The fall update for the 2016 girls IMG Academy 150 is out today, and there is a new player on top. Real Colorado forward Mallory Pugh was the unanimous choice of the TopDrawerSoccer.com staff as the new No. 1 after her performance at the U17 Women’s CONCACAF Championship. Though the U.S. women did not advance to the final, losing to Mexico on penalties, Pugh stood out on the international stage, finishing as the leading scorer for the U.S. With barely time to catch her breath upon her return to the U.S., she excelled for her Real Colorado team at the ECNL Showcase in Phoenix this past weekend, scoring a hat trick against Charlotte Soccer Academy in the first match. Not far behind Pugh, Eclipse Select forward Zoe Redei climbs from No. 5 to No. 3. Redei, who had a four goal outing against Guatemala that earned her Woman of the Match accolades from U.S. Soccer, received top marks from our staff for her performance.

Mallory Pugh

Several other players move up the ranks with this update, including De Anza Force forward Samantha Tran, Solar SC goalkeeper Danielle Greenlee, and Sporting Blue Valley forward Morgan Hensley. Tran, who climbs from No. 59 to No. 45, continues to receive national camp call-ups, and has provided her top-ranked De Anza Force U15 squad with seven goals and four assists this season. Greenlee, who is rostered on the Solar SC U18 ECNL team but has been a long-time member of Texas club Liverpool FC America, is one of three goalkeepers from the class of 2016 called into September’s U15 GNT camp, and climbs from No. 100 to No. 76. Hensley is having a great season in the ECNL, leading the scoring for SBV’s U16s and helping Huw Williams’ team to second place in the Heartland Division. Hensley also received strong recommendations for her ranking, moving her from No. 147 to No. 125.

Players new to the IMG Academy 150 this fall include FC Virginia defender Briana Alston, FC Bucks defender Dominique DeMarco, World Class FC midfielder Taylor Aylmer, and Colorado Rush midfielder Larkin Russell. All of these players were highly recommended, with Alston and DeMarco receiving multiple recommendations to be added to the IMG Academy 150. Click here to see where they are ranked.

Not only has the IMG Academy 150 received scrutiny, but the regional lists have been updated as well. Keep checking back this week as we unveil newcomers such as Tophat SC’s Allie Lourie, FC Virginia midfielder Julia Phillips, Match Fit Academy midfielder Tara Durstewitz, West Coast FC forward Grace Chalmers, and many, many more.

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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