My great-niece, Rachel O'Keefe, who plays for the NYU Violets as a freshman this year made the all UAA 1st team. The University Athletic Association is a Div III Conference. Rachel was the only Freshman on the team, and her NYU team finished 2nd in the conference to #1 ranked Washington U. Rachel led her team in minutes played by 200 minutes, she played and started in all 19 games. In a little bit of an oddity, while Rachel was the only Freshman named to the 1st team, a Freshman from Washington U was named Rookie of the Year. Oh well, I'm sure she deserved it. Rachel plays defense, I think it's called Center Back, but I'm not sure being pretty ignorant of soccer terms. I guess I should mention that she's played all those minutes (1556) with a broken toe! They made the Div III NCAA's but lost in the 1st round 1-0 to Virginia Wesleyan.
Terry, it's amazing that she has that honor. She obviously is an elite soccer player. I have 2 granddaughters (Brian's) playing at a high level in HS. I've come to learn how the pyramid of "eliteness" in women's soccer works. Those who play in college are at or near the top of the pyramid. I've seen some pretty great HS players who I'm told are only at or near the middle. It's like college football. There are very good HS players, and there are great HS players who go on to play in college. Rachel belongs to the latter group, and she's only a freshman.
Sounds like Rachel is off to a great start in her first year in college. You have a right to be proud!
Having coached youth travel soccer and reffed for years, I'm impressed. There seems to be a flock of talented athletes in the O'Keefe family. And then there's that black sheep dentist. :lol:
Being a star player is really impressive but she also must be one smart student to get into a prestigious university like NYU.
So ..another brag. Another relative, this time a great-nephew. Ben Harris is the young man, he's my brothers grandson. He plays HS football in a suburb of Oklahoma City at a school named Carl Albert. Last year as a true freshman due to an injury to the presumed starting QB who was a Jr, Ben was pressed into duty as the QB. They went undefeated and won the Oklahoma State 5A Championship (6A is the highest level). He had a lot of terrific senior receivers and he threw something like 34 TD's against 4 picks. This year he got some pre-season hype as one of the best QB's in the state. But he was working with new receivers. The coach had a great defense coming back and a terrific OL and RB's so they were more of a running football team this year and with new WR's his stats were down a little to 20 TD's/6 ints. But the big thing was that Ben and Carl Albert went undefeated again this year and won another State Championship. I asked his mom about recruiting and so far he hasn't had much interest expressed in him by colleges. Of course he's only a Soph, class of 2021 and I see ND with contact with lots of kids from the 2021 class. So not sure why he's not getting any action. Well one thing probably works against him is that last summer he played select league baseball and didn't got to any football camps except a local one he's been going to since he was a little kid. I know that the Rivals, Scout, 247 guys don't pay attention to you unless you go to camps and workout for them and coaches. I don't really know Ben very well, since he lives in Oklahoma, but when ever I'm around him he seems like a great young kid and has always been a really good athlete, baseball, football, basketball. He says he's interested in playing college for anybody that is interested in him. https://newsok.com/article/5616577/high-school-football