In the early days, Kaitlyn Fitzpatrick refused to put her hair up when she played.

“I used to always play with my hair down,” she recalls of her first soccer experiences. “Probably my earliest memory was running around out there like a little banshee.”

Now as a fixture in youth national team sides and slated to rejoin her U18 GNT teammates next week at Home Depot Center for the latest camp, Fitzpatrick keeps her eyes clear, which helps her hit the defense-splitting passes that have helped her torment Northern California opposition for years. The San Ramon SC midfielder is among the very best in the 2010 graduating class and it is Neil McGuire’s California Golden Bears who have won the prize of her verbal commitment.

The goal of making a youth national team helped kickstart Fitzpatrick’s career when she was just 12.

“When I started doing ODP I just realized all the stuff it took to get to the national team,” she said. “It was overwhelming at first, and almost weird to think how far I could go with soccer. I started taking it more seriously. When you’re younger you do it just because you love the game. I would go out and play with my dad or with my sisters. I would go to their practices or just hang out and kick it around. But in the 8th grade when the whole social thing starts, I had soccer on my mind. I would go play on my own outside and I still do. You have to do it to stay at the top of your game.”

Fitzpatrick said she spends a lot of time working on her footwork.

“A big part of my game is skill, and it’s a part where a lot of people are lacking,” she said. “I want to stay sharp with my skills so I keep focusing on them when I practice. I do a lot of cone work on the asphalt near my house. It’s very fast. I also go to an Astroturf field nearby and just keep taking little touches on the ball and move it back and forth through my feet, working on moves and just dribbling around.”

She said her team trains three days a week and she will look to play scrimmages with other teams at her club or train or play with area semiprofessional teams in San Francisco or Berkeley, or with boys’ teams.

As for her pending move to Berkeley to play with the Bears, Fitzpatrick said she had originally thought her destination would be Southern California.

“I really wanted to go down south. I had no clue about Cal,” she said. “I had just started to get some letters and my interest was more in UCLA or USC because I was always traveling down there to go to high-level tournaments for my club. I got a letter from Cal and I didn’t want to go visit but my dad told me to keep my options open. So I went and I really fell in love with it. I thought I was a great fit with Neil and the coaches and the school and the surroundings. They’re building a really good program there.”

Until she enrolls in fall of 2010, Fitzpatrick will keep working on her own, with the club team, and in her bid to contend for a roster spot at the 2010 FIFA U20 World Cup.