id2 Training Camp in North Carolina serves as final spring camp of current cycle
Rosters – Boys / Girls | Photos | Videos | Daily log
CHARLESTON, S.C. (April 20, 2015) – When US Club Soccer Executive Vice President Christian Lavers asked a group of id2 Training Camp participants whether their goals included playing for the U.S. Soccer national team or a collegiate soccer program, every hand in the crowd raised.
“When you’re training, you should play at 100 percent of what you can give. If you don’t, it’s a wasted day,” Lavers told them. “Great players take new information and apply it to their game the first or second time they’re told.”
A total of 112 players from 68 clubs participated in the id2 Training Camp, April 16-19, at the WRAL Soccer Center in Raleigh, N.C. This was the second camp of the current cycle, which targets boys born in 2002 and girls born in 2001.
Players underwent dynamic training exercises and games, and they were also challenged mentally with off-the-field presentations discussing developmental strategies.
“Eight hundred recommendations came through for this camp. Appreciate the opportunity you have,” U.S. Soccer Women’s Development Coach Tricia Taliaferro told the full girls group of 48 players Friday night. “Hold yourself accountable. Push yourself enough so you experience failure, because that’s how you get better.”
Taliaferro, the former id2 Girls Program Associate Director, was on-site to scout for future potential invitations to U.S. Soccer youth national team camps. She, along with Lavers, id2 Girls Program Director Rory Dames and staff coaches Mike Bristol (Florida State University), Kenny Medina (Sting FC) and Erica Walsh (Penn State University) facilitated the curriculum for the girls throughout camp. Medina and Walsh, who is also an assistant coach with the U-20 U.S. Soccer women’s national team, both have extensive experience training national team players.
On the boys side, id2 Boys Program Director Gerry McKeown and coaches Ben Ziemer (NorCal Premier Soccer), David Allred (Wake FC), Kelly Findley (NC State), Paul Forrester (Capital Area SL), Bob Jenkins (former U.S. U-18 men’s natioanl team coach), Matt Lawrey (Richmond Strikers) and Carlos Parra (Atlanta Fire) helped a group of 64 players take the next step in their developmental progression.
- VIDEOS: Walsh and Allred discuss what traits great youth players have, plus several clips of training sessions
Players received evaluations from their id2 coaches and left camp with tools for personal success and a vision of the potential future for them on the field.
US Club Soccer’s id2 Program provides an opportunity for the country’s elite youth players to be identified and developed, and scouted for inclusion in U.S. Soccer’s national team programs. A comprehensive national scouting and recommendation program is used to form a pool from which top players are invited to attend an id2Training Camp.
There is no cost to players to be identified for or participate in the id2 Program, an Olympic Development Program open to all players regardless of U.S. Soccer affiliation. For id2 Training Camps, all lodging, meals and training gear are provided at no cost by US Club Soccer and Nike.
The first camp of this current age group cycle was held March 26-29 at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif. Top performers from all four camps, including two to come in the fall – dates and locations to be announced soon – will be invited to id2 National Selection programming in 2016.
The national selection programming element of the previous cycle for boys born in 2001 wrapped up earlier this month after a 10-day trip through Argentina. The 2015 Nike National Training Camp powered by ECNL and id2 will be held this summer, targeting girls born in 2000.
