Development Academy Announces Winter Showcase

Pizza Hut Park Will Host 43 Clubs

October 23, 2007

CHICAGO – Forty-three teams from the U-15/16 and U-17/18 age groups across the country will descend upon Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas from Feb. 16-18 for the U.S. Soccer Development Academy’s Winter Showcase.

The Winter Showcase is one of four Showcases throughout the 2007-08 season. The inaugural tournament – the Fall Showcase – was held this October 6-8 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. The Spring Showcase will be held from May 24-27 and the Summer Showcase will take place June 27-30 at sites to be determined.

At the inaugural Fall Showcase held this month, teams played 38 matches in front of college coaches and scouts and U.S. National Team coaches, including national team coaches Bob Bradley, Thomas Rongen and John Hackworth.

Clubs from 19 different states will be represented in Frisco, with California and New York sending five each, while North Carolina, Illinois and Ohio will each send four. Every team will play two games with teams against non-conference opponents to complement their intraconference schedule.

The showcase will feature referees selected by U.S. Soccer’s Professional Referee Assignors. The U-17/18 competition for players born after Jan. 1, 1989, will play 90 minute games, while the U-15/16 competition for players born after Jan. 1, 1991, will play 80 minute games. Both age groups are limited to seven substitutions with no re-entry.

The Development Academy is a grassroots program created this summer and designed to improve the Unites States as a soccer playing nation by targeting the youth scene, focusing more on training rather than games. For more information on the Academy, check Soccer New England’s Archives.

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