https://www.instagram.com/p/BcwTdbglRPq/ "I’m very excited to announce that I have accepted a scholarship offer to play soccer at the University of North Carolina."
this is why no one respects the NCAA. they changed lacrosse rules so no contact (by any means, including via club) to anyone before sept. 1 of junior year. for some reason women's soccer is somehow different. NCAA makes ZERO sense to me.. same issues in lacrosse as women's soccer https://www.pressboxonline.com/2017...-for-division-i-lacrosse-impact-local-coaches
I'm astounded. This is a total off-the-wall surprise. What are the chances that she will actually matriculate and UNC? I suspect that the staff probably realize that it's pretty slim. The kid is apparently 12. SOO much is going to change for her in the next 4.5 years. If she continues to improve, then she will experience many other offers from college programs and from the pros in Europe and elsewhere. (She may even get burned out with soccer and take up some other activity.) Her announcement on instagram does not sound as though it as written by a 12 year old unless she is as precocious as a student as she is as a soccer player. (I suspect her parents or her coach wrote it.) Given the article in urbanpitch.com last June, it sure sounds like an extreme case of parents and a compliant coach pushing hard for glory (especially when one looks at the videos produced by her personal coach.) And given that the way Top Drawer noted the commitment, it appears that she (her parents and coach more likely) has been talking to UCLA and Texas, but decided for UNC for what ever reasons. OK. OK. ....Maybe I shouldn't be so jaded. Maybe there are circumstances that I can not see or judge (or imagine) and that this announcement actually makes sense. So then Anson says something like "OK, if you really want to come here in 4.5 years (or maybe 4 if you graduate early), and assuming that you have the grades for admission, we'll make a scholarship available for you." ..... But then he probably knows full well (like I said above) that the chances of nothing changing for her in the next four years is pretty remote....
I’m with soccer hunter. We’ll see in six years if the commitment is honored or if she decides skate boarding is her real thing.
UNC can't announce the signing, because she hasn't signed. That is YEARS away. This is a verbal committment only, but it's clearly based on a scholarship offer. She is already high-profile enough that there's no way they would have announced this if UNC hadn't made an offer.
This 12 year old commitment is a no risk endeavor. UNC is infamous for dropping scholarships that they have verbally committed for perceived player non performance. If the little kid continues with her dominance and remains uninjured, it's a win for UNC locking in a top player in the country. If she doesn't pan out in 5 years, she would be at risk of losing her "commitment" aka one of the kids in the 2018 class. UNC can probably still get away with this corruption of the process which can only propogate if its largely based on mutual trust. Most others cannot afford a bad reputation for renigging on verbal offers. I know of at least one other P5 that routinely does this, but more quietly. Don't know when that will be blasted out for public consideration, but I suspect it may be soon. The continuation of the early commitment cycle is based on maintaining the integrity of the process. I personally think this process is wrong. It puts pressures on kids to decide who they are and what will help them get where they want to be way before they have the experience and maturity to be able to make good decisions regarding their futures. Think back, when I was 12 I couldn't even clearly imagine myself in high school much less college. Kids live in the present and very limited future. Forcing them outside of their developmental capabilities often leads to psychological issues in addition to mistakes that may be challenging to rectify. From the famous NYT article "Mr. Dorrance is credited with being one of the first coaches to look at younger players, but he says he is not happy about the way the practice has evolved. 'It’s killing all of us,' he said. Mr. Dorrance’s biggest complaint is that he is increasingly making early offers to players who do not pan out years later. 'If you can’t make a decision on one or two looks, they go to your competitor, and they make an offer,' he said. 'You are under this huge pressure to make a scholarship offer on their first visit.' The result has been a growing number of girls who come to play for him at North Carolina and end up sitting on the bench. 'It’s killing the kids that go places and don’t play,' he said. 'It’s killing the schools that have all the scholarships tied up in kids who can’t play at their level. It’s just, well, it’s actually rather destructive.' So after taking this public opinion, he commits a 12 year old a couple years later. It is irrefutable, he, personally, has been driving this trend. Only he doesn't anymore sit the mistakes on the bench, he pulls the offer before signing day, preserving his allocation. When will it end?
Two thoughts on your good post, olelaliga. One is that I think that this particular situation is unique and does not fit the mold. From everything I can see, this kid has been driven hard by her parents and by the private coach she trains with. The coach puts out public videos on youtube -- some routine, and some very dramatic and highly produced with lines fed to the 12 year old which she performs nicely. I don't for a minute think that it was truly the kid's decision to accept an early offer. She has been groomed and pushed and marketed. The announcement was carefully written for her. I think that this is a potential set up for a big flame out. Like I said before, there is a good chance that she will change considerably as she goes through puberty and she may rebel and chuck the whole thing in a few more years. I think that the parents are ultimately responsible for supervising and guiding their child with respect to her emotional/maturity developmental progress. At this moment they would appear to be in the thrall of the personal coach. Second thought... You may be missing a factor in the "normal" early commitments. That being that in the verbal commitment/offer process it only makes sense that the coach would naturally make clear any conditions that she/he feels are part of the deal. These would naturally be (1) that the kid maintains academic progress such that she can be admitted to the institution (and perhaps a grade point specified appropriate to Stanford, Pudunk U, UNC, or Princeton.) (2) That she continues to show a good faith effort to continue her soccer practice. (e.g. play on an appropriate club team and not just drop out of soccer for a few years.) (3) that an appropriate level of fitness be maintained (perhaps even to some metrics.) I suspect that verbally the offer is contingent on factors such as these. If this were not true then there would be loud, long, public and ferocious complaints by parents and club coaches if the offer was withdrawn. I am sure that a lot of the top players' parents are very invested in their careers and would loudly cry "FOUL" if they thought their kid was treated unfairly. And because I just haven't seen such complaining when the various last minute switches have been made (most prominently at Stanford and UNC in recent years) I am forced to conclude that such verbal agreements were made and witnessed by others and the parents were therefore quiet. All this being said, my personal position is that early recruiting is nuts and getting worse. There should be a solution, but I am not sure what it would be. Mostly, parents have to be empowered to take charge and appropriately resist the pressures from their club coaches to promote and advertise. (All major clubs publicly tout where there former players have gone to college and highlight the offers from the major soccer schools.) And to resist the flattery and offers from College soccer programs until the time is right. And to insist that the verbal commitment/offer is very clearly understood especially with regard to any conditions.
I was at UNC's ID camps this past year, three of them, and the staff was very high on this kid. She was all getting showcased out there. With that said, it's the parents who are pushing her into UNC. The only issue I see is if the current players don't warn her too much about the rigor as she matures. But, what the parents are doing is the right way to do it, minimize the distractions and allure of an alternative.
Well.... If it is indeed the parents who are pushing this 12 year old to UNC, then that would be all the more reason for her to rebel when the picture starts to become clear to her and she starts to associate with other adolescents who aspire to the same goals. The more I hear, the more I suspect that this deal may fall apart before she becomes a college student.
In case any of you UNC fans don't know, Michelle Dorrance, Anson's daughter, was a 2015 winner of a MacArthur Foundation genius grant. She's involved in reinvigorating tap dancing -- which is a dance form I really love. These are very rare and highly desired awards, so she must be really something.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Every now and then the local press picks up some of Michelle's activities in New York, but I hadn't seen this item. She appears to be driven and focused on dance. Always wondered where she got that trait from......
For UNC fans with information..... This evening I saw a post of what appeared to be Jordan High School (Durham, NC...where my son played 14-17 years ago) athletes all busily signing letters of intent last month to various colleges at the same table. All very festive with balloons and all. One young lady at the table appeared to be Brianna Pinto in a UNC sweatshirt. Question: It is reasonable to think that this means that she is going to matriculate this spring? (Otherwise the normal signing date is in February, is it not?) Or might this have been for "show" with the Olympic sport athletes just signing blank pieces of paper? All this is confusing in that while she clearly lives in Durham and has been attending Jordan High School, in recent dispatches from US soccer (and copied by Top Drawer) have her no longer playing club ball with CASL/NCFC but list her with the Top Hat club in Georgia. Anyone have this figured out?
I have heard from a classmate that all her classes are online and that she still does live in durham. beyond that no idea.
From the NL website for high school students: So it doesn’t appear she can sign a valid NLI outside of the Feb- Aug timeframe. From the NLI website for JC students However, there is no early signing period for soccer, so I don’t think this FAQ applies. The normal signing periods is between February (7th, this year) and Aug 1, any signings outside this period are invalid. She may have signed an aid agreement or something, but according to Nationalletter.org, not an NLI.
Thanks Cliveworshipper. You always have good information. So on this point of my confusion, I'll take your conjecture that it was an aid agreement or something as the probability.
Ouch! Word is that Alea Hyatt is returning to southern California to play for USC. That's too bad for UNC. She had an excellent freshman season and looked to have a good career in Chapel Hill. Very good for USC who looks to be building transfers for another run at the national championship. Natalie Jacobs is transferring in to USC from Notre Dame and will likely be a leader there. Hyatt should also start for the Trojans.
Good news in from my favorite UNC keeper of recent times. Lindsey Harris has signed with a first division Norwegian team from Kleppe on the south west coast. From my research, she'll be getting paid considerably more than the NWSL offers and will enjoy top notch facilities and health care. (Which, until the NWSL Players Association gets going in a few years, is not necessarily available when playing in the US.... and, not bad for building a nest egg for a young person. Get paid well, get some free meals, live cheaply, have air fare home and back taken care of and for 9 months out of the year no real place to blow money! Down side is a long season (mid February thru mid November)... but they do their pre-season in sunny Spain. Her post: Next Stop: Norway Excited to announce I have signed with @kleppelite in Norway for the upcoming season. Year 2 now uploading Like Anson says, live on a never ending ascension, so let’s go get it GOOD NEWS: games are live streamed
Just an FYI, the NWSL standard player agreement gives players health insurance for themselves (but not dependents) from contract signing through the end of the season. So, they get some health insurance. Whether they get top notch facilities varies from club to club.
As I recall, the health package is different for allocated players, who get their insurance through the NTs. Non allocated players default to state workman’s comp.
Yes, that was my understanding too. But I also had heard that some NWSL clubs did better with a minimal commercial policy partially paid for with the player responsible for some of the monthy premium. The huge advantage that many EU clubs have over the US employers is the national health systems which in Norway is very good.... basically, if the club pays the annual "deductible" of about $250, everything is covered promptly, (unless you are under 16 or a pregnant woman, then everything is free.)
Nope, non-allocated players (but not their spouses or dependents) get health insurance from contract signing through the end of the season as I described. (Or at least they got it as of the date of the NWSL standard contract provision on this that I have.) They also get workers' comp coverage, as a matter of state law, but that only covers work-related injuries.
Well that's up to date good news! Makes me feel a little better about the NWSL given that several sources have said that the contracts for non allocated players are pretty one-sided favoring the club. The feeling was that the players association would lay low for a few years to try to support the league's survival, but then turn its attention to obtaining a better balance of employee rights. Does the contract give any indication about what the quality of the insurance is and who gets to pay for it? (Or is it some reimbursement for converge under the Affordable Care Act, which might be short term if the political party in power continues its efforts to kill it.)
I haven't seen any specifics about the scope of the insurance, but it looks like it's not reimbursement for ACA coverage. From the standard player contract: During the Term of the Player’s Employment, NWSL shall provide the Player with medical insurance in accordance with the Player Handbook. From the Player Handbook: The NWSL shall provide the Player with medical insurance, should the Player enroll in health coverage. The NWSL will send enrollment documents and supporting information in the new player packet sent to any new player who comes under contract. The NWSL will cover the monthly premium for the Player only. If a player elects to cover her dependents, she will be responsible for the dependent’s premium. The cost of dependent coverage will be included in the new player packet as well. Coverage will be effective starting the date the contract is signed by both parties, provided the player returns all necessary forms on time. Although the Handbook refers to "new" players, I expect it's the same for continuing players. It's in the clubs' interest for the players to have health insurance. The clubs want them healthy.