Springfield MO Soccer

The 2008 US Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program (US Youth Soccer ODP) National Championships are set to be played this weekend, March 7 and 9, at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas. State-level boys and girls teams in the 1991 and 1992 age groups will play semi-final matches on Friday, March 7, with championship and consolation matches to be played Sunday, March 9. The teams competing have qualified by winning their respective age division at their US Youth Soccer ODP Regional Championships.

National Qualifiers
1991 Girls Teams: New Jersey, Minnesota, North Texas and California South
1991 Boys Teams: Eastern New York, Illinois, North Carolina and California South
1992 Girls Teams: Maryland, Missouri, North Texas and California South
1992 Boys Teams: Virginia, Indiana, North Texas and California South

The team is coached by Jon Kiester, also Women’s Coach at Missouri Science & Technology (formerly UMR). I asked Coach Keister for some background:

We open with California-South, which is probably the best team out there. We are taking 18 girls, most of which were on the team last summer when we won the regional tournament at ODP Regional Camp in Dekalb, IL. If I remember correctly we beat OH-South, Michigan and Illinois in Pk’s for the championship. I don’t think we have any girls from the Springfield area, most of the kids are from Kansas City and St. Louis areas. We have 4 national pool players, Kelley Gravlin, Sarah Doggendorf, Maegan Kelly all from the ’92 pool and Delaney Kiely from the ’93 pool. Mandy Laddish is another regional team player on our roster.

On a related note, Sarah Doggendorf, a member of the St. Louis SC Blue U16 girls team coached by Scott McDoniel and a sophomore student at Incarnate Word Academy, was selected by the United States Youth Soccer Association to attend the 2008 US National Development Camp with the Midwest Region of the United States. The camp was held at the US Youth Soccer National Training Camp February 20-25, 2008 at Cal-Poly in Pomona, California.

Looking at the history of the event, this is the first time Missouri will represent Region II at the event. In the eight years of the competition, Illinois boys teams have won a title (2003, 2005-2007) while Michigan girls won in 2000 and 2001. The 2001 winners included current national team player Lindsay Tarpley who also won the Golden Boot that year. Good luck ladies! Track the results here.