Syracuse 17-year-old Sarah Weisberg remains unfazed playing a year up
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First, it was an accident. Nobody knew. The league didn’t. Heck, her parents didn’t.
Sarah Weisberg moved from Fort Myers, Florida, to Jacksonville in January 2017 and registered to play spring recreational soccer. The 7-year-old, born in February 2009, was placed on a team one year older, but the age difference didn’t hinder her. Two years later, when she played up again, it was far from accidental. Weisberg was ready.
She traveled to out-of-state showcases with her under-12 club team, formerly Florida Elite Soccer Academy. She “carb-loaded” pasta with her older teammates before games and shopped with them.
Weisberg grew accustomed to bigger and stronger competition, but there was no indication she’d bend the rules at a higher level.
Then college rolled around. Weisberg didn’t think twice.
In August 2025, Weisberg reclassified from the 2027 to 2026 class, skipping her junior year of high school to join Syracuse a season early. She’s SU’s youngest player at 17 years old after years of playing in higher age groups. Weisberg said she didn’t mind sacrificing a year of high school to attend college early. Through four games, she’s one of two Orange freshmen to play.
“I remember seeing other girls commit to play college soccer, and I was like, ‘I want to do that,’” Weisberg said.
It was a rare opportunity Weisberg could only achieve at SU. On June 15, 2025, Syracuse head coach Nicky Thrasher Adams revealed she had an extra roster spot, and Weisberg pounced. Although she missed events and forfeited her class’ vice president position, she wasn’t deterred.
“Everything folded into place with the opportunity that Coach Nicky had offered her,” Weisberg’s father, Dan Weisberg, said.
Dan became emotional while scrolling Facebook flashbacks of his lefty redhead daughter the day before flying to support her in her third college game at Northwestern.
When Weisberg was young, she didn’t expect to play up a year. Once the Weisbergs realized, they switched her to the appropriate level for fall 2017. Yet Dan said Weisberg wanted a challenge.
So, one day before Weisberg’s spring 2018 season while the family was at SeaWorld Orlando, Weisberg’s mother, Andrea Weisberg, called her fall coach, saying she wouldn’t return. Andrea spoke with league director Joe Soto, who connected her to Doug Shaver, the coach of a 2008-dominant team.
“She’s a year younger than your girls,” Soto told Shaver. “Is that OK?”
“Absolutely,” Shaver responded.
An attorney by trade, Shaver was a “grandfatherly” figure to Weisberg. At first, something peculiar gnawed at him. He recognized the quiet, tiny redhead smiling after shoving cupcake frosting in her face.
Shaver greeted Weisberg individually after she arrived to practice earlier than everyone else, and they talked about their days. Every few practices, he’d hand her a hard drive containing videos of 15 “touch drills.”
Sarah Weisberg (left) poses with former Florida Elite coach Doug Shaver (right) after the club won a 2019 tournament. Weisberg’s father, Dan, said Shaver was a grandfatherly figure for her development. Courtesy of Dan Weisberg
Weisberg mastered them, primarily direction-changing stepovers, so Shaver kept preparing 15 more. Soon, he saw a “redheaded splash” whiz past three defenders for a goal. As a 9-year-old, she tied a match against a U-11 Elite Club National League development team, which sent “tremors through the competitive program.”
“Every time she learned another skill, it was another tool in her toolbox, and she would just take these girls on in the game,” Shaver said. “She would terrorize those girls on the outside. It’s not how big the dog is in the fight. It’s how big the fight is in the dog.”
Florida Elite had five travel teams, and Shaver’s squad ranked toward the bottom. But it didn’t take long for Weisberg to climb to ECNL — the nation’s top league — when play resumed after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Weisberg submitted videos of her training sessions to Florida Elite coaches during the pandemic. She played with a kickboard indoors but was repeatedly scolded for dribbling around the house. Dan recalls a pre-ECNL coach asking Weisberg to continue sending videos before offering her a roster spot. On a new team without Shaver, Weisberg’s role changed.
“Coach Doug was adamant about playing people all over the field,” Dan said. “With a new coach, she got planted back on defense.”
After the brief defensive stint, Weisberg eventually settled on midfield before high school. Weisberg said she doesn’t like putting pressure on herself but does anyway when opportunities arise. She oscillated between three coaches, with Michael Dowling helping the team reach nationals. An assistant coach, Lexie Messick, couldn’t believe Weisberg’s skills.
“Who is this girl?” Messick, who also coached Weisberg at Creekside High School (Florida), thought to herself. “Who is this lefty dynamic player?”
Dan said 75% of recruiting depends on club play, but the additional 25% at Creekside also helped.
Every time she learned another skill, it was another tool in her toolbox, and she would just take these girls on in the game.Doug Shaver, Florida Elite Soccer Academy coach
In full-circle fashion, Soto was the Knights’ head coach during Weisberg’s freshman year at Creekside. Despite their prior relationship, she didn’t play much early in 2023.
Soto realized his decision was a mistake when he began to start Weisberg. Tied 1-1 with Boca Raton in the 7A FHSAA State Championship later in 2023, Weisberg had her dribble terminated in the attacking third, resulting in a corner.
She wound up on her swinger right side and pummeled an Olimpico to win the Knights a state championship. Cameras swarmed her afterward for her first-ever television interview. Messick said she didn’t know what to do.
“Really cool taking that moment in,” Weisberg said.
It seemed Weisberg’s magnum opus was her Creekside career, which featured 13 goals and 14 assists in two seasons, or her ECNL tenure, but there was more to come.
Weisberg played up again at 16 at a stage parallel to collegiate soccer. Although Dowling left Florida Elite midseason and they didn’t reach back-to-back national tournaments, Weisberg received a grand opportunity.
It wasn’t ECNL. Nor was it National Pro Leagues.
Sporting Jax, another club team, merged with Florida Elite and formed a United Soccer League Super League team. It wanted Weisberg to sign a contract beginning in July 2025. Of course, she’d be the only 2009 player on a team of professionals, playing exhibitions against college and pro squads. She accepted.
“She has this gear that I cannot explain,” Dan said. “The motor just keeps running.”
During her senior year of high school, Weisberg was considered athletic royalty and had a modified class schedule. But her routine wasn’t easy.
Sarah Weisberg winds up to play a deep ball downfield in a youth match while on Florida Elite. Weisberg later signed a one-year contract with the club, now named Sporting Jax, on its United Soccer League squad. Courtesy of Dan Weisberg
Weisberg left her house by 7:00 a.m. every weekday to drive 40 minutes to the Sporting Jax facility. The team ate breakfast and lunch together, trained and lifted. She completed every drill alongside grown-up women on the USL W League squad.
“I felt like I was ahead,” Weisberg said. “I grew a lot physically, mentally and the older girls would push me a lot harder, which made me improve a lot.”
Weisberg drove to Creekside for civics and English courses at 12:45 p.m. When she couldn’t make it, she participated online. Her commitment to Sporting Jax limited her from playing for the Knights, but she still attended every practice, played on senior night and when the team was shorthanded. She also acted as a coach alongside Messick, who said Weisberg wasn’t afraid to pull players aside to offer advice.
Yonder north, Weisberg became the youngest girl on Syracuse’s team. Again. There was nothing odd about taking the pitch next to Vickie Jones, who, in her fifth season, scored against Holy Cross. Moments after Jones’ goal, Weisberg approached her new teammate.
“I just turned around, and she was smiling, and then I jumped up and gave her a big hug,” Weisberg said.
Weisberg finds it completely normal to eat dinner, watch movies and listen to music with her neighbor, junior Farrah Stephens-Martin. She’ll walk around Green Lakes State Park and eat at Fayette’s Soft Serve Cafe with girls five years older.
Next August, for the first time in eons, Weisberg won’t be the youngest girl on the pitch. That makes this season so special and made Thrasher Adams’ seldom offer so enticing.
The chance reminded Dan about enrolling Weisberg in taekwondo years ago. Her sensei said achieving the black belt was deceptive and actually represented new beginnings. Age is irrelevant now, so there are levels beyond the esteemed belt to earn the title of sunbae, meaning an accomplished student.
To become one in soccer, Weisberg had to jump the gun and class up. And when Dan and Andrea approached her, she already had the answer.
“They asked if I was ready,” Weisberg began. “I was ready.”
