ODP & YOUNG OLYMPIANS 2008

All the players listed below were selected to the 2009 Region IV ODP POOL.
Also, Cassie Miller of the 95 girls was selected to attend National Camp for the 94/95 girls.
Jaden DeGracie was named as an alternate for National Camp.

95 Girl’s Region IV Pool
Cassie Miller
Jaden DeGracie
Kathryn Yaconne

94 Girl’s Region IV Pool

Kaitlin Lopez

93 Girl’s Region IV Pool
Lorielle McCluskie
Jocelyn Jeffers
Jordan Day

96 Boy’s Region IV Pool
Brian Booker
Grant Gordon
Lorenzo Belassen
Luis Lopez
Zack Shearer

95 Boy’s Region IV Pool
William "Rodrigo" Uriarte
Bryan Hernandez
Jose Navarro

94 Boys’s Region IV Pool
Alan Rivera

93 Boys’s Region IV Pool
Amado Sanchez
Kyle Summerhill
Ricardo Velazquez
Douglas Jamison
Kossi Lokossou

'92 Boy's Region IV Pool
  Jordan Stagmiller
  Thor Kellin
  Quincy Wento
  Jared Hanze

'92 Girl's Region IV Pool
  Kelli McCracken

Congratulations !

Carrie Whigham was called in for her 3rd U-18 National Team camp in 4 months. This time it will be held in Boulder, CO from July 9-16th and they will be playing a match against U-20 Canadian National Team. Ellen Parker, a 92 Sereno White player, was also selected to attend camp.

Below is the list of Arizona players invited to attend the 1992/U17 Invitational Camp:

Kelli McCracken

Alex Doller

Sam Cummings

Carrie Whigham

Mackenzie Semerad

Layla Martin

Congratulations and Good Luck !!

YOP players enjoyed a day of soccer training at Dessert West soccer complex. (Click for larger image)

ODP 96 & 95 Boys & Girls

Passing to space verses passing to feet. "Final third observations" during the Region 4 ODP Championships 2009.

In this situation the central midfielder has 2 choices to make when passing the ball to the wide midfielder.

Most of our AZ players (96 & 95 Boys /Girls) who were in these situations had more of a tendency to play the ball to space (thru ball) resulting in the defenders having time to recover into defending positions in the penalty area.If the ball is played to the feet of the wide midfielder the ball can now be played behind the defenders early so that the attacker can run/attack into a much bigger space between the goalkeeper and the recovering defenders. The decision to play the ball into space ahead of the wide midfielder is not necessarily wrong especially if the player has exceptional pace and can make up the ground and cross the ball into the box ahead of the defenders. I noted that this was the tactical passing tendency of the two age groups in the final third of the field.

Taken from the ODP Technical report ODP Championships - Phoenix AZ 2009

.Region IV ODP Championships

The Olympic Development Program, or ODP, has been in existence in Arizona since 1977. The program was introduced to help identify potential United States National Team Youth Players through an organized series of trials which begin at the state level, and progress through the region and finally at the national level.

The program also serves as a means of identification of high-level players for Colleges and Universities and as a means to develop the higher-level players in the state. Arizona is on the cutting edge of promoting its players to Colleges and Universities. The ODP College Soccer Promotion program includes, but is not limited to the following activities:

1. Promoting individual players through our website and the Player Bio process.
2. Proactively contacting over 8,000 coaches nation-wide to promote the AZ ODP soccer community as well as directing the coaches to our website and the player information contained therein.
3. Hiring ODP coaches who have the ability and knowledge to teach players the skills that are evaluated by college coaches.

The Young Olympian Program is an in-state pre-ODP program. Eligible players were born in 1997. AZ ODP utilizes the YOP program to prepare the players and parents for the ODP program.

We are in the process of restructuring the '97 boys entry level ODP program (YOP or Young Olympians Program). The idea is to have district training in 5 geographical areas. The YOP groups will practice once a month in 5 locations. There will be no limit to the number of players in the District pools. We will form as many teams as we feel necessary per District.

The YOP program has been hugely successful over the last several years. The player's feedback has been that it is a fun but challenging experience. Those that have gone on to the ODP program feel it has helped them adjust quickly as they know what the expectations and standards are going to be.