'92-'94 Girls SYL ODP Camps
Interview with U.S. Soccer's Mike Dickey
 Monday, February 4
COCOA, FLORIDA – Perfect conditions at the Cocoa Expo Center in eastern Florida provided an optimum day of soccer for United Soccer Leagues Super Y-League ODP National Camps, ’92-’94 Girls edition today. Staff coaches ran their teams through a morning training session before beginning their first of several live matches. Games continue through Wednesday, February 6, ending with the naming of a Super Y-League Select Team in each age division.
“We are looking at a lot of ‘94’s to bring into our National Team Camp,” said U.S. Soccer‘s National Staff Coach Mike Dickey during a morning training session on field H. “A few of the players here have been to U.S. National Team camps in the past. I also saw some of these girls at the [Super Y-League North American] finals. We continuously like to track kids to see how they have progressed within their club system.”
“Our club systems are not doing as well as they need to be doing when it comes to developing players,” added Dickey. “More often, players need to be in this type of environment, where there is no trophy at the end. This entire camp is training, which is great for them. Girls in the U.S. are definitely playing enough, too much in fact, but the training they are receiving is not frequent enough, or on the level they need it to be to become great players.”
Ultimately, Dickey is searching for players to add to his list of the top 100 U14 players in the country.
 “We bring 100 players to Cal Poly in Pomona, California the first week of August,” said Dickey. “It is a seven to ten day camp focused on training girls at an ODP level. The girls are a little outside of their comfort level, but if they advance to the full national team level they are going to be way outside their comfort zone. It is a great experience for them and it helps us get the girls to the level we need them to be at when they get to the next stage.”
“The top 18 U14 players from that camp ended up playing in the U16 bracket of the Nike Friendlies,” added Dickey. “That was helpful because it allowed me to hand our U.S. U15 Women’s Head Coach Tad Bobak a lot of good info about our incoming U15’s.”
Dickey arrived this morning at the Super Y-League ODP National Camps via Orlando International Airport, the final leg of a global journey from New Zealand where he helped guide the U.S. Under-17 Women to a 3-2 Future Stars Tournament victory over perennial rival Germany.
“As the host of the first-ever U17 Women’s World Cup later this year, New Zealand hosted Germany, Australia and our U.S. U17’s in the Future Stars Tournament,” said Dickey. “The tournament gave our U17’s a chance at a trial run as far as traveling that far and playing against the best teams in the world. It was the equivalent of playing in the first stage of a World Cup.”
|
|
