Brooke Hanson, of Albert Lea, was selected this spring to be a member of the U.S. Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program, or ODP as it is more commonly called, a national identification and development program for high-level soccer players. This program identifies and develops youth players throughout the country to represent their state, region and the United States in soccer competition. The ODP process promotes players to the U.S. National Teams, which represent the United States in international competition, such as the Youth World Cup and the Olympics.

ODP teams are formed at the state and regional levels, made up of the best players in various age groups. Players are selected, in most states, on the basis of open tryouts. These tryouts are conducted by the state association coaches who are recognized for their ability to identify and train players with superior skills.

Brooke was selected to be a member of the Minnesota ODP team after an open tryout session in Lakeland and was chosen from approximately 400 girls in her 1996 birth year. She then trained as a team with 35 other girls in her age group for seven weeks throughout the summer. After four weeks of the training, Brooke was selected to be a member of a 16-person team that was invited to attend a Regional ODP Camp held in DeKalb, Ill. from July 16-19 at Northern Illinois University. Thirteen state associations including: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio and South Dakota sent teams to train at the regional camp.

The regional camp is designed to provide high-level competition and training for participating players and teams. During this training and competition, players who are capable of performing at a higher level of play are identified for possible national camp, pool or team participation.

While at the regional camp in Illinois, Brooke was selected from her age group to attend the regional pool training session on the second day. Only 20 girls out of the more than 200 attending the regional camp were invited to train in the regional pool. Her camp experience included three intense days of soccer training under the direction of national, regional, and state coaches as well as some of the Midwest’s best college, high school, and club soccer coaches.

Brooke will be an eighth-grader at Southwest Middle School this fall. She plays soccer locally with the Albert Lea Youth Soccer Association and for the Albert Lea Tigers.