U.S. Soccer has named the first 25 clubs that will compete in the Girls U.S. Soccer Development Academy, whose inaugural season kicks off in fall of 2017.
U.S. Soccer indicated upon the Girls DAlaunch that it expects 60 to 80 clubs to compete in the first season, fielding teams in U-14/15, U-16/17 and U-18/19 age groups.
First 25 Girls DA Clubs
Beach FC (Torrance, Calif.)
Boston Breakers (Watertown, Mass.)
CASL (Raleigh, N.C.)
Cincinnati Development Academy/Kings Hammer/CUP (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Colorado Rush(Littleton, Colo.)
Concorde Fire (Atlanta, Ga.)
Crossfire (Redmond, Wash.)
De Anza Force (Saratoga, Calif.)
FC Dallas (Frisco, Texas)
LAFC-Slammers (Los Angeles,Calif.)
Lamorinda (Moraga, Calif.)
Michigan Hawks (Livonia, Mich.)
Mustang (Danville, Calif.)
Orlando Pride/City SC (Orlando, Fla.)
Penn Fusion SA (Westtown,Pa.)
Portland Thorns (Portland, Ore.)
Real Colorado (Highlands Ranch, Co.)
San Diego Surf (San Diego, Calif.)
Seattle Reign (Seattle, Wash.)
Sky Blue FC-PDA(Bernardsville, N.J.)
So Cal Blues (Rancho Capistrano, Calif.)
Sockers FC (Palatine, Ill.)
Solar Chelsea SC (Dallas, Texas)
Washington Spirit (Boyds, Md.)
TophatNTH (Atlanta, Ga.)
According to U.S. Soccer, the first 25 clubs have a total of 119 staff with a U.S. Soccer A or B Coaching License, including 91 coaches employed on a full-time basis.And 307 players for from the 25 clubs have been called in by U.S. national teams, youth and senior.
They will be providing 276 full scholarships “with a total of $1.49 million ofscholarship funds being contributed,” according to U.S. Soccer’s press release.
The applications for the Girls DA are evaluated by the U.S. Soccer technical staff on:
•Leadership of the club and quality of the coaching staff
• Desire to embrace and promote the core values of the program.
• U.S. Soccer license levels of coaching staff
•Infrastructure of the club and the resources currently being invested in development (facilities, scholarships, staff to player ratio, etc.).
• History of player production for youthnational teams, the senior women’s national team and professional leagues.
• Market and depth of the player pool, geographic location and travel implications and proximity to otherelite clubs.
“geographic location” must be at the bottom of the list. 13 miles separates Moraga (lamorinda) from Danville (mustang). There should have been a third location somewhere on the peninsula between Redwood City and San Francisco. Whatev–this will quickly turn into another ODP/Academy cluster run by parents to get their girls into colleges.