By Lauren Green
NJWildcats.com Junior Correspondent

(Tobin Heath just recently re-signed with the New Jersey Wildcats for a third season. CLICK HERE to read more about her Wildcats career.)

Most high school athletes would have been devastated by missing an entire season – especially their senior year. For Tobin Heath, she made the decision herself to not play with her Ridge High School team her senior year. Instead, Heath decided to focus more on personal training and the Red Devils senior has no regrets about her choice.

"Looking back I know I definitely made the right choice to not play high school ball," said Heath, who is off to the University of North Carolina this fall. "I have no regrets whatsoever. I loved the team and we had a great coach but during that time I needed to be getting more out the fall season than I would have playing for my high school team."

When she wasn’t playing high school soccer in the fall she was training every day on her own:

• Monday – fitness
• Tuesday – shooting and technical skills
• Wednesday – lifting
• Thursday – shooting and technical skills, at night training with the younger boys
• Friday – fitness

Like any other choice, there were some disadvantages.

"The only thing that was difficult for me was during that time I wasn’t playing any real games," Heath said.

New Opportunity

A former member of the United States Under-16 and Under-17 National Teams, Heath is quickly climbing through the youth national team system. Too old for the U-17s but still young for the U-20s, last December was her last trip with the U-17s. In March, she was called into camp with the U-20 team and was picked to play in a tournament in Brazil against the Brazil and Canada U-20 teams. She was also picked for a trip to Europe with the U-21 team and is there with the team right now.

For her, it’s an opportunity to go to the next level. The Under-20 National Team will be involved in the FIFA 2006 Youth World Championship in Russia in late August.

"My chances are probably slim but I hope to go out there and do my best and try my very hardest to make and impression and just be me," said Heath of her opportunity.

Like any other aspiring soccer player in the country, Heath wants to one day make the full US National Team, play in the World Cup, and win the Olympics.

"I like to dream big," she says.

Balancing Act – New Jersey Wildcats and PDA Wildcats

The past two years, Tobin played on both the PDA Wildcats club team as well as with the New Jersey Wildcats women’s team. To her, the two teams are on completely different levels with the players on the older Wildcats team being "in a league of their own."  Watching and playing with these high-level players only made her a better player.

"The experience with the (W-League) Wildcats has helped me the most with all my other teams," Heath said. "The raw talent of the players around me had pushed my game to another level. Plus it’s pretty sweet meeting people you look up to let alone playing with them."

Was playing on both teams and balancing them difficult? Not for Tobin. The Wildcats midfielder attributed this to the amazing team that the Wildcats had in 2005.

"I wasn’t really needed in games so I mostly enjoyed just training against such high level players," she said.

This allowed her to also play for her Under-18 PDA Wildcats club team – the US Youth National Champions in 2004 and a club currently ranked number two in the country by Soccer America. The environment is great, the level and commitment of both players and coaches is amazing.

"Anyone who wants to pursue soccer should join PDA," Heath recommended.

Players choose PDA for different reasons – for some it’s the training, for others it’s the stepping stone onto higher teams. There are all sorts of other reasons in between. However, Heath chose PDA for a different reason.

"I chose PDA because the Somerset Hills Wildcats, coached by Mr. (Tom) Anderson, the creator of PDA, merged and became the PDA Wildcats," Heath said. "We were always the studs of PDA."

Lauren Green is a Junior Correspondent for NJWildcats.com. She is 15 years old and is a freshman at Cherokee High School in Marlton. She is an avid soccer fan and writer and she plays in the South Jersey Girls Soccer League.