California Odyssey Soccer Club is excited to announce the establishment of their new Girls “Elite” program.  Under similar parameters of the National Development Academy program, the “Elite” program will be set up for two teams, in the U-16 and U-18 age groups.  The idea behind this program is to provide players with a much more competitive environment that will help them as they move through our system and onto their collegiate careers.  The U-16 team will be made up of the best players from both the U-15 and U-16 age groups and the U-18 team will be made up of the best players from both the U-17 and U-18 age groups.  This first year of the program (2010-2011), the “Elite” teams will be competing in 2 nationally recognized tournaments that are scouted by countless college coaches.  The first tournament that the teams will be attending is TBD at this time, but one option that we are considering is the So. Cal. Blues Cup held over Labor Day weekend 2010.  We do want the tournament to take place sometime in the summer.  The second tournament that the teams will be attending is the Nuesport (Las Vegas) Soccer Club College Showcase in March 2011.

In order to establish the players that will be attending these tournaments, there will be training sessions held at least twice a month, which will be held under the supervision of the D.O.C. and will be ran by the age group coaches.  The staff will be selecting the players that will be attending the tournaments based on the training sessions but also through their actual team training sessions and match performances as well.  Just as in the National Development Academy, we want every training session and every match to have meaning so the players will give their best every time they step on the field.  In the end, there is no guarantee that a player will be invited to attend the tournaments.  They must and will need to compete on a daily basis to earn the opportunity.

We will also be incorporating a “Pre-Elite” team as well that will be participating in the Nuesport College Showcase as well.  This team will be the U-14 team, which will incorporate both the U-13 and U-14 age group teams.  It will follow the same premise as we have set with the U-16 and U-18 teams, there will just be a lot fewer times that the U-13 and U-14 groups will be training together.  The sole purpose of the “Pre-Elite” group is to give the players and families an idea of what to look forward to when they get to the U-15 age group.