Force Academy Zone: OSU teams stack up vs. best at ESPN Disney College Showcase

Traveling on Dec. 24 or 25 would not be near the top of many people’s Christmas wish list, unless one has been invited and accepted to participate in one North America’s most prestigious youth soccer showcases; The ESPN – DISNEY College Showcase in sunny Orlando, Florida.


Four Ottawa South United (OSU) boys’ teams and one OSU girls’ team (one week later) packed their soccer gear and jetted to Florida as part of the only Canadian youth soccer club to be accepted in this ESPN – Disney Showcase event this year.

The OSU Force players who attended the Dec. 26-30 Disney College Showcase went to the event with a purpose.

“It’s pretty much a business trip for us. We don’t go down there for a vacation and we sort of make sure that they know that,” says Russell Shaw, who coached three of the five teams at the tournament.

“That’s the time of year that most of the university scouts can come and see the players,” Shaw explains. “The tournament starts on the 27th and we want to have a couple days to get adjusted to the weather and train.”

It’s a hurdle most of OSU’s Sunbelt opponents don’t face – readjusting to natural grass and a warm climate.But despite the additional challenge, the OSU teams all performed well at the competition. The youngest group of OSU players, born in 1997, started with a big 5-0 victory over a Texas Lonestars team “and basically shocked everybody,” Shaw recounts.

Despite two key injuries, the oldest group of OSU ’94s managed a tie and a win to move forward into the bronze medal match where they had “no legs left in the second half” and fell 4-2 to the Chicago Fire in the tournament’s top academy division. The OSU ’96 girls, ’95 boys and ’96 boys also participated and altogether made the club proud.

“Years ago we were trying just to compete at the introductory showcase level and now we’re showing that we can compete at the highest academy showcase level,” stated OSU President, Bill Michalopulos, whose club is the only one from Canada to be consistently invited to participate in this specific event that requires high performance standards in order to enter.

Disney holds many soccer tournaments throughout the year open to all who want to play soccer but the December Showcase and the November Junior Showcase are all “business”. They are unique by the fact that there is a strict qualification process in order to be considered as a participant and they rely heavily on targeted premium soccer club/academy invitations thus only attracting the very best soccer academies and soccer clubs that the continent has to offer. In addition, they are the only ones that attract professional scouts and university scouts not only from North America but Europe as well.

“That’s the biggest value,” says Jim Lianos, OSU’s General Manager, noting that some of the OSU players received verbal offers, while others have built relationships with scouts from previous showcase events at Disney and the Dallas Cup. OSU sent seven Force Academy graduates to U.S. soccer schools on athletic scholarships last year, and six more to Canadian university teams.

“It’s not everything, but the December, Disney Showcase helps big-time” to get recruited south of the border, Michalopulos adds. “It helps with OSU’s recognition as one of North America’s top youth soccer clubs and helps grow our ever expanding university/college network in order to facilitate our OSU players to earn scholarships and build their soccer resume.”

Lianos expects plenty of more offers this month and into February when OSU holds a College Combine ID Camp on February 16-17 at the Coliseum Dome here in Ottawa and again this coming summer, in partnership with Nike and the Dallas Texans during the inaugural Showcase of Champions to be held in Ottawa on August 3-6, 2012.