IMG Top 150 - Fall ‘20

I want to be the very first to say, great job to all the girls for the hard work and making IMG top 150. Also, to the class of, 2023, 2022 and all the 2021s who made the list and paid the $60, job well done. You do have to pay to be on the this list, just saying. That is true and you do need articles written about you. I was talking about another List from 2017 and someone on here keeps misunderstanding my motives. He actually thinks I'm here to gain attention for myself.
 
I want to be the very first to say, great job to all the girls for the hard work and making IMG top 150. Also, to the class of, 2023, 2022 and all the 2021s who made the list and paid the $60, job well done. You do have to pay to be on the this list, just saying. That is true and you do need articles written about you. I was talking about another List from 2017 and someone on here keeps misunderstanding my motives. He actually thinks I'm here to gain attention for myself.
I am sure all the young folks on the list are talented and hard-workers. But, is this a pay-to-rank list? Who decides the rankings? How are the rankings decided and is there some objective criteria?
 
I am sure all the young folks on the list are talented and hard-workers. But, is this a pay-to-rank list? Who decides the rankings? How are the rankings decided and is there some objective criteria?
That’s a totally legit question.....thisnis what I found:

Part 1 in a 3-Part series about our player rankings.

In this article I’m trying to explain our process in determining the player rankings. I should note right from the beginning that this is changing and hopefully getting better even just now. With the new year we will have a schedule where we much more frequently update the regional and national rankings. Each of these will be updated every month and that means right now we are feverishly going over as much information as possible to both fill in a lot of missing information in the younger age groups and also get our best read on the final 2011 lists.

With the early February signing day for 2011 grads, our rankings for that class will end, and we will begin highlighting a new 2013 national list to go with the 2012 national list. Of course we go much younger than that, all the way to 2016 graduates. While we may never have as much info on those younger age groups, it is clear from a walk-by of a typical U13 game at a tournament that interest in these age groups is feverish, so it seems perfectly natural to begin assessing the players.

I should also note that we will no longer take those boys’ players who sign professional contracts off of our lists, as this is becoming a more common experience and the list isn’t specifically a college recruiting list, even though most of the players will end up playing college soccer.

So how do we go about making these rankings? It has to start with knowing who the players are. We get that from any number of sources including your submissions, our own observations (and that of our stringers) at matches we cover, consulting with an informal network of people around the country who show exceptional understanding of and interest in the game and studying countless rosters available online from teams, select events like ODP, id2 and national teams.

From there we go, and this has to be the key part of our evaluation, to discuss with club and college coaches (and other scouts and coaches) who are familiar with the players. This is vital and at the same time tricky, because these coaches almost all have a perspective and motive you have to consider. College coaches are trying to get players to come to their school and may want to help shape perception about who is good or not. Club coaches are in a business, the mother ship of which is to advance as many young players as possible to the college ranks. So their tendency is to give the most positive of spins on every player under their tutelage.

So you end up learning how to filter. You find out which coaches can give the most honest assessments, and how to interpret these comments. It should be noted here that we never, EVER, discuss any coach’s evaluation about their own or other players with anyone else, be it players, their families or other coaches. If we did coaches would never talk to us (some don’t anyway) and it illustrates one aspect of why pay-to-play as a model hinders rather than helps player development.

After defining the player pool for a given age group and region through various sources, then consulting with as many informed opinions from those closest to the ground, we have to assimilate information and ultimately decide on the rankings. To say that this part of the process is subject to error is an understatement, but it should also be clear that what we do prior to that point is designed to reduce the likelihood and the size of any such error.

While all of the above is about rankings, they of course impact our player ratings as well. I always encourage the remonstrating parent to be more concerned about the player rating than the ranking. Our society, or at least the elite youth soccer subculture, tends to want to compare ad nauseam. “Am I better than X?” seems to be a more important question for people than “How good am I?”

More positively, North Carolina women’s head coach Anson Dorrance told me that anything quantitative can serve as a huge motivator for players. Fair enough, but from my perspective the difference between the star ratings and the order of ranking is akin to that between the 100 meter dash and Olympic figure skating or gymnastics in terms of certainty. I feel much more confident that player X is a 4-star player than I do that he/she is better/worse than the player above/below him/her in the rankings.

There’s much to say about the reaction people have to where they are ranked and how they are rated, but we’ll save that for parts 2 and 3.

So for the question “how do you come up with these rankings” (while understanding that many times it is asked as a thin veil for “how could you possible have ranked my son/daughter where you did?”) the above is your answer.
 
Part 2 in a 3-Part series about our player rankings. See here for details on our TeamRank process and criteria.

Missed Part 1? Read it here.

What role can you have as a reader in helping us compile our regional and national player rankings and ratings?

This is a tricky part of the article because on one hand we need the input of people from all over the country to keep up to date on what’s going on with the players, even to the point of knowing who they are. On the other hand it opens us up to the type of “feedback” that reflects all the very worst things about elite youth soccer, including the sociological malaise connected to both status-conscious parenting and the very poor substitute for civil discourse spawned by the Internet’s rising to preeminence as a mode of communication.




Considering we are talking about regionally ranking up to 4,000 players from a playing pool of at least 50,000 players in travel soccer across the country, you will hopefully recognize that what we are attempting to do is a rather gargantuan task. So clearly it’s not going to be left to the efforts of a handful of staff. Read more about our decision-making process.



So what are the dos and don’ts of your input in this process?

DO let us know about players. Given the numbers above, it should be obvious that it is impossible for us to know about everybody. We are in regular contact with people involved with the youth and college games all over the country, but we still find out about some players later in the process. If you don’t see your player(s) listed, it probably means we don’t know about them.

One point to reiterate here – while the rankings are by definition a more exclusive list, they are drawn from a much larger database of players. By using our Player Search feature you can check to see if a player is in that database. If they are not, you should utilize our submission tool and add them to the list yourself. We go through that tool weekly, double-check for duplicates or other material we don’t want on the site, and then approve the players.

DO update us on developments with the player. Now there’s a common sense approach to this of course. You can use the profile update tool within each player profile to tell us about significant developments in the player’s development process. We don’t need to know every time he/she scores a goal or has a good game, but notable awards, changes and that sort of thing are fair game for keeping us posted. We also are always looking for their recruiting information, including college decisions which should be sent to commit@topdrawersoccer.com

DO let us know about mistakes in our information. By “mistake” I mean when someone is listed as a forward when they are a midfielder, or we have their hometown or team wrong or their name misspelled – not when you think they should be rated #6 rather than #7.



And with that note, let’s move on to some “don’ts.”

DON’T try to engage us in arguments about why your player should be rated higher. We get that you WANT them to be rated higher, but in all honesty we could spend our entire day reading email from people, mostly parents, who think their child should be rated higher. Sometimes the above “Dos” cover why they are not yet ranked, but it may also be that we and the observers we rely on really do think other players are better. A common opening line in a letter goes something like “I don’t see how you can have player X ranked only at number Y.” The fact simply is, if you look at any two players objectively, there’s a chance either could be deemed a better player. Remember that if you are calling for your player to be rated higher, you are also calling for other players to be rated lower, and somebody else is likely advocating the opposite. Our concern isn’t your need (whatever the motive) to have that player lauded, but to try and get it right. And no, we aren’t going to write out an explanation about each ranking decision. The bottom line is we decided at a point and time, this is the order of the rankings. We’re comfortable with the notion that there will be disagreement.

DON’T attack players. It’s one thing for instance to tell us a player is no longer involved in soccer, but something else entirely to start ripping the qualities of somebody else’s young man or young woman. Personally speaking, when I get to the point of the email where a reader is knocking some teenager, I quit reading.

DON’T attack us. We get that there are varying opinions about players one vs. the other. We understand we are not perfect in our assessments (far from it). We understand that our process in pursuing the task is also not perfect and we are working to improve upon it all the time. But we are objective individuals motivated professionally and personally to try and do a good job. If you could see the kind of venom we get from some readers on a regular basis, almost always rooted in the fact that we didn’t rate that reader’s player, you would shudder. If you think that kind of bullying or bitterness is going to compel us to rate your player higher, it is not. Far better to patiently keep us informed about the player’s merits, in which case over time if they are truly meritorious, they usually will bring results. It’s a similar principle to the folly of fans on the sidelines yelling at the referee. It doesn’t help get good calls, but it might cause other problems.

So hopefully this sheds some light on our expectations for feedback. We do covet genuine help, but for the sake of our own time management and ultimately, sanity, we need to put some restrictions on what that input actually is. We do appreciate the very good help we have had over the years from so many. For all of those who tend to weigh in more on the “don’ts” side of things, we can only say Merry Christmas.
 
I am sure all the young folks on the list are talented and hard-workers. But, is this a pay-to-rank list? Who decides the rankings? How are the rankings decided and is there some objective criteria?
Did the Fab 5 or Lebron Bird, Magic or even Kobe have to pay $60 a year to be ranked when goats were HS age Dre? All Satire a side, I made the decision in my poor days to never pay to have dd ranked, let alone make The List. I'm old school, meaning, play it out on da grass, not board room. This is not the way boys do their rankings in sports. $250 for four years to have dd ranked by her peers? Do the opposing coaches have a vote like CIF? Noting like the other side telling your player, "hell of a job and way to battle out there student athlete."
 
Plenty of ranked players don’t pay for subscriptions. Our friend’s player was ranked and they didn’t even know it until I told them because I follow the site. That particular played got ranked when part of a YNT U14 regional mini camp.

If your kid is not ranked and you think she should be, write in to TopDrawer at the email address they provide with the data that supports your case. You don’t have to pay a subscription fee to do that, either. Maybe she didn’t show up because the staff has never watched her team play and she didn’t get any YNT call-ups. So you might need to let them know who she is. There’s a lot of similar players out there. How does yours stand out? If your dd is a forward, lucky for you, goals and assists are easy stats to capture and share. Kicker’s dd, for example, has consistently produced 2+ goals per game over a period of years playing at the highest level against girls that are almost always older than her (it might be more - hopefully I’m not understating). She’s also produced for the YNT in international competition.

Winners recognize the legitimate accomplishments of others and look internally when they fall short. Losers blame outside factors. Reasonable people also recognize that a national ranking system managed by a small staff is ambitious and is inherently going to be far from perfect. Instead of crying about a perceived barrier that isn’t real, you could choose to jump in and help make the process better.
 
Plenty of ranked players don’t pay for subscriptions. Our friend’s player was ranked and they didn’t even know it until I told them because I follow the site. That particular played got ranked when part of a YNT U14 regional mini camp.

If your kid is not ranked and you think she should be, write in to TopDrawer at the email address they provide with the data that supports your case. You don’t have to pay a subscription fee to do that, either. Maybe she didn’t show up because the staff has never watched her team play and she didn’t get any YNT call-ups. So you might need to let them know who she is. There’s a lot of similar players out there. How does yours stand out? If your dd is a forward, lucky for you, goals and assists are easy stats to capture and share. Kicker’s dd, for example, has consistently produced 2+ goals per game over a period of years playing at the highest level against girls that are almost always older than her (it might be more - hopefully I’m not understating). She’s also produced for the YNT in international competition.

Winners recognize the legitimate accomplishments of others and look internally when they fall short. Losers blame outside factors. Reasonable people also recognize that a national ranking system managed by a small staff is ambitious and is inherently going to be far from perfect. Instead of crying about a perceived barrier that isn’t real, you could choose to jump in and help make the process better.
It's about the cost bud, nothing else. Plus, it would be cool if it's free. I dont think my kid should be ranked. She played HS the last two years mostly. It;s not sour grapes, I promise. All the players on the list worked hard and I applaud their efforts. If you get picked for U14 National team, then your automatic I believe. When will this years U14 National Team be released?
 
Instead of having to pay to get ranked it almost looks like you have to play in a particular league or certain clubs to get the attention that leads to being ranked. In addition to having game to back it up.
 
I believe GNT Camps have an effect. Just a guess, though.
100% camp invite help. Also, top 50 will always find their way on that list, regardless if you pay. A friend said it's worth *** stars if you make U14 national team. Add highlights from the GDA and write ups and you get more points or star points. I wish all these players a great future and that is not satire. I also hope they all play HS Soccer. Now were talking some fun, school spirit and pure pride for school soccer action, right 46? Real Ganas is made on the HS turf. I can;t wait to get the show on the road.
 
Instead of having to pay to get ranked it almost looks like you have to play in a particular league or certain clubs to get the attention that leads to being ranked. In addition to having game to back it up.
You need it all. I should change what I was trying to say. I think these 150 are amazing. I also think their are another 150 that are really good too and they either dont know about it, can;t afford the 60 or dont care. I honestly dont care. I just like to poke the bear. Please dont get all huffy and puffy on me. I also think the top top players will always make anyones list.
 
Even if it were pay-to-rank you'd think that they'd charge more than $60/yr if that was their business model.

I feel like these rankings are the olders parent's version of youngers parent's bragging about how "My DD's U9 team could totally kick your DD's U9 team's ass". In the end it's meaningless, but it's fun to daydream. Also whenever those 1 or 2 players from your kid's birth year actually DO become big time stars you can say "I saw her when she 15 and my DD handled her, no problem!" :p
 
You need it all. I should change what I was trying to say. I think these 150 are amazing. I also think their are another 150 that are really good too and they either dont know about it, can;t afford the 60 or dont care. I honestly dont care. I just like to poke the bear. Please dont get all huffy and puffy on me. I also think the top top players will always make anyones list.

I would have the coach open up opportunities for your daughter during the next college showcase. If she very talented your coach will bring it up to some of the scouts that he is familiar with.

also don’t worry so much about list. I have two nieces that played soccer. One made it because she was part of the best team in SoCal and USYNT. She is at a top D1 school. The other was just on a top flight 1 team and didn’t make any lists. She however got a scholarship to play in Canada. Her scholarship was almost 70% once you factor in academic scholarships. Let’s put it into perspective as well. Top female soccer players make about $25k a year? Focus on her academic/career future and soccer is just gravy to whatever she decides to do in college.
 
Also whenever those 1 or 2 players from your kid's birth year actually DO become big time stars you can say "I saw her when she 15 and my DD handled her, no problem!" :p
I'm interested in who is on the list for evaluation of where my kid is. Being a keeper you come up against other teams and their keepers but never know a name and how good they might be in the general population of keepers. This gives me a chance to see some of their names and videos, see how my kid compares with foot skills, leg strength, speed and quickness, jumping ability, hands, positioning, etc.

The question would be do college scouts and coaches use this list at all?
 
The question would be do college scouts and coaches use this list at all?
Great question. I would say with the top 50 it helps to add the resume of success, especially these times we all face. Looks great on paper and inside dad and moms brain. I can also share that not one coach asked my dd why she wasn;t top 150 for her age. and why would she even think of sending her video highlight. I can say 100% get video up and running with fresh stuff. These coaches do NOT want to see something from 2017 and 2018. I wont mention names but I know a few kids who have quit and their still on the list and or will quit when they get to school.
 
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