watash

I could speculate about your first question but don't need to. Kelly is scheduled to play in the PNG tournament on January 18th-19th. We will have a direct comparison at that point. As with most varsity sports, soccer has reached a level where the most successful teams consist of players who play outside of school. Kelly has five freshman with several years of D-1 club experience and three or four seniors with club experience. While they are fairly young team overall, this makes them much deeper than past Kelly teams. In this area, it also means their starters have as much or more club experience than most other teams except West Brook(a very senior laden team) Arrangements are underway for an early January game or scrimmage with West Brook so we should also have a better perspective at that time. I'm not that familiar with the teams outside of this area. The Friendswood area has a lot of girls competing on club teams which probably makes the high school team deeper, more experienced and probably better than Kelly this year. Interestingly, Kelly's coach, Brittney Burdick took Friendswood to the state tournament when she coached there.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME Kelly..........1 2 - 3 DeRidder.....1 0 -1 Goals:Claire Dykeman(2) Zuri Prince Assists: Yasmine Ashfar, Prince Kelly season record: 9-2 POOL GAMES Kelly.............4 2 - 6 New Iberia.....0 0 - 0 Goals: Claire Dykeman(3) Zuri Prince(2) Yasmine Ashfar Assists: Ashfar(2) Gabby Beaudry, Madeline Horning Kelly..............4 1 - 5 Lafayette.......0 1 - 1 Goals:Madeline Horning (2) Zuri Prince(2) Gabby Beaudry Assists: Claire Dykeman(2) Beaudry, Prince

KELLY.....................................8 INCARNATE WORD ACADEMY.......1 Goals:Gabby Beaudry(2) Claire Dykeman(2) Jana Stover; Zuri Prince: Yasmine Ashfar; Teilor Long Assists: Madeline Horning; Prince Season Record: 5-1 Young team continues to improve. Some tough games on the horizon.

Kelly................9 Sam Houston.....1 Goals: Claire Dykeman(3) Zuri Prince(2) Jana Stover; Madeline Horning; Yasmine Ashfar; Natalie Polizopolis Assists: Ashfar(3) Stover; Polizopolis

Coop Your thread did not seem limited to boys teams. Obviously, there is not much traffic relating to girls soccer but I would be interested in learning what, if anything, your readers/posters think about the projections on the girls side. Merely based on the number of Div. 1 club players on their respective squads, you would expect Westbrook and Kelly to have the strongest teams in the area. The PNG tournament in January is the only local tournament in which the Kelly team is playing. We should get an idea of the top teams by then. Anybody have any projections? Anybody care?

The same holds true for girls. If you are not playing Div. 1 level or have several years experience there, then you are probably not in the discussion of the best players in the area. Spindletop U-15 girls has consistently been the area's top Div. 1 team for the past several years. Several girls from that team are already among the best in Southeast Texas even though they are freshmen.

The Lady Dawgs are 3-1 in District and 3-2 overall. The two loses were to senior ladden teams, St. Agnes of Houston and Lake Charles Barbe, last year's Louisana state finalist with 8 senior starters. Kelly starts 6 freshman and a sophomore. This team is already be one of the top teams in Southeast Texas. The future looks bright. New coach Brittney Burdick has previous experience at West Brook and Friendswood where she took a team to the 4A state tournament.