TEAM CHICAGO 2016-17 TRYOUTS

Girls 1998s & 1999s Saturday May 7th 5:00-6:30pm
Girls 2000s & 2001s Saturday May 7th 7:00-8:30pm
Boys 2006s & 2007s Saturday May 21st 10:00-11:30am
Girls 2006s & 2007s Saturday May 21st 10:00-11:30am
Boys 2004s & 2005s Saturday May 21st Noon-1:30pm
Girls 2004s & 2005s Saturday May 21st 2:00-3:30pm
Boys 2002s & 2003s Saturday May 21st 4:00-5:30pm
Girls 2002s & 2003s Saturday May 21st 6:00-7:30pm
Boys 2008s-2010s Monday May 23rd 5:30-7:00pm
Girls 2008s-2010s Monday May 23rd 5:30-7:00pm
Boys 2000s & 2001s Tuesday May 31st 6:00-7:30pm
Boys 1998s & 1999s Tuesday May 31st 7:30-9:00pm

ALL TRYOUT PARTICIPANTS ARE EXPECTED TO INITIALLY TRY OUT WITH THEIR OWN BIRTH-YEAR GROUP

• All tryouts will be hosted at the WAA Sports Center, 2323 Liberty St., Aurora, IL
• Please, bring indoor/turf shoes in case of inclement weather
• Supplemental tryouts for Girls 1998s-2001s are Sunday, May 8th 6:00-7:30pm
• Supplemental tryouts for Boys & Girls 2002s-2007s are Sunday, May 22nd (times TBA)
• Supplemental tryouts for Boys & Girls 2008s-2010s are Tuesday, May 24th 5:30-7:00pm
• Supplemental tryouts for Boys 1998s-2001s are Wednesday, June 1st 7:00-8:30pm

Tryout participants should be pre-registered at http://www.waasports.org/Default.aspx?tabid=315222

Team Chicago Academy-Brasilia midfielder Keegan Maris has accepted a great scholarship offer to continue her soccer career at Valparaiso University, IN. Keegan, who plays her prep soccer for head coach Mark Gianfrancesco at Batavia H.S., will be part of Valparaiso head coach John Marovich’s 2017 recruiting class.

The Crusaders are part of the NCAA Division I Horizon League.

Team Chicago Academy-Roma brought home the title at the SASA invitational last weekend in dramatic fashion.

Roma won their first two games, which was enough to earn an automatic bid into Sunday’s final. The final would be against a very tough Croatian Eagles from Wisconsin.

In the first half Lucas Bass scored a goal to put Roma ahead 1-0. Not long after that the Eagles scored and the game went to half tied 1-1. The second half was an intense back and forth battle. With five minutes remaining Alexis Moreno chipped the Eagle goalkeeper to put Roma up for what they thought was the winning goal. Unfortunately, the Eagles literally scored in the last 10 seconds of the game to send it to overtime.

The overtime period did not last long. A few minutes in Kaiden Kranz dribbled into the attacking third and got the ball to Connor Hepburn who hit a challenging shot to the far post. The Eagle goalkeeper did not catch the ball clean and Lucas Bass poked the ball in for the winner.

Every Roma player made great contributions to bring the title home.

Congratulations Roma!!!!

Updated March 26, 2016

Upon careful consideration of all the potential pros and cons of the various options laid out in my October 30, 2015 and January 6, 2016 statements, and after consultation with like-minded clubs in Illinois, Region II, and across the country, Team Chicago has made the following decision as it relates to team registrations for the 2016-17 season:
1) As a rule all age groups will move to birth-year teams.
This does not mean that players will necessarily play in their own birth-year as players might play up, or we might combine two birth-year age groups to create a competitive or viable team. As an example, it is likely that some “B” teams will be “two birth-year” teams to allow classmates to play on the same team and to ensure a full roster of players. And we might move a player up an age-group or two to create the most competitive “A” team possible in an age-group, or because that player’s talent warrants playing and training in a more competitive environment.
The main reason for this decision is that in order for our “A” teams to stay competitive at the state, regional, and national level we cannot afford to “play up” with teams that are considerably younger than the competition.
In our final assessment of the U7-U12 (2010-2005) age groups we determined that it will make the most sense to mirror the older age groups for the ease of transition in subsequent years.
2) “A” teams will train in the following “two birth-year” training groups (1998-1999, 2000-2001, 2002-2003, 2004-2005, and 2006-2007) with 2 head coaches – one for each birth-year team.
This is a necessity as the 1998 age group will only consist of players born August 1st-December 31st, and the 2002 age group will have 7/12 of the players in high school and 5/12 of the players in middle school thus missing more than half the players in the spring of 2017. One of the advantages of the training groups will be that the training environment will change every year as the players will alternate between being the younger and the older players in the training group. This will provide a fresh feel to the training environment and a more appropriate balance between “punching above your weight” and being a “big fish in a small pond” on a daily basis.

Please, note that we are not in favor of the U.S. Soccer mandate, and that we are simply trying to make the best of what we believe to be a poor decision. The only real advantage we see is that this will give us an opportunity to structure teams around the talent and commitment level of players to a much greater extent. Thus pairing like-minded players rather than merely pairing grade-level players.

The initial placement of the U17-19 (2000 through 1998 birth-years) girls’ teams in the Fall 2016 season has already been determined based on the Fall 2015 season results. The 1998 team will be an MRL Premier I and National League participant. The 1999 team will be an MRL Premier II participant. The 2000 team will be an MRL Premier II participant. The 1999 and 2000 teams’ placement could change to MRL Premier I as teams across Region II get restructured at tryouts.

The placement of the boys’ teams and the U15-16 (2002 and 2001 birth-years) girls’ teams will be based on the results of Spring 2016 season.

Also, please note that the age-group monikers have moved up a year, so the oldest age group is going to be U19 (1998s in 2016-17) instead of U18 currently. This does not mean that players will lose a season even though as an example some players will go from being U14 this year to being U16 next year.

Phil H. Nielsen
Technical Director
Team Chicago Soccer Club

Team Chicago Academy-Brasilia clinched the USYS National League U17 Girls Blue Division with an undefeated 4-0-3 record. This became a reality after this past weekend’s National League event in Las Vegas, NV.

Head Coach Dave Lovercheck led the team to a 2-0-2 record at the first event in Wilson, NC and then a 2-0-1 record at Disney in Orlando, FL back in December, The girls then had to wait for the final results at the Las Vegas event to learn if that was enough to secure the National League title and/or a spot in the USYS National Championships.

The National League title is the second in Team Chicago history following the Team Chicago Academy-Botafogo U18 title in 2013. That year Botafogo rode its National League title into the USYS National Championships in Overland Park, KS and completed the coveted double by defeating VSA Heat (VA) 2-1 in the championship final.

Brasilia will be looking to copy this feat as it heads to the USYS National Championships in Frisco, TX July 25-31, 2016.

A huge congrats to Dave Lovercheck and the Brasilia players.