By ROB WALKER

FW United Director of Coaching

Six members of Federal Way United’s Reign ‘94 girl’s team represented Washington at the United States Youth Soccer Region IV Camp in Moscow, Idaho earlier this month.

Abbey Bergquist, Shyann Glasser, Brie Hooks and Kelli McCluskey played on Washington’s 1995 (birthyear) team and Mackenzie (Max) Dowd and Sarah Shimer played on the state 1994 team.

The purpose of the camp was to bring in the best youth soccer players in their respective age groups from 14 western states and conduct a tryout to pick a regional team that will compete with US Youth Soccer’s three other regions for a place on the US Soccer National Youth Team.

At the end of the Region IV camp in Moscow, Glasser was selected to the regional team and will now compete for a place in the US Youth National pool at a national camp in Pomona, Calif. later this summer. Glasser, who plays as a central midfielder for the FWU Reign ‘94 Purple, will play as a left back for the Region IV team.

The camp in Pomona will replicate Glasser’s experience from the regional experience, but is run under the direction of the National Team coaching staff. Glasser will be competing for a place in the national pool and in the national team for her age group.

There are over 130,000 registered players in Washington.

McCluskey noted “it was on my mind that I was playing for my state and that is something that I have a new feeling of respect for what I am trying to accomplish for myself as a player.”

McCluskey went on to note that playing for Washington was a way to “come together with other talented players that were all striving to make their mark at the next level and that was a great feeling for me personally.”

All of the Reign players said the standard at the camp was at a very high level, which is lofty praise because their ‘94 team won a national championship last summer and played at the prestigious Manchester United Cup in May.

Shimer, a goalkeeper, felt that “the standard is high and the individual playing ability of the opposition made me work harder than I might have to in a club competition.”

Shimer had to do “double duty” at the camp as the goalkeepers not only practice with their teams and play games, but also attend specialized goalkeeping training sessions every day.

“It made me work harder as there were 20 other goalkeepers competing for a job in the regional team,” she said.

The Reign ‘94 team is coached by Bryan Yorke and Pete Shimer and their climb over the last two years has been gradual and aimed toward being in the top echelon of teams in Washington.

The regional camp experience gave players a chance to play with other top coaches. Dowd notes that playing for Chuck Sekyra (coach of Seattle Pacific University’s Women’s Team and NCAA Division II National Champions) was a great experience.

“Chuck really helped me understand how I should play as a central defender in defense and in attack. He was able to guide me to be a better player and cope with the high standard of play at the same time.”

Bergquist and Glasser have a “to-do” list coming out of regional camp.

“I have to work on my 1 v 1 moves on the ball as that is something that disappears from my game from time-to-time.”

Glasser is going to work really hard on her passing to come up with a wider repertoire of passing skills and work on her ability to win 50-50 balls as she prepares to get ready for national camp.

Glasser is looking forward to teaming up with some great players from Southern California that she said, “were just amazing to play with as they were so skillful. I am going to have to step up my game for sure.”