Energy, work ethic, and drive add up to the trifecta for Dallas Texans’ midfield standout Kristin Cummins.

She has combined all of these to build herself into one of the best players in not one, but two graduating classes, with the University of Texas winning the prize of her signature on a National Letter of Intent this week.

Cummins was originally a 2010 high school graduate but decided last summer to finish two years in one, and in a testament to the aforementioned work ethic, she says it was no big deal.

“I decided at the end of summer that I wanted to. It’s actually not that bad because we’re on a block schedule and I had most of the credits I need. Of course this semester and last semester have been kind of crazy, but I’m glad I’ll be finishing.”

Cummins has been committed to Texas for a while, and admits to being a Longhorns fan as a little girl. She looked at North Carolina, UCLA, Tennessee and Texas A&M(w) but decided the Austin campus and Chris Petrucelli’s program were the right fit for her. Her goal with Texas is pretty simple.

“I want to win a national championship. The group is very competitive and they never give up and that’s what I like about them,” she said. “We’re going there to try to win.”

The “we” refers to a group of Dallas-area standouts who have all signed with the Longhorns, and the preparation has already begun.

“We work out every night but Friday and Saturday from 5 to 8:30 p.m.,” she said. “We do strength and conditioning until 6:30, then we play for an hour to get our fitness in, then work on skills after that.”

The other members of the group include Sting Dallas players Hannah Higgins, Sophie Campise and Melanie Foncham, plus Cummins’ Dallas Texans’ teammate Becka Rivera.

Her Texans’ teammate and fellow top recruit Kim Castleberry opted to play for the Longhorns’ in-state rivals Texas A&M(w). Cummins shared that this has become the source of some good-natured rivalry at club practice.

“If Becka Rivera and I do a 1-2 I’ll shout out 'UT soccer' or if she does something good it’s 'A&M soccer!'”  Cummins said. “We give each other a hard time. She’s a good friend.”

Cummins is planning on a Pre-Med major at Texas, and hopes to be an orthopedic surgeon, but only after she’s played as much soccer as she can, including at the professional level. She’s also a veteran of many youth national team camps and should be under consideration for future U18 and U20 camps as well.

While college is on the horizon, Cummins emphasizes that she is still focused on her U18 Texans team returning to the U.S. Youth Soccer Nationals in Massachusetts to defend its national title this summer..

Her coach at Texans, Ryan Higginbotham, says Cummins practically wills herself to be a star-caliber player.

“As someone who has coached her for a little while, I would tell you that Kristin Cummins is a winner,” he said. “You find a place on your lineup card for her, because she’s going to find a way to help your team score goals. I’ve seen her score goals, clear balls off the line … she just does everything you ask of her. She has no problem doing anything asked of her in the middle of midfield. She’s just going to do what it takes to win the game.”

Higginbotham said Cummins’ approach to training and improvement is extreme.

“You sometimes have to ask her to hold back a little bit. I think she would train seven days a week, 15 hours a day if you asked her to,” he said. “She’s been playing up on that team and now she’s finishing school a year early too, but she’s still a fun kid to be around. She just loves soccer and anything competitive she’s involved with, she finds a way to win.”

Higginbotham and Cummins agreed that her biggest challenge in adapting to the college game will just be the normal upgrade required in fast play, decision making and precise distribution from central midfield.

“Her physical tools and work rate and mentality are 2nd to none to get those things done,” Higginbotham said.

 Her mother Laurie recalls a 3-year old Kristin asking her parents to time her in the back yard to see if she was improving her time in back-yard sprinting.

“She enjoyed every activity and she just didn’t require much sleep. Sometimes we have had to tell her to back off a little. She’s a real perfectionist,” Laurie said. “She was just so full of energy and she still is.”