out that often makes the difference in how much a class contributes. There have been some very highly rated recruits that didn't work out for the Pilots, and some not so highly rate ones that made all the difference in what they contributed.

this tread makes me wonder if that the 'surprise' of keelin isnt so much that she wasnt heavily recruited, but that the pilot's identified her an secured her earlier then anyone else realized her talent or potential. since i have joined this forum, i have learned that players can commit when they are juniors in high school. for some reason, i believe this is the case with keelin. by her senior season she may have been highly sought after but she had already commit to u of p an honored that commitment. maybe the pilots just are able to identify an recruit talent earlier then other programs?

I remember Garrett at some point talking about this year's freshmen and saying that Keelin was one they felt had slipped through the cracks with other teams. I also remember something about her parents not having been into the self marketing/recruiting game, which must have been an informed, conscious thing on their parts given her dad's athletic and coaching background. My sense is that the Pilots' staff thought she might be a great "steal" and they obviously were right. Perhaps one of the best -- or the best? -- holding mids the Pilots have had.

I can't wait until next August - though I've very apprehensive about the first six weeks, as a whole new defensive group gets acclimated.

PS - A very large and vocal group of Keelin's family and friends turned out for the Pilots' games in Boulder. Especially after the Colorado game, the smile on Keelin's face as the team came over to greet their fans was really something to behold!

Nice story about Keelin and Boulder. Puts a big smile on my face!

Love your passion, UPSoccerFanatic. I, too, am anxious for August. However, that's quite awhile from now, so let's use this board as our home base to await the coming new year as a group. Using our collective love for the Pilots, and with our various backgrounds and differing means of gleaning interesting insight into the team that we otherwise would not have known, let's join together and make this a fun and informative wait.

Oh yeah, I too will be holding my breath a bit as to the new defensive unit. However, with our strong goalkeeping, new recruits, returning players such as Sara Jackman and Kristen Kelly to name but two, and our overall returning solid team defense, come mid-season I think we'll be feeling pretty good about it.

And thanks, UPSF. Your enthusiam has put me in a very brightened mood!