Soccer Recruits Update

[nortx9]

Recruiting update for all of you interested soccer fans- Two of the UNT high school 2006 signees are leading their teams to the Texas State 5A HS tournament. Forward Kendall Juett and Creekview High School , and Defender Ellie Lyons and Flower Mound Marcus will square off in a semi final match at 1:00 in Round Rock on Thursday 4/13. For all of you real die soccer hard fans, game is scheduled to be broadcast live via webcast on www.cfbisd.edu. Good chance to hear more about the future Mean Green-ers.

[BleedGreen64]

Lyon (ant NT) was mentioned in a neat article in today's DMN. A teamate's father has jsut returned from Iraq.

[nortx9]

Lyon  (ant NT) was mentioned in a neat article in today's DMN.  A teamate's father  has jsut returned from Iraq.

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It was a god article. And, this should be a very good matchup tomorrow, a very good Marcus defense against one of the better offensive players in the state. Creekview is very good defensively too. Should be a good chess match.

Here is another interesting thread. Juett and Lyon also played together at one time a few years back on Solar 88. There is that Solar link again......

[nortx9]

Recruiting update for all of you interested soccer fans- Two of the UNT high school 2006 signees are leading their teams to the Texas State 5A HS tournament.  Forward Kendall Juett and Creekview High School , and Defender Ellie Lyons and Flower Mound Marcus will square off in a semi final match at 1:00 in Round Rock on Thursday 4/13.  For all of you real die soccer hard fans, game is scheduled to be broadcast live via webcast on www.cfbisd.edu.  Good chance to hear more about the future  Mean Green-ers.

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Juett scored the gamewinner, got behind the Marcus defense just after halftime and scored on breakaway, and Creekview advances to the finals. Nothing shabby about Lyon's effort either, she showed extremely well.

[nortx9]

Juett scored the gamewinner, got behind the Marcus defense just after halftime and scored on breakaway, and Creekview advances to the finals.  Nothing shabby about Lyon's effort either, she showed extremely well.   

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Final update to this string..... Creekview loses to Katy Taylor in State Final, Juett also scored in this match, and made the 5A All State Tournament Team

[Harry]

Thank you very much for your updates.

[nortx9]

Update for some of the recruits... Post season All Area awards by DMNews, published in today's School Day sectiion. Dvorak and Juett named to DMNews All Area 2nd team (you could easily make an argument that both should have been 1st team selections, based on the published statistical criteria). Juett named First Team All District, and Offensive MVP of District 10-5A . Dvorak was voted Best Defender District 6-5A, and First Team All district 6-5A. Ellie Lyon named to First Team All district 8-5A as midfielder. Melanie Peterson named Co-Goalkeeper of the Year for District 5-5A and First Team All District 5-5A.

[green_goblin]

Update for some of the recruits...  Post season All Area awards by DMNews, published in today's School  Day sectiion.  Dvorak and Juett named to DMNews All Area 2nd team (you could easily make an argument that both should have been 1st team selections, based on the published statistical criteria).  Juett named First Team All District, and Offensive MVP of District 10-5A . Dvorak was voted Best Defender District 6-5A, and  First Team All district  6-5A.  Ellie Lyon named to First Team All district 8-5A as midfielder.  Melanie Peterson named Co-Goalkeeper of the Year for District 5-5A and First Team All District 5-5A.

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There is definetly talent in that group.

[GrandGreen]

Update for some of the recruits...  Post season All Area awards by DMNews, published in today's School  Day sectiion.  Dvorak and Juett named to DMNews All Area 2nd team (you could easily make an argument that both should have been 1st team selections, based on the published statistical criteria).  Juett named First Team All District, and Offensive MVP of District 10-5A . Dvorak was voted Best Defender District 6-5A, and  First Team All district  6-5A.  Ellie Lyon named to First Team All district 8-5A as midfielder.  Melanie Peterson named Co-Goalkeeper of the Year for District 5-5A and First Team All District 5-5A.

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Unfortunately all district honors no longer mean much. Noticed some of these districts had has many as 36 players named first team. A very few districts actually limited their teams to 11 players, congrats to them for trying to make the award mean something special. This is no way unique to soccer, as I have seem first team all district football teams with over a hundred players. I wish the coaches asscs. and or UIL would put limits on the number of players honored. This practice may make more players and parents feel good but it really downgrades the honor for those who really deserve it.

[nortx9]

Unfortunately all district honors no longer mean much.  Noticed some of these districts had has many as 36 players named first team.  A very few districts actually limited their teams to 11 players, congrats to them for trying to make the award mean something special.  This is no way unique to soccer, as I have seem first team all district football teams with over a hundred players.  I wish the coaches asscs. and or UIL would put limits on the number of players honored.  This practice may make more players and parents feel good but it really downgrades the honor for those who really deserve it.

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Gonna push back a little on this... I agree a few districts did get a little carried away. Here's the thinking- A soccer "team" would normally carry 18-22 kids, not just starters, so the "team" numbers are not that unreasonable for most of the districts. They do not all follow the same methodology as indicated by the numbers per team and the superlative awards. However, there are now more kids involved in this sport and Districts are getting larger and so are teams and headcounts per District as compared to a few years back, so the percentage of kids being honored in this sport are small and are very representative of the top percentage of talent vs. total participation. I don't think it too accurate or fair to suggest that it no longer means much. In fact, if one were to cross check these All-District rosters against the local club rosters, and I'm gonna swag here 'cause I have not done it, but I'll bet that most are on LHGCL D-I or D-II club rosters, and many of these are players who are underclassmen that are already being recruited for college programs as Jrs. and Srs. I do agree the UIL needs to provide some structure to the nomination process.

While it is hard to begrudge any of the All Area players their place on this team, they are all very good, I'm more perplexed by this annual award of confusion than the All-District teams. Since we are talking UNT, lets use Juett as a good example... 28 goals and 16 assists, forward position, (total point value 72- 2 per goal and 1 per asst). There are two forwards on this team, Nimtz and May whose point totals were inferior to Juett's. Nimtz had 14 goals and 6 assists (34 pts) and May had 19 goals and 30 assists (68 pts). In fact, I believe there are three forwards on second team whose point totals are superior to those two players. Combine with that with the fact that there are 3- 4A players on the First Team (they are deserving and good players!, but typically there is a greater disparity among 4A District teams than 5A, and numbers can tend to get inflated against weaker average teams), and it is very difficult to see how this team was selected. Nimtz(Allen HS) and May (Coppell) prematurely exited the 5A playoffs in the Area round earlier than projected, while Juett lead team to State finals, scored 4 playoff goals and had two playoff game-winners along the way. What is clear is that all of the major growth readership zones for the DMN are represented on this team (Frisco, Allen, Flower Mound Marcus, Wylie, McKinney), or teams with storied history (Colleyville, Allen, Coppell, Marcus) or recent post season success (Marcus, Mck North). Two players, Bennett and Colony's keeper may have been the best pure player choices. If anything, I think this award voted on by the staffwriters may be the most questionable in value and meaning regardless of the splash, and makes the coaches choices for All District appear calculated and most deserving. And I do agree... poor (popular) selection methods do "downgrade the honor for those who really deserve it", and this is exactly where this award is right now for all Metroplex sports. I hope one day the All Area selections can simply be as defined as All-District currently is, no matter how weak that may be.

But hey, it is all good PR now for the MEAANNNNN Greeeeeenn.......we'll take it! Looks good for Hedlund, and when they start playing, the team will look good too.

[Wookies]

I'm not sure how many people on this board actually follow youth soccer, but I do as my daughter is about to begin her select career. That being said, any player in the Dallas area that is still playing select soccer for a top club at age 18 is a quality player. North Texas is a top 5 market nationwide for producing soccer talent. And while All-District isn't the same as All-State honors, I would be willing to wager that All-District in North Texas means more than All-District just about anywhere else in the state and most places in the country. Don't sell these girls short. This team is going to be very good and very deep.

[GrandGreen]

Actually my post had nothing to do specifically with NT recruits. Not sure how that was even inferred. It had to do with the lack of courage in most high school districts to limit their first team all district teams to the number of starters on a team. The strenght of a particular area or district imo should have no bearing on the number of players selected as first team.

Also my post did not address DMN all area teams at all. They selected 11 player teams. I will however speculate that some of the first team senior players were chosen based more on who they signed with, then any other more objective means.

[Wookies]

Unfortunately all district honors no longer mean much.  Noticed some of these districts had has many as 36 players named first team.  A very few districts actually limited their teams to 11 players, congrats to them for trying to make the award mean something special.  This is no way unique to soccer, as I have seem first team all district football teams with over a hundred players.  I wish the coaches asscs. and or UIL would put limits on the number of players honored.  This practice may make more players and parents feel good but it really downgrades the honor for those who really deserve it.

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You quoted someone who was specifically talking about our recruits and you said, "Unfortunately all district honors no longer mean much". I just disagreed with your statement given the quality of play in North Texas. Don't take it personally, it wasn't meant that way.

[nortx9]

I think I took the opportunity to soothe a raw nerve, Grand Green post was an opportunity to segue into a general complaint I have about HS soccer perceptions, and my DMN All Area team ranting is an outgrowth from that. Not only do they not cover secondary sports well, they do it at their discretion and convenience. Little concern is given to best practice journalism, or accuracy. (By the way, same for UNT coverage in the DMN, it is very hard to find much about UNT that they do not pull off of another competing wire service, they do not see the benefit of reporting on this college, and when they do, it is typically not thoroughly investigated or creative journalism).

To Gran Green's point however, it is correct to suggest that UIL should spend more time developing the process, whereby greater respect would be given for those coaches nominations if the judging criteria were standardized and uniform. This should also probably help the integrity of other superlative awards, such as the All-Area team ......one would like to think.