U.S. U-16 Girls National Team training camp kicking off Wednesday

CHICAGO (Via U.S. Soccer) – The Under-16 Girls’ National Team will hold a training camp from April 6-13 at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., that will feature 24 players. The event will run in conjunction with a U.S. U-17 Women’s National Team camp.

The two teams will play each other twice during the week.

This will be the second camp of the year for the U-16 GNT. Camps for this age group represent and overall increase in programming for the USA’s youth national teams. All but one player on the roster was born in 2000.

+Read: U.S. U-17 WNT heads to Carson, Calif. for training camp

The U-16s will be guided by new Women’s Development Coach Tricia Taliaferro who is U.S. Soccer’s main scout for the ’00 birth year. Her staff will include U.S. Soccer Women’s Technical Director April Heinrichs, as well as Head Development Coach April Kater and newly hired Development Coaches Mark Carr and Jitka Klimkova, who are all focused on specific birth year scouting and guiding U.S. Soccer’s comprehensive Training Center schedule across the nation.

All of the players in this camp are age-eligible for the next FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in 2016, but the main birth year for that tournament is 1999s.

This age group is starting a two-year cycle before becoming the U-18s and then the U-20s with the goal of playing in the 2020 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup.

+Read: Youth Soccer Top 25 Twitter Rankings entering April 2016

U.S. U-16 GNT Roster by Position

GOALKEEPERS (3): Kat Asman (Concorde Fire; Roswell, Ga.), Hensley Hancuff (OFC; Edmond, Okla.), Mattison Interian (Arsenal FC; Pasadena, Calif.)

DEFENDERS (7): Maycee Bell (Sporting Blue Valley; Wichita, Kansas), Cameron Brooks (Lonestar SC; Round Rock, Texas), Naomi Girma (Central Valley Crossfire; San Jose, Calif.), Emily Gray (Penn Fusion; Sewell, N.J.), Alexandra Keohan (FC Stars of Massachusetts; Acton, Mass.), Brianna Martinez (New Mexico Rush; Albuquerque, N.M.), Kennedy Wesley (SoCal Blues; Rossmoor, Calif.);

MIDFIELDERS (8): Coriana Dyke (Colorado Rush; Littleton, Colo.), Kaya Frazier (Michigan Hawks; Rochester Hills, Mich.), Cassidy Lindley (Indiana Fire; Carmel, Ind.), Kylie Minamishin (Honolulu Bull; Mililani, Hawaii), Mackenzie Pluck (FC Bucks; North Wales, Pa.), Allison Schlegel (Colorado Storm; Parker, Colo.), Sydney Simmons (Solar Chelsea Soccer Academy; Van Alstyne, Texas), Kali Trevithick (San Diego Surf; Temecula, Calif.),

FORWARDS (6): Sophie Hirst (Crossfire Premier; Seattle, Wash), Catiana Lychywek (Solar Chelsea Soccer Club; Plano, Texas), Mary Kate McGuire (NEFC; Portsmouth, R.I.), Ashlynn Serepca (Charlotte Soccer Academy; Cornelius, N.C.), Olivia Wingate (FC Stars of Massachusetts; Wilmington, Mass.), Summer Yates (Pac NW; Pasco, Wash.)