PLEASE NOTE: The Summer 2013 update is the last IMG Academy 150 update that will be free. Starting with the Fall 2013 update, the IMG Academy 150 will only be accessible with a Premier Membership. Click here to become a Premier Member.

The IMG Academy Top 150 summer update for boys in the 2016 graduating class is out today. Real Salt Lake AZ’s Brooks Lennon breaks into the top five after being the key to his team’s success at Development Academy Finals Week. Lennon climbs from #39 to #3 on the heels of an impressive one goal, two assist performance in the final match against Solar SC, helping his team hoist the trophy as Development Academy champions. Lennon, along with fellow IMG Academy 150 top 10s Cameron Lindley (#2), Benny Swanson (#4), and Alejandro Vergara (#7), all 1997 birth years, are participating in U.S. Soccer’s National Combine at Nike World Headquarters in Portland until Tuesday, and hope to earn spots on the U18 Men’s National Team with good performances.

In addition to Lennon, others have made significant moves up the rankings with this update. Ethan Lotenero, Hipsen Garcia, and Chad Sahinkaya all showed well at recent events. Pachuca FC midfielder Lotenero climbs all the way to #33 (from #140) after impressing TopDrawerSoccer.com staff at the recent U15 BNT camp. Former Met Oval Academy midfielder Hipsen Garcia played well at his first U.S. youth national team camp in July, and climbs from #127 to #57. Garcia will play for the New York Red Bulls U16 Academy in the fall. Dallas Texans midfielder Chad Sahinkaya led his team to the prestigious Manchester United Premier Cup World Finals in England, scoring four of his team’s seven goals and adding two assists during the tournament. Sahinkaya played up on the Texans’ U15 Pre-Academy team in the National Premier Leagues and climbs from #128 to #110.

Players new to the rankings with this update include NJSA 04 defender Cristian Martinez, Albertson SC defender Kyle Perno, St. Louis Scott Gallagher defender Alex Palazzolo, and Minnesota Thunder forward Isaac Friendt. Click here to see where they are ranked.

In addition to the IMG Academy 150 update, we have made key changes to the regional rankings which will be unveiled throughout the week. Some of the additions include St. Louis Scott Gallagher midfielder/forward Chase Neice, Virginia Rush defender Andrew Walters, Revolution Empire midfielder Tanner Jameson, and Colorado Rush forward Devin Guidichessi. As far as how we arrive at the rankings, it’s no simple task.

We keep a national database of players as the starting point for our rankings (if you’re not in it, enter a profile here).

We track an extensive list of selections to national team camps and other honors including USSF Development Academy (Boys), ECNL (Girls), and U.S. Youth Soccer National League event and season awards, plus U.S. Soccer Training Centers, ODP, id2 and other player identification programs.

From there we look at additional signs of top player performance in a club environment, with the help of an extensive network of observers around the country. The priority here is for club, college, national team and other select team coaches on the ground, but especially when we can gain corroborating opinions. The more layers of opinions we can gain accumulate the better, as our role is primarily to aggregate those viewpoints, rather than making our own determination as to a player’s quality.

As a matter of policy, we never share which coaches said what about whom so that coaches will be freer to share their assessments. Another policy is that parents’ opinions about their own children are not considered, but you are welcome to provide feedback about honors and other details that may be of help to us in keeping their profiles up to date as well as our challenge of sifting through thousands of players nationwide. That kind of data can be helpful, but the: “How can you not have rated my kid? He is awesome” communique, while compelling, will be consigned to the virtual trash.

In the end, there’s always some level of subjectivity about players, because after all, how good someone is relative to someone else is largely a matter of opinion, but we do our best to make our rankings as educated an opinion as can be.

The rankings will be updated every quarter. Keeping current rankings for 8 classes of 150 players each is no small task, and it is counterintuitive to think the rankings would change daily or weekly. We will announce each update.

So that’s it. You can see the newest version of the rankings here.

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