The Journal-News on January 30th, 2008 contained a feature article on FC Westchester’s selection by the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) to be a U.S. Soccer Development Academy.

The text of the article follows:

FC Westchester Players Go National
Jane McManus • The Journal News • January 30, 2008

Stephen Paresi will be heading off to Villanova to play soccer next fall, but not before participating in the first year of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy. The program has chosen Paresi’s club team - FC Westchester - to be one of about 60 teams around the country to play a competitive season.

FC Westchester is the only club named in the Lower Hudson Valley, and one of four in the greater New York metropolitan area. The goal is to get players on the under-16 and under-18 boys teams to play against better competition, and to train in a way that focuses on developing the game through training more than matches.

Paresi, a Byram Hills senior, will head to Texas over the February break for the first two games. All but one of the Major League Soccer franchises has an affiliated team in the academy.

"It’s a more professional setting," Paresi said. "I feel like I’m on the New York Red Bulls traveling around the country, playing the top teams."

Those players who do well in the academy setting could be tapped to train for the national team. Although Paresi already knows where he will play next season, his younger teammates could be among the 40 players nationally tapped to head to Bradenton, Fla., to a campus on the site of Nick Bollettieri’s tennis academy. It is next to, but not part of, IMG Academies there, and elite players will be able to train full-time for soccer.

That’s what Somers player Brian Span is doing. He was named to the U-15/16 National Training Select Team...guaranteed a semester of training there.

"It’s just another step in making it to the top," FC Westchester head of coaching Sean Kenny said. "Everyone’s goal is to become a Brian Span."

But the academy is designed to pay dividends for everyone in the program, not just the elite 40 chosen to train away from home. There is an emphasis on training, not just on playing the games that take up a large portion of a club player’s time.

"What’s happening now with kids in youth soccer, they play 200 games a year and they spend more time playing than training," FC Westchester president Lonny Unger said. "What U.S. Soccer has done is rationalize the soccer season."

There is no corresponding program for girls, although the U.S. women have done better on the international stage than the men have, winning the 1999 World Cup in front of millions on American soil. U.S. Soccer senior communications manager Neil Buethe said a committee made up of women’s soccer coaches was meeting to discuss a potential academy.

"It’s a learning process," Buethe said. "Everything that’s going on now, it’s the first time we’ve done it. We’re trying to figure out what works."

The goal is to raise the level of soccer played in the United States. Those who excel can get the training to play for the national team, while those who don’t quite rise to that level can better their positions when it comes to playing in college.

FC Westchester will have to make improvements now that it has become part of the program. Unger said the club will be adding a turf field to complement the one it uses at Purchase College. Coaching will have to be improved through continued training. But the club is looking forward to making those adjustments.

"It’s a little bit of a reward for us as a club to get a little recognition nationally," Kenny said.

Reach Jane McManus at jmcmanus@lohud.com.

CLICK HERE to see the actual article on tje Journal-News website.