Love my Seminoles! Disappointed we didn't win the big one this year, but that is soccer! Hopefully, it will even out in the near future when we win one that maybe we shouldn't. Starters returning for 16. GKer Cassie Miller Back line (4) Emma Koivisto, Kirsten Crowley ? ? Holding MF (2) ? ? Wide MF (2) Kaycie Tillman, Natalia Kuikka Attacking MF (1) Megan Connolly Forward (1) ? That is formation Mark played this year. We would expect Elin Jensen and Dallas Dorosy to play somewhere. OThers that may push for starting roles include Olivia Bergau and Macayla Edwards. Haylie Grant, Holly Fritz and Ari Hudson will also be fighting for starting spots. Malia Berkely and Taylor Hallmon are both incoming MFers with accolades. There are others too. Don't know yet if we will get any transfers. I expect 1 to 3 international players based on Mark's past history. No inside knowledge. Just observation. IT would be nice to have Mark on speed dial, but I'd get the same reception Larry Culpepper (Dr Pepper here!) gets from Marcus Allen. A couple of girls may transfer out if they don't think they will start. Any questions or discussion will be welcome!
As the roster stands now, FSU will only have 5 upper classmen..... 1 SR, 2 starting JRs, and 2 non-starting JRs . Will be a very young team.
A couple of the French players would be welcome. Any particular reason you chose the French for your tease? Or was it just random?
How many internationals will FSU have next year? I believe their record is 8 in a season under Krikorian. And they represented as many as 5 or 6 unique countries among those 8.
Tangentially related (or asymptotically so), from the Left Coast: WSU wbb roster is: USA 7 (CA 3, HI, NM, SD, WA), int'l 6 (AUS 2, BUL, GRE, Macedonia, POR, ROM). We call ourselves the "UN of wbb" They have youth experience: our 3 freshmen played in Euro-20s (or Euro-18s) this summer before joining WSU for fall camp. The Pac-12 shrugs, and picked us to finish 10th (of 12) again in 2015. USC wvb is #1 and the #1 overall seed, with the likely lock for nat'l PotY in Samantha Bricio from MEX. We get little-to-no notoriety because (obviously) we haven't won anything yet. Also, we haven't lost any players to int'l duty, as wbb and wvb do their int'l events differently. Bricio did come from Mexico's junior NT, but AFAIK she has not played for them in any senior events -- including the 2014 WWCh and 2015 NORCECA. Maybe they have better than her already(!), or even an agreement to not call her up out of school. Anyways, FSU isn't the only team that tries it. We'll win a title or two, and get back to you (USC wvb might actually do that in about 1.5 weeks --)
In my experience, we won't know who and how many international recruits Mark gets until July or August of next year. We'll see!
I think Jukes is having fun with us. He probably knows that FSU has 4 internationals coming back. While it's not impossible, I would be surprised if Mark brings in 5 scholly internationals. JMHO
Don't they have 5 coming back? Megan Connolly (Ireland) Elin Jensen (Iceland) Berglind Thorvaldsdottir (Iceland) Natalia Kuikka (Finland) Emma Koivisto (Finland) Maybe Dottir isn't coming back for a 5th year?
Read on another site that 2018 #1 recruit Jaelin Howell, a MFer out of Colorado has committed to FSU. I haven't seen it any other place. My source was a poster, albeit one who has been accurate in the past. Just found confirmation. http://www.coloradoan.com/story/spo...5/12/22/jaelin-howell-florida-state/77736498/ If true, that is huge for FSU. Domestic recruiting may be catching up with international recruiting. That same poster also recently said Gloriana Villalobos, an up and coming star from Costa Rica has committed to us. She looks destined to be one of those who is known by one name.
I've been wondering for some time when that domino was going to fall. Howell is widely recognized as at the top of the 2018 class, technical, tactically sophisticated, tall (5'7), and fast. I had the thought that she might be the second US high schooler who would go directly pro, but this announcement ends that line of thought. There are only a handful of blue chippers left unspoken for in the 2018 class. The majority have committed over the last 13 months. (Mark got the commitment from Brooke Bollinger a year ago November.) His 2016 domestic class is very strong and now his 2018 domestic class is off to a great start with Bollinger and Howell.
We are one of about 5 schools still in it for #8 rated F from the same club team, Sophia Smith. UNC already has 4 of the top 10 from the 18 class!
What ranking is this coming from? The most reliable and the never miss ranking internet guru's at TOPDRAWER Soccer?
It's about time that UNC started to dominate recruiting again in terms of getting the best players from high school. It's just too bad that 2018 is 3 years away.
TDS write up about Jaelin Howell's commitment. http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/high-school-soccer-article/girls-commitments:-no-1-decision_aid38656
http://www.seminoles.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=32900&ATCLID=210618399 Top ten moments of 15 in pictures.
I'm surprised that there hasn't been more talk about fsu's reliance on international players. I think if the noles were in a less formidable conference and doing this, there were be complaints as they'd be completely dominant. As is, they've become the big dog in the acc now--regularly beating two of the best programs in the country (unc and uva) who get many of the best U.S. players in the country. Why are the noles beating unc and uva with their stellar coaches and stellar U.S. lineups? Because the international players give them an advantage--not a big advantage, but an advantage nonetheless. Correct me if I'm wrong, but most or all of the internationals have been in professional development academies and have professional european experience, yes? Also, and importantly, they tend to be older than their academic year counterparts from the United States--19/20-year-old freshman as opposed to 18. Seniors who, in some cases, are 22/23. Makes a difference. I think there should be a limit on the number of internationals a team can take--3, maybe. I don't think this has become an issue--yet--because the unc and uva programs are so good and their players can compete with the internationals, but they've also been losing. If I were an opposing coach and playing a team that had five internationals in its starting field 10, I might have a problem with it, even though it's completely legal. I suspect that the uva and unc coaches just look at fsu and its internationals as a good challenge for their players, many of whom have been to usnt training camps or on u.s. national teams and so want to play and beat the best, wherever they might be from. Still, i'll be curious to see how unc and uva react if they keep losing to fsu. Lots of teams have maybe one international player, maybe a very small number have two--but when you have 4/5 in your starting lineup and playing teams that none, well, that jumps out.
Kazoo.... This topic has been discussed in length on many sites, esp the 2015 FSU site. Go read before trying to stir the pot here. I will repeat 2 things for your benefit. 1) international players do tend to be older, but that has to do with schooling, not soccer. European students go to school for 13 years instead of the USA of 12 years. They can also start at a younger age. I lived in many foreign countries growing up and it was not unusual to have classmates 1 yr older than I because they started at an earlier age. Then add a 13th year and players can be 2 years older as they graduate HS compared to a US HS student. An example for you.... the German '95 ers who were on the U17 World Cup team ended up being 2 years older than their counterparts of the same age group before they could play college. This was due to the training schedule they had the year going into WC. They all had to repeat 1 year of school as well as finish their 13th year. Instead of graduating in 2013, they became the class of 2015. 2) All the players do not come in having "professional" training. Many of them come in having youth NT experience which is NO different than the rosters of UNC, UVA, Stanford, UCLA, and others. In fact, those 4 schools alone have more " professionally" trained players than those coming into FSU!! They can have 10-11 YNT starters so are at a way higher advantage than FSU!!!!! Those schools should be dominating hands down over everyone else. Credit the coaching staff at FSU for taking a mostly "less"player pool and creating a team that is formidable. And credit the recruiting team for being able to find rough gems that the coaching staff turns into great players. Maybe the powers that be should set a limit on how many US YNT players a school gets! That would even up the field.