Girl qualifies for Footlocker Nationals... declines invitation

captain and me wrote:

absolutely irrelevant.

Doug (unusually) is correct here. Look at the all those who forego representing their country (normally it's free as well) to do other less important races, only because they get a nominal appearance fee or prize money of a few thousand.

Mind you, where are all these NXN and Footlolcker kids when the world Junior XC trials roll around in February? Running some irrelevant indoor HS meets as opposed to trying out for the world team!! So many people simply haven't a clue. Yet the US gets destroyed on the world scene (especially the men) at XC these days! Geez I wonder why!! This also transfers over to the Marathon, which is also why so few American men can even break 2h10 (a time that was elite 30+ years ago).

Give me a break. Craig Lutz and Ammar Moussa both ran Junior World XC last year in Spain, and both were among the very best high school distance runners in the nation, and both are now among the very best USA-born freshmen in the NCAA. The only guy better than them who didn't run worlds from high school level was Verzbicas.

It's freaking SOCCER, ouch

Jen Rhines gained her first entry into Foot Locker's (then still Kinney) after placing ninth (back when they only took eight) at the Northeast Regional as a high school junior in 1990. I can't remember the details, but someone from the top eight declined her invitation. Rhines ended up placing 16th at Nationals that year but was still only the 7th finisher from the Northeast. Maybe this year's lucky (non)-qualifier, Emily Nist, will end up making three Olympic teams.

While I think missing 3-4 days of soccer would be acceptable and the soccer coaches should be understanding (though most of the time are not) she did the right thing by honoring her commitments.

It was many years ago so you young kids don't remember but a kid by the name of Jason Balkman won the West Regional and declined to go to Nationals because he had a winter dance the same night.

He still went on to have a pretty good career at Stanford despite missing the race.

This girl is a Sophomore, she will be just fine.

On a separate note all too often I see soccer coaches who do not bend and refuse to let their kids run. Its a shame.

Danielle Tauro did not run one year, but because she crawled to the finish line at the northeast regional and had to deal with anemia (?).

To clarify my earlier statement, there are U14, U15, U17, U18, U20, U23, and then the national team in U.S. soccer. Each age group has a "player pool" of 50, which is chosen by people watching you practice at training sessions (you have to belong to the right club to be able to go to one of these). This usually requires years of $1000+ seasons with a club team, a pushy coach, and having finesse with a ball (quite subjective). High schoolers can be anywhere from 14-18 years old, so this is about 200 girls total. Having said that, many great soccer players lack the resources to get into one of these training sessions. In the end, it is based on somebody's opinion of how well of a soccer player you are, whereas running is pretty clear cut if you are good or not. It is much harder to be in the top 40 at Footlocker. Money and the right club team since age 6 can't win you a spot there.

But props to the girl. As everyone else said, she already has proven herself as a fast and accomplished runner. And in soccer, scouting matters because there aren't times.

[quote]Skeptic of it All wrote:

It was many years ago so you young kids don't remember but a kid by the name of Jason Balkman won the West Regional and declined to go to Nationals because he had a winter dance the same night. quote]

That is really, really, really embarrassing. For a dance? I honestly don't know what I would do if my kid had his priorities that out of whack. A dance? How many dances are there compared to national championships?

Did you know that the top high school soccer players get college scholarships too?

Did you also know that in team sports like soccer, it's important for scouts to watch players to gauge how they'd fit on the school team?

She already ran great times in XC.[/quote]

I did know that- my point was the pro end- soccer players are irrelevant unless they're in the World Cup and are really HOTT!!

Also, there are like 9 scholarships per college in soccer, 18 in track/XC. More runners get scholarships. Plus, you can split a runner's scholarship. If you give a soccer player 50% it counts as a whole scholarship.

She's a sophomore. She's 15. She probably just has more fun playing soccer. She's totally allowed to do whatever she thinks is the most fun while she's a kid... in fact, it's probably never going to make a substantial difference if that is how she lives her entire life, especially if she can continue to excel at things without taking them overly seriously.

Finishing in a pack of more experienced girls and getting dusted by some of them isn't really all that fun.

runn wrote:

Also, there are like 9 scholarships per college in soccer, 18 in track/XC. More runners get scholarships. Plus, you can split a runner's scholarship. If you give a soccer player 50% it counts as a whole scholarship.

Soccer is not a head count sport, it is an equivalency sport, just like track and cross country. Basketball, Football, women's volleyball are head count sports and a few others. The rest are equivalency sports. So yes you can give a soccer player a 50% scholarship and have it count as 50%.

I don't see her in last year's US U15 national team roster. I also looked for YouTube videos of Gunn HS soccer and nobody on that team really stuck out (not sure if she plays for her HS or not).

It is her life and her decision. Who cares? Maybe she enjoys soccer more than running. Her decision probably thrilled the alternate who now has the opportunity to run at nationals.

Good for her. Best of luck with whatever - if any - sport she decides to pursue long term.

Qpwoei wrote:

I don't see her in last year's US U15 national team roster. I also looked for YouTube videos of Gunn HS soccer and nobody on that team really stuck out (not sure if she plays for her HS or not).

In September, she was on the U15 team:

Later in the fall, she was moved up to the U17 team:

to the guy that said top 40 nationally xc is better than the U17 soccer team--you are an idiot.

do you know how many kids play soccer relative to running?

Pretty sure that 100 percent of national U17 soccer team get offered full scholarships. Is she born in 1995 or 1996? Only 2 players on the U17 team are born in 1996, which would make her one of the top 2 soccer player in the nation for her age. But she may be top 2 in the nation for her age in XC also, which is a bit incredible...

I'm a guy, and at 14 or 15 I was good at both soccer and XC. As my mileage went up I found my soccer suffered - not as laterally nimble. After a hard soccer workout, my running felt awful, as you might expect. I don't know how you can be really good at both. Training methods diverged and the two were mutually exclusive. Not sure how she does it.

national teams for soccer are very selective and are a very rare opportunity. coaches call players into camp, you never know if you ever get that call vs footlocker-there's always next year. you would honestly turn down an invitation? look at the way soccer college coaches are recruiting. sophomores are verbally committing to colleges. so if she wants to make it in soccer, another great opportunity to get her name out there for college coaches. plus, stanford just won their first ever national championship in womens soccer

Finishing 15th at FL as a Soph vs being on the U17 national team at FIFA U17 champs. The second sounds more impressive to me.

wowsa wrote:

to the guy that said top 40 nationally xc is better than the U17 soccer team--you are an idiot.

do you know how many kids play soccer relative to running?

I don't know how it is nationally, but in the Northern Virginia/DC/Maryland area, soccer is by far the most competitive sport for girls. It would be like combining football and baseball for boys. Where the most athletic boys playing 8 and under soccer drop it for baseball and football, the girls continue playing soccer.

Northener wrote:

[quote]Skeptic of it All wrote:

It was many years ago so you young kids don't remember but a kid by the name of Jason Balkman won the West Regional and declined to go to Nationals because he had a winter dance the same night. quote]

That is really, really, really embarrassing. For a dance? I honestly don't know what I would do if my kid had his priorities that out of whack. A dance? How many dances are there compared to national championships?

At my school there is only homecoming and Prom.

So I could see if they maybe only had one or 2 dances a year, he already had a date, maybe missed a couple in the past, and knew he was just a boss at running and decided to party instead.

ofc idk wtf you would do that instead of go to nationals.