Early Offering
February 09, 2009 01:45 PM | General
February 9, 2009
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia coach Nikki Izzo-Brown wasn’t sitting by the fax machine last Wednesday morning waiting for the nine committed players to send in their letters-of-intent. Her day was mostly spent going over her recruiting list for 2011.
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| West Virginia's Nikki Izzo-Brown says her staff is now identifying the top high school prospects for the class of 2011.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
That’s right, 2011.
“It’s ridiculous but you have to do it,” Izzo-Brown said. “It’s nothing that I’m proud of that our sport is doing this. I don’t think it is right for the sport but if you’re not involved in the game right now you’re going to lose.”
It has now become common for the top soccer players in the country to commit to schools during the summertime between their sophomore and junior seasons. As hard as it is to believe, West Virginia had wrapped up its ’09 recruiting class a full year before signing day.
Soccer coaches are in big trouble if they are still recruiting in December and January for the current class.
West Virginia’s top prospect, midfielder Bri Rodriguez from Aurora, Ill., was in the bag a year and a half before last Wednesday’s signing day.
“I’ve known these kids for a year and half,” said Izzo-Brown. “These kids are not strangers to me. The positive is you know them so well and you already have a great relationship with them before they even get to school.”
On the flip side, recruiting players so young comes with great risk.
“The scary thing is you hope that you are picking the right kids at such an early age and you’re not making some mistakes along the way,” Izzo-Brown admitted.
It appears West Virginia has done a great job of identifying the right players for this year’s class. Six of the nine have some type of national team experience.
Bri Rodriguez was named the national high school player of the year by the NSCAA. It’s the first time West Virginia has even been involved with a national player of the year, let alone land one.
“When we got her we were like, ‘Oh boy!’” said Izzo-Brown.
West Virginia was able to develop a relationship with Rodriguez through freshmen Meghan Lewis and former goalkeeper Lana Bannerman, who also attended Rodriguez’s high school.
“She’s a special player,” Izzo-Brown said of Rodriguez. “The connection we had was the Big East kind of moving a little bit more to the Midwest. We were going against Florida State and some of the other big schools. I don’t know where she was with Notre Dame? Toward the end it came down to Florida State, Tennessee and maybe Penn State.”
If all goes well, Izzo-Brown has Rodriguez slotted to take Amanda Cicchini’s center-midfield spot in West Virginia’s attack next fall.
“She’s an attacking midfielder,” Izzo-Brown said. “The difference with her is that she’s almost like a forward the way she attacks out of the midfield. Bri is very special at getting it forward and getting it between those defensive lines.”
Stephanie Carpenter and Sara Keane, teammates at Mt. Laurel United SA, are also coveted recruits. Both made the TopDrawerSoccer.com Top 100 list.
Defender Mallory Smith led her team to a pair of New England prep titles in 2006 and 2007. She was the 2008 New Haven Soccer Officials Association Female Player of the Year.
“Mallory Smith from Connecticut … to be honest I didn’t think we had a chance with her,” Izzo-Brown said. “I thought she was going to UConn and it was a shock when she committed to us.”
Izzo-Brown says the de-committing fad that has become so popular in football is also beginning to make its way into her sport.
“We were recruiting a kid that we lost to Clemson. Then later I was talking to the Texas coach and I found out that she ended up going there,” Izzo-Brown said. “This was two weeks before the signing date. The way we recruit kids so young, there is no way you can recover from that.”
Izzo-Brown has had two de-commitments during her 13 years at West Virginia.
“One was from Maryland and her mother was sick so it was for health reasons. The other one changed her mind,” Izzo-Brown said.
“I don’t deal well with that because I’m very direct and honest,” she said. “Those are not the type of people I want to deal with so I would have a hard time with that.”
Izzo-Brown mentioned, too, that West Virginia will not pursue committed players although many soccer programs do.
“I don’t recruit in the dark. If a kid is committed and has given their word to somebody then I stay away from them,” she said. “Years ago, Lisa Stoia committed to West Virginia and a school in the SEC would not get off her back. I finally had to call them and tell them to leave Lisa alone.”
Izzo-Brown didn’t have that to deal with this year. All nine recruits were sold on West Virginia University and Izzo-Brown's consistent winning.
“I think we will get a high rating with this class,” Izzo-Brown said. “We might be in the top five. But the one thing always in the back of my mind when I had Lisa Stoia and Chrissie Abbott – that recruiting class was 45th in the country and look how they turned out.
“We got a combination of both talent and hard-working kids that want to come in and contribute right away,” Izzo-Brown said. “What we’re trying to find is the hardest working talent out there.”
It just so happens that they have to figure that out a lot earlier than the rest of the sports.
