This 2017 class is ranked 7th by Top Drawer. Nice haul! I'm excited to see these girls play.

I keep a summary of each class on the first page year round. Everyone who follows soccer recruiting should know the entire class long before it signs in February. Anyway, this was solid Top 10 class for Coach G, which is the first great class since 2014 (one of his best ever with Harvey, Pounds, Paulson, and Malherbe). However, it would be ideal to sign this type of class at least every other year so we have talent and depth and can compete for College Cups more often. Right now we probably only have legitimate College Cup contending teams once every 4-5 years. The good news is that this upcoming 2017 team will be one of those teams so it should be an exciting season.

Also, according to TDS, A&M finished 9th in the recruiting rankings. UCLA is going to be scary good next year and should win the national title.

We got a commitment from Diana Ordonez, a forward in the 2019 class from Prosper, TX. Plays for FC Dallas.

^^^^^ potentially a program changer.

plankton said:

---

^^^^^ potentially a program changer.

---

Yeah? I don't know anything about her, but TDS has her as a three star. Under the radar maybe?

Also not familiar with her, but I take TDS rankings with a grain of salt. If I recall correctly, they had Stephanie Malherbe as a three star, and didn't have McKayla Paulson ranked at all ... soooooo ....

Looks like a player with terrific potential and a couple of years to continue to improve before her arrival in College Station!

Plankton is Waldrum

Spreadsheet updated

Penaltykick said:

---

Also not familiar with her, but I take TDS rankings with a grain of salt. If I recall correctly, they had Stephanie Malherbe as a three star, and didn't have McKayla Paulson ranked at all ... soooooo ....

---

If you check my archives thread you will see that Malherbe was ranked #72 by TDS, which translates to a 4-star recruit. She was highly recruited. Paulson was a late bloomer in the rankings but she still finished #125 by TDS and a 4-star. Recently TDS has adjusted the way they do star rankings, so a prospect ranked around #125 would only be a 3 star now. While I've had my problems with TDS in the past, I believe their rankings have improved somewhat from the time they started, and for the most part they ranked our 2014 class pretty accurately outside of Paulson who should have been Top 30.

I've updated the commitment list with Diana Ordonez. Her highlights are impressive. She's tall and can finish on the break, plus she has a strong leg. Reminds me a bit of Annie Kunz.

Great follow up info, Hidden! Appreciate the clarification.

I'm not 100% sure what this means

Barbera Olivieri. Plays HS at Katy Tompkins. Probably goes by Barb.

Looks like she's a midfielder in the 2020 class

She's a doll.

Tompkins is headed to the state final tomorrow.

Updated the first commitment for 2020 - Barbara Olivieri. Solid looking prospect in the middle of the field.

HiddenAg2 said:

---

Updated the first commitment for 2020 - Barbara Olivieri. Solid looking prospect in the middle of the field.

---

How'd we find out about this girl?

Some first saw it reported on Twitter, also TDS announced her commitment.

Thanks for the update HA! I was disappointed to find out Piper's younger sister is going to Duke. She's a stud. I was hoping she would follow her sister to A&M, but I guess she wants to forge her own path. Keep the updates coming.

Elite private schools like Duke have a tremendous advantage over schools like A&M because of their academic prowess and they are able to offer more scholarship money through the academic side so they can basically offer full rides compared to a half scholarship or less at A&M. It's actually a rigged system for private schools, who basically don't have scholarship restrictions now. That's why the NCAA should allow full scholarships only for soccer and raise the max number to 20 or so. That would level the playing field.

Good observation. I've also heard that some schools in the SEC have an advantage because some states are able to offer free tuition to some in state students and thus pay more scholarship money to out of state players.

Conflicted on Olivieri. I had the chance to see her and Tompkins down at UIL State and didn't think she was that good. Was told after a game that there was a U17 National Team player on the field and I couldn't remember any player that stood out on that level. They said it was the midfielder and I was confused. Now that I see she's a freshman and that changes things. She's a good player. Unsure about U17 WNT but she'll get better over 3 more years.

The Pflugerville team had the best player on the field in the final. The little left back #26 (IIRC) was excellent. and little sister Harvey was up front.... not quite as good as her "big" sister and even smaller. I heard the big center back is going to Arkansas.

TDS just released their first rankings for the 2021 class (yes, currently 8th graders) and there is some bad news for Aggie fans. Texas already has the commitment from the #1 player in the country in Alexis Missimo from Solar Chelsea SC in Dallas. They obviously have an in on that club because they also have the #9 player in Trinity Byars who is her teammate. And to top things off, Texas also has the commitment of the #4 player in the country out of California. So Texas, who I believe has only signed 1 five star player in their entire history (a GK out of Texas if I recall correctly), now has 3 five-star players committed and has the inside track for the top rated class in the country for 2021. Wow, that is program changing stuff from the Horns. Not even A&M has signed 3 top 10 kids in our history (we've signed 2 with Pounds and Harvey back in 2014). Did not see that coming. We may have some serious competition for top program in the state in about 5-6 years.

While the 2018 class is basically complete now, the 2019 class is probably going to sign a couple more prospects. Everyone is waiting on 5-star talent Hollyn Torres from FC Dallas to make her decision. A&M has recruited well from that club and I hope have a decent shot to land her; the problem is that her older sister signed with Virginia and so it's probably an uphill climb for us. There are a couple of other lower rated prospects we're probably going to sign to round out the class, but we really need another elite midfielder in that class and Torres would be the perfect addition.

For 2020, there are a couple of elite forwards in Texas - Samantha Meza (Dallas Kicks) and Samar Guidry (FC Dallas) who are 5-star prospects. Hopefully we can land one of them. There are only a couple of highly rated midfielders left in Texas in Leah Chancey (Solar Chelsea SC) but as aforementioned Texas seems to have an in there with that club and already has her teammate committed, and Jillian Martinez (Lonestar SC), whose teammate Abby Allen is already committed to North Carolina. We may need to find some under the radar midfield prospects because it doesn't look good for landing either of them.

Can you go back and look at the top 10 eighth graders from 2012 and see how many are still in the top 10 in 2017? Maybe all of them, I don't know, genuinely curious.

I'll take a look at my archives but I doubt I have any early rankings for the 2017 kids. It's certainly true that some of the prospects ranked highly now for 2021 will fall down the rankings in subsequent years, but there isn't as much changeover at the top as you might think. Also, I've said for years that Coach G does a good job of finding some under the radar kids and developing them into really good players on par with some of the highly rated prospects. I think A&M is pretty set for the next 2-3 years roster-wise, but I'm a bit concerned about 2020 and beyond even through it's early in the cycle.

Seems like if it was just that easy to pick 8th graders that are still going to be top prospects when they get to college then more than just 3 schools would be getting commitments from them already. Seems like Texas is taking a gamble on some unusually young prospects to beat the rush. Same thing Mack Brown did for their football program which didn't really pay off in the end.

Most big programs do offer and recruit 4 years out now, meaning the 2021 class is already underway. It's been this way for years now and the elite schools routinely take commitments from highly rated kids 3-4 years out, which in the majority of cases do pan out as expected. I'd certainly rather be in Texas' shoes than ours right now for the 2021 class. But again, there's time for us to find some rising prospects obviously. I think Coach G will need to focus more on out of state elite prospects to make up for some of the losses in state.

With the current Texas coach's performance, are we sure she'll be around in 2021, let alone 2019?

blake2003 said:

---

With the current Texas coach's performance, are we sure she'll be around in 2021, let alone 2019?

---

It's certainly possible she could be gone, but with this uptick in recruiting starting with the 2019 class I think they will give her time to coach those recruits. ADs are very slow to fire minor sports coaches unless they are posting multiple losing seasons in a row with no hope for the future.

I'm also hoping this recruiting class will give them a reason to keep a crappy coach until at least 2022

redd38 said:

---

I'm also hoping this recruiting class will give them a reason to keep a crappy coach until at least 2022

---

That's certainly one way to look at it. She has not impressed in her time at Texas so far.

Ordonez won the Texas Gatorade Player Of The Year

https://www.gatorade.com/poy/winner/diana-ordonez/35913

Updated Diana Ordonez's profile with Gatorade Player of the Year status. This is a great honor for a sophomore. Her meteoric rise continues and I think she'll be a 5-star prospect within a year.

I've also updated the star rating definitions for more insight to each prospect. I may continue to add more ratings items in the future.