Not getting caught up in things is a consistent trait for So Cal Blues forward Elizabeth Eddy.

If she's moving through the penalty area with the ball at her feet and a group of defenders converge on her with hostile intent, it's no big deal.

If peers at school try to get her involved with actions and philosophies contrary to her closely-held religious beliefs, it doesn't affect.

When scores of college coaches are tracking her from tournament to tournament in the hopes of getting her to play for them, she's not too concerned.

She's very good at trusting God and staying the course.

"With colleges you have to look at the style of play, the people and whether the college is one that will suit me. I mean it could be a great place but if it's not the right school than it's not really worth it," she said. "It seems like a lot of stuff to think about, so I'm not really in a hurry."

This is not apathy or escapism being expressed, but just Eddy's quiet confidence that things will work out in the right time.

Elizabeth is pretty much like that all the time. One of Park and Linda Eddy's four children, the Coast Soccer League standout is blessed with a tremendous amount of athletic ability including speed. Her soccer technique is still developing in some ways however. Park Eddy notes she was a bit of a latecomer to the club soccer scene.

"I coached her in AYSO (recreational soccer) for three or four years. She was good at soccer but she didn't really like it as much," he said. "She liked three or four other sports before that. I think her number one sport was tackle football."

Park Eddy notes that Elizabeth scored eight touchdowns as a flanker in a local junior football league, where she played with her brother until she was 11. She also played lacrosse, water polo (her father played at USC) and basketball. She only played in the fall to avoid burnout in regard to the other sports, but eventually she told her father that she was getting frustrated competing with players who didn't try as hard as she did, so she joined a travel team at the U13 age group, with the decision being justified later by her report that it was "the best time."

The transformation to being a top player wasn't immediate however. Eddy notes her skill level was going to have to catch up to her athleticism first, and it took a move to Blues and their coaching director Tad Bobak, to do that.

"Tad is really like the best coach I've ever had. I've learned so much under him," she said. "I remember before some of my teammates would tell me that I'm really fast, but I felt like I couldn't dribble a ball. I've learned to connect and really just to play the game more."

She added that it's become apparent that the athletic-only, kick-and-rush model has its limitations.

"I would say the style he coaches is really team oriented. You learn not to put yourself first but to get in the same program with all the other players," she said. "Maybe we can't be as fast as everyone else, but we can become better soccer players. By playing with the girls on this team and having to get that level, I got a lot better as a player."

On top of her commitment to improvement and playing excellence is Eddy's personal faith.

"That's the most important thing to me in life," she said. Every game I play I try to commit it to God and say "God, I want to glorify you with this.'"

Her goals are not unusual for a top player. She wants to be on the national team and to that end has a chance coming up next week to be in camp in New Jersey with Kaz Tambi's U17 Girls National Team, as it continues preparations for the FIFA U17 World Cup this November in New Zealand. After that the Olympics, World Cup and professional soccer all appear on the list.

College soccer recruitment will come before those things however, and the 2010 grad is in no rush to commit to a program, although schools like UCLA, USC, Stanford and California have all shown a lot of interest.

"I've been involved in sports a lot so I just explained to her how it rolls out and told her not to worry," Park Eddy said. "I told her to remember God has a plan for you and you're going to be where you're going to be. But there's no doubt it can be consuming (for some athletes). She says she doesn't want to know if a coach is looking at her. She says ‘Thinking about it too much would just bother me, so I'd rather not know.'"