The 411: TopDrawerSoccer.com’s club soccer TeamRank and Players To Watch rankings utilize a 16-region setup.  Every Tuesday through Friday we will run an article highlighting a monthly update of one of these regions for each feature. On Mondays we will highlight national rankings updates for both Players To Watch Top 100 and the TeamRank Top 10.

For the uninitiated, our 16 regions are Southern California, Northern California & Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest (Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho), Rocky Mountains & Southwest (Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah), Texas, Heartland (Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and the Dakotas), Midwest (Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota), Great Lakes (Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky), South (Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma), , Florida, South Atlantic (South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia), Mid-Atlantic (Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia), Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Northeast (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine).

The TeamRank National Championship is a unique rankings setup that only includes team performance from the current season. It begins with events in August and ends with final events in July, at which point a new competition begins and the slate is again wiped clean. Each ranking is only for that August to July season.

Please read the TeamRank criteria and points setup.

Each list in the Players To Watch Regional Top 20 and National Top 100 rankings are updated monthly and therefore subject to change.

Players To Watch Regional Rankings and National Top 100 in 12 age groups are based on staff assimilation of data and feedback received from coaches and other observers around the country.

Players To Watch ranking and rating criteria explained.

The Texas Players To Watch ranking update features some fairly recent recruiting commitments from the girls’ 2012 class, including Solar’s Taylor Smith and Heather Magee (Florida State and LSU), Dallas Texans’ Abby Smith and Kelsey Shimmick (Texas) and Sting’s Glory Williams, Jana Jeffrey and Caity Heap (Notre Dame, Boston College and Texas Tech).

On the Boys’ side, U17 MNT starters Alfred Koroma and Fernando Pina are 1-2 in the 2012 class, with Dallas-area standouts Matthew Dunn and Kellyn Acosta, also mainstays with the U17 MNT squad that just won the CONCACAF championship in Jamaica, heading up the 2013 class.

We are currently working to finalize the 2014 through 2016 classes rather than showing partial lists. As always, you are welcome to let us know about players in those age groups.

Texas Regional Players To Watch rankings - Boys | Girls

In the Pennsylvania TeamRank update, traditional powers FC DELCO are not topping any of the boys, rankings at this time (although the separation of the USSF Academy for older age groups clearly influences this a great deal). The east-west divide of the state also makes it likely that the spring season events including U.S. Youth Soccer State Cup and the Region I Premier League will be major factors in the outcome.

On the Girls’ side, things are also clearly in the developmental stages, but Philadelphia area clubs FC Bucks and Penn Fusion each lead a pair of age groups.

With the spring club soccer tournament season (and our continuing to add results from fall and winter events as part of our commitment), it will be interesting to see how the standings in each age group develop.

Pennsylvania TeamRank standings - Boys | Girls

If you have an issue with the information in the Players To Watch or TeamRank rankings, particularly with factual data, you can contact us at [email protected] and let us know.