Back in 2014, the storied Braddock Road organization – which spawned players and coaches like Amanda Cromwell, Jill Ellis, and Mia Hamm – decided to establish a W-League team to give their outstanding 1995ers some high level experience between graduating from high school and heading off to college.

But now it’s 2018. Former U-20 national teamer Carlyn Baldwin is playing in Portugal. Washington Spirit draft pick Rachel Moore is in grad school. Nat Larkin, Elysse Branton, and the rest have also graduated and moved on. Kaleigh Riehl is still an undergrad but – as noted in my previous article – is with the Spirit Reserves this year. And according to head coach Larry Best, BRYC’s girl’s soccer flagship age group is now the 2006ers, currently competing at the U-13 level. “They’re way better than the 95s were,” he said.

“The 95s are graduated,” said Best. “Matter of fact, I was at a wedding the other night – one of our 95s got married! So we had a little reunion. Yes, that group really founded the team, when we started in the W-League. But this is about development for our young players. Our college players still come home. The bulk of our players will be college players, but then we fill in with all of our youth players. We start with our graduating seniors to make sure that they get ready for college, and then we work down the line to our youth players, rising seniors and rising juniors.”



On top of that, the team has stepped away from the WPSL and decided instead to play in the regional Club Champion’s League U-23 bracket. “The important thing is just getting these kids games. It doesn’t matter really who we’re playing. It’s more about just making sure they’re getting games. We’d like to stay a little more local, which is what the CCL is, so there’s not a lot of travel. But it’s really just about making sure they’re getting good training and getting games in. And it’s getting tougher with the college coaches because they’re putting more demands on getting kids back early. We don’t have as many kids. A lot of them stay in school or go back to school.”

“A big part of this for the college players is getting to work with our younger players. They get to talk to them about college, what it’s about, and getting those seniors ready for college. And the younger players get to ask questions.”

“Individually, we measure every player, with their fitness, with everything, to see where they are to get them ready for August. It’s more of an individual program. It’s a team program because obviously we’re playing games, but it’s more about getting the individual ready, what their needs are, especially positionally. If a kid comes back from college and says, “Hey, my coach is going to move me to a new position,” then we’ll play to that new position for them. She might be a better forward for us, but she’s going to be playing in the back in college, so we give her that experience. Then we talk to the college coaches to see what they think they need out of the kid. So it’s kind of a collaboration, a lot of communication.”

According to my records, Charlotte Hyland has been with the Stars Elite since their first season in 2014, when she was a rising junior in high school. Now she’s a rising junior at the College of William and Mary, a popular destination for Braddock Roaders though this fall it will just be Hyland and senior Claire Robbins, though she assures me that there are more Elites in the pipeline. “We had a good season, but I’m excited to be back for the summer, to train hard and get ready for preseason.”

She talked about the benefits of playing for Braddock Road and what she was working on. “I think it’s good just to get good touches on the ball, work on fitness. As Larry says, we obviously like to win games, but it’s about more than wining games this summer, it’s about on things. All the coaches are here just to help you work on whatever you want to work on. So it’s just a good opportunity to get better at all aspects of the game.”

“I’m working on my first touch and my striking technique and shooting. And fitness!”

Brianna Oliver just finished her freshman year as a midfielder for Coastal Carolina University. “I go to Coastal Carolina University. My team was able to get to the conference tournament, and we made it to the finals, but we lost. This preseason was rough, but it was good, it was fun.”

“[Playing for Braddock Road] was able to help me be fit when I came into preseason, so it was my main goal, to be fit and ready. So I was able to play a lot. [She had over 1000 minutes with 16 appearances and 8 starts.] Fitness is the main thing I’m working on this summer.”

Defender Kelsey Kiley has similar status. “In the last twelve months I started college at Tennessee. It was a good experience. I got a really bad concussion in our third-ish game, so I was out for a month and a half. But I was playing a lot before that, so that was nice. So then it was just rehab, and the spring was hard, but it was just a good experience.”

Braddock Road was helpful getting her ready. “It definitely gave me the competition I needed with all the 95s like Rachel [Moore], Kaleigh [Riehl], they’re all so talented. And that kind of work ethic in practice really translated over into college.”

As for this summer, “I’m working on 1-v-1 defending, particularly, and driving balls with my left foot.”

Unlike the others, Jess Escobar is in her first year with the top-level team. “I’ve played for BRYC for about nine years now. I committed junior year to Presbyterian College. It’s a small D-1 school in South Carolina, and I will be starting in the fall of 2018 and playing in the Mid-South Conference.

“Braddock Road has really honed my technical skills, playing the ball around, keeping the game pure. We look up to teams like Barcelona and teams that like to keep the ball and keep possession, so BRYC has just taught me to keep possession well.

“I just want to keep running hard, getting fit this summer, just training with the girls out here who have gone to college or are getting ready to go to college is really good. I’m really glad that we have the CCL-23 because it gets us ready and sets that level in the summer so that when we go into preseason we’re ready for it.”

The team opens their season Sunday at 4 pm versus FC Frederick at Urbana High School – at least that was the case when I started writing this article; that game now seems to have disappeared from the CCL-23 schedule. Keep an eye on the online schedule for details.