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

Notre Dame midfielder/forward Brittany Bock was chosen fifth overall by the Los Angeles Sol this morning in the first round of the Women's Professional Soccer inaugural draft in St. Louis.

Bock, a Neuqua Valley graduate, was taken one spot ahead of her college teammate and two-time Hermann Trophy winner Kerri Hanks.

Charlie Naimo, the Sol general manager, said the plans are to keep Bock as a midfielder. But he indicated she might also play forward as she did the past two years with the Fighting Irish, who she helped to three consecutive College Cup appearances.

"We want to see how she's going to fit with the rest of our players," Naimo said. "We just know we got a great player on our hands. And we're really excited to see what her play and training might dictate."

Bock, who was unavailable for immediate comment, also became the second female from Naperville drafted by a team based in Los Angeles in the past year. Candace Parker was chosen first overall by the L.A. Sparks in the 2008 WNBA Draft.

-Ben Johnson, a sophomore midfielder out of Naperville North, will transfer from Western Illinois to play soccer at Saint Xavier, the Chicago university announced Tuesday. The Woodridge native previously played at Missouri State.

-White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper will run pitching camps in Lisle, LaGrange, Barrington, Tinley Park and Schererville, Ind. The Lisle sessions will be Jan. 24-25 for high school athletes and players ages 7-13. For more on the Bulls Sox Academy events, click here.

-Naperville's Centerfield Sports Academy will be running a pitching camp through Feb. 6 for players ages 13-18. The 90-minute sessions will be held three times a week for four-consecutive weeks. For more information, click here.

-Unbeaten Wheaton College (13-0) remains No. 1 in the D3hoops.com national Top 25 poll. North Central College (10-3) received votes in the same poll.

-Notre Dame senior forward Brittany Bock, a Neuqua Valley graduate, is among 15 semifinalists for the 2008 Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy, which is presented annually to the nation's top Division I women's soccer player.

-Washington University (St. Louis) sophomore running back Jim O'Brien, a Wheaton Warrenville South graduate, was selected to the all-University Athletic Association first team as a kick returner for the second-consecutive season. O'Brien averaged a conference-best 25.0 yards per kick return, and was second in all-purpose yards at 107.2 per game.

-Wisconsin-Whitewater freshman Alyssa Bauer, a Naperville Central graduate, has been named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association's all-Midwest region honorable mention team. Bauer was also recognized on the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference's all-defensive team.

Notre Dame senior Brittany Bock, a 2005 Neuqua Valley graduate, was excited Monday night after learning the Fighting Irish earned a No. 1 seed for the upcoming NCAA women's soccer tournament, which begins Friday.

Bock also reported she was ready to rejoin the Irish on the field after she sat out the Big East championship game Sunday afternoon. Notre Dame beat Connecticut 1-0 in overtime with Bock and leading scorer Kerri Hanks on the sidelines. Fellow Neuqua graduate Michele Weissenhofer earned the assist on the winning goal.

"It was precautionary," Bock said of sitting out, though she did not disclose the exact injury. "With the NCAAs starting we didn't want to push anything. I should be fine. Obviously we wanted to win the Big East, but it wasn't like the NCAAs where if you don't win, you're done.”

A feature in today's Sun focuses on sisters Brittany and Chelsea Potts, who play for LSU. But the two former Waubonsie Valley standouts are far from the only local players continuing their soccer careers at the NCAA Division I level.
They aren't even the the only sisters doing it.

Neuqua Valley graduate Brittany Bock is piling up the preseason awards entering her senior season as a Notre Dame forward. The latest came over the weekend when Soccer America tabbed her for its preseason All-America team.

Bock had previously been named the preseason Offensive Player of the Year for the Big East, and is on the 47-member Hermann Trophy watch list for the nation's top player.