The pathway to professional soccer differs from most other sports in the United States.

While basketball and football players work their way from youth sports to high school, then college and eventually the pro level, soccer players often find their way playing for academies and club teams to reach the pinnacle of their sport. 

As youth soccer continues to grow in popularity nationwide, so do avenues to get noticed at the national level. One of those avenues is the Olympic Development Program (ODP), which offers a route to the Youth Soccer National Team. But that path is a long one. 

The Steamboat Soccer Club sent 46 athletes to the ODP Western Regional Championships in Phoenix at the start of January to compete for the Colorado Mountain Select Team. 

The purpose of these regional championships is to get soccer players of age groups U12 to U17 on notice for the potential to play at the youth national level. 

“Realistically for our kids, it is another chance to play more soccer with different kids and play higher-level soccer than they may see week in and week out,” said Hobey Early, the Steamboat Soccer Club coach who also coaches the U11 Colorado Mountain Select team. 

Colorado splits the state in half with a Front Range team and a Mountain team. Routt County athletes compete for the Mountain teams. 

Early said teams take 14-16 players per age group to Phoenix each January to compete in Western Regionals with the opportunity to be selected for Regional Camps in the summer. The climb up the ladder does not end there, though. 

Players who are selected to Regional Camps will then showcase their talents in front of coaches and compete for a slot on the regional team, which in turn competes in an inter-regional tournament in Florida. 

More coaches and evaluators watch the regional tournament and select players they believe are ready to compete at the Youth National level. 

Last year was the first time the Colorado Mountain Select team competed in the ODP Regional Championships, but Early said this year the program was more formalized and able to compete at a higher level in the Tier 2 competition. 

Steamboat Soccer Club had 46 athletes compete in Phoenix with three age groups reaching the regional finals. The Mountain Select U14 boys defeated North Texas in the semifinal, eventually falling to New Mexico 4-0 in the finals. The U15 boys fell to Alaska 3-2 in the championship. The U16 boys dropped the championship game 3-0 to Illinois.

According to Early, the Colorado Mountain Select program plays at a disadvantage in the region because of the low populations from which the team can select. 

“The Mountain Region is just towns west of the Front Range,” he explained. “Most of our teams are made up of kids from the Yampa Valley, Roaring Fork Valley, Vail Valley, Grand Junction, some kids down into Moab and some of these more outlying areas. Being a mountain region team, we played games against North Texas. We have such a smaller population to pull from and it’s pretty sweet that we can still be competitive.”

All players at the ODP Championships will find out if they are invited to their Regional Camp by the end of February. Steamboat Soccer Club had three invitees last year and hopes to collect more invitations this year.