Post by Macmoish on Jul 17, 2010 9:21:50 GMT
Local soccer standouts gain college exposure through club
By ANDREW MIKULA, Correspondent
July 17, 2010 12:05 AM
www.news-journalonline.com/sports/highschool/soccer/2010/07/17/local-soccer-standouts-gain-college-exposure-through-club.html
World Cup soccer may be over, but several area youth players and their English coach are looking forward to an extended season on the club circuit.
Six local players on the U.S. Club Soccer affiliated Orlando Futbol Club Queens Park Rangers Academy are headed to Virginia at the end of the month to play in a national tournament.
The U17 team includes players who were on the Flagler Palm Coast, Matanzas and Spruce Creek high school teams this past season. Two of them, Cole Clingerman of FPC and Javier Reyes of Matanzas, also have been chosen for the Super Olympic development Program National U6 team, a rare honor in youth soccer circles.
Clingerman's older brother, Clay, and FPC teammates Mark Ayupov, Nico Medina and Eduardo Naugle along with Spruce Creek player Austin O'Brien, also are playing in the national tournament. Eric Scarpa of Matanzas was part of the OFC Academy team, but has been forced to the sidelines because of injury.
The team is headed to the National Cup IX National Collegiate Showcase from July 30 through Aug. 2 at the Hampton Roads Soccer Complex near Virginia Beach. The squad, which also includes some of the top boys youth talent in Orlando, Kissimmee, Brevard County and other Central Florida communities, earned the tournament spot with a sweep at a regional National Cup qualifier in late May at Vero Beach.
The Orlando Futbol Club was founded and is still coached by David Bardsley, a 42-year-old Englishman who enjoyed a 20-year career as a professional soccer player. His playing days included a stint in 1984 and 1985 with Watford, a Premier League squad owned at the time by Sir Elton John.
The Palm Coast connection runs deep. Former FPC boys soccer coach Al Greenwald, whose son Zach was a standout keeper in the area, is the assistant director of the academy and assistant head coach. Other former local players include area Players of the Year Julian Botela (2006 with FPC) and Jason Alvarez (2008 also with FPC), and recent graduates Alex Webber of Matanzas and Matt Howes of FPC.
The Clingerman brothers played for Greenwald at FPC and are grandsons of former FPC head coach Bob Rinker, for whom Greenwald was an assistant for two years. Greenwald had to step away from the FPC job himself this spring because of a school district requirement that coaches also be teachers at the school (he is a computer software developer by profession).
Greenwald said his connection with the OFC program started five years ago when he was looking for a competitive club program for his own son. Bardsley was looking for some help and asked Greenwald if he was interested after Zach successfully completed his tryout. The younger Greenwald is on athletic scholarship at Jacksonville University, and is one of many players to matriculate from OFC soccer into a college program.
In fact, Greenwald says that's one of the key aspects of the program preparing young players for the collegiate level beyond anything they could get strictly out of a high school program.
"In the past four years, we've put 20 kids in college to the tune of some $4 million in scholarships," Greenwald said. "We have a network of 30 colleges that we work with and we can't supply them with enough players that they need."
Bardsley founded the program through his affiliation as a player and later executive with the Queens Park Rangers, a professional soccer club based in London. In addition to college prep, two years ago the OFC team took six youngsters to England for a soccer camp.
The OFC squads, which also currently include a U18 team, wear the same road and away uniforms of the Queens Park Rangers. The team practices at Sylvan Lake Park in the Sanford-Lake Mary area of Seminole County.
Bardsley played in England from 1982 through 2001, also playing for Blackpool, Oxford United and Northwich Victoria FC. He was part of the English National Team that defeated Poland in 1993 during a World Cup qualifier and on Watford's 1984 team that reached the Premiership final. He was a right side halfback in his playing career.
Now a professional scout, Bardsley also was a former assistant coach at Dallas FC of Major League Soccer. Recently, the Fox Soccer Channel taped a segment on Bardsley and the club for inclusion in a series looking at former English footballers.
To earn the spot in the national tournament, the OFC-QPR team defeated three teams in group play at Vero Beach May 29-31. It won 5-1 over Coerver Shulz Academy, topped Indian River Soccer Association 6-0 and the Tallahassee United FC by a 2-0 score to reach the tournament championship, where it beat the Darlington Soccer Academy 2-1 for the championship.
That was quite a weekend for the club U18-19 team, which also completed a sweep scoring wins of 1-0 over Strictly Soccer FPC Select, 4-1 over Indialantic Youth Soccer Association and 3-0 over SWFC United Academy, as well as a 2-0 win in the tournament championship with Strictly Soccer. The U18-19 does not play at the Virginia Beach National Cup IX.
As fun and important as it is to win and qualify for national level tournaments (OFC clubs have participated in the Dallas Cup and national soccer showcases including one recently at Disney's Wide World of Sports), Greenwald said it's more important for them to develop players grounded in fundamentals.
"It's actually more important to play well. It's better to lose and play well than to win and not play well," Greenwald said.
www.news-journalonline.com/sports/highschool/soccer/2010/07/17/local-soccer-standouts-gain-college-exposure-through-club.html
By ANDREW MIKULA, Correspondent
July 17, 2010 12:05 AM
www.news-journalonline.com/sports/highschool/soccer/2010/07/17/local-soccer-standouts-gain-college-exposure-through-club.html
World Cup soccer may be over, but several area youth players and their English coach are looking forward to an extended season on the club circuit.
Six local players on the U.S. Club Soccer affiliated Orlando Futbol Club Queens Park Rangers Academy are headed to Virginia at the end of the month to play in a national tournament.
The U17 team includes players who were on the Flagler Palm Coast, Matanzas and Spruce Creek high school teams this past season. Two of them, Cole Clingerman of FPC and Javier Reyes of Matanzas, also have been chosen for the Super Olympic development Program National U6 team, a rare honor in youth soccer circles.
Clingerman's older brother, Clay, and FPC teammates Mark Ayupov, Nico Medina and Eduardo Naugle along with Spruce Creek player Austin O'Brien, also are playing in the national tournament. Eric Scarpa of Matanzas was part of the OFC Academy team, but has been forced to the sidelines because of injury.
The team is headed to the National Cup IX National Collegiate Showcase from July 30 through Aug. 2 at the Hampton Roads Soccer Complex near Virginia Beach. The squad, which also includes some of the top boys youth talent in Orlando, Kissimmee, Brevard County and other Central Florida communities, earned the tournament spot with a sweep at a regional National Cup qualifier in late May at Vero Beach.
The Orlando Futbol Club was founded and is still coached by David Bardsley, a 42-year-old Englishman who enjoyed a 20-year career as a professional soccer player. His playing days included a stint in 1984 and 1985 with Watford, a Premier League squad owned at the time by Sir Elton John.
The Palm Coast connection runs deep. Former FPC boys soccer coach Al Greenwald, whose son Zach was a standout keeper in the area, is the assistant director of the academy and assistant head coach. Other former local players include area Players of the Year Julian Botela (2006 with FPC) and Jason Alvarez (2008 also with FPC), and recent graduates Alex Webber of Matanzas and Matt Howes of FPC.
The Clingerman brothers played for Greenwald at FPC and are grandsons of former FPC head coach Bob Rinker, for whom Greenwald was an assistant for two years. Greenwald had to step away from the FPC job himself this spring because of a school district requirement that coaches also be teachers at the school (he is a computer software developer by profession).
Greenwald said his connection with the OFC program started five years ago when he was looking for a competitive club program for his own son. Bardsley was looking for some help and asked Greenwald if he was interested after Zach successfully completed his tryout. The younger Greenwald is on athletic scholarship at Jacksonville University, and is one of many players to matriculate from OFC soccer into a college program.
In fact, Greenwald says that's one of the key aspects of the program preparing young players for the collegiate level beyond anything they could get strictly out of a high school program.
"In the past four years, we've put 20 kids in college to the tune of some $4 million in scholarships," Greenwald said. "We have a network of 30 colleges that we work with and we can't supply them with enough players that they need."
Bardsley founded the program through his affiliation as a player and later executive with the Queens Park Rangers, a professional soccer club based in London. In addition to college prep, two years ago the OFC team took six youngsters to England for a soccer camp.
The OFC squads, which also currently include a U18 team, wear the same road and away uniforms of the Queens Park Rangers. The team practices at Sylvan Lake Park in the Sanford-Lake Mary area of Seminole County.
Bardsley played in England from 1982 through 2001, also playing for Blackpool, Oxford United and Northwich Victoria FC. He was part of the English National Team that defeated Poland in 1993 during a World Cup qualifier and on Watford's 1984 team that reached the Premiership final. He was a right side halfback in his playing career.
Now a professional scout, Bardsley also was a former assistant coach at Dallas FC of Major League Soccer. Recently, the Fox Soccer Channel taped a segment on Bardsley and the club for inclusion in a series looking at former English footballers.
To earn the spot in the national tournament, the OFC-QPR team defeated three teams in group play at Vero Beach May 29-31. It won 5-1 over Coerver Shulz Academy, topped Indian River Soccer Association 6-0 and the Tallahassee United FC by a 2-0 score to reach the tournament championship, where it beat the Darlington Soccer Academy 2-1 for the championship.
That was quite a weekend for the club U18-19 team, which also completed a sweep scoring wins of 1-0 over Strictly Soccer FPC Select, 4-1 over Indialantic Youth Soccer Association and 3-0 over SWFC United Academy, as well as a 2-0 win in the tournament championship with Strictly Soccer. The U18-19 does not play at the Virginia Beach National Cup IX.
As fun and important as it is to win and qualify for national level tournaments (OFC clubs have participated in the Dallas Cup and national soccer showcases including one recently at Disney's Wide World of Sports), Greenwald said it's more important for them to develop players grounded in fundamentals.
"It's actually more important to play well. It's better to lose and play well than to win and not play well," Greenwald said.
www.news-journalonline.com/sports/highschool/soccer/2010/07/17/local-soccer-standouts-gain-college-exposure-through-club.html
