The Recruits

By WELCH SUGGS

It is late August, and the Potomac Mischief are sprawled on the grass, looking like any other high-school girls' soccer team. As they stretch out for the first day of practice, they stare determinedly at their cleats, or less certainly at their coach, Terri Beach.

This is a talented group. The Mischief -- a name that dates from the team's founding, when these girls were 10 and 11 -- is one of the best private teams in the supercompetitive Washington Area Girls Soccer league, and its players are among the best in Maryland. They are all seniors or juniors at high schools spread across the state.

They are tanned from a summer of sports camps, private lessons, and scrimmages jammed among family vacations and college visits. They are excited about the school year, but they are chastened by Ms. Beach's main message to them: This fall is their best and last chance to see whether the time, tears, and effort they have invested in soccer will pay off.

A former star in College Park for the University of Maryland, Ms. Beach doesn't threaten her players. She doesn't deliver a rah-rah speech, either. She simply tells them what they need to do to get the attention of the college coaches who can give them a chance to take their skills to the next level.

"If you're not in town, or you know you're going to be gone, you may want to rethink certain things, if you're interested in going to play in college," she warns them. "A lot of colleges are going to be looking at you this fall for next year, and this spring may be too late, because they may have found other players that are basically the same type of player as you. And you know what? You snooze, you lose."

These girls have all played soccer since they could lace up their cleats. They play on two and sometimes three teams at a time. Their parents pay thousands of dollars to get them to practices and games and camps and everything that is now de rigueur for serious athletes.

For some of them, the next level is the Promised Land. Earning a college athletics scholarship will be the fulfillment of many dreams and the reward for a lot of sacrifices.

Even among the students who won't receive scholarships, soccer is a major factor in college choice. Many of these girls will go where they can play, and preferably where they can play a lot from their freshman year onward. For other members of the team, soccer will play more of a supporting role. They will play during their college years, but they will choose where to go to college based on other factors. Perhaps they will find a varsity program that suits them; otherwise, they'll find a lower-key club or intramural team.

Over the next few months, amid a blur of games and practices and tests and homework, they will decide where they belong.

The Chronicle will follow the Mischief's members throughout the process, which will include meetings with coaches, conversations with advisers, visits to colleges, and trips to tournaments where the students will display their skills for college coaches. Those experiences -- not to mention the standard rites of passage for high-school seniors -- will help these girls and their parents make some of the biggest decisions of their lives to date. We will follow them through revelations, celebrations, and disappointments.

A wrap-up will appear in these pages next spring, after the players have made their college choices. In the meantime, please check The Chronicle's Web site throughout the year for news on the Mischief, including taped interviews and video features on the team.

Copyright © 2003 by The Chronicle of Higher Education