Editor's Note: This is the second of two parts looking at UNC women's recruiting. Part One is here.

The burning question that continues to plague the big-picture recruiting race is how and why so many young women are deciding where they want to go to college before they can even legally be telephoned by their future coach.

“There’s so much pressure to commit,” North Carolina coach Anson Dorrance said. “I don’t think it’s coming from the schools either. I think the pressure is coming from the players.”

Dorrance jokingly compares it to prom. He feels that many of the young women feel that if they aren’t signed by junior year of high school, then they are a failure or unwanted by schools. The reality is different.

“There’s some you miss because you can’t do anything,” Dorrance said. “There’s a couple out there now that we are just begging to call us so we can talk to them.”

Recruiting coordinator Chris Ducar sees firsthand the pros and cons of early recruiting. He spends much of his time on recruiting trips watching players who have already committed to UNC to see if they are progressing as planned. The pitfalls of trusting a 10th grader to sit on their commitment are legion.

His job is to get it right as often as possible. Ducar faces dozens of challenges in recruiting, but he does have one advantage over every other school out there.

“I compare it to having a heart condition,” Ducar said. “Would you trust it to people who haven’t done it before? No. You go to the very best, and Anson is the very best.”

Old Guard

“I always wanted to go to UNC,” junior midfielder Taylor Ramirez said. “It was just a matter of if I could get scholarship money.”

Ramirez is far from alone. She and many others grew up in the early 2000s watching their idol Mia Hamm. In the end, the history speaks for itself.

Hamm, Lilly, Parlow, Higgins, Averbuch, Dunn, Engen, Venturini, Reddick and O’Reilly are just a glimpse of the names that have laced up for UNC. There are numerous All-Americans that might not sniff an all-time starting XI.

Parker remembers watching “Dare to Dream,” a movie about the U.S. women’s national team, approximately 40 times as a kid. The movie stars both Dorrance and Hamm.

“It was ‘when’ for UNC with me, not ‘if’,” forward Reilly Parker said.

Parker and Ramirez were both recruited out of California and remember deciding between staying close to home or venturing cross-country to North Carolina. Neither of them had any doubts.

“I had to be in the best environment ever created for women’s soccer,” Ramirez says.

The team’s practice habits are one reason the Tar Heels stand apart. In addition to the deep well of talent, North Carolina practices like it plays.

“What helps players develop is what we do in practice,” Ducar said. “If you’re not training as hard as us it’s like 11 velociraptors hunting you down in the game.”

Practices for the team are harder than most games. It helps that they have surprise visits from some former greats. Last year alone, Tobin Heath, Heather O’Reilly and Casey Nogueira spent time practicing with the team.

With a list of greats so long, it would be easy to think UNC is a machine pumping out drones while Dorrance sits on his throne.

That is far from the truth.

“Sophomore year I was having a tough time, and I was worried because I had to tell Anson I couldn’t come to practice, and he couldn’t have been nicer,” Ramirez said. “He told me I could take all the time that I needed and he was more concerned about the person than the player.”

Quotes like these come quick from the women and coaches who have played at North Carolina.

Ducar proudly recounts his favorite story about former player Whitney Engen as if she were his daughter. He remembers every detail of the first time he saw her play on a field in Houston through the day she left North Carolina a three-time champion.

Other schools may be catching up to Carolina on the field. They may recruit younger and younger to gain an edge. They may use any tactic necessary to win. There may come a day when Carolina is the underdog.

Until that day comes, the smart money is still on Dorrance, his coaching staff, his players and his cave of wonders in the McCaskill Soccer Center.