Greenville 7th Grader Selected to Participate in Olympic Development Program for US Soccer

In the fall of 2010, Cody Coppess began the tryout process for the Olympic Development Program (ODP) for US Youth Soccer. The ODP is a national, regional, state and district team identification and development program for high level youth soccer players. Benefits of ODP are: development as a player, quality instruction from licensed coaches, exposure to regional and national team coaches, the opportunity to represent one’s state, region or country in competition, and the opportunity to participate in foreign tours.

There are four steps to being selected as an Ohio South State Team player. Step 1 is ODP district training which consists of four training sessions in November to qualify for step 2. Step 2 is the Spring District Pool training which is for the players selected from the fall sessions to advance to this step. Step 3 is the ODP District Festival in which the teams from the three districts play in a tournament. Based upon evaluation in the District Festival and previous training sessions, players are selected to advance to ODP State Pool Training. Step 4 is the ODP State Pool Training where training sessions are held April through July and players are then selected to represent Ohio South at regional camp.

Players are evaluated on four components that make up a soccer player: technique, tactical understanding of the game, fitness and athletic ability and attitude. In the fall, there were 42 players in the tryouts for Cody’s district, district 2. Out of those, Cody was selected to continue into the spring training session. At this point, the players were divided into “older” and “younger” groups based on their birthdays. From the spring training, there were 16 in each group selected to advance to the District Festival in district 2.

After the District Festival, 52 players in Cody’s age group (1997 – older and younger) were selected from all 3 districts to continue to the State Pool. Only 14 of the 52 players came from district 2. Cody will start ODP State Pool Training on April 13 in Clarksville, Ohio with the Ohio South State coaches.

Cody is a seventh grader at Greenville Junior High School and a player on the DC Crew soccer team that is part of DARKE COUNTY SOCCER ASSOCIATION. DCSA is a select soccer organization which is part of the Miami Valley Youth Soccer Association. The DC Crew’s fall 2010 record was 6-2. They are just beginning their spring season with one tie so far. They will play in the Warrior Classic Tournament Memorial Day weekend in which there are over 500 teams from all over the US and 1 U-15 team from England entered. Look for future updates on Cody’s progress in the ODP process and the DC Crew’s season.

Anyone interested in playing select soccer for DCSA and having the opportunity to experience soccer and play tournaments and games outside of Greenville, should contact Dave Ernst at dernst1@woh.rr.com.