The Olympic Development Program was formed over 30 years ago to identify the best players and prepare them for the national team. In a country the size of the United States, such a program is absolutely essential. How else would one be able to compare, say, the best midfielder from California to the best in North Carolina? With each state organizing its own ODP process for player identification and training under the guidelines of the national and regional staff, a ladder was created for players to move up, step by step, from club soccer to state level, to region level and finally to national level. The gap between youth club soccer and international soccer is so huge that most players would not be able to make the leap directly from club to national team. They need a controlled and incremental process that allows them to gradually adapt to each level before reaching for the next. At each step, players learn to cope with the increased skill level, increased athleticism and higher tempo or speed of play and those who excel are pushed up to the next level.

Georgia Soccer’s ODP historically has produced many players for the regional and national teams. Players such as Clint Mathis, Josh Wolff and Ricardo Clark used the ODP to climb the ladder into the national team and had the distinction of playing in the World Cup and in Europe. Linda Hamilton and, more recently, Kelly O’Hara are Georgia ODP players who played in the Women’s World Cup for the United States. In addition to that, countless Georgia players have graduated from the ODP into top college programs and the MLS and WPS professional leagues.

On average, between 60-70 players from Georgia’s ODP advance into the Regional Pools each year. That’s around 30% of the ODP players who represent Georgia at Region tryout Camps each summer. Of these, around 30 players make the Regional Teams and participate in domestic and international competition. Each year, around 10 Georgia players are typically involved in national team camps at various age groups. These numbers put Georgia in the top 10 ODP states in the country, quite an achievement, considering the relative size of our state.

Aside from exposure to college and national staff coaches, the ODP provides players a number of unique experiences, such as the opportunity to be coached by different coaches and train with the best players from the state. Opportunities to play against top players from other states are beneficial as well. Players who make the Regional Teams are invited to play against foreign teams and go on international trips. Many ODP graduates look back at their experiences with the regional ODP teams as defining moments in their development. Josie Altidore, the US National Team player, remembers his trip with the Region team to Argentina as the event that woke him up to the demands and realities of professional soccer and helped shaped his career.

In Georgia, the ODP training is geared towards a specific playing style consistently across all age groups and a training curriculum of possession soccer and playing out of the back. Georgia’s ODP is as pure a player development environment as can be, with emphasis on learning how to play the international game, and no worries about game results. Players and coaching staff alike enjoy the absence of pressure to win that is so prevalent and stifling in club soccer. In ODP, everyone is relaxed and focused on the process and players are encouraged to play in a manner that is often very different to club soccer. In this way, even the players who don’t get selected to the regional or national teams benefit since the ODP helps them become a more rounded player who can fit into any playing system and adjust better to the demands of the modern game.

A typical ODP year includes tryouts in the fall, 10-15 training sessions throughout the fall, winter and spring, a couple of inter-state events in the winter, and region camp in the summer. All this is scheduled to supplement the club games and tournaments and minimize conflicts. Whenever there is an unavoidable conflict, club games come first and players do not get penalized for missing ODP practices.

The biggest issue with elite level soccer in the U.S. is the system of ‘pay to play’ that is prevalent here. Both at the club level and the ODP, players have to pay for the event travel and training they get. The cost of ODP, although not excessive, can still be an issue for some families. For this reason, the ODP has a scholarship program where players selected to represent Georgia at region tryout camps can apply for financial assistance. The scholarship criteria are based on both the financial needs of the family and the level of the player.

The age groups eligible for ODP in the 2011-2012 year are players born in 2000 through 1995 calendar years. The State Pools have already been selected for the year, but the door is still open for exceptional players since the primary objective of the program is to identify the best players in the state. Hence we reserve the right to add players to the pool at any time.

The majority of players in Georgia Soccer are recreational players and only a few hundred are good enough to wear a Georgia ODP jersey. So what’s all the fuss about ODP you might ask? Indeed, a lot of work behind the scene is required to run such a high level program. That work is done by a group of dedicated volunteer administrators and professional coaches. By sporting definition, the higher the level, the more labor intensive and the bigger the demands. But the pay-back can be enormous. One day, an ODP player from Savannah, Georgia or Little Rock, Arkansas or Tampa, Florida could be the one that scores the winning goal for the U.S.A in a World Cup Final. The knock-on effect of such an event would be tremendous. The media and TV will focus on our new hero. Every mother of a 6 year old will sign up her kid for soccer. The Parks and Rec departments across the state will have to build dozens of new soccer complexes to meet the rising demands. Sponsors will flock to partner with soccer clubs and organizations. And soccer in America will become a pre-eminent sport.