Originally Posted by Anonymous
All are money grabs to some degree but the best value and best evaluated program by far is the UA AA Underclass Tournament. These players have been truly vetted for a day or sometimes two by a group of on field mostly independent coaches. These girls than participate in a callback game at the end of the evaluation where they are further evaluated. These are the girls who are truly the top players in their age group. It's harder for politics to play a role through this process. Many more college coaches attend this tournament and are able to watch the girls on the field vs a combine type event. You can have the fastest shot speed but if you don't have field IQ to maneuver around the best defenders and goalies in your age group than you won't be successful.

As a coach for the 2022 age group I have been very surprised to see which girls have been extended invitations and which ones were waitlisted. It doesn't coincide with who I know to be the best players in this age group. The players and coaches will know this to be true once the 2020 list is published. The evaluation process will need to be adjusted moving forward to include checks and balances if this tournament wants to truly be seen as a Top 150.


This seems like a case of, “To each, his own...”. On LI, the UA AA is completely run by 1 club and, if you don’t have that blue and yellow bumper sticker, good luck. The Coach of that club (Ernie’s roommate) actually went up to the table and handed his list of girls to the evaluators last year and guess which team dominated the callbacks and selections? This is the epitome of politics and connections paving the way so 1 club benefits.

The UA 150 requires a Club Coach and a HS Coach recommendation - if your Sophmore doesn’t know her HS Coach, good luck getting picked. This is a much more independent process that allows individual players to showcase their talents, not get carried through a process b/c they are part of a club that their sister played for.
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the Baltimore UA underclass is very political also. the problem is the same people keep applying to be evaluators each year so they only have so many to choose from. To many club coaches with players trying out or have daughters trying out. It's the perception that it gives off that get so many parents pissed of when their kid doesn't make the team. (I am not one of those. my daughter has been on the team the last 2 years)