USL Feature by Mike Foss
Friday, July 10
In the spring of 2007, Mike Foss, then a midfielder with the U17 boys’ team from D.C. United was featured in an interview regarding the SYL ODP National Camps. From then on Foss has expanded his horizons exponentially. First, he logged 550+ minutes in the Premier Development League with the 2007 Northern Virginia Royals. The following season he continued to progress, playing 786 minutes in the PDL as an 18-year old, again with the Royals.
Connections established, Foss has embarked upon a new adventure this season...
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The last thing I remember, I was finishing my final exam of the spring semester at George Mason University. When I woke up, there were mountains. Not the hills of suburban Virginia and Maryland. These were big, massive mountains. The kind Sylvester Stallone would climb in “Cliffhanger.”
I was looking at mountains and two months of soccer in Salt Lake City. This past winter, Jeff Cassar, the assistant coach of Real Salt Lake invited me to be part of a new development in the RSL program. Major League Soccer disposed of their reserve league and trimmed the rosters of every team down to 24 for the 2009 season. Without a venue to see young prospects in action, MLS teams have started utilizing the USL system.
The Chicago Fire has all but perfected the use of the Premier Development League. Three of my teammates have benefitted from the Fire’s U23 team this summer: Victor Freeman, Ryan Gracia and Rich Edgar. Edgar and I share an apartment at school and it should be known that he loses to me in FIFA on Playstation 3 every single time we play.
Real Salt Lake hopes to create their own niche in the PDL, joining with the Ogden Outlaws of the PDL’s Southwest Division. Coach Cassar offered me a spot with the Outlaws and I seized the opportunity. Playing for the Outlaws, I and the other players on the team had the chance to play with and against the Real Salt Lake first team and be seen by the coaching staff.
For me, it was an opportunity to build my fitness for the fall college season at altitude (Salt Lake City’s elevation is over 4,000 feet. Fairfax, the home of GMU, is about 400 feet) and play on the west coast...and spend a weekend in Las Vegas.
There was some culture shock. There were real away games. My furthest road trip in years past was only four hours to Ocean City. This year, the Outlaws made the 12-hour trip to California three times. That’s a lot of road. There was a new style. West coast soccer demands more finesse than the fast, physical east coast play I’ve grown up with. There was a new coach. The demeanor of my coach at Ogden, Ted Eck, was unlike any I’ve experienced before. Coach Eck is quiet, but demands excellence. The definition of less is more; Eck manages to get his message across with only a few muted, insightful words.
Sadly, Ogden has underperformed this summer. There were a lot of things that just didn’t go our way. It was a very good group of players, notably Nick Cardenas, who was on the 2008 MAC Hermann Trophy watch list. But we never completely meshed and found the right combination of players. That’s the game sometimes.
I’ve been writing and reflecting as I begin to pack my things and head home this weekend. With only a year and a half left at Mason, my focus has shifted to the future. I’ve always said that at the moment I was no longer capable of playing at the highest level I would hang up the boots. That declaration is beginning to ring awfully close.
Will there be a career playing soccer for me? It’s a question that goes through a million player’s minds every day. It races through my head as often as my heart beats. I’ve played because I love playing. The possibility of playing as a livelihood convolutes everything. There is more tension and certainly, more excitement. There is an edge that hasn’t been there before. So will there be a career playing soccer for me?
If there was one positive I could single out, it was that playing in Salt Lake City this summer has opened new doors for me next summer. Notably, the chance to train with the San Jose Earthquakes and perhaps reunite with former Northern Virginia Royals head coach, John Pascarella, and go on trial with the Kansas City Wizards. At the end of the day, we all play for opportunities. The players that are successful in this game seize their opportunities.
I can only hope to seize mine.
Past Atricles
NV Royals defender discusses his trial opportunity with Real Salt Lake [+] - Friday, June 13, 2008
Royals find positives... even in a rainout [+] - Tuesday, June 3, 2008
USLSoccer.com writer discusses the early 2008 season [+] - Tuesday, May 20, 2008
When you hit the bottom [+] - Monday, July 23, 2007
NV Development trumps 2007 results [+] - Thursday, July 12, 2007
Royals battle adversity, enjoy fan support [+] - Monday, June 18, 2007
Player/journalist makes his PDL debut [+] - Friday, May 31, 2007
Former SYL ODP player, current Super-20, future PDL’er talks [+] - Wednesday, May 9, 2007
’88/’89 & ’90 Boys SYL Select Teams Announced [+] - Tuesday, January 23, 2007
