My daughter is a defender and has been since MS-ish, by choice because she was good at it and likes the physicality.
She got recruited as a defender but did not get the looks that her teammates on offense got, which was disheartening since she was highly regarded within that team and on her school team. Nevertheless, she got recruited and ended up at a mid-major and is now getting the heretofore-only-rumored full ride. She started out with more academic money than athletic and it was maybe 40-50% of full tuition but that changed in our favor over the years.
I will say that I thought entering the recruiting process that she would get more looks because I figured the pool of offensive and midfield players was jammed and that was my mistake. | 
