Summer ODP Cycle

 

It gives the college coaches the opportunity to come watch the best young talent pool in Southern California the real hot bed of soccer. Yes they were there by the dozen from all over the country. Cal South did a fabulous job of entertaining the coaches with beautiful hand out binders, hospitality tent with breakfast and lunch menus.
 

The competition was very competitive as you would expect at this late stage of National Cup, and I am sure the college coaches were equally impressed by the teams and players, they sure were doing a lot of writing.
 

I was there for a different reason, as head coach of the Cal South Girls 95 team, it gave me and my assistant Eric Lona a chance to evaluate lots of players both new and players we have had in the pool previously. This age group has been scouted for wee ks leading up to college event. We certainly were not disappointed with this talent pool.
 

Anyone that is not familiar with the ODP program, it stands for Olympic Development Program. The G95 is the year the girls were born, we go from January to December, and could technically have almost a year difference in some players.
 

This is obviously a different format that the regular Cal South season which is August to July. I personally like the Jan/Dec. year.
 

We are getting ready to bring into camp the girls that will compete and try to make the final 18 players that will travel to Moscow (Idaho) this summer to be showcased before all the Regional and National head coaches.

First step will be making the player pool with Cal South. After staff meetings and talks with different scouts it is expected that approximately 50/55 players will get an invitation to be evaluated in the next six weeks.

It will open the door for a lot of young ladies that have future soccer ambitions, and having been through this process for many years in the ODP program, with both the boys and girls, competition is always tough. Do we always get it right?

I would say most of the time we are very happy with our selections, that’s not to say we don’t miss out on some very good talent, yes we do, and the big reason here in Southern California, we have so many talented kids that we could easily put two special teams together at each age group. But we cannot do that, so decision making is crucial.  

 

The first time we will get all the selected girls together will be the 22/23 May at the Blast complex in San Bernardino. 

We will practice twice each day, with good technical sessions and small sided games to see them play. Other staff coaches with be added to supervise goalkeeper sessions.

All the photos to the left were taken last summer at Regional Camp in Moscow (Idaho), which is where we will go again first week of July, 2010.

 

TO BE CONTINUED……….. 

For more information, visit the Cal South website or call the ODP Hotline 800.417.4391

 John Napier Girls 95 ODP Head Coach

 

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