Washington Youth Soccer reinstated by U.S. Youth Soccer

• by Mike Woitalla  @MikeWoitalla, Jan 5, 2017

In November, Washington Youth Soccer announced its aim to register its players solely with the U.S Soccer Federation.

In mid-December, U.S. Youth Soccer sent a memo to all its state associations announcing that it was as of Jan. 1, 2017 revoking from WYS “any and all benefits” associated with U.S. Youth Soccer -- including national championship play and ODP -- and rescinding its offer for WYS to host the 2017 U.S. Youth Soccer Regional Championships in June.

The U.S. Youth Soccer memo stated it was accepting WYS's resignation from U.S. Youth Soccer.

WYS responded that it had never resigned. It was laying out a plan it envisioned would result in U.S. Soccer directly handling programs in 2018. WYS stated in a Dec. 16 message to its members that it had retained legal counsel.

Now comes a joint statement from U.S. Youth Soccer and Washington Youth Soccer announcing that, “the Washington Youth Soccer family will be allowed to continue to access the benefits associated with membership to US Youth Soccer while we work out our disagreements.”

The statement says the state governing body and US Youth Soccer, one of the U.S. Soccer Federation's four national affiliate members, “wish to jointly acknowledge that we are engaged in positive and constructive discussions that elevate the interests of the game above all else, and ensures that the players, families, clubs and members of the Washington Youth Soccer community will continue to benefit from US Youth Soccer events and competitions. Accordingly, all actions to sever ties and part ways have been suspended pending successful resolutions and outcomes in the coming days and weeks.”

The statement ends with: "We do apologize for all the angst and inconvenience that this has caused all the stakeholders of Washington Youth Soccer and US Youth Soccer members."

U.S. U-23 women's roster includes 16-year-old

The 30-player roster for the U.S. U-23 women’s national team’s first training camp of 2017 includes 16-year-old midfielder Brianna Pinto, and two 17-year-olds, midfielder Ashley Sanchez and goalkeeper Laurel Ivory.

Brianna Pinto

All three played for the USA at the 2016 U-17 World Cup and Sanchez also played in the 2016 U-20 World Cup.

The Jan. 6-13 camp in Carson, California, will include one player with a full national team cap, BYU senior Ashley Hatch, who made her U.S. debut as a substitute against Switzerland on Oct. 19.

The oldest players in camp were born in 1994, the cutoff year for this year’s U-23s.

The roster includes three players from the 2016 NCAA champion USC: midfielder Morgan Andrews and defenders Kayla Mills and Mandy Freeman.

Pinto hails from North Carolina and plays club ball at CASL.

U-23 women’s national team
GOALKEEPERS (4): Laurel Ivory (West Florida Flames; Surfside, Fla.), Casey Murphy (Rutgers; Bridgewater, N.J.), Madalyn Schiffel (Seattle Reign FC; Citrus Heights, Calif.), Hannah Seabert (Pepperdine; Riverside, Calif.).
DEFENDERS (8): Maddie Bauer (Stanford; Newport Beach, Calif.), Mandy Freeman (USC; Royal Palm Beach, Fla.), Tavia Leachman (Utah; Long Beach, Calif.), Kayla Mills (USC; West Covina, Calif.), Sydney Miramontez (Nebraska; Lenexa, Kan.), Gabrielle Seiler (Florida; Peachtree City, Ga.), Erica Skroski (Sky Blue FC; New Brunswick, N.J.), Samantha Witteman (Orlando Pride; Redondo Beach, Calif.).
MIDFIELDERS (11): Morgan Andrews (USC; Milford, N.H.), Tierna Davidson (Stanford; Menlo Park, Calif.), Jordan DiBiasi (Stanford; Littleton, Colo.), Megan Dougherty Howard (Florida; Largo, Fla.), Tyler Lussi (Princeton; Lutherville, Md.), Ifeoma Onumino (California; Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.), Toni Payne (Duke; Birmingham, Ala.), Brianna Pinto (CASL; Durham, N.C.), Margaret Purce (Harvard; Silver Spring, Md.), Morgan Proffitt (Marquette; Columbus, Ind.), Ashley Sanchez (So Cal Blues; Monrovia, Calif.)
FORWARDS (7): Makenzy Doniak (Western New York Flash; Chino Hills, Calif.), Danica Evans (Colorado; Lakewood, Colo.), Ashley Hatch (BYU; Gilbert, Ariz.), Sarah Luebbert (Missouri; Jefferson City, Mo.), Savannah McCaskill (South Carolina; Chapin, S.C.), Hailey Skolmoski (Utah; Riverton, Utah), Crystal Thomas (Georgetown; Elgin, Ill.).

Haji Wright joins Schalke 04 in first-team training camp

Haji Wright, an 18-year-old Southern Californian who scored six goals and had eight assists for Schalke 04’s U-19 team in 13 games this fall, has joined the club’s first-team camp in Spain, where it's preparing for the second half of the Bundesliga season.

Haji Wright flanked by former general manager Horst Heldt and academy director Oliver Ruhnert upon signing with Schalke.

"I’m in close contact with U19s coach Norbert Elgert," Schalke coach Markus Weinzierl said. "Haji Wright has the potential to achieve great things. A training camp is always a good opportunity to test talented youth players and also to get to know them. He definitely hasn’t just traveled to make up the numbers. I’m not the kind of guy who would do that."

Wright, a teammate of Christian Pulisic on the USA’s 2015 U-17 World Cup squad, had a trial with Schalke in 2014 but had to wait until he turned 18 to sign a contract. He was the player Borussia Dortmund was scouting when it discovered Pulisic.