Objective
The focus of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy (USSDA) and Crossfire Premier’s USSDA program is on player development and providing players with the best possible opportunity to develop to the highest level they are capable of achieving.
Player Selection
Crossfire Premier’s Development Academy coaching staff will be holding open tryouts from age appropriate players. This program is a regional program and is open to all players in the greater Seattle area and beyond. We are one of two teams in Washington and three in the Northwest. Still Crossfire Premier’s selection is recognition of this club and its players, so strong preference will be given to existing players on current Crossfire Premier teams in the U15-18 age groups. Being on a current Crossfire Premier team does not guarantee selection.
Open tryouts will be held on Sunday, August 26th from 6pm to 8pm on field #4 at the Starfire Sports Complex and Tuesday, August 28th from 8pm to 10pm on field #4 at the Starfire Sports Complex. If an interested player can not attend they should contact LWYSA office and talk to the Crossfire Premier Administrator.
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USSDA Crossfire Leadership
(Brian Klein, Neil Megson, Bernie James, Andy Flory, Lance McIntosh, and Mike Greiner)
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Age Groups and Roster Size
Two teams are being formed, a U-17/18 team (Calendar Birth-year 1989 and 1990) and a U-15/16 (Calendar Birth-year 1991 or younger). The minimum roster size is 20 players and Crossfire will start off with a roster of 20 players for both age groups. For players not selected for the USSDA rosters there will be ongoing opportunities to be a trial player for up to six games during the USSDA season. In addition up to four players may be added to the roster during the season as long as it is before April 1.
Participation Expectations
Players on the USSDA teams are not allowed to participate in the WSYSA league, State Cup or ODP. In addition Crossfire Premier has made the decision to not allow players to participate on their high school teams as a result of conflict with the USSDA season. There will be other teams in the league for which high school play is allowed, one of those could be Washington Premier.
The decision to not allow players to participate in high school soccer is not an easy one but is in response to the timing of the WIAA high school season which is March through May for most school and is a period of time which corresponds to the last third of the USSDA season. This conflict is a fairly unique problem to Washington as the overwhelming majority of teams in the country either have the season in the fall, so they can start the USSDA season after high school and play it in their entirety, or in the winter, where they can play the first half of the USSDA season, take a break at mid year and then play the second half of the season. The US Soccer Federation strongly believed allowing a break during the March-May period was inconsistent with the spirit of the league and strongly encouraged us not to allow high school participation during this time and while Washington Premier FC is going to take a break and allow players to participate in high school soccer we decided to follow the U.S. Soccer recommendation. Crossfire Premier has also agreed to work with WSYSA to talk to WIAA about moving the boys’ soccer season to a time of year that might accommodate USSDA and other WSYSA programs such as State Cup, but we do not expect any resolution to this problem in the short term.
Practice Format
There is a minimum requirement of three training sessions and one rest day per week for players selected.
Competition Format and Season
The USSDA is divided into eight conferences with each team playing 30 matches during an eight-month season. Each conference is comprised of eight teams and along with playing each team in our conference twice we will have 8 games against opponents from outside their conference as part of our season. USSDA season play will start the first weekend in October with a 3-day Showcase Event over the Columbus Day weekend (October 6th – 8th) at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA. The season would then continue with play scheduled to end with the National Finals in July of 2008. Several of the season games are also tentatively scheduled over four Showcase events during three-day holiday/summer weekend.
Crossfire Premier is in the West Conference with the Colorado Rapids (Co), Colorado Rush(Co), De Anza Force SC (NorCal), FC Portland SA (Or), Mustang FC (NorCal), Real Colorado (Co), and Washington Premier FC (Wa). Crossfire Premier’s outside conference opponents will be from the SoCal Conference and they are Arsenal SC, Chivas USA, Irvine Strikers, L.A. Galaxy, Nomads SC, Pateadores SC, Real So Cal, and San Diego Surf.
Schedule
A tentative schedule is posted on our website but note these are subject to change. As you can see we will have a home and away game with each team in our conference and we will play one game against each team in the SoCal Conference, four at home and four away. We plan to play two games in a weekend, especially when traveling. As mentioned above there will be four Showcase events that involve three games over three days. Two of those events are likely to be on the west coast, one of which we expect to be in the northwest, possibly Seattle. When we travel for league play we will try to leave after the school day on Friday and return at a reasonable time on Sunday nights. For the Showcase events travel will depend largely on where they are and on which long weekend.
For home games we are trying to setup a consistent venue and are planning to play our Saturday home games in the evening in a “stadium” setting. The desire is to create an event atmosphere that will be attractive to the regional soccer community and bring excitement to the event and the program, wtay tuned for more.
USSDA season play will take a break between mid December and March. During this time we will also take a break from travel and schedule local games for the older teams against local college DII and DIII schools, the Sounders, selected British Columbia teams, the WSYSA ODP team and other local semi-pro men’s teams. For the younger team scrimmages will be scheduled against U16/U17 teams in State Cup, and the older WSYSA ODP team. Many of these games will take place on week nights in order to give players weekends free.
We do not plan to schedule games or other Crossfire Premier USSDA program events during Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Fourth of July or Nike Friendlies. These times will be left free and while there may be a strong desire from the team or affected players to do an event during these periods of time, any event will not be a USSDA event. USSDA players will be allowed to be guest players during these “off” periods and participation would be the choice of the individual player and at their cost.
Costs
The costs per player for the 2007-08 season, October 2007 to July 2008, will be $2500. This amount will need to be paid in full by December 31, 2007. This fee will cover the costs of USSDA program events, including coach(es), team(s), and player costs associated to league and Showcase events including food, transportation, hotel, and airfare when an overnight stay is required. This fee does not cover any activities or events the team or player decides to do during free periods or are not considered Crossfire Premier USSDA program events.
Existing Crossfire Premier players selected for this program will need to continue to pay their existing team/coach fees through September at which point in time their existing player contract will be replaced with the Crossfire Premier USSDA program contract. The USSDA contract will run from October through July and the fee will be $2500.
Follow Up
We will continue to keep you abreast of all information concerning the USSDA as we receive it. There will be a meeting for all the participating clubs in Chicago on August 23 where more details will be discussed. After roster selections are made there will be team meetings to go over all points of the program.
