Westside Story Newspaper – Online The News of The Empire – Sharing the Quest for Excellence
NORCO, CA- Several thousand young female soccer players descended on SilverLakes, the newly minted 130-acre soccer facility in Norco, California, for the three day SilverLakes’ College Soccer Showcase, November 25-27, 2016. The young athletes participating in this signature event hoped to seize the rare opportunity to have their athletic prowess assessed by college coaches from around the United States. The annual College Soccer Showcase is focused on welcoming college coaches as well as U.S. Soccer youth national team scouts, to evaluate the skills and abilities of aspiring young female soccer players as they look to earn scholarship offers and invitations to attend U.S. youth National Team camps. More than 2,500 players from more than 140 teams, including some of the top clubs from the Western Region, were on-hand for this unique event. A highlight of the showcase was an All Star Game between the Canadian Whitecaps and USA All Stars.
“We are incredibly excited to host this first-of-its-kind showcase event for young women at SilverLakes. The participation by high-level coaches throughout the country, including among others, Stanford, Texas A&M, Cornell, North Western, UCLA, Cal Berkeley and the thousands of young women was incredible to see. It is often difficult for youth players looking to take their game to the next level to gain access to key coaches who will enable them to fully realize their abilities and play at the collegiate level. Our first annual College Soccer Showcase has already succeeded in providing this access and it is our hope that this experience will be a ‘game changer’ for these young people,” said R.J. Brandes, President, SilverLakes.
As SilverLakes continues to build a full offering of programs and events to fulfill its mission to empower young athletes to reach their full plans to add an event for men’s soccer in the near future. The competition for more than $2.7 billion in athletics scholarships granted annually by the NCAA Divisions I and II schools is extremely competitive and often comes down to demonstrating an athlete’s skill to a select few, and hard to access, coaches and recruiters. SilverLakes hopes to tear down the barriers for student athletes by convening showcase events, such as the November 25-27, 2016 opportunity.
