Ice Cold Temps, Fire Hot Prospects: Mid-Atlantic GK Edition

The weather is dominating the scene in the Mid-Atlantic right now, with a Showcase Tournament canceled for the second straight week. Best of the East outside of Philly, and the [program_tooltip program_id='278061' first='Maryland' last='United'] Showcase has fallen to the ice storm from last week. Fields are still under inches of ice and snow, and if you've ever seen snow removal methods on turf, around here, it's pretty much that the sun will handle it. Well, temps below freezing for two straight weeks left us with great hockey tournament conditions, not so much soccer.   Much like college coaches, when I'm out scouting, I've got lists of interesting games and matchups and players from multiple teams on my wishlist to see, and while I'm there, I'm scanning for something else that stands out. Since I'm not going to get to use the results to let you know how these tournaments went, I figured I'd share my notes and targets of players I was hoping to evaluate, and wait for my next chance. The Loudon Showcase will be here at the end of the month, crossing fingers. This tournament was made up of some ECNL, ECRL, NAL, and EDP teams.    My first targets are almost always GK, I tend to start in the back and work forward when looking at players. Genevieve, I've seen in person a few times over the past year or so, she plays for [program_tooltip program_id='278061' first='Maryland' last='United']'s 2009 RL team, and goes to Northern HS. She's got good height for the position at 5'8 and good agility to go with it. Hands are solid, the few punts and GK I saw were good. She's also spent a few years on the 2009 MD ODP team, so she's got some advanced competition/leadership skills in there too. I've seen her during ODP tryouts and she was pretty impressive, especially liked her hands and her build out. She's got some great coaching, and her United team has been playing fantastic of late.     I've followed Riley since she was in middle school, she's always had a lot of strength, and great hands, and a strong leg. She's developed even more since then, she's solid left to right, and aggressive enough to cut angles well and control the shooting field. She plays for a High School that is constantly in the State Title hunt, and her 09 team at [program_tooltip program_id='278061' first='Maryland' last='United'] has been playing very well of late as well. She's got the chops to play at a higher level if that's what she decides she wants to do.     Olivia is an extremely aggressive keeper, what she lacks in height, she makes up for in agility and speed, and she uses that to take away chances before they happen. She's very strong on 1v1s, and recovers quickly. Her distribution is smart, and she reads the field well. She's a good communicator and she uses a high soccer IQ to read the field and play and know where the ball is coming from.     Mary is a fantastic young keeper. She's got the size D1 schools look for, and her resume for such a young player is glowing. She's played ECNL level for five years already, she's been to 3 US ID Camps, and she's also been to Gotham FC ID camp. The kid is pretty legit, and one of the top prospects in the region, she will have a lot of attention in the showcase circuit.     Another shorter, quick, agile GK for the group, Claire is a multi-sport athlete with lots of athleticism. She's another in the aggressive mold of keepers that is good at controlling 1v1s. Making use of the agility and speed is a capable strategy that the shorter keepers tend to employ, and this is another one that does it very well. If it's tough to make the upper 90 saves, just stop them before they get the shot off, or force them into a lower percentage shot.    This list is dominated by ECNL GK because other clubs don't post their rosters online to know who else is playing. If more clubs did this, it would be easier for scouts to give them coverage. Thankful for places where the roster is online, and players have recruiting pages set up with video to make this job easier.   These are just some of the area's top GK I've got my eyes on. There are a couple of others that I've got written down to go see, but they weren't going to be at this tournament, so I'm saving them for a later write-up.

The weather is dominating the scene in the Mid-Atlantic right now, with a Showcase Tournament canceled for the second straight week. Best of the East outside of Philly, and the Maryland United Showcase has fallen to the ice storm from last week. Fields are still under inches of ice and snow, and if you've ever seen snow removal methods on turf, around here, it's pretty much that the sun will handle it. Well, temps below freezing for two straight weeks left us with great hockey tournament conditions, not so much soccer.

Much like college coaches, when I'm out scouting, I've got lists of interesting games and matchups and players from multiple teams on my wishlist to see, and while I'm there, I'm scanning for something else that stands out. Since I'm not going to get to use the results to let you know how these tournaments went, I figured I'd share my notes and targets of players I was hoping to evaluate, and wait for my next chance. The Loudon Showcase will be here at the end of the month, crossing fingers. This tournament was made up of some ECNL, ECRL, NAL, and EDP teams.