U13 Girls Final Team Selection
Tough choices made, time to refocus on our goal
When all the dust settled, I named 17 girls to the Blue team's roster for the 2006/2007 season.
From last year's roster of 14, we lost 4 girls. Dot and Jazzy moved to the White team, Shorty and Em moved to other clubs. A core group of 8 players from our very first season (fall of 2004) remained: Bidi, Soph, Frankie, Mac, Millie, Nasher, Maddog, and Blondie. Ripper joined us after the first fall season so I still think of her as one of the core group, making it 9. Hans joined us in 2005 (taking our number to 10), so 7 new girls were added to the team after tryouts/pool training this fall. Sting played with our BTFC South Academy U12 team in 2005 and was already in our club system. So were Getch and Brownie who both played up with the BTFC U13 White team last year. All three players are very good additions to the core group. That left 4 girls who joined us this year cold turkey; Mudd, Scratch, Jilly, and Becs. Mudd was the best GK at tryouts and came from the Edina Soccer Club. She has some of the best technique that I have ever seen at this age group and should do well for us between the posts. It was initially hit or miss whether or not she would join us or stay with the core group of her team who also left Edina to form a "superteam" on the west side under Tonka United. Mudd was worried that our group may be too strong and she wouldn't see much action. I talked with her and her family about how how we were going to play up an age group at U14 Premier, and coupled with our regional travel she was sure to get plenty of the action she was looking for. Moreover, Kyle Singer (retired MLS GK and current GK Coach for the University of Minnesota Women's team) had just signed on to handle our winter GK training. Moreover, I assured her that the attacking play that she would face in our training sessions throughout the year would likely not be matched anywhere else. She made the decision to join us. Scratch came from the Eagan U12 team, one of the handful of strong teams at this age group. She will be one of our most athletic girls who, though raw technically, is a steady and reliable performer who has shown some great instinct on the field. I first saw Jilly 3 years ago and have been nagging her dad incessantly since then to come and train and guest play with us. She finally decided to come with us to some events last fall and this past summer, and then made the decision to attend tryouts with us this fall. Another terrific athlete with raw technical ability, Jilly is a powerful player and a complete terror down the right side flank. Becs is my sleeper pic from tryouts. She came to tryouts alone and played somewhat tentatively. To be honest, though I thought I saw some real talent, I was not really focused on her until she blew everyone away in the sprints. She was the fastest player at tryouts and as I'm sure everyone knows, speed is a true gift. My job will be to get her comfortable with her new teammates as I think she can be a leader on the field in years to come. As a side note, I'm glad Jazzy and Dot found a home with our White team. They are both very, very good players with bright futures. Shorty went to the TC Fire's U13 team and will have an excellent coach this season. If she can stay healthy (she's a tiny little thing), she will do good things in this sport. Em chose to go back to Woodbury after she was notified that she was a bubble player. I love the girl to death and I think she also landed in a good place. She is super fast and if she decides to focus on her game, she will have many years of success down the road. So the team that will make a run at fulfilling the goal set back in the fall of 2004 is finally set. I'm excited to be able to work with this group and know they have it in them to achieve what they set their minds to. |
