Thanks, Hidden.

Alex Arlitt has made a verbal commitment to LSU
see https://sites.google.com/site/soccerrecruits/

Caity Heep played for Sting 95 over the weekend vs. Real SoCal (Fri), SoCal Blues (Sat), and Breakaway (Sun)

Thanks for the update. Somehow I missed Heap, maybe she switched jerseys because I didn't see her out there. Arlitt to LSU is surprising, but Brian Lee is recruiting his butt off right now, mainly with Challenge players too.

One of the recruits HiddenAg identified for 2012 class appears to have made a verbal commitment

https://sites.google.com/site/soccerrecruits/

Yeah, Jordan Hatler committed to Baylor this week. A bit surprising but I'm not sure Coach G even offered her. She doesn't fit the mold of forwards at A&M because she's very short and not super fast. She's a very strong player physically, but cannot win any balls in the air. Considering we have about 3 2011 forwards at around 6 feet tall, it's not likely we would sign someone so short. However, this is a really good get for a bad Baylor program, probably their best recruit in over 10 years.

Baylor's getting a good one.

Accolades continue to pour in for Aggie recruits:

Annie Kunz
- 2010 PARADE All-American
- 2010 Gatorade State Player of the Year (Colorado)

Shea Groom
- 2010 Gatorade State Player of the Year (Missouri)

i beg to differ about jordan hatler; i reffed one of her group games in the stysa cup as a linesman and shes a burner, shes got really good speed and her touch is amazing plus shes got the creativity to dribble around defenders and score goals .... she definitely should have been offered and i saw she wanted to go to A&M but guess we never offered ....

she is def short, like 5'5" or 5'6" at best ....

Well, I've only seen Hatler play once in person and it's certainly possible she was slowed because of minor injury of even fatigue, but I wasn't impressed with her top-end speed for a prospect considered to be one of the nation's Top 30 recruits. I do agree, however, that she has good skill on the ball and can dribble around and through defenders because she's so strong physically. The game I watched several of her passes were very poor and were sometimes passed to no one in particular. Again, I probably need to see her several more times to have a more definitive scouting report, but those were my first impressions anyway.

Either way, she's simply too short (standing next to her I would say Hatler is about 5'4) for Coach G as it's clear our new recruiting strategy up front is to sign tall players who can win balls in the air, especially on corners and set pieces. However, it's still a very good pickup for Baylor, which is in desperate need of good offensive players.

[This message has been edited by HiddenAg2 (edited 7/14/2010 9:51a).]

Hidden, I think over the last year I cant say Ive disagreed with you very much and again I cant disagree. I only saw her play in the one game that I was a linesman for and a few minutes of other games while I was on break but she is very built and has broad shoulders and doesnt get pushed around but she was too short for Coach G I guess. A shame because we could have used her to stretch defenses out like we do with Hooper but I think Hatler has better finishing qualities that would make her ideal. Think of Castleberry's speed (maybe a slight gear lower) but with the touch to keep it within a yard or so away and Hooper's vision (being able to pull defenders out of sneaking in and around the back line) all rolled into one. At least that was my impression of her.

At least we'll get to see how she progresses at the college level. Right?

Until the Big 12(10) falls apart... again.

How tall are the forwards from Spain, the 2010 World Cup Champions? David Villa? Iniesta?

Are you saying Jordan Hatler could play for Spain?

lol

How did the new players look tonight?

Rachel Lenz was fantastic as expected, while Sara Ellis is injured and did not play.

Oh, and Bianca Brinson was at the game tonight (in the stands of course with some other potential recruits).

Merritt Mathias looked AMAZING. Almost has Hooper-esque top-speed, was relentless on the ball, won most of the 1v1 challenges she was part of, excellent skill level. A starting frontline of Mathias and Hooper is going to destroy Big12 defenders

New TAMU listing for 2012 at:

https://sites.google.com/site/soccerrecruits/

another forward

See new update above. An intriguing pickup since not much is known about her.

Coach G mentioned in his blog today that we have 10 incoming freshmen in the 2011 class. I'm not sure who the 10th commit is (I only know of 9), but I would assume it's either a sleeper-type Texas recruit or a walk-on that wasn't highly recruited. I could be wrong, but if it was one of the very few remaining national level recruits, we would have heard about it by now. If anyone knows whom it might be, please let us know so I can add her to the commit list.

Potential players for 2012 mentioned by hiddenag have verbally committed recently.
Abby smith gk Dallas texans to Texas
Glory Williams m sting to notre dame
Caity heap f sting to Texas tech

Yeah, I was just about to mention this as we have lost some targets in Texas. After losing Lissi Lonsberry to SMU, we've now lost our #1 GK target in Abby Smith to Texas no less. That is a kick in the stomach. I just don't understand why any prospect would want to play for Petrucelli and his antics. Losing Glory Williams to Notre Dame is not very surprising as most of the top Dallas area prospects head to out of state programs. Dallas Sting in particular has been a very difficult club to sign players; I can only remember Texas being able to get anyone out of there. I'm not sure if Coach G has been blacklisted with that club or what, but we just have no luck getting kids out of that program.

Of the top 10 prospects in Texas for 2012, there's only a handful left uncommitted at this point. Unless we can land Taylor Smith, Heather Magee, or Shelby Soldat, we may get shutout of our own state in a year when the state was loaded with elite talent. That would be very disappointing to say the least. I'm not sure if the coaches are just not recruiting the state that hard any more and would rather go national in their efforts or if they've run into scholarship dollar problems (whereby a school like Baylor can offer a full ride to Hatler while A&M could only offer maybe a 1/2 scholarship), but it's sad to see all these great players sign with other schools when we're clearly the #1 program in the state. Here's a rundown of the Top 10 prospects and their status:

1. Abby Smith, GK (Dallas Texans) - Committed to Texas
2. Taylor Smith, F (Solar SC) - Uncommitted
3. Glory Williams, M (Dallas Sting) - Committed to Notre Dame
4. Heather Magee, M (Solar SC) - Uncommitted
5. Jordan Hatler, F (Challenge) - Committed to Baylor
6. Shelby Soldat, D (Dallas Texans) - Uncommitted
7. Caity Heap, M (Dallas Sting) - Committed to Texas Tech
8. Kelsey Shimmick, F (Dallas Texans) - Committed to Texas
9. Jana Jeffrey, M (Dallas Texans) - Committed to Boston College
10. Alex Arlitt, M (Challenge) - Committed to LSU

Hope G has a backup recruit for the GK position, won't we only have one?

[This message has been edited by Diego (edited 12/16/2010 7:28a).]

The list is based on a few recruiting websites for guidance, but I have seen each one of these players in person as well. Most of these top rated recruits are legit difference makers in college, so I'm not sure why we're not recruiting our own state very well any more. I really think it comes down to spreading out our scholarship money too thin, which leaves us vulnerable to lesser programs being able to offer a lot more money than we can. We have a very large roster, something that I would not do in order to increase the value of each scholarship and to better compete with elite programs for the top kids. Now, it didn't hurt us with the '11 class, but I get the feeling it's coming back to bite us with this talented '12 group in Texas.

HiddenAg I heard from an unconfirmed source that A&M got two more girls from California that verbally committed for 2012. Any truth to it?

I've heard a few rumors, but nothing substantiated. I'm not going to post anything until it is confirmed by at least 1 Internet recruiting source. We just completed a huge recruiting weekend with mostly committed 2011 kids and some 2012/2013 prospects. It's certainly possible we picked up a few commitments that have not been made public yet.

quote:

---

I'm not sure who the 10th commit is

---

I think it's Renee McDermott, a goalie from Cali. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=docarcraGSQ

[This message has been edited by redd38 (edited 9/9/2010 1:14p).]

Video showed good hands, quickness, and a strong leg. She does not appear to be very tall, but it's hard to tell at a distance.

And a defender for 2012. Both from Slammers FC.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AriynKqmGsRwdGUyR1ZrSFFUbHFZblNCMnBNZnNqc1E&output=html

Confirmed. See new update above. These two flew under the radar a bit, so it will be interesting if their stock rises after committing to a Top 10 program.