Women's Soccer - Signing Day

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Obviously, everything from the school today has been about the football team, but hopefully we will get some confirmation on the soccer classes at some point.

On the exciting side, our top women's 2012 commit got some national press yesterday in the ESPN national high school winter season rankings:

http://espn.go.com/high-school/girls-soccer/team-rankings/fab50/_/season/winter/

1 (1) Carroll Southlake, TX 12-0
Southlake Carroll rolled up 13 goals in three matches at the Governor's Cup, and the highlight victory was a 3-0 decision over No. 29 The Woodlands. SMU commit Lissi Lonsberry had four goals and five assists in four matches last week, including a pair of match-winning goals.

[redpony]

any chance we could sign up a good coach as well?

GO PONIES!!!

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Looks like we probably won't get anything official from SMU today, but there hasn't been any evidence we didn't get all of our commits signed, so here we go:

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Lissi Lonsberry (MF, 5'8", Southlake / Southlake Carroll, Dallas Texans / topdrawer 4-star, 11 in Texas - ESPN 110 nationally)

11 goals and 1 assist so far in ECNL action this year. As mentioned earlier Lonsberry is contributing a lot of offense to the ESPN No. 1 ranked girls winter team in the country who is now 13-0 after another victory last night.

Lonsberry will certainly play a lot of minutes right from the start, and it will be exciting to see her add another dimension to our midfield with Mallory Baum and Rikki Clarke. A definite big-time player.

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Shannon Moroney (GK, 5'11", Allen / Allen, D'Feeters / topdrawer 4-star)

Moroney has played 15 ECNL (B) games this season, and the team has given up less than one goal per game. She is also currently the captain of her high school team.

Obviously with two years in the system and working with Joe, Lauryn Bodden will get the first chance at replacing Courtney Webb in goal. Moroney has great size, and appears to have the pedigree to potentially push Bodden for minutes possibly even as early as this season.

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Sara Watson (D, Flower Mound / Flower Mound, Dallas Texans / topdrawer 2-star)

Not too much available on Watson - she has played in a majority of the Dallas Texans ECNL matches this season.

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Lauren Shroyer (D, Hinsdale, IL / Hinsdale Central, NSA Premier Fury / topdrawer no ranking)

No ranking on topdrawer doesn't mean no stars, it just means they don't have enough information. Shroyer's club is not in the ECNL, but they did win the U17 US Youth Soccer National Championship last year so she must be pretty decent.

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Brooke O'Hare (D, Jacksonville, FL / The Bolles School, Creeks Clash (also listed with Ponte Vedra Storm) / topdrawer 2-star)

Once again, not too much out there unfortunately.

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Overall, not that bad of a class - especially if we hit on a defender. It is a bit of a regression not having a top-100 player like we have recently with Baum, Burgardt, Redman, and Clarke, but Lonsberry is not that far off. It would have been nice to cash the Big East chip in this season to land one more stud, but hopefully that will happen next year.

And, not to look too far ahead, our 2013 verbal commitment list already features three top-20 players in Texas so recruiting is still on an overall upward trajectory.

Bringing in a keeper and three defenders certainly helps throw numbers at our biggest need positionwise. Obviously, the key thing to watch this spring will be how SMU tries to replace Webb, Eidson, and Cox (as well as looking at how we might be able to fabricate some more goals). I fear Erwin is going to put Courtney Smith at center back but there is no use worrying about that kind of stuff at this point.

Go Ponies and welcome to the new players!

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Lonsberry, Shroyer, and O'Hare have officially signed their NLIs according to topdrawer.

[soccermom]

any chance we could sign up a good coach as well?

GO PONIES!!!

We can dream and hope, can't we?!? Cheers.

[redpony]

Hey s-mom, cheers a ti tambien.

GO PONIES!!!

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Moroney is officially signed as well.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Sara Watson is confirmed - that should be everybody!

[HorsePower]

I know we lost a lot of defense, so I'm glad to shore up the back end, but ... no forwards?

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

I know we lost a lot of defense, so I'm glad to shore up the back end, but ... no forwards?

True, but to be fair it is hard to move a women's soccer class too much since the good players are all committed by their junior years (and some are even committed by their sophomore years). Coaches can't press girls to change their commitments too hard without starting to make enemies at the club level which further destroys future recruiting classes, etc. (Not that this is right but it's the way it is)

As a fan of SMU, you have to assume the team has a plan - and in the recruiting cycle this would be the season Redman and Burgardt are hitting their prime going into their junior seasons. Obviously, things didn't work out that way for various reasons.

I was hoping we might be able to sway another impact player or two to come to SMU with the lure of playing in the Big East, but we are obviously at the disadvantage of cost if we can't offer somebody a full scholarship - and I imagine the scholarships have all been spoken for with the current players and previous 2012/2013 commits. There is obviously always still hope for a transfer.

Hopefully, the "new forward" will be the return of Redman to form after having a full season back on her knee. She has always scored goals, and led the team in shots last season even while missing two full games with the concussion. She hit a few posts and had some incredible saves against her - hopefully the soccer gods balance things out this season. Also, adding Lonsberry to the midfield will hopefully allow Clarke some more freedom to move further up the field, where the constant fouls against her will lead to better free kick opportunities and/or some penalties.

We will see - I do totally agree with your sentiment because if the goal scoring stays down and the defense gives up a few more goals (which will be expected with the lack of experience) it could be a frustrating season.

[August]

Coaches can't press girls to change their commitments too hard without starting to make enemies at the club level which further destroys future recruiting classes, etc. (Not that this is right but it's the way it is)

Brent has gone after previously committed players and at least one has ended up playing for him. I know it happens everywhere but I still don't like it. As far as making club enemies, Brent is no stranger to that either. The last time a Sting player signed here was probably 4 years ago. Not rocket science to see that something went south and I know that his former AC, on the executive board at Sting, also isn't his biggest fan.

I was hoping we might be able to sway another impact player or two to come to SMU with the lure of playing in the Big East, but we are obviously at the disadvantage of cost if we can't offer somebody a full scholarship - and I imagine the scholarships have all been spoken for with the current players and previous 2012/2013 commits. There is obviously always still hope for a transfer.

Ya know, I don't see where he got a new commit after Mandy quit so either he divided up her scholarship up somehow, gave more to a current player or it's still available. He also has Nigh's money too since she quit early this season as well.

We will see - I do totally agree with your sentiment because if the goal scoring stays down and the defense gives up a few more goals (which will be expected with the lack of experience) it could be a frustrating season.

He's never had a good scoring offense in the 5 years he's coached here and we've seen plenty of quality forwards come and go. And I'm still not seeing an AC hire on the website and, for that matter, there is no presser on signing day either. He might bring in a surprise and they're waiting on that, who knows.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

It looks like it was a good showing for the incoming SMU players at the ECNL tournament in San Antonio this past weekend.

The Dallas Texans U18s went 3-0-0 to move to the top of the National Flight A standings. Lissi Lonsberry and Sara Watson played in all three games. Lonsberry had one goal.

The D'Feeters U18s also went 3-0-0 with Shannon Moroney in goal for all three games and she kept three clean sheets!

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Well, tonight marks FIVE weeks since signing day and still nothing but the sound of crickets from SMU women's soccer.

Every single other C-USA school had a release within a few days of signing day - and I can only imagine the coverage the Big East schools have provided.

I really feel bad for the recruits on what had to be one of the biggest days of their lives so far. All of their club and HS teammates who have been given the opportunity to play at the next level have real live press releases to show their friends and families - but ours are left waiting.

It has to be an Erwin thing - the SIDs can only report what the coaches give them.

[August]

Well, tonight marks FIVE weeks since signing day and still nothing but the sound of crickets from SMU women's soccer.

Every single other C-USA school had a release within a few days of signing day - and I can only imagine the coverage the Big East schools have provided.

I really feel bad for the recruits on what had to be one of the biggest days of their lives so far. All of their club and HS teammates who have been given the opportunity to play at the next level have real live press releases to show their friends and families - but ours are left waiting.

It has to be an Erwin thing - the SIDs can only report what the coaches give them.

Here we are in mid March and still nothing. In prior years Erwin has issued a timely signing day press release and then amended it to reflect late adds so this is more than a bit odd.

Lots of talk on him on the Big Soccer forum as well. Apparently a Notre Dame fan attended our game there a few years back and is less than complimentary of his 'coaching style'. Terrific representation of SMU as we move to the Big East.

Always something, but I agree that this is a shame for the incoming girls who should have had their day to honor their signing. Other schools are also drawing attention to their recruits' successes in post season tourneys so why we aren't jumping in on that I can only imagine. I guess time will tell.

[mustangbill67]

Shellas on many occasions waited way beyond signing day to announce men signees and Erwin was his assistant. Do not remember the wait ever being this long. Must be more to the story.