Elite players in the 1990 and 1992 age groups will compete in the 2009 US Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program (US Youth Soccer ODP) Girls Winter Interregional on Dec. 27-30 at Freedom Ridge Park in Ridgeland, Miss.

Waubonsie Valley's Vanessa DiBernardo of America's Soccer Club will play for 1992's Region II team along with Neuqua Valley's Megan Oyster of Windy City Pride. Emily Oliver of Flossmoor and Katie Nasenbenny of La Grange also represent Windy City Pride -- and along with FC United's Amber Fry of Northfield -- they represent the five players from Illinois on the four-region roster.

Kelsey Mulcahy, a Neuqua Valley graduate and freshman defender for the University of Missouri, will play for the 1990's Region II squad. She will be joined by two other Illinois representatives -- the Eclipse's Nicole Lipp of Lake Forest and KUFC's Lizzy Niles of Elgin.

They will train and compete in front of national and leading collegiate coaches to maximize their exposure. US Youth Soccer is divided into four regions: Region I (East), Region II (Midwest), Region III (South) and Region IV (West) to assist in national competitions.

US Youth Soccer ODP is known as the premier identification and development program for the nation's youth seeking the opportunity to compete at the national, professional and collegiate levels of play.

Designed to identify and develop a pool of players from which U.S. national teams may be selected, US Youth Soccer ODP is the original ODP program. And it's the only elite player development program that can claim members of Major League Soccer and the former Women's United Soccer Association, as well as a majority of current and past national and youth team members, as alumni.

--Brad Engel