COLUMBUS, Ohio - Crew General Manager Mark McCullers and Head Coach Sigi Schmid will join their counterparts from the league's other 12 teams to scout talent at the 2007 adidas MLS Player Combine this Thursday, Jan. 4, through Monday, Jan. 8, at Lockhart Stadium in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. A total of 62 collegiate and youth prospects will be divided into four teams that will compete against each other in games coached by four prominent NCAA coaches. The players will also train and perform physical testing throughout the event.
The 2007 adidas MLS Player Combine concludes four days before the 2007 MLS SuperDraft, which will be held on Friday, Jan. 12, in Indianapolis (12 p.m., ESPN2/MLSnet.com), in conjunction with the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Convention at the Indiana Convention Center. Of the 48 players selected in the four rounds of the 2006 MLS SuperDraft, 23 had participated in the 2006 adidas MLS Player Combine.
Combine participation is by invitation only. A committee of NCAA Division I coaches from every conference, along with MLS representatives, chooses seniors from schools throughout the country who have completed their college eligibility. Additional players are invited to the MLS Player Combine from Generation adidas, a joint program between MLS, adidas and the U.S. Soccer Federation that identifies and develops the best underclass and youth soccer prospects in the country to be professional players. A complete list of Generation adidas players will be announced prior to the 2007 MLS SuperDraft. All combine participants are automatically eligible for the SuperDraft.
The 2007 adidas MLS Player Combine will separate the players into four teams and feature doubleheaders at Lockhart Stadium on Jan. 5, 6 and 8. Each team will be coached by one of the following four college coaches: John Trask (University of Illinois at Chicago), John Rennie (Duke University), Mike Noonan (Brown University) and former Crew head coach Greg Andrulis (George Mason University). Players will arrive on Thursday and participate in organizational training sessions that afternoon.
SZETELA, WARD INVITED TO U.S. UNDER-20 NATIONAL TEAM CAMP
Crew midfielder Danny Szetela and defender Tim Ward are among the 21 players U.S. Under-20 Men's National Team head coach Thomas Rongen has invited to participate in the team's final training camp before the upcoming 2007 CONCACAF Final Round Qualifying Tournament. The players and staff arrived in Bradenton, Fla., on Saturday, Dec. 30, and are training through this Saturday, Jan. 6, at IMG Academy. Following the eight-day camp, Rongen will name his final 20-player roster for CONCACAF qualifying, which will take place from Jan. 17-21 in Panama City, Panama. The team will regroup on Jan. 10 in Fort Lauderdale where it will train before heading to Panama on Jan. 14. Of the 21 players named to the camp, 10 are in college, nine are professionals and two just exited U.S. Soccer's Under-17 Residency Program. Seven of the professional players ply their trade in Major League Soccer, representing five teams. In addition to Szetela and Ward, they are: Freddy Adu (Real Salt Lake), Josmer Altidore (N.Y. Red Bulls), Blake Wagner (FC Dallas) and Quavas Kirk and Nathan Sturgis (L.A.).
STEPHANY NAMED SENIOR DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS AND COMMUNITY RELATIONS
Dave Stephany has been named the Crew's Senior Director of Communications and Community Relations, a newly created position in which he will integrate and oversee the organization's public, media and community relations and corporate communications efforts. The Crew's Director of Community Relations since 2002, and a PR staffer before that, Stephany will also continue to serve concurrently as Executive Director of the Crew Soccer Foundation, the club's charitable arm. His professional background features previous team communications posts, with the Michigan K-Wings of the International Hockey League and the Portland Winter Hawks of the Western Hockey League, as well as a stint as a sportswriter for the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette, where he was the beat writer for the Kalamazoo Kingdom of the USL Premier Development League, among other assignments.
CREW HOME OPENER SET FOR APRIL 7 VS. NEW YORK
The Crew will kick off its 12th Major League Soccer season at home on Saturday, April 7, 2007, vs. the Eastern Conference-rival New York Red Bulls. Game time is 7 p.m. The Crew will then travel to Utah the following weekend to face Real Salt Lake on Saturday, April 14. Please note that that game time has been changed to 6 p.m. (ET). The complete 2007 league schedule has not yet been finalized and will be released at a later date, but each of the 13 member clubs - including expansion Toronto FC - will play a 30-game schedule, with 15 regular-season games at home and 15 on the road. Each will play every other team twice (home and away) for a total of 24 games. The remaining six games will be played between teams from the same conference (three home and three away). In the Western Conference, one extra intra-conference game - compared to the East - will be played, with preference given to rivalries.
CREWZERS DANCE TEAM TRYOUTS SET FOR JAN. 12-14 AT CREW STADIUM'S HUNTINGTON CLUB
The Crewzers Professional Dance Team will be holding auditions for women interested in performing for the Crew's official dance and cheerleading squad January 12-14 at Crew Stadium's Huntington Club. Registration and the first round of clinics will be held Friday, January 12, at 5:30 p.m. The second clinic and preliminaries are slated for Saturday, January 13, and the final auditions will be Sunday, January 14. Attendance at all clinics is mandatory to be eligible for the final auditions. The Crewzers are comprised of career women and college students who commit themselves to countless hours each week to make them the dynamic team they are. The squad has a variety of ages, but ladies must be 18 by August 31, 2007 to be eligible for the 2007 team. Registration for walk-ins will begin January 12 at 5:30 p.m. For more information, audition details and pre-registration options, visit www.thecrewzers.com.
