Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Texas just got a verbal commitment from a (very talented) eighth grader

Collapse
X
  •  
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Texas just got a verbal commitment from a (very talented) eighth grader

    Texas just got a verbal commitment from a (very talented) eighth grader

    http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/the91...d2ba5-31251273

    Written by Will Parchman

    Two years ago, the University of Texas made waves when it accepted the verbal commitment of Solar Chelsea attacking midfielder Haley Berg. A 2017 and now the No. 27 player in that class, Berg’s story captured the attention of the country when the New York Times ran a profile on her recruitment story.

    Texas, like many other programs in the country, didn’t wait until Berg was out of middle school to begin its recruitment. After weighing a number of options amidst the escalating arms race that is women’s college soccer, Berg, then 14, offered her pledge to Texas the summer before entering high school.

    As of today, she still has another year in club soccer before she arrives on campus.

    Haley is not a once-in-a-generation talent like LeBron James. She just happens to be a very good soccer player, and that is now valuable enough to set off a frenzy among college coaches, even when — or especially when — the athlete in question has not attended a day of high school. For Haley, the process ended last summer, a few weeks before ninth grade began, when she called the coach at Texas to accept her offer of a scholarship four years later.

    “When I started in seventh grade, I didn’t think they would talk to me that early,” Haley, now 15, said after a tournament late last month in Central Florida, where Texas coaches showed up to watch her juke past defenders, blond ponytail bouncing behind.

    “Even the coaches told me, ‘Wow, we’re recruiting an eighth grader,’ ” she said.

    As of this week, Berg is no longer the youngest commit in program history. Say hello to Alexis Missimo, a rising eighth grader who just committed to the Longhorns five years from the start of her college freshman season. Missimo is also, probably, the youngest college-committed player in the country. Anywhere.

    She is a 2021.

    Missimo is hardly an unknown to anyone who runs through the ECNL circuit. She played up with Solar Chelsea’s U14 team – the same Solar Chelsea pipeline Berg plays for – this past season, and in spurts she was a revelation. A naturally diminutive attacking midfielder, Missimo largely slotted into the space between the lines and ran the show as a proper No. 10. It’s hard to find creativity this good anywhere, and if she isn’t in more U14 and U15 U.S. GNT camps in the coming year, it’ll be a surprise. The fact that she already has a blank profile page on U.S. Soccer’s website is no accident.

    She first popped onto our radar in February, when she made our Best XI at the Houston ECNL national event. Five months later, she was named to our ECNL Playoffs Best XI at the U14 age range, and if we’d picked an MVP she might’ve won that too. She did all this playing up in age and giving up both size and speed to her counterparts.

    And then, less than a month after the ECNL Playoffs, Missimo offered her verbal commitment to the Longhorns. As a 2021. For some level of perspective, we don’t even start grading 2021s for another year. We only just released our first list of top 2020s this month.

    Women’s college soccer has become a desultory race that now reaches middle school players and asks them by proxy to choose their college fates before they’ve even stepped foot on a high school campus. In Missimo’s case, she’s now committed to a college program – one that could change wholesale by the time she arrives – before starting eighth grade. The only weighty future decision I could’ve been trusted with in eighth grade was whether LA Lights were still cool or not.

    It’s clear Missimo is a special talent. It’s equally clear women’s college soccer is, unfortunately, not backing off its drive to accept the recruitment of younger and younger players. Texas only felt the need to offer Missimo this early because she was likely fielding similar offers from a handful of other big programs, if not dozens. The Longhorns were merely operating in the diseased system. In turn, that applies pressure on the player to commit, and thus the carousel turns.

    Every player is different. Perhaps Missimo really is ready, or at least as ready as an eighth grader can be to commit to something a half decade away. But if this opens up pathways to players who aren’t, who is being served here?

    It’s hard to imagine women’s college soccer recruiting reaching even younger players, but based on past returns, don’t blink. We may soon see our first sixth grader committing to college soccer.

    #2
    Insanity

    Comment


      #3
      How does an 8th grader know where she wants to go to school. I have junior that is still trying to figure this out. Insanity is not even close to explaining this situation.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
        How does an 8th grader know where she wants to go to school. I have junior that is still trying to figure this out. Insanity is not even close to explaining this situation.
        When a kid is from Texas, it's not all that unusual to see them decide Texas is the place they want to go. That doesn't make committing so early any less problematic, but at least she's not committing to attend a school in California or the east coast at age 14.

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
          When a kid is from Texas, it's not all that unusual to see them decide Texas is the place they want to go. That doesn't make committing so early any less problematic, but at least she's not committing to attend a school in California or the east coast at age 14.

          ....and what is the real difference whether she was committing to a school in california or one on the east coast?
          First, this is a verbal commitment and is only worth the value of the paper it is written on. There is essentially nothing binding about this commitment in either direction.
          Second, I would hope that the parents and the girl will visit the school before her senior year, which is when the commitment starts to become more binding.

          Third, in my opinion (and no more than that) this would be absolutely ridiculous if, in fact, any of this was really binding.....which it isn't. For the player, there is too much that changes in the next several years to make this a 'real deal'. For the school, the same reality occurs and one injury will change things dramatically. That said a 'commitment' does not really dictate and money value nor does it keep the coach from 'committing' to many others with the hope that 20-30% of any incoming class will play all four years.

          Fourth, it should be known that any athletic scholarship is only a year to year happening and the coach has significant input based on who actually makes the team or not.

          Very exciting and I am sure that this girl is a very good player, but talk of commitment at this age is crazy.

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
            Texas just got a verbal commitment from a (very talented) eighth grader

            http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/the91...d2ba5-31251273

            Written by Will Parchman

            Two years ago, the University of Texas made waves when it accepted the verbal commitment of Solar Chelsea attacking midfielder Haley Berg. A 2017 and now the No. 27 player in that class, Berg’s story captured the attention of the country when the New York Times ran a profile on her recruitment story.

            Texas, like many other programs in the country, didn’t wait until Berg was out of middle school to begin its recruitment. After weighing a number of options amidst the escalating arms race that is women’s college soccer, Berg, then 14, offered her pledge to Texas the summer before entering high school.

            As of today, she still has another year in club soccer before she arrives on campus.

            Haley is not a once-in-a-generation talent like LeBron James. She just happens to be a very good soccer player, and that is now valuable enough to set off a frenzy among college coaches, even when — or especially when — the athlete in question has not attended a day of high school. For Haley, the process ended last summer, a few weeks before ninth grade began, when she called the coach at Texas to accept her offer of a scholarship four years later.

            “When I started in seventh grade, I didn’t think they would talk to me that early,” Haley, now 15, said after a tournament late last month in Central Florida, where Texas coaches showed up to watch her juke past defenders, blond ponytail bouncing behind.

            “Even the coaches told me, ‘Wow, we’re recruiting an eighth grader,’ ” she said.

            As of this week, Berg is no longer the youngest commit in program history. Say hello to Alexis Missimo, a rising eighth grader who just committed to the Longhorns five years from the start of her college freshman season. Missimo is also, probably, the youngest college-committed player in the country. Anywhere.

            She is a 2021.

            Missimo is hardly an unknown to anyone who runs through the ECNL circuit. She played up with Solar Chelsea’s U14 team – the same Solar Chelsea pipeline Berg plays for – this past season, and in spurts she was a revelation. A naturally diminutive attacking midfielder, Missimo largely slotted into the space between the lines and ran the show as a proper No. 10. It’s hard to find creativity this good anywhere, and if she isn’t in more U14 and U15 U.S. GNT camps in the coming year, it’ll be a surprise. The fact that she already has a blank profile page on U.S. Soccer’s website is no accident.

            She first popped onto our radar in February, when she made our Best XI at the Houston ECNL national event. Five months later, she was named to our ECNL Playoffs Best XI at the U14 age range, and if we’d picked an MVP she might’ve won that too. She did all this playing up in age and giving up both size and speed to her counterparts.

            And then, less than a month after the ECNL Playoffs, Missimo offered her verbal commitment to the Longhorns. As a 2021. For some level of perspective, we don’t even start grading 2021s for another year. We only just released our first list of top 2020s this month.

            Women’s college soccer has become a desultory race that now reaches middle school players and asks them by proxy to choose their college fates before they’ve even stepped foot on a high school campus. In Missimo’s case, she’s now committed to a college program – one that could change wholesale by the time she arrives – before starting eighth grade. The only weighty future decision I could’ve been trusted with in eighth grade was whether LA Lights were still cool or not.

            It’s clear Missimo is a special talent. It’s equally clear women’s college soccer is, unfortunately, not backing off its drive to accept the recruitment of younger and younger players. Texas only felt the need to offer Missimo this early because she was likely fielding similar offers from a handful of other big programs, if not dozens. The Longhorns were merely operating in the diseased system. In turn, that applies pressure on the player to commit, and thus the carousel turns.

            Every player is different. Perhaps Missimo really is ready, or at least as ready as an eighth grader can be to commit to something a half decade away. But if this opens up pathways to players who aren’t, who is being served here?

            It’s hard to imagine women’s college soccer recruiting reaching even younger players, but based on past returns, don’t blink. We may soon see our first sixth grader committing to college soccer.
            Title 1X BS, happening everywhere. more soccer scholarships than girls playing. A bunch of BS. Hahahahaha!! Barely out of pull ups!!

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
              When a kid is from Texas, it's not all that unusual to see them decide Texas is the place they want to go. That doesn't make committing so early any less problematic, but at least she's not committing to attend a school in California or the east coast at age 14.
              But then she's also limiting her looking at other schools and programs that may be even better for her. Thinking about how many times my kids have changed their minds about colleges makes my head spin - kids change so much in HS. I don't understand a parent allowing that.

              I know there's been a few other cases this early, but I'm curious to see how they all play out over time - how many end up actually going and being a contributor?

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                But then she's also limiting her looking at other schools and programs that may be even better for her. Thinking about how many times my kids have changed their minds about colleges makes my head spin - kids change so much in HS. I don't understand a parent allowing that.

                I know there's been a few other cases this early, but I'm curious to see how they all play out over time - how many end up actually going and being a contributor?

                As I said above, this verbal commitment is worthless. She can go and look at any school she wants and drop the commitment at any time before she signs a piece of patient in the winter of her senior year.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                  ....and what is the real difference whether she was committing to a school in california or one on the east coast?
                  First, this is a verbal commitment and is only worth the value of the paper it is written on. There is essentially nothing binding about this commitment in either direction.
                  Second, I would hope that the parents and the girl will visit the school before her senior year, which is when the commitment starts to become more binding.

                  Third, in my opinion (and no more than that) this would be absolutely ridiculous if, in fact, any of this was really binding.....which it isn't. For the player, there is too much that changes in the next several years to make this a 'real deal'. For the school, the same reality occurs and one injury will change things dramatically. That said a 'commitment' does not really dictate and money value nor does it keep the coach from 'committing' to many others with the hope that 20-30% of any incoming class will play all four years.

                  Fourth, it should be known that any athletic scholarship is only a year to year happening and the coach has significant input based on who actually makes the team or not.

                  Very exciting and I am sure that this girl is a very good player, but talk of commitment at this age is crazy.
                  How binding it is merely a technicality - it's more about the insanity of a player/coach saying "we like each other, let's date exclusively." No way I'd ever let my kid do something that early. I think the push for sophomore year is still early. At least the boys tends to be closer in alignment with when non athletes decide on schools. And while you are correct that coaches can and do change scholarship $ each year, some top athletes have been able to secure 4 year deals. For a coach to do it with an 8th grader is simply nuts.

                  As for the location issue I think the OP simply meant that as she's committing to her home state, she's probably more comfortable/familiar with it (and it's close to home which is probably reassuring to a 14 year old) vs a school farther away.

                  Finally, the more stories there are like this the more coaches and parents push for earlier and earlier. It feeds into a frenzy that is unnecessary and isn't good for the players or colleges.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                    As I said above, this verbal commitment is worthless. She can go and look at any school she wants and drop the commitment at any time before she signs a piece of patient in the winter of her senior year.
                    all commitments are essentially worthless until a LOI is signed senior year. But most players and coaches abide by them. A player should have a really good reason for looking elsewhere, but in this case she definitely will - she was too young!

                    Comment


                      #11
                      My D is the exact same age. I'm proud of her being a very mature, level headed person. I'm also proud of what she's accomplished on the field and in the classroom. But there's no way in he** I'd let her do something like this.

                      On top of it all this player will have a target on her back from here on out.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Anyone happen to read the girls tweet in the actual article? The girl is going to play with her older sister. Puts things into a different light. If you have a kid that knows where she wants to go from an early age (and believe it or not there are plenty that do) then the early commitment is not such a big deal for that kid and that family. In a lot of ways it takes all the pressure off and the kid can just focus on enjoying soccer and getting better so that she is ready to actually make the jump to a program like Texas. The problem is really the cascade impact on the rest of the age group and families who feel compelled to follow suit to show everyone else how good their kid is. That's the true insanity.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                          Anyone happen to read the girls tweet in the actual article? The girl is going to play with her older sister. Puts things into a different light. If you have a kid that knows where she wants to go from an early age (and believe it or not there are plenty that do) then the early commitment is not such a big deal for that kid and that family. In a lot of ways it takes all the pressure off and the kid can just focus on enjoying soccer and getting better so that she is ready to actually make the jump to a program like Texas. The problem is really the cascade impact on the rest of the age group and families who feel compelled to follow suit to show everyone else how good their kid is. That's the true insanity.
                          You talking about insanity is real insanity.

                          On a side note, Hinckley was released today.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                            Anyone happen to read the girls tweet in the actual article? The girl is going to play with her older sister. Puts things into a different light. If you have a kid that knows where she wants to go from an early age (and believe it or not there are plenty that do) then the early commitment is not such a big deal for that kid and that family. In a lot of ways it takes all the pressure off and the kid can just focus on enjoying soccer and getting better so that she is ready to actually make the jump to a program like Texas. The problem is really the cascade impact on the rest of the age group and families who feel compelled to follow suit to show everyone else how good their kid is. That's the true insanity.
                            Yes it sheds some light on it but it doesn't make it better. She's still potentially limiting herself academically and athletically in thinking she's done, no need to look further. But yes it certainly does add more to the already crazy push to go younger and younger.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                              On top of it all this player will have a target on her back from here on out.
                              Very good point and makes me wonder why the parents would want it to be public. You really don't want you kids 'name floating around the soccer world - this site is proof of that.

                              Comment

                              Previously entered content was automatically saved. Restore or Discard.
                              Auto-Saved
                              x
                              Insert: Thumbnail Small Medium Large Fullsize Remove  
                              x
                              Working...
                              X