Garrett Talks About Next Season

In this article from the O:

http://www.oregonlive.com/pilots/index.ssf/2008/12/post.html

One little tidbit of info... we open next season at home against Cal.

Cal will be a good game to open. We will get their Pac 10 strength of schedule and there is no reason we can't win that one. ( I can't believe I am thinking about the RPI again).

Midfielder Kendall Johnson of Lincoln High School was voted The Oregonian Class 6A player of the year in 2007.

from seeing her play already, i hope she gets some playing time in the Cal match...

On August 28. Save the date.

ohhh_yeah, I'm assuming that your avatar is another photo of Bill Irwin. I'm impressed. He's got some leap in those legs!

you would be correct Poopdeck Pappy...

Sounds like Garrett is in the same place that many of us are: if they stay healthy, this is team that can win a championship.

Lose two players from the game on Friday (Megan R and Korie) but add 9! Michelle E, Keelin, Elli, Kendra, Cloee, Kendall, Molly, Elinor, and Taylor.

HR, I see a "Molly" in your list. Forgive my senility, but I can't remember seeing a Molly among the 2009 recruits.

Anybody know anything about Molly Klier?

St Francis High school - CASA Boca Juniors club from the Sacramento area. She didn't play High school to concentrate on club and ODP


http://www.capitalathletic.com/node/125

she's a pretty good student, too:


http://www.stfrancishs.org/news/awards.html

There was a writeup in the Sac Bee about players who are foregoing high school ball for prep that had a pretty good writeup on Molly. I'll try to find it.

I will put my two cents in about High School v Club. Winning the a Youth Club National Championship (used to be called the Snickers National Championship) it is so valuable for a player. There are many similarities to the NCAA Championship playoffs. First, for some young players it is the first time they play elite teams out of their regions. Second, they aren't in the parental nest. Third, they start getting used to hotels and having to perform under extreme pressure, which can be a performance killer for a young girl.

Off the top of my head I can think of a couple of current Pilots that won a youth national championship with their club teams; Michelle Enyeart (twice I believe with Laguna Eclipse) and Kelsey Davis(with SoCal United now known as SoCal Real).

Also on winning youth national championships, were Ali Riley (New Zealand National team and most recently, Stanford), Caitlyn MacKechnie now playing at UCLA, McCall Zerboni (UCLA), Kristina Larson (UCLA) Katie Oakes (Cal - yes she is the sister of former UCLA standout and recentl WPS draftee, Jill Oakes) Amy Rodriguez (USC) "Nini Loucks" (USC), Carrie Dew (Notre Dame), Hallie Huston (USD), Kiki Bosio (Santa Clara), Courtney Lewis (Santa Clara).

I am sure there are many more, these are just players I have met.

Now on the flip side, I am sure there are legions of players who didn't win a club championship or many others who just played high school. Either there was no elite club team to play on, they didn't want to incur the financial burden, or they didn't feel like it.

One thing I like about high school ball is you get a certain status/pride for playing for your school and you learn how physical the game can be.

Thanks for catching me up on Molly Klier, a defender from Sacramento. Coming to the Pilots from the Sacramento Valley puts her in some elite company, as the Rapinoe twins also hail from that region (the city of Redding being at the north end of the valley).

Here's the Molly Klier article I was refering to....

http://www.sacbee.com/prepsplus/story/918850.html

Thanks for the article Geezer.

In addition to mentioning Molly, it's an interesting description of the club vs. high school dilemna for girls playing soccer in the Sacramento region.

It sounds like dilemna is due to their high school season being in the spring rather than in the fall. This creates an overlap. If the high school season was in the fall, then this problem would be greatly reduced or go away.

It's interesting that the high school season was switched to the spring because Napa argued that it wasn't right for the girls to have to play their soccer games in harsh winter weather. I'm sorry, but I can't imagine harsh winter weather in Napa, California. Harsh weather to them must mean when it's below 60 and overcast.

Don't forget Stephanie Lopez Cox! She's the premiere Pilot defender who has roots in the Sacramento area. She came from Elk Grove...on its outskirts. I bet she may have had an hometown influence on Molly choosing UP!

GO PILOTS!!!