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Brody Osborne already has made his plans for Spring Break, thank you very much.
Osborne, a 14-year-old South Kamloops student, is one of 76 players from Canada and the U.S., who have been invited to attend the Olympic Development Program national identification camp in Tampa, Fla., from March 10-14. The ODP is run through the U.S. Soccer League’s Super Y Leagues.
There will be a lot of scouts watching Osborne and his counterparts strut their stuff.
“Excited, very excited,” says Osborne, a midfielder. “I’m not that nervous — I don’t know why, I’m just not.”
The system through which Osborne received the invitation is somewhat complicated and involved some math — but really, it came down to his playing well for the Thompson Okanagan Whitecaps in the Super Y League.
“In our league, there’s these things called ODP points,” Osborne explains. “Other teams nominate you. They choose three players each game. The people with the highest points get invited.”
Osborne was in the top two per cent, and earlier this month received a letter from Kate Thibault, the associate director of the USL’s youth leagues and the ODP co-ordinator.
Osborne has been playing soccer since he was seven, and played rep for the Kamloops Blaze in the under-12 and under-13 levels, before joining the Whitecaps in the middle of the 2008 season.
He spent all of last season with the U15 Whitecaps, but is looking to go one step higher next season — he wants to play for the provincial team.
“I might be going to that team — I’m trying out for it now,” he says. “I don’t know when I’ll (learn) if I made it — not for a while. It’s evaluations right now, but if I do well, I’ll get a call to go to Vancouver.”
If it works out, Osborne, who plays bantam house hockey, will have to make some sacrifices.
“I would have to be billeted in Vancouver,” he says, “and I would have to quit everything else. I wouldn’t be able to play for the (Kamloops) Blaze or house hockey or anything.”
But that’s a long ways away, as is the camp in Florida. Osborne will only know a couple of other players at the camp, and is expecting to see a lot of talent on the pitch.
“I know it’s going to be intense training,” he says. “There will be a lot of really good players there.”
Shalayna Isakson, 15, also will be going to an ODP camp in Tampa. Her camp is scheduled to run from March 3-7.
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Meanwhile, goalkeeper Jake Bainas and the Thompson Okanagan under-14 boys went 0-2-2 at the Super Y League North American finals in Tampa last week.
The Whitecaps opened with a 1-1 tie against the Long Island (N.Y.), before losing 2-0 to Quickstrike FC, which also is based in New York.
The Whitecaps went on to lose 1-0 to the MPS Bulldogs of Massachusetts, before playing to a 1-1 draw with Ironbound SC of New Jersey.
