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Keep in mind she's a 10th grader.



Retired,

You may want to drop the "she's a 10th grader" asterisk, when nominating Marissa for "Best Girl Soccer Player". "Best" includes everyone, and there are some other very fast, very skilled players to be considered out there. I've watched Marissa off and on since she was playing U-8. She's always seemed a solid player with a great work ethic, but considering everyone out there this year I think it would be a stretch at this time to consider her "Best" out of all.

If she's looking to get a "pre-tryout" jump on impressing the CESA coaches this year, there is a friendly scheduled for 2:00pm this Saturday at USC Upstate between the '92 ODP team and the '90 CESA Premier team (along with some guest players). She might contact CESA to see if Coach Osorio's '90 team needs another guest player for the event.

The '92 ODP team consists of 9th and 10th graders. The '90 CESA team is predominently 11th graders, but does include a 10th grader that "plays up" a year in club (Marissa wouldn't be the only 10th grader on that side). It seems like it would be a good opportunity for her, as well as a good opportunity for the rest of us to see her on the same field with Hurst's Taylor Parker and some of the other 9th and 10th graders we've been hearing about on other threads. If she gets a chance to play (she needs to make the call), I'm sure she won't have the problem you mentioned earlier of finding players that can get the ball to her. Hope we get to see her this weekend, and congratulations to her for the success she's having this year.

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It's high school....and the Player of the Year award has to be measured according to what is done at the high school level.

...if Blakely, Julie and Lindsey had decided to play their collegiate soccer at Tufts, Carnegie Mellon and RPI, should we have taken their award away because they didn't go on to prove themselves at the highest level?



Hurst,

I have to agree. Giving up soccer to row some skinny little boat doesn't make Sarah Delap's high school career as a keeper less impressive. And, I may be mistaken on this, but I believe Lindsey passed on an opportunity to play at Chapel Hill to go to UNC Charlotte.

I have no idea of the criteria actually used by the powers that be to pick "Best" each year, but it IS interesting reading the debate.