2017 Girls IMG Academy 150 Winter Update

by Caroline Yort

March 2, 2015

The IMG Academy 150 winter update for girls in the 2017 graduating class is out today, and as the 2015 calendar year gets into full swing, several players are showing well in the youth national team system. After impressive performances in the U-17 Women’s NTC Invitational, five players enter the top ten: Solar Chelsea midfielder Taryn Torres, Tennessee SC center back Karlie Paschall, left back Jojo Harber, right back Kiara Pickett, and Javanon midfielder Emina Ekic. Torres captained the squad that topped Mexico, Canada, and Japan’s U17s on its way to the tournament championship, and rises from No. 12 to No. 3. Pascall is a center back for the U17s, but is also one of the leading scorers for her home club in the USYS National League, helping her rank climb from No. 15 to No. 5. The most impressive rise to stardom for this group, however, is Ekic, who lands at No. 10. Her dribbling skills are second to none, especially in tight spaces, and she had no trouble showing she deserves to play on an international stage with the U17s.

Other players climbing the ranks with this update include North Carolina Fusion’s Brooke Bingham and FC Virginia’s Emily Fox. Both players recently committed to North Carolina, and both have recently been involved with the U18 Women’s National Team. Bingham, who lands at No. 42, was a part of the last two camps as a defender, but is her club team’s leading scorer as a forward/midfielder, and Fox, at No. 71, continues to be one of the leading scorers in the ECNL’s U17 age group as a whole, and was named to the Best XI at the TDS Seattle Combine in 2014.

More: Future Standouts of the U.S. U17WNT | TDS Combines | Commitments

There are more than a few players new to the rankings this month, including Indiana Fire forward Ryanne Brown, Yardley-Makefield SC midfielder Murphy Agnew, and Boston Breakers Academy forward Eve Hewins. Brown is in her first season as a full time player in the ECNL and received multiple recommendations for her rank, landing at No. 70. Agnew, at No. 94, is a standout midfielder for the Yardley Makefield USYS National League squad and earned a Best XI nod at last summer’s US Youth Soccer Nationals. And Hewins, at No. 120, received recommendations from multiple coaches in the northeast region.

Not only has the IMG Top 150 received scrutiny, but the regional lists have been updated as well. Keep checking back this week as we unveil newcomers such as Crossfire United defender Nia McFerrin, SC del Sol defender Madison Soles, Las Vegas Premier midfielder Macee Barlow, GSA forward Brittany Montgomery, 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.