I don't think anybody could fall academically to Stanford yet, there's still time for SAT/ACT. The timing looks like UNC started hemming and hawing, although many of these early commits start thinking they could replace Pugh.
She has been injured quite a bit over the last year. Committed on a high as a u17 wnt starter. Development hampered by the injuries undoubtably.
I am sorry to hear of Jordan Taylor's de-commitment. Can I assume that another school is turning her head and that she will soon announce commitment there? This 2018 class has looked great for over two years now. The size was right and talent too...and Jordan had a distinct role to play inasfar as Brianna Pinto will continue to be heavily involved with national team duty and Taylor would have likely been a key part of a solution. To make the overall talent picture work, 2 starting field players are needed from that class in 2018 and Taylor figured heavily in my mind with Pinto questionable. (In fact, I am worried that Pinto could be another Lindsey Horan or Mallory Pugh and will end up going pro after high school and then add the full Women's national team and opt out of playing college. The mold has been set by Horan and Pugh.) So right now the UNC 2018 class is headed by Pinto and Jones. Mary Elliot McCabe is the other forward, and her high school and club teammate Claudia Dickey is a solid keeper. Rachel Dowart is a question mark in my mind in that her star seems to have somewhat faded. She performed really well at the time of her commitment (2.5 years ago) and then was chronically injured for the better part of a year, but presumably has recovered in the last 18 months. She left Penn Fusion to play with a smaller club -PA Classics out of Mechanicsburg, and has somewhat been off the radar until this March when she got a look at the U19 call up in Florida, but did not participate in the May follow-up camp. On the other hand she has apparently re-joined Penn Fusion for a summer league and is doing well there. I hope she can recover her former dominance in the midfield and as a scorer. I don't know why it was a one-and-done for the U19s this spring, but given the example of how Bridgette Andrzejewski has done by not going the USYNT route I remain hopeful that Rachel will be a pleasant surprise for the Heels. I'm looking forward to seeing her play.
I think UNC wants to go long. Those Englanders are 5-9, 5-10. Mia Hamm would be hard-pressed to bag offer from UNC today.
I believe that your speculation is not supported by fact. There is a lot of evidence in the recent past that UNC is very happy with shorter players. Take 5'0" Ranee Premji who was a starter for most of 2012 and scored a goal in the national championship game. Or certainly Crystal Dunn who is listed on the National Team roster as 5'1" (and who actually is also about 5'0".) Or senior Maya Worth who gets significant starts and playing time and ho is listed as 5'3" but is about an inch shorter. So two members of the 2018 class and at least one member of the 2019 class who are also 5'3" or shorter does not surprise me at all. Mia Hamm is 5'5" and 7 players recruited for 2018 and 2019 are that height of smaller.
i don't know, hunter. I think those late England signings show where they want to go with recruiting. Difficult to find 5-9, 5-10 field players with speed combo, so he went over there. Tremendous amount of field coverage in very little time, especially in the middle. As you said, speculation, but I think something affected the recruiting focus towards physical attributes and they're pulling money back. Some may come anyway, others, like Jordan, will take it elsewhere. She was very upfront that money was a factor when committing early. FSU brought in a couple of 5-9s and a couple of 5-10s last year. Maybe that was the it. I know 5-10 Alston transferred to A&M.
Your information is mistaken. Dorwart played for Penn Fusion all year. I don't know why you would think otherwise.
I ran across several references that listed her as with the "PA Classics" this past year, and I wasn't able to find a Penn Fusion roster listing her until this late May. One quote was from Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer, which in an announcement of Rachael and Sydney Zandi going to attend the U19 camp in March had the following to say about Rachael: "Rachael Dorwart of PA Classics, formerly of Penn Fusion, will compete as the United States looks forward to the 2018 U-20 Women's World Cup." (see: http://www.epysa.org/two_eastern_pennsylvanians_called_into_u19_uswnt_camp/ ) I'm happy with your information that she was with Penn Fusion all along, but I only know what I read. So I stand corrected with your good information.
Ah, understandable. Not sure why that was published. I just checked the Penn Fusion website (the ECNL website has already purged itself of non ECNL clubs for 2017-18 so I can't verify there). She is listed with the 98 team. No Penn Fusion DA roster is published yet that I can find. Interestingly, I also checked PA Classics. They have the new 99/00 DA roster posted. Only 9 kids listed none of whom were Dorwart. I saw Dorwart (not for the first time) play in Phoenix with much more impact on the game than her u19 WNT and Penn Fusion teammate Zandi (Virginia). She is big 5'9-10" or so and very strong and quick. Remarkably good technique for such an athletic kid. Though the TDS people agree with me that she is better than Zandi, The u19 coaches believe differently. She did not appear injury limited. Not the first time I have scratched my head on their selections. My humble opinion after watching all three play, is that she will quickly outpace both Jones and Pinto at UNC. Jones is very short maybe 5'1" I don't think she's at Dunn's level, to overcome the disadvantage. Jones was an early physical developer and was noticed very early when that gave her an advantage. I don't think her soccer development has kept pace. I also think Pinto is overrated. She was OK at best in Jordan. Certainly did not look to be out of place and accelerated over her peers in that venue. She is average size about 5'4-5" and being generous, average speed. She is fairly strong. Now Pinto (along with Sanchez, Smith and Howell) advanced 6 age groups to u23s and training with the full NT. Seems to me one would only accelerate kids who appear to dominate and are out of place on age. Didn't happen in Jordan. They are all solid players worthy of some of the USSF resources, but this hype around them is not founded on historical fact. The fast tracking wouldn't be related to that BJ Snow, the twice failed 17 coach, is now the 23s coach would it? That is surely a solid business development strategy- when someone fails at his current job- promote him, and along with him, all of his "people". Well the truth as to their relative value will come out soon at UNC. Will be fun to watch.
Maybe Dorwart isn't better than the U19 YNT forwards who played at the Czech Republic last month. https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...ch-republic-for-training-camp-and-two-matches You posted in your opinion Dorwart is better than Zandi, but Zandi is listed as a midfielder on the U19 team....that is comparing apples and oranges. From your post it seems you lean towards favoring, bigger and faster players. Unfortunately, that is the problem with US Soccer.....where the biggest, strongest and fastest players aren't necessarily the most talented players, unless kick and run physical soccer is your style of play.
It's the opposite. Rapinoe and co. were manhandled in WC, Olympic fails. Bigger (and faster/quicker) is better in every sport, if you don't count gymnastics (speed still paramount there). Longer strides, more coverage, closing speed, simple. DNA can't be taught/practiced/developed. As I've said before, men's lacrosse elites fear the football player giving their game a proverbial "whirl". Reaction time is another element to DNA and elite athleticism. Brady, Peyton didn't learn to see/react the way they do. Armin Hary (ye of Rome Olympics) is another one. Soccer can be "coached".
Holmes, utter nonsense! Brady is one of the most unathletic players in the NFL and the reason he was drafted in the 6th round. My kid can run faster than Brady in the 40 yard dash, but thank you for proving my point with Brady. Iniesta and Xavi are not the Biggest, Fastest, or Strongest players....but, when they played at Barcelona together. They dominated the midfield similar to Brady (not with relexes/reaction time)....with their skill and IQ of the game vs their braun. Messi and Antoine Greizmann are both not the biggest players either, yet are both world class finishers though. Obviously you seem to be unaware the current Womens World Cup Champs is the US Womens National team, so learn some futbol. As for running fast, it's not based on stride length....speed is calculated by stride length and stride frequency aka strike rate. A small player like Messi, though his stride length is shorter his striker rate is more frequent. Thus, outpacing taller players with longer strides. Unless a freak athlete like Usain Bolt is born who is gifted with both stride length and strike frequency.
I am seeing a lot of names in the UNC pipeline with various accolades recently due to their high school seasons. Who knows the importance of some of the notices, and sure I am missing some items and girls in the pipeline that should be noted, but, Rachel Jones must have had a big high school season as she earned top All-American notice from USA Today, NSCAA and Top Drawer Soccer (while also playing with the U18 WNT). Claudia Dickey joined Jones on the NSCAA All-American list, and also made 2nd team TDS All-American. Maggie Pierce joined Jones on the 1st team All-American TDS, made the 3rd team list for USA Today, and showed up on the U17 WNT roster. Tori Hansen made the TDS 2nd team list along with Hallie Klanke, and Hansen also was with the U17 WNT on the China trip. I imagine most or all of the girls have seen their last high school play given the arrival of the GDA, so well done in likely their final seasons.
Bound, I phrased it badly. It should have been another DNA (not taught nor learned) attribute is reaction time. I was pointing out how even relative stiffs who are born with reaction time/vision (not taught) can make it. Granted, Peyton, Brady wouldn't make it on a soccer field, they'd have to be more static figures like qb's or baseballers, but the rare player who combines both will exceed the manufactured soccer player. But even without the photographic vision upstairs, if a player is quick and speedy with size, I think coaches will lean towards that in the future and actually, you know, "coach" the coachable stuff. Five, six years ago, from my old coaching perspective, I used to see the later stage ODP turning away virtually all johnny come latelys, majority were better athletes from track/basketball backgrounds, based on easily coachable nit-picky "flaws" such as "not vocal enough" or "positioning". In other words, players who haven't pumped in the same bux into their camps and tournaments over the years. Wouldn't ODP want to "coach" that stuff? Now the fall from grace internationally and selection questions come out or whatever. Canada fields athletes, WVU gets them. Cold rubber turf nation with a fraction of the population and cold rubber turf non-destination college town now rivaling all ye who should be blowing them out.
The original announcement of UNC's schedule included an August 20th game with Grambling. Think Grambling was a substitute for UCLA in Carolina's Nike tournament. But the Grambling game is not included in the latest official release nor on the team website. No second game that weekend?
That is off Grambling's schedule. Xavier is showing a TBD for an opponent at the UNC Nike Classic on August 18. Originally, they had showed Grambling as an opponent.
Looking at Duke's and Xavier's schedule it appears that the scheduling snafu is all repaired to account for first UCLA and then Grambling not able to play on the first weekend. (The Grambling schedule shows no games on that weekend.) Xavier will stay home on September 18th and entertain Cleveland State at 6:00 pm. Also on the 18th Duke and UNC will, as previously scheduled, play each other at one of the fields at the Wake Med Soccer Park in Cary, NC at 6:00 pm On Sunday the 20th Duke will host Xavier at Duke at 1:00 pm It appears that on the 20th UNC will not be playing.... (unless, of course, they also come up with an opponent, but I doubt it at this point in time.)
Posting to see is anyone else has any info in the heels so far this fall????? The official new UNC website is terrible. I can't figure out how to find anything. It's incredibly user unfriendly. I note that UNC appears to not be playing any exhibition games and will apparently start their season stone cold in the 18th as they facet a very good Duke team. (Florida State is the only other ACC team no listed exhibition matches... but the Seminols get to start with UNC-Greensboro...not Duke -which would seem like a good choice.) Most of the rest of the ACC has 2 exhibition matches. So, any info on how it is going for the Heels?
Around 100 ACC women's soccer matches are being broadcast on ESPN3. Over 60 ACC matches are already announced through September: 8/18: Duke vs. North Carolina St. Francis (PA) vs. Miami Butler vs. Notre Dame Hofstra vs. Pittsburgh Boston U. vs. Louisville 8/20: Grambling vs. North Carolina Miami (OH) vs. Louisville Ball State vs. Notre Dame 8/24: South Carolina vs. Wake Forest Coastal Carolina vs. NC State 8/25: Bucknell vs. Duke College of Charleston vs. Virginia Tech Auburn vs. Clemson 8/27: South Florida vs. North Carolina Marquette vs. Louisville Georgia vs. Virginia Tech 8/30: Detroit vs. Pittsburgh 8/31: William & Mary vs. Virginia Tech Wisconsin vs. Virginia 9/1: VCU vs. Clemson Auburn vs. North Carolina South Carolina vs. Notre Dame UNC Wilmington vs. Duke Princeton vs. NC State 9/3: UNC Wilmington vs. North Carolina Santa Clara vs. Notre Dame Auburn vs. Duke Kentucky vs. Florida State Princeton vs. Wake Forest Illinois State vs. Pittsburgh 9/4: Colgate vs. Syracuse 9/7: East Carolina vs. NC State UCLA vs. Virginia 9/8: South Carolina vs. Clemson College of Charleston vs. Miami Purdue vs. Louisville 9/10: Harvard vs. Syracuse Stetson vs. Miami Davidson vs. NC State Penn State vs. Virginia 9/11: Utah vs. Duke 9/14: Gardner-Webb vs. Louisville 9/15: Miami vs. Syracuse 9/17: Western Carolina vs. NC State North Carolina vs. Florida State Virginia Tech vs. Duke 9/21: Clemson vs. North Carolina Florida State vs. Louisville Wake Forest vs. Syracuse Boston College vs. NC State Duke vs. Notre Dame Virginia Tech vs. Pittsburgh 9/24: Florida State vs. Virginia Tech Clemson vs. Syracuse Miami vs. Louisville NC State vs. Notre Dame Pittsburgh vs. Duke 9/29: Wake Forest vs. Notre Dame Boston College vs. Virginia Tech Clemson vs. Miami 9/30: Syracuse vs. North Carolina ----- North Carolina: listed 8 times above Duke: listed 8 times above Florida State: listed 4 times above Virginia: listed 3 times above Virginia Tech: listed 7 times above Notre Dame: listed 7 times above Clemson: listed 6 times above NC State: listed 7 times above Louisville: listed 7 times above Miami: listed 6 times above Syracuse: listed 6 times above Pittsburgh: listed 5 times above Wake Forest: listed 4 times above Boston College: listed 2 times above
My 2017 Season Preview. It’s more of a “who starts where” preview, so if that isn’t your thing you can skip this. Take this with several giant grains of salt. There’s a good chance the majority of what I’ve written will be more appropriate in the garbage this time next week. So much of this is based on anecdotal evidence, goheels.com articles, & what Dorrance has done in the past. I still feel the need to write because it has always helped me wrap my head around things & remember who is who. Kinesthetic learning and such. I’ve never been less certain at the start of a season about who will start & where. Leshnak in goal, Buckingham at left wing, Ashley at right back. I’m reasonably confident that Andrzejewski will retain her right forward spot, & a healthy Redei should be a lock at either center or left forward, depending on where Scarpa is inserted. Last year the quality of the attack with & without Redei was night & day. On the flip side, the competitions for some positions are staggering. The voids left by Cameron Castleberry at right wing & Darcy McFarlane at holding midfield are both huge toss-ups for me. The right wing in particular may have as many as 8 players competing to start: Senior Kimball, Senior Kingman, Senior Boyles, Junior Bailey, R-Sophomore Morris, Freshman Fox, Freshman Sparling, & Freshman Araba. I’m including the Freshman listed as midfielder without really knowing what side they prefer. I’m not including forwards but there’s no reason to think the likes of Andrzejewski, Spruill, and many others won’t get a look there if Anson thinks a change is needed. That pretty much goes for every position, but I think it might be particularly true at right wing this year. The most interesting wrinkle in this is Jo Boyles. We got a brief glimpse of her playing in preseason (in that very emotional comeback video). It might be a stretch to take anything away from such a short clip, but it looks to me like Jo was playing at right wing. If that’s true it almost certainly means Kingman will retain her CM spot, giving UNC an extraordinary 3 front of very talented seniors in midfield. I personally think Jo Boyles should be the CAM & Kingman would make the better right winger. Add Senior Elinsky as a likely candidate for holding DM and you have yourself arguably the most experienced midfield in the country. So many decisions about who plays where revolves around where Anson Dorrance decides to play Junior Jessie Scarpa. When Freshman Lotte Wubben-Moy joins the Heels (I think she only misses Duke) she is projected to become Ansons go to starting CB. Scarpa is listed as a forward but has a lot of recent history as a CB, so she might spell for Lotte until the English international joins the team. Last season there was a shake-up in the forwards as Dorrance moved & rotated defender Maya Worth & midfielder Abby Elinsky to left forward. Without Scarpa, Dorrance said the forwards lacked bite & wanted “fighters” up front. In a season full of brilliant adjustments by Anson, this was the most important one IMO. Jessie Scarpa brings plenty of bite to her game & should give Anson more confidence in his front line without needing to shoe-horn players into multiple positions. Without the need of his “fighters” at forward, Anson can move an experienced defender in Maya Worth back to left back, & an experienced midfielder in Abby Elinsky back to midfield, most likely at her familiar holding spot. This leaves freshman Emily Fox (listed as midfielder) & Taylor Otto (listed as defender) out of the picture. It seems preposterous that someone of either player's quality would start on the bench. Fox & Otto both have incredible experience with youth national teams, & Otto has even been spotted training with the NC Courage. Taylor Otto’s situation is a little more confusing to me. If you had asked me a few weeks ago who our starting CB was, I would have said without a doubt Taylor Otto. Now I’m not even sure if she is starting. The revelation that Wubben-Moy is projected to be the starting CB makes me think Otto will get moved to left back & will be there even with Wubben-Moy not available. I’ve always been impressed with Maya Worth & her quality at left back, but Otto is an extraordinarily talented defender… vs Duke I think we will see Worth inserted at left forward so Scarpa can drop back & pinch in at CB. With all that in mind, my game week starting 11, left to right, front to back, in a 343: Worth, Redei, Andrzejewski; Buckingham, Kingman, Boyles; Elinsky; Otto, Scarpa, Ashley; Leshnak. The strength of UNC this year will be its depth. Selecting a starting 11 doesn’t make things much clearer for Anson when it comes to first choice subs. If it was difficult to fathom Fox not starting, it extraordinary to think she might not even be the first choice as a sub. She could either be in competition with Goff to relieve Elinsky at holding midfield, the multitude of players at right wing, or with Worth to relieve Otto at left back. Maddy Schultz should be a lock at first choice to relieve the left forward, most likely Redei when Scarpa is on the front line. When she joins the team, English international Russo will probably be first choice to spell right forward Andrzejewski. Against Duke we might see Spruill, Hyatt, or Parker, but I’m inclined to think Russo wins this spot easy & might even compete with Andrzejewski if she has a slow start. Andrzejewski by the way is on the MAC Hermann trophy watch list. Scarpa & Redei have first dibs on center forward depending on what is needed at center back. The first choice sub will likely be one of the freshman mentioned above for right forward. Before she redshirted last year, Staker saw time somewhere on the left… I’m having trouble remembering where exactly but I seem to remember left back. She is listed as a midfielder & that appears to be where she is in the “comeback” video referenced before, scoring the winner from a Boyles corner. Again it’s not a lot to go on so I’m not really sure if this makes her first choice to relieve Buckingham. This could be where Fox is being looked at, & there are two other incoming Freshman who might be competing for any number of positions in the midfield. I’m very interested in seeing where Miah Araba fits in. CAM will depend on how things play out for the starters, but I’m inclined to believe Dorian Bailey will not only be first choice, but will compete to start with Kingman & Boyles. Bailey showed incredible talent & promise before her injury her freshman year, but I don’t think she was all the way back last year. Right wing, as mentioned before, will have some incredible competition not just for starters, but also for first choice & even second choice subs. If Boyles does indeed start, I’m inclined to give Senior Alex Kimball first choice simply because of experience, with Emily Fox, Kate Morris, & who knows how many others, including a bevy of freshman, nipping at her heels. Elinsky, Goff, & Fox (I think) are all competing to start at holding midfield. I gave Elinsky the nod as a senior, but all 3 will probably see extensive minutes through the season as Dorrance works things out. First choice subs for defenders are unclear & will remain so for a long time. Julia Ashley routinely plays every minute of every game, & Anson doesn’t normally rotate defenders as much as the other positions. Worth at left back is probably the only certainty, along with Clough as the extra defender if Anson moves to a 4 back. I know nothing about Brooke Bingham besides the fact she was home schooled. Fun fact of the day. To round things out, there’s an interesting story behind Desantis. I hope she gets to play a little & show she’s more than some random pluck off the campus roll call. Don’t expect a whole lot of chemistry or pretty scoring plays this Friday. They may not be playing in a hurricane this time a round but with zero playing time they might as well be. I’m predicting another sloppy scoreless draw. By the way, I’ve seen Lotte & I’ve seen Carlotte… Wubben-Moy and Alessia Russo both are currently tied up the English u-19’s for their Euro tournament. As I’m finishing this up England has lost to France & if I’m understand the format appears to have failed to qualify for the tournament knock out rounds. However, they have a game on Thursday to determine if they will qualify for the U20 WWC next year. So I think the Heels will only miss Friday's game vs Duke & will be available for the trip to Florida next weekend.
The USWNT announced today a game in Cary, NC for October 22nd at 2pm. UNC has a game scheduled the same day for field #2 at 1pm. Something will probably change.