4 recruited for Olympic Development Program soccer camp
· Yahoo Sports
Jul. 4—JAMESTOWN — The best of the best in Jamestown soccer are headed south later this month.
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Evan Harty along with Grady Eckart, Liam Becker and Layla Becker, were selected to attend the Midwest Region ODP (Olympic Development Program) ID Soccer Camp in Rockford, Illinois, next month.
ODP started in the late 1970s as a format to identify the best soccer talent in the country.
Through ODP, each state has at least one state team — teams comprised of the hottest talent among the state's soccer community. After state teams are developed, teams compete against other state teams. From there, each state association takes its top players from the state team and sends them to the regional event.
"This will be my first time attending this camp," Harty said. "To get selected, you attend little camps throughout the Dakotas and get evaluated by the coaches there. After the camps are over, they decide and only select a certain amount of kids from each age group to go to the region ID camp. I feel I got selected because of my work ethic and my ability to play the game of soccer at a high level."
Harty is the son of Jamestown High School boys soccer coach Brandi Harty. The soon-to-be senior started in goal for the Blue Jays last fall, where he pitched four shutouts.
"One thing I hope to learn and do is to strive to the best of my abilities and show that kids from North Dakota can play soccer," Harty said. "I hope to gain more knowledge of the game and just keep learning and developing myself into the best player I can be. I want to go to this camp to gain exposure and more experience, and kids from this camp get selected to go to the next camp, which is in Florida."
Harty has played soccer for most of his life, but it was in the last few years that he decided to take the sport more seriously.
"I was big into baseball, and balancing both sports were tough," Harty said. "As I grew older, I knew I had to make the decision and I felt closer to soccer. I felt that I could reach the next level and soccer and knew that (not playing baseball) was the sacrifice I would have to make. ... obviously, having a family full of soccer players influenced my decision too."
Before becoming the head coach of the Blue Jay boys soccer program, Brandi coached soccer in Minot and Bismarck. She also played collegiate soccer at the University of Jamestown. Harty's siblings — Madelyn and Brady — play too.
Brady, a Jamestown High School Class of 2025 grad, was a key piece for the Blue Jays from 2019 to 2024. He then moved on to play soccer at the Steven Gerrard Academy in England and now has gone on to play collegiate soccer in Alabama. Brady attended the ODP Camp five times in his time at Jamestown High School.
"Brady got more exposure and learned a lot more about the game, and I believe that I could benefit the same way," Harty said. "I would like to say how grateful I am for this opportunity and that me and Grady Eckart will be going into this camp trying to put ourselves and North Dakota on the map."
Eckart will also be a senior for the Blue Jays. This summer is Eckart's third time attending the regional ODP camp.
"I got selected to the camp because of my strong work ethic, technical ability and eagerness to always get better," Eckart said. "I hope to learn from the high-level coaches and compete against some of the best players in the region. I want to improve my decision making, technical ability and understanding of the game at this camp.
"I want to attend this camp for the opportunity to challenge myself and develop more as a player as well as hopefully be selected to move on to the inter-regional camp where I can continue to improve," he said. "I am grateful for the opportunity to represent my club, school and state. I'm looking forward to learning as much as I can from this camp to help out with our upcoming high school season."
"This will be my fifth year attending the ODP Regional camp," Becker said. "My dad, Nick, also has been helping run the camp for the past few years and has given me some tips. The camp is a great opportunity to get more experience playing with high-level players. ... Playing with top-level girls pushes me to think quicker and move the ball faster."
Becker will be a junior at Jamestown High School this fall. She has played with the JHS varsity girls soccer team since she was in seventh grade. She led the Jays in scoring this spring with six goals and six assists for 12 total points.
"Playing with other girls who play at a high level of competition all the time motivates me to do the best with what I have and work hard when I get to go places like this for soccer," she said. "It's harder to get opportunities when I live in a small town with not much soccer competition as the other girls have."
Becker said campers will play in a total of five soccer sessions during the course of the three-day camp. Each session is scheduled to last approximately two hours.
"This year of region camp, my end goal is to perform well enough to make the inter-regionals camp in Florida later at the end of the year to compete for a spot on the U.S. Youth National Soccer team," Becker said. " ... It would be a great accomplishment which I hope to achieve."