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Saturday, November 1, 2008
Chelsea Football Club Gives Local Soccer a Big Boost
Raleigh Durham, NC
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Thanks to an innovative partnership, the Triangle’s top soccer players will have a chance to live a dream of a lifetime.
The English Premier League’s Chelsea Football Club has chosen the Capital Area Soccer League to kick off an unprecedented initiative to partner with and mentor the top youth soccer clubs in the United States.
“Chelsea wants to raise the level of the game in this country because the USA is the next major soccer market,” said Mike Milazzo, CASL’s director of soccer operations.
CASL, which was founded 34 years ago, has grown into one of the leading American youth soccer clubs, experiencing its greatest growth over the past decade.
Today, CASL has elevated soccer in this area into international prominence, and athletes are taking notice.
Alex Givens a CASL ’91 elite player, was a member of the Disney’s Soccer Showcase 2008 All-Star team that competed in the inaugural Chelsea Football Club Youth Cup last August. The Showcase brought together teams from across the world for an international competition at Disney’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando, FL.
“It was a great experience to play with such high level teams,” Givens said.
Givens, 16, plays soccer at North Raleigh Christian Academy. He has been playing soccer since he was six and has played internationally before.
Givens and other young, talented athletes will benefit from the Chelsea partnership because it will give them an opportunity to travel, and under its player exchange program, CASL’s elite players will compete at the top level in Europe, Milazzo said.
Coaches are benefiting too.
“Last summer, three Chelsea Academy coaches were here for a month,” Milazzo said.
Demonstrating Chelsea’s commitment to grassroots player development, CASL hosted three Chelsea Soccer Schools featuring courses taught by Chelsea Academy coaches
Alex Long, also CASL ’91 elite player, was also on the Disney All-Star team that played in London last summer.
“It was one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life,” he said. “In Europe, soccer is glorified like no other sport.”
Long, 17, also plays for Green Hope High School, and has committed to play for the University of South Carolina. One of his lifelong dreams is to play professionally in Europe.
“Our relationship with Chelsea has made everyone more aware of the direction the game is going in our country,” Milazzo said. “For us, in the immediate future, we will co-market our CASL brand and the Chelsea brand through the USA Developmental program.
CASL has established top academy teams as part of its own developmental soccer program.
Plans are for CASL and Chelsea to create a player exchange program.
“We’ll let our top players to compete against teams at the top level in Europe, and we’ll also engage in a coaching development program,” Milazzo said.
These new approaches will raise the bar for soccer in the United States, starting with CASL.
Why should people engaged in high school sports care?
“Most of the kids making up their high school varsity teams are CASL players,” Milazzo said. “Raising the level of CASL soccer has already started raising the competitiveness of high school soccer, and now high schools in our area are consistently winning state championships.”
CASL’s efforts also give high school coaches a chance to coach elite players at the top of their game.
CASL includes approximately 9,000 registered youth soccer players, making up nearly 800 teams, totalling 20,000 players, coaches, officials, parents, volunteers and supporters. A news release posted on the CASL website estimates that a series of CASL and Chelsea Shootout and Showcase Tournaments scheduled in November and December 2008 will feature 1,000 U.S. youth soccer teams and have a regional annual economic impact of nearly $9 million.
Ten years ago Raleigh wasn’t even on the map in the soccer world.
Today, the soccer business is booming.
Last year, the NCAA named Cary a “Championship City,” for hosting the next three men’s and women’s College cups at the Wake Med Soccer Center.
“We are successfully competing against major metro areas with populations many times higher than Raleigh,” Milazzo said. “It’s overwhelming, but I feel proud and appreciative of being a part of it all, and I feel like we’re just beginning,”
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