Originally Posted by Anonymous
can you imagine how painful that dad must be to college coaches watching games(club)?

"sally is a stud defensive player who coaches begged to play defense, because the team needed her superior skill on

defense."

uh yeaaaaaa....rigggghhht....


You jest, but my kid became a defender around 6th grade and here's how it happened. The coach moved all girls through all positions. At that age, defense is pretty non-existent, everyone's a scorer including my daughter. However, she clicked on D, could play it, liked playing it, didn't whine about it like the majority of other girls ("go to goal! go to goal!) and stayed. She got recruited to play D at a D1, which she does and she starts. She anchors the D and the coach is already talking to her about captainship and she is not a senior. I attribute this in part to the communication skills she has to utilize running the back line. So yeah, it happens. Oh, not an athlete you say? Three sport varsity player, her first one was when she was in 7th grade. She is athletic. She likes D. She likes being able to shut down the hotshot on the other team. She likes a lot of the mental aspects of playing back there.

I'm the parent who said I groan when the middies come back to help on D, and it's because they don't get defense. IDC how athletic they are, if you don't understand positioning and your game sense is weak, you are a liability on the back end. Period.
Sure, some middies make the transition successfully in college, but you can't take away from what my kid did and does as a true defender from the way back. Apparently only the parents of defenders get this, and probably the parents of goalies because, trust me, those parents want a solid D in front of their daughter.