Team Chicago Academy-Santos continued its U13 MRL First Division league play with two convincing wins over Strikers FC (WI) and Croatian Eagles (WI).

On Saturday afternoon Santos started off a little slow while getting used to the field conditions. As play continued Santos started dominating possession and midway through the first half took the lead on a play where Sophia Majher broke down the defense and fed Darby Wade, who after getting denied by the keeper on her first attempt on goal, continued and finished her rebound. From there, the goals started to pour in with Sophia Majher, Natalie Massa, Grace Barz, and Yanna Papoutsis all scoring to close out the half up 5-1. Three of the last four goals were unassisted, but he 5th goal came off a great run made by Tamara Hernandez, who beat her defender end line to serve a perfect ball back to Yanna Papoutsis who finished her chance first time.

The second half was similar to the first in terms of dominating possession and Santos added two more goals to close out the game 7-1. Both goals were well taken with Natalie Massa receiving a ball from Yanna Papoutsis in the middle third of the field, and then driving to goal before unleashing a great finish to the upper left corner from outside the box. The last goal was off a perfectly placed corner from Sophia Majher who found Nikki Coryell on a diving header.

On Sunday, Santos played Croatia Eagles in its second game of the weekend and came away with a 4-1 win. The first half saw Santos starting to build on ideas from the first game of the weekend and creating a number of chances from great build up play. Finally after several chances, Natalie Massa played a great ball into Sophia Majher who dribbled past two defenders and then past the keeper to slot the ball in the corner. Sophia added another goal shortly after when she followed up on a shot by Darby Wade that the keeper mishandled and very opportunistically poked the ball past the keeper. The Eagles fought hard to get one back to close out the half 2-1.

Coming out of the half, Santos continued to create opportunities and found the back of the net again off a great run by Brooke Lipscomb. Brooke beat her defender going toward the end-line and found Sophia Majher, who hit her shot first time. The goalkeeper made a diving save that pushed the ball into the path of Julia O’Dekirk, who finished first time. Santos closed out the scoring off a corner by Tamara Hernandez, which found Grace Barz whom chested the ball down to Darby Wade, hitting a great ball to the far side netting.

Great results for Santos and great effort by the entire team.

On Tuesday night Santos followed up with a great 1-0 win in IYSA State Cup against United Soccer Academy. In a tight game where Santos created the better chances, the game-winner was created by a great end-line run by Bella Espinoza who delivered a perfect near-post cross for Darby Wade to steer in.

Strong play by Nikki Coryell in goal and the defense of Sophia Molina, Tamara Hernandez, Yanna Papoutsis, and Sam Mollenhauer secured the shut-out and the 1-0 win.

Up next for Santos will be two MRL games May 1st & 2nd in St. Louis.

Team Chicago Academy-Internacional forward Quincy Kellett has accepted a scholarship offer to continue her soccer career at the University of Dayton. Quincy, who plays her prep soccer at Rosary H.S., will be part of coaching legend Mike Tucker’s 2015 freshman class at Dayton.

Dayton is a perennial powerhouse in the NCAA Division I Atlantic-10 conference. The Flyers won the 2014 A-10 championship and has won a total of 9 league championships.

All Team Chicago soccer players wearing their soccer jerseys will be admitted free to Waubonsie Valley vs Metea Valley girls high school soccer game on Tuesday, April 21, 2015 at 6:30PM.

The game will be played on the Waubonsie Valley soccer field which is just west of the football stadium on the Waubonsie Valley campus located at 2590 Ogden Ave, Aurora, IL 60504.
Normal tickets prices are $5.00 for adults and $3.00 for students.
Come out and support two of the best girls high school soccer programs in the state of Illinois.

Wheatland Athletic Association (WAA) and Team Chicago Soccer Club (TC) are very excited to announce a new structure for the WAA soccer programming effective with the 2015-16 soccer year. All WAA soccer programming will now be organized and run under the same umbrella guided by Team Chicago Elite Academy Director Phil Nielsen, who will be promoted to Executive Director of WAA Soccer/Team Chicago Technical Director.

This new structure will allow for more streamlined soccer programming within the WAA from Feet First through Recreational or Pro Academy to Team Chicago’s elite offerings, as well as an expansion of the available programming such as additional camps, clinics, individual and small-group skills training, and one-day tournaments for all levels of WAA players. The main goals of the new WAA soccer structure is to enhance the quality of our current programming, grow our Recreational and TC boys participation, and create new programming to benefit all current and future WAA soccer players.

As part of the change, current Team Chicago U7-10 Director Brian Bierman will be promoted to Director of the Team Chicago U7-9 Age Groups and all WAA Recreational programming including Feet First, Pro Academy, and camps & clinics. Team Chicago will also create two new positions: Boys U10-18 Director and Girls U10-18 Director to oversee the day-to-day operations of the boys and girls sides of the Team Chicago

Boys U10-18 Director: Team Chicago will promote current head coach Herb Schuler to this position. Herb’s duties will also include overseeing the implementation of a Boys President’s Day College Showcase and the WAA sponsored IPSD 204 Middle School soccer program,

Herb is a USSF B-licensed coach who came to us last June from his previous position as the Youth Development Coordinator at Chicago Fire Juniors West.

Herb played collegiately at Central Methodist University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Physical Education. He also had a stint as a player with the Illinois Piasa in the PASL Pro Division after college.
Herb served as an assistant coach at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville (DI), Illinois Wesleyan (DIII), Concordia University Chicago (DIII), and William Woods University (NAIA), and he is currently the goalkeeping coach for the women’s soccer program at Lewis University (DII).

Prior to serving as the Youth Development Coordinator at the Chicago Fire Juniors West, Herb served as the Academy Director for Plainfield Legends and Director of Coaching for Mid-State Soccer Club. He also served as an Elite Staff Coach at St. Louis Scott Gallagher Soccer Club one of the biggest and most successful clubs in the country.

Herb is married to fellow Team Chicago head coach Nikki Schuler and they reside in Oswego.

Girls U10-18 Director: Team Chicago welcomes Dave Lovercheck to our staff as the Girls U10-18 Director. Dave’s duties will also include overseeing the Girls MLK Day College Showcase, the College-Search Advising Program for U14-18 boys and girls, Team Chicago fundraising, and serving as video analyst for both the boys and girls Academy Program.

Dave is a USSF B-licensed coach who will be joining us from Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Minnesota where he is currently serving as Head Coach of the U17 Girls Elite Residential Program.

Dave played collegiately at Hunter College, CUNY and earned his Bachelor in Science in Organizational Behavior and Leadership from the University of San Francisco. He is currently finishing up his Master’s Degree in Soccer Coaching from Ohio University a very prestigious coaching degree run in conjunction with the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

Prior to his stint at Shattuck-St. Mary’s Dave spent five successful years as Assistant Women’s Soccer Coach at San Jose State University (DI). At San Jose State, Dave served as Recruiting Coordinator and NCAA Compliance Coordinator as well as Video Analyst, and helped the team to two Western Athletic Conference championships.

While in the Bay Area, Dave also served as Assistant Coach & Head Equipment Manager for the FC Gold Pride, which won the Women’s Professional Soccer league title, and as head coach of the MVLA Pride U14 and U15 teams, which he led to the ECNL National Championship game in 2013 and a 3rd place finish in the National League. He also served as Boys Varsity Head Coach at Henry M. Gunn H.S. in Palo Alto, CA.

Dave started his coaching career in New York City where he served nine years as a Staff Coach and Camp Director for Downtown United Soccer Club in Manhattan, and two seasons as the Assistant Men’s Soccer Coach at Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Dave is married to Jennifer who is a Chicagoland native and very excited about moving back home. Jen is an illustrator who works in children’s books and has several titles published. Jen is a proud graduate of the University of Illinois-Champaign where she obtained her undergraduate degree, and her MFA from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Dave and Jen are the proud parents of two-year-old Emily.

The new Team Chicago structure will allow TC to provide even more individual attention to our players, parents, and teams and thus further enhance our “boutique” feel. It will also provide our Academy players with video analysis and feedback. The use of video is vastly underused in youth soccer, and this new structure will put TC at the forefront of player development and evaluation among elite youth soccer clubs in the U.S.

Team Chicago Academy-Brasilia forward Jasmine Ruiz has accepted a great scholarship to continue her soccer career at Villanova. Jasmine will be part of Villanova head coach Fran Kulas’ 2017 recruiting class.

Villanova competes in the Big East conference with the likes of DePaul and Marquette.