Women's Soccer - pupiline's Dom interviews teen soccer stars  Women’s soccer, is a fast growing sport in the United States. It's no wonder with such success in the Women’s World Cup, they beat China in the final, and the recent Olympics, which they lost, in the last minutes of extra time, to a very strong Norwegian side. I watched the final and I thought that, unlike the defensive and counter attack playing Norwegians, the Americans were skilful and played with a tactical awareness to match their male counter parts.
These great players must come from somewhere, so I've sent my spies out to spy on I.F.C. Lightning, a youth Women’s Soccer Club in Pittsburgh, USA.  I.F.C. Lightning were formed in 1997, so they are a relatively new club. The club is trying to give the girls of Western Pennsylvania a chance to receive top quality coaching. Their aim is to gain recognition for the girls and to hopefully train them to be good enough to play in the Olympic Development Teams (ODP) and hopefully go further to represent their country at the highest level.
I've had a chat with two of their players to check out what the club is all about and what they feel about women's football, they are: Lauren Shemanski  Jordan Gapczynski . How did you first become involved in soccer?  Lauren: "I started playing soccer in 2nd grade and then I started to play on a travelling team in 4th grade in the summer going into 6th grade I tried out for IFC and I made it and now I am playing with more confidence than before."
Jordan: "When I was five years old my dad played soccer in his school and in college so I followed in his footsteps and got started at five years old." Is there a lot of girl’s soccer in your area? Lauren: "In our league there are only 3 girls teams that play and then 15 other girls teams from different areas too!" Jordan: "There is a decent amount I guess you could say we have a lot in are area." What do you do in training? Lauren: "In Training we do all kinds of sprints drills and we have to run 3  to 4 miles a day and at camps we run 5 to 6 miles it is kind of hard but after being on the team for a while you get very high endurance." Jordan: "What we do in training was over the summer my dad the coach he gave us a sheet of paper of stuff we had to do like one day we ran a mile then did some sprints and etc. We have practice two times a week Wednesday and Thursday but for JH school we have it every day." How big is your squad and do the players travel far to get to training, games etc? Lauren: "The farthest someone has to travel to get to IFC practice and games is probably about 45 to and hour away! Seems a lot but it is worth it!" Jordan: "Well there are 18 players on my team. Some come from Centre and we have it in Fox Chapel, people come from different places." Who has been your biggest inspiration? Lauren: "My biggest inspiration is Chet our coach he has given me the confidence when I thought I could not do something or get the thought in my mind that I was not good." Jordan: "My biggest would probably be Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy." (Both stared in America’s Olympic campaign) What other age groups do you have in I.F.C. Lightning?  Lauren: "The age groups are u12 u13 u14 u15 u16."
Do you have trials every year to find new players and for the current players to stay in the team? Lauren: "We have try outs every year so everyone gets a chance to be on the team last year he picked up 4 new players and they have been a success!" Jordan: "We do we have try outs this year we lost four and got four , but next year my dad wants just to drop the team down to 16 players and then go from there." Do you have a lot of support? Lauren: "Yes we have tons of support from family and friends, it is like one  big family when I go to IFC it's like their all my sisters!" Jordan: "Yes we do have a lot of support." Is there a lot of interest in girl’s soccer in your area? Lauren: "There is quite a lot of interest in our local area." Jordan: "We have lot’s of interest and there is a high standard of play in our area." Do the players get involved in fundraising and trying to get sponsorship etc? Lauren: "We have never done a fundraiser before but we will have to do one when we take our trip to Arizona this year, which we are all looking forward too!" Jordan: "Yes we do, do that we are about to do a fundraiser so we can go to Arizona for a tournament if we go it will be fun we are going with some other age groups." I would like to hear from any girls who play soccer and I would be interested to see how you think girls soccer where you live compares to that in America? Is it better? Do you train harder? Do you think girl’s soccer is as organised in your country as it is in America? Leave your comments on this page on the forum linked to this page, I will do my best to reply to all comments! Good Luck to all the girls at I.F.C. Lightning for the new season and their upcoming trip to Arizona! You can visit I.F.C. Lightning at http://members.aol.com/ifcredlightning/index.html
-Dom
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