SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Girls Varsity Soccer Best 3A soccer player

Who do yall think is the best 3A girls soccer player? In my opinion Ellison Sharpe is the best player.

Riverside's:

Austin Fagan and Sarah Jacobs should be considered.

I can certainly agree with Ellison Sharpe, even though she clearly should be playing 4-A at Lexington given the contract she signed in blood and later reneged upon...I guess I get my soul back that I gave in exchange for her coming to Lexington! [Note: It makes me long for the old definition of an "honest politician" -- one who when bribed, stays bribed. Second note: To those confused out there, I'm still just kidding...]

I wouldn't limit myself at Riverside to only the forwards -- while Sarah Jacobs and Austin Fagan are really good players I think you'd also want to call out Sarah Delap (one of the true offensive threats at keeper around given the incredible lengths of her punts), and Renee Ballew (signed with PC).

Over at Eastside Emily Davis (signed with PC), Kim Ruck, and Brentley Roberts have all stood out when I've seen them play.

Stephanie Aaron at Daniel (signed with Appalachian State) is a really good player as are the Blackwell sisters at Traveler's Rest (Maggie (signed with USC) and Alice).

I've been impressed with both Oleva Durant and Layla Neal at Chapin; both are excellent players.

I'm not as familiar with the lower state 3-A side of things...

[Note: If I've left your favorite player off the list, please add her -- this was just off the top of my head.)

Im not saying she is the best by far. But a good player this year in 3A is Satoya Murray from Marlboro County. She has scored 35 goals in just 12 games.

futbolpk10,

I am sure that Satoya is an excellent player, BUT, when her coach allows her to score 9 goals in a 12-0 game against an inferior opponent, it is easy to build up stats. MC is to be congratulated on their success this season, but you have to admit, their region is very weak.

Yeah i agree the region is weak, but no one said anything about the guy from Lakewood that scored 9 vs. Lake City last yr. Eveyone claimed he was best forward in the state. Im just saying she is having a good yr. Take away those 9 and she still has 26 vs. other teams. Not to mention MC has been pounded in yrs past, so since they have the ability to score some goals they deserve to this year.

>>[24/7 Soccer] BUT, when her coach allows her to score 9 goals in a 12-0 game against an inferior opponent, it is easy to build up stats.<<

It's a pretty steep slippery slope, isn't it? The trouble is that if you want to claim that it's "easy to build up stats" then you have to begin taking a lot of factors into consideration: region strength, other players, coaching style, position, etc.

I've seen quite a few a high scoring high school player who couldn't score a goal in RIIIPL-East -- heck, that couldn't make a South Carolina team that competed in RIIIPL-East. I've seen players that didn't score thousands of points in high school look outstanding in higher level play. And of course I've seen players that do well at both. The trouble is that trying to predict how good a player is based on high school can be tough; correlations are difficult.

Arguably one of the better forwards to come out of South Carolina high school soccer in the last few years was Julie Bolt. You could look at her play in high school and tell she was going to do well in college; however, if I remember correctly there were lots of kids scoring more than her. The reason you could tell she was going to be outstanding was that she was more than a finisher; her ability to create was outstanding as was her field vision and ability to connect with open teammates. Now...given her speed, her coach could have played a "boot the ball to Bolt" offense -- and she'd have had a lot more goals -- but I don't think her team would have had the records and state championships it did.

I love statistics; however, quite often people try to use them as a substitute for logic rather than as a foundation on which to build debate and dialogue. It became really clear to me a few years ago that it's a lot safer to simply celebrate these accomplishments without trying to understand the factors that lead to them. High school soccer is what it is; if you honestly want to begin understanding how good a player is you quite often need to penetrate more deeply.

Chico—You (and I, now) may catch grief for this, but you make a needed commentary here.

I tire of many many fans/parents/coaches claiming this or that player as "great" based on a few moments in high school—a setting that can be very deceiving because of the great disparity in talent and experience. (This is true in all HS sports—not just soccer—but I think it is pronounced in soccer because of the high profile of club soccer.)

Many fine players from the Challenge and Classic levels in club look extremely good in some high school settings but have not made premier teams. In other words, talent is relative.

And some of our best premier players look average when playing matches at the Regional and National levels against teams from TX, IL, etc.

I usually keep most of my choices for "best" to myself, but I tend to make such decisions based on seeing the player in a variety of settings. Not just "scoring goals in high school"—though that feat should not be undervalued.

Overall, I think it best to note that we have a large number of very talented and dedicated young women soccer players in the state and it is a wonderful development over the past decade to have watched that grow.

There are so many factors that go into making a player "look good" according to the stats...as Chico points out, one of the greatest attributes of a soccer player is the ability to connect with teammates to create opportunities. There is often very little that can be consistently accomplished on the soccer field by an individual acting alone; it requires a team working together to produce opportunities. Someone with the potential to be an awesome forward may have poor stats because she doesn't have the cooperation of her teammates to create scoring opportunities; someone of more average talent may have more goals on record due to great teamwork. Someone who is the only talented scorer on a team would probably have better stats than the same person who shares the stage with other players of similar ability, and a selfish player (who, as we have said, is probably not the best asset to her team) might have better stats than someone who shares the ball and creates a better overall performance for her team. A goalkeeper who plays behind a faltering defense may rack up an impressive record for saves, while one who plays behind a solid team may get shutouts without ever having to touch the ball and would have very few saves on record.

Stats are great as a part of the picture, but there are so many other factors that go into their creation in a team sport; it's impossible to determine an individual player's worth by looking at statistics alone. As P&Y says, you have to be able to see that player in a variety of different settings to determine her overall capability as an individual, not just as a product of circumstances.

FBPK10,

First let me reiterate, MC has had a great year, I am not taking anything away from that, they are to be congratulated. Satoya is surely and exciting player, but compared to the other ladies on the "stats sheet", MC compition level in no where near the other players. Nothing that Satoya can do about that except play the game.


Chico/PY/Chass

You guys make great points. I don't understand the "slippery slope" statement. I just think it is wrong to allow one player to continuously score goals against an inferior team, that's all. As a coach, when you are playing that type of game, you can control who scores and how much they score, therfore, stats can be "built up".

Bottom line, it is difficult to pick the best player. Sometimes this person has few goals and few assist, yet are the team leader and the best player on the field. I guess it depends on the wants of the coach, and what type player his team needs.

Coach Morris for AAA COY!

24/7, I know you arent taking anything away from her. I understand where you are coming from def. Its just she is the only senior on the team, only 2nd year shes ever played, and she wants to help the team out. She figures if she can score 6 and put a team away by herself she wants to. Its kinda good that she can do this to put MC on the map a little bit. MC has never had a player with her athletic ability before so its nice for them. lol

My problem with stats has always been this: The most visible and celebrated stat is goals scored. It's a shame that, by the stats, the credit for scoring a goal goes to the person who just happened to touch the ball last before it entered the goal. While I realize there is an art to finishing and being a goal scorer, we all know that it takes more than one player to score a goal. On the other end of the field, the goalkeeper gets the negative stat for goals against. Again, more than that one player are responsible for giving up each goal.

Coach P, exactly. Difficult to explain to many who don't know soccer that when your team HAS the ball, they are all a part of the offense; when your teams doesn't have the ball, they are all the defense. . .

Soccer matches that end 1-0 or even a draw can be wonderful to watch and with only a split second of scoring (or even none). AAA (along with all of our girl classifications) have some great players—many of whom do not fill a stat sheet.

P&Y: "Difficult to explain to many who don't know soccer that when your team HAS the ball, they are all a part of the offense; when your teams doesn't have the ball, they are all the defense. . ."

I strongly agree with your statement. I have always told my teams that, when the opponents have the ball, we have 11 defenders. When we have the ball, we have 11 attackers.

This is why, as a coach, I have usually refrained from using the term "defender" as one of the positions in our fomation. I prefer to use the term "back".

>>[24/7 Soccer] I don't understand the "slippery slope" statement.<<

I apologize for not being clearer. The problem is that when you start questioning one aspect of statistics, you find yourself on a "slippery slope" questioning a lot of the aspects of high school statistics. A major reason for this is that high school soccer is just so disparate. I agree that "9 goals" seems like a lot; but then again "3 goals" against a lot of teams seems like a lot to me. Scoring a goal against Dorman, Mauldin, Wando, Riverside, or Eastside (for example) is very different than scoring a goal against Orangeburg Wilkinson.

In addition, on a message board, it's difficult to find someone who doesn't have an agenda when pushing her or his opinion; so you have to take that into account as well. For example, I like Lexington -- so when I say that Lexingon does well you have to suspect that I have a bias toward that school. It doesn't mean that Lexington didn't do well; it just means that my opinion is more than a bit suspect.

In my opinion, it's a lot safer to celebrate the goal scoring accomplishments and any other individual accomplishments without an attempt at a lot of rigor -- that's best saved in high school for team accomplishments such as winning a region title, winning state, winning a tournament, etc. I like these kids getting recognition -- I think a lot of the problems we have in this area is when one poster believes that a compliment to one player is some type of implicit insult to another player. Heck -- for most of these ambitious kids they get rejection at some point -- from the national team on down -- so I figure we don't need to spend time rejecting their accomplishments here.

As "purpleandyellow" said, there are other venues in which to form opinions that are probably a bit more accurate. A premier or challenge team is a great place for that as is a state ODP team. Heck -- the best place is probably watching kids who make region and national pools. I remember last year watching Enzo Martinez have what I thought was a very average day in a high school game and then in the space of a few minutes he showed why he is a national pool player.

Besides, the truth is that there are people who get paid to make the individual judgements at the state and regional level -- from college to ODP coaches -- so in the long run, it's hard to escape the actual reality of all of this.

>>[Coach P]The most visible and celebrated stat is goals scored. It's a shame that, by the stats, the credit for scoring a goal goes to the person who just happened to touch the ball last before it entered the goal.<<

Couldn't agree more with this and with the other sentiments expressed in this vein. The good news is that I think the professionals who coach soccer in high school get this; this is the reason that kids like Julie Bolt and Blakely Mattern have been our players of the year in the last few years rather than a kid who scores 785 goals.

There are a lot of "garbage collectors" out there in high school. Even at forward, the kids who have my highest admiration are those that work the hardest and unselfishly create the most, regardless of who touches the ball into the goal.

P&Y: "Soccer matches that end 1-0 or even a draw can be wonderful to watch and with only a split second of scoring (or even none)."

I love to watch great defensive matches in any sport. Which places me in a small minority for most sports. I think this relates to the fundamental reason soccer is not a popular spectator sport in this country. The popular American sports have catered to the US fan's hunger for high scoring by changing the rules to promote more successful offense. Soccer has, rightfully in my opinion, refused to do this.

Chico: "Even at forward, the kids who have my highest admiration are those that work the hardest and unselfishly create the most, regardless of who touches the ball into the goal."

My team won a match this season in which all three of our goals were scored by midfielders. After the game someone used this fact to argue that I had the wrong players at the forward position. I politely pointed out that those "wrong" players created all three of the successful goalscoring opportunities from the forward position.

Coach P—great point. I know several players who are far more apt to score from Midfield than from forward, in fact.

I just wanted to make a quick comment about what has been said. I agree with all of the previous comments and I wish there was a way to establish who the best players in AAA are. Unfortunately goals are the easiest way, but it is a very biased way to judge. Obviously Coach P, the young lady from Marlboro County would probably be your MVP, which is an amazing honor in itself. It is so hard to judge what makes a player "the best in AAA" or ladies soccer in general. As nice as it is to consider everyone a defender when the team does not have the ball. The only person that gets "scored on" is the goalie. When the whole team is on offense, unfortunately the only person to score is the last one to touch it. So many teams, for example NW, FM, and Clover(4A of course), have some of their strongest players on defense (Tiana, Rachel, and Kelsey) undoubtedly three of the top players in girls soccer. They have all proven that they can play offense and stand out with the best of them, but they will have to fight for the attention of the forwards because of their "position".

I also find that people tend to want stats to compare and there are a lot of players on the field that will never acquire any stats. Several of Chapin's best players will never score a goal in a game and the forwards would also have a hard time scoring if the backs didn't feed them balls. It really is a team effort. LIke Chico I have seen forwards score at will almost in the HS games against weak teams but can't get the ball past the 50 in HS games against tough teams or in club games. But this is a common problem in all sports as parents want to compare their children against another child. Instead of comparing the child against themselves. Noting good ever comes from comparing children to eachother...

...and sometimes the most effective thing forwards can do is to draw defenders and open up a path for the strike from midfield...sometimes misdirection is an underappreciated talent.

Agree completely. We played a team where the coach placed his best defenders on their best forward. She didn't score but her drawing our best defenders left us open for the attack from another player.

If any of you get a chance, West Florence is playing Spring Valley at Spring on the 16th. There is a freshman named Alexandria Jackson that is going to be one to watch...

Ah yes, AJ.

Great player, good speed, unselfish, great ball skills... and she has been a thorn in our side for years as a member of the Flame (vs ASA Bulldogs/Renegades).
Look forward to monitoring her progress over the next few years.

She has done an amazing job with West. Most of the Flames girls are playing either JV or Varsity. We plan to be a HUGE thorn to everyone in the next couple of years

Casi Jones and Courtney Shumpert both from airport. Both very good at getting past defenders and creating 1v1 situation with goalies also brittany hulcomb one of the best goalies in the state

Casi Jones was "wicked" playing U-17/18 club in the fall of her 8th and 9th grade years for one of the LCSC teams. I coached against her at the Classic Level with AKSC and ASA (Anderson teams). Did she play on a different team this past fall? She was so small you would not assume how dangerous she was, but with the ball she was almost unstoppable. Great touch, footwork, change of pace, and very unselfish!

Coach R

Both Casi and Courtney played for the CUFC U-17 Elite team this past fall, along side MANY EXCELLENT players from the Midlands area.

Catie Moore- Eastside-Center Mid- FRESHMAN.... best player in the state

...if by state you mean the Moore household.

W&E:

I think you've recognized that many on this board suffer from "homer hyperbole."

To be perhaps a bit more charitable...

Catie is a fine player and one of the better freshman players in the state. She plays on a wonderful team (Eastside, currently the #1 3-A team in the state) with very good players such as Brentley Roberts, Kim Ruck, Emily Davis, and others.

Heck -- on this skilled and highly a ranked team it's a challenge just to be the best player on her team, let alone the best player in the state. She's doing a great job in her first year of high school.

Excellent point, Chico—Several teams are blessed with a number of players that are worthy of "best" label. That's why making one claim is so hard.

i have seen her play every game this year. i think she is the best player on Eastside... and Eastside is the best team in the state so i think shes the best player in the state. those girls you mentioned are very quality players emily probably being the best of the 3 but Catie better in my eyes... she plays a year up on Cesa premier and i see a VERY bright future for Catie

Ellison Sharpe... I saw her schooled by a seventh grader from a private school in a pre-season scrimmage this year. Maybe she just had a bad day.

purpleandyellow: I wonder if we could get h2 (pronounced "h squared" for "homer hyperobole") into the Merck Manual. Heck...maybe they'll do an episode of "House, MD" featuring it and then it will get it's own telethon. We could raise money for those suffering from it and publicize the symptoms.

greenacres: Sounds like a bad day. I once saw Lindsey Beam (national team, now plays for UNC-Charlotte) "schooled" by an eighth grader. However, despite my hope that the eighth grader was better, I'm pretty sure that 9 times out of 10 (or 99 out of 100, or whatever) that Lindsey was a superior player.

Barc09: I absolutely believe that you believe what you profess.

Two issues on the "logic" behind your post. First: if Riverside beats Eastside, then that would mean that your favorite player isn't the best player in 3-A. Now...of course that can't be...so it might be that the best player on the best team in the state isn't automatically the best player. Secondly: your player needs to play up not just one year but several years on up to U18G and/or college since the players that she's "better" than are premier players several years beyond her age bracket as well.

Again...as I noted earlier...Catie is a fine player.

I saw her first hand at the Viking Cup. Like Chico (ohhhhh, that stings me!), I agree her talent is notable and strong. Having played Riverside earlier in the year, however, I think Barca is mistaken. Such a brash and arrogant statement attached to a freshman can't bode well for her karma - nor perception throughout the state.

"There goes that Moore kid, the freshman. She thinks she's the best in the state..."

I know she's only a freshman, but get used to hearing the name Krystal Goss. For Seneca this year she has 24 goals and 7 assists. She's definitely not the best, but she's got great potential to be there sooner than later. She has been a big part of our turnaround this season. Keep her name in the back of your mind for the next few seasons!

Riverside over Eastside 2-0

There goes that "best team in the state" logic.

W&E: The season's not over until the last whistle blows at State.

Very, very true AV.

Riverside-Eastside (flip-flop).

The season is not over until the Upper State Championship!

you guys talk alot...

Although this thread is on the Girls side of the forum, there are a few great female players that play on boys teams. At Wilson, Leah Hawkins (Junior) is a starting defender, and many of the boys in the region know that she truly deserves props as a top player. Lake City has Tiffany McCutcheon (Soph) who was All-Region last year, and has some great skills. These are relatively small 3A programs that cannot support separate girls programs (yet), but don't discount the girls that have earned the right to be starters on their respective boys teams.

Amen!

Can't really discount too much on Wilson's team this season. It seems that they are for real.

Yes i totally agree with you Lurker. Leah from Wilson is an excellent player. I told her last night I wanted her to transfer to Marlboro County. haha. The for Lake City, I got to watch once and she is a good player. Little undersized vs. the guys but good player.

Im sure catie moore could play on the U18 premier team. but were talking highschool soccer. and the difference is very dramatic from highschool to club. so your asking for the best player in 3A not club. so when i see catie moore cutting up girls left and right scoring from 30 out like its nothing and i see these senior girls that are so great shanking wide open shots against riverside when it matters.... im gunna say catie is better am i not? There might be someone out there better, but i am yet to find that girl so instead of saying how i might be wrong... tell me someone significanty better?

Good luck to all the teams who are representing their schools in the playoffs these coming few weeks and especially all the girls who have stuck with soccer and have the honor of being mentioned on this forum.

Good Luck evreyone.

i guess nobody can come up with a better player and back it up like i did huh?

Im going to respond to you Barc09, my daughter does not play in 3A, but you are beating a dead horse with this argument. Take a keeper for instance, a good keep will save more goals, win more games by saving them and rack up more saves than any "forward" or field player scores all year. So you need to be specific when you claim she is the best player in all 3A... LOL. There are way more good keepers and other players that do a better job at other "positions" in 3A than her. She may be best at her "position". huh?

I would have expected at the very least for Moore to set up a goal, much less score one, against Riverside if she was the best in AAA. She might be good against kids her own age, but Riverside's upper classman put the kid to bed early that night.

yall dont stop now.im having fun reading this.

sorry i might have gone a little overboard just havin a little fun