The IMG Academy Top 150 rankings update for boys in the 2018 graduating class is out today, and the U.S. youth national teams have been busy since our last update. Two players in the top 20, Philadelphia Union defender Rayshaun McGann (No. 17) and Portland Timbers midfielder Adrian Villegas (No. 18), started 2015 with a trip to Turkey with the U.S. U16 Boys National Team. Both have followed up with subsequent camps, McGann with the U16s, and Villegas with the U15s, and Villegas especially is stirring up some homegrown buzz in the northwest.

One more player to climb into the top 20 this quarter, at No. 20, is LA Galaxy forward Kevin Negrete. Negrete stood out with the Galaxy’s U16s at the Development Academy Showcase, has attended two U15 BNT camps, and was recognized by U.S. Soccer as the top player at the SoCal futsal regional event in January.

More: Homegrown Watch | TDS Combines | Grande Sports Academy TeamRank Top 25

Three midfielders to climb significantly this go ‘round are PDA’s John Murphy, Real Salt Lake AZ’ Aristotle Zarris, and Prince Williams SI’s Eric Valentine Calvillo. Murphy leads PDA’s U14 Development Academy squad in goals (7), earned his first call up to the U15 BNT this month, and climbs from No. 79 to no. 42. Zarris, who climbs to No. 57, moved this season from Chargers (FL) Development Academy to Real Salt Lake AZ where he has thrived and is the U16s leading scorer. He’s back in Florida this week, but on the national stage at U.S. U16 BNT camp. Calvillo, who climbs to No. 62, was first noticed as a standout at last year’s TDS Tri-State Combine, and has since been picked up by the U15 BNT, with some prominent regional scouts taking notice as well.

A few players stood out enough over the past few months to be added to the rankings, including Arlington SA center back Zachary Johnson and De Anza Force goalkeeper Brady Scott. Johnson, at No. 50, commands the back line exceptionally well for Tony Damiani’s USYS National League squad. Scott, at No. 74, was a regionally ranked player for Marin FC last season, but made the move to De Anza Force for 2014-15, and like Zarris, is in Florida with the U16 BNT.

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 Weston FC forward Alfred Perez, FC Tampa midfielder Tyler Dueker, Dix Hills SC defender Matthew Baressi and many more. Keep checking back throughout the week to see who else made the lists.

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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