Behind The Scenes of the Illinois 2025 Rankings
When creating a rankings list, it is a double edged sword for me. I get excited to honor the athletes who have worked hard and have deserved to be on this list. However, I know there is a high school kid behind these names where this can have an effect on them.
I’ve been a part of high school rankings at the state and national level at Prep Dig the past five years. I have had the range of feedback with a club director saying I have no ethics in ranking high school kids to people thanking me for honoring the hard work these athletes have put in. Whenever I release rankings, I want to be transparent about how we can use these rankings, but first, here are things that the rankings are.
Rankings Are:
Subjective
A Tool
One aspect of the recruiting process
Something we never want high school athletes to define themselves by.
A list college coaches can use to track in order to see what clubs athletes are playing for and if they are committed (especially coming to their Junior and Senior year).
Not what colleges use in order to offer scholarships.
I could go on about what this is and what it is not. I spend a great amount of time in developing these rankings, especially for this 2025 Class in Illinois. I have watched this group the past two years, I’ve seen them on the biggest of club stages as well as the local high school tournaments. Through watching all of these matches in different settings, I still know I have missed kids.
The one question I have when rankings athletes are:
“What impact does the athlete have at the highest level of play?”
The teams that are competing at the Open level typically have more players in the rankings list because they are playing against the top teams. I saw plenty of Illinois teams play at Central Zone, Triple Crown, Mideast Qualifier, Northern Lights Qualifier, and the Windy City Qualifier. This was a chance to get to see them compete against some of the top teams in the country. I also was able to spend the weekend at the Great Lakes Region Championships at Wintrust where I was able to see a lot of these teams go head to head.
From our Watchlist, I start to put players into a ranking where its a pretty rough draft. I was able to send a preliminary ranking to some club directors throughout the state. I still need some help from Southern Illinois as I know I probably missed kids who play club in St. Louis or Evansville. This is not a chance for club directors to trash other players. What I want them to do is be transparent with me about where athletes in their own clubs would be placed. Some would even note that this athletes should be in this range, but watch for her – she’s rising quick! From the feedback, I start putting a more concrete list together, double checking information of the athletes. The ones I miss are when they are playing club out of state or playing up or down an age group than what their class is playing (for example if a 2025 was playing down on 15s or up on 17s or 18s).
To The Athletes:
A ranking does not define you. This is simply a tool where you can have a player profile provided by Prep Dig where we can tag you in articles, tag you in photos, you can post video highlights, and house everything in one place that Prep Dig has written about you. Please share our content with college coaches as you begin reaching out!
I have done rankings in four different states as well as nationally. I am continuing to study and improve my process. One thing that Illinois athletes are top notch at is having updated video. Let me repeat that, having an up to date video that would be seen by a simple Google search is extremely important. Video analysis is part of the evaluation, but I really trust what is seen with the live eye. Thank you for putting yourself out there, that is not an easy thing to do.
These rankings do not determine your future as a college athlete. Again, this is a tool and a list. Keep focused on the process even if it seems like one step forward and two steps back. Focus on what is the best fit for you to accomplish your goals.
Good Luck heading into what will be a wild summer!