The Olympic Development Program is a national process for identifying and developing the best youth soccer players. The process promotes players to the U.S. National Teams, which represent the United States in international competition, such as the Youth World Cup and the Olympics. The main ODP objective is to identify, evaluate and train highly talented male and female youth soccer players. As part of this national effort, Cal North ODP is dedicated to developing the highest level of youth soccer. This objective must be achieved in an atmosphere of integrity, fairness and impartiality. The player's physical and cognitive skills and attitude must be the only criteria for the program. The procedure to achieve this objective must be approved by the Cal North Board of Directors and must not conflict with any US Youth Soccer or United States Soccer Federation (USSF) policies.
The secondary objectives are to:
- Evaluate and select players in each ODP age group for a State pool of players from which State players are selected.
- Advance the soccer skills of players in each ODP age group.
- Provide competitions for State Teams in each ODP age group.
While individual leagues or districts may have additional objectives for their local programs, those objectives must not adversely affect the success of the ODP.
ODP participation does not mean that players do not participate on their club team. ODP participation, whether at the District, State, Regional or National level, is concurrent with club team participation. The advantages often outweigh any conflicts this might pose. All players are placed in pools by their birth year as opposed to the age groupings for league or club teams.
District ODP
Most often, District ODP is the first level of selection for all players. Each District in Cal North administrates the ODP selection process in their home district during the spring and summer months. Players that have never participated in ODP should first contact the ODP Coordinator in their district. Players identified at the District level will be recommended to attend State ODP Try-outs that begin in September.
State ODP
State ODP is administrated at the State level by the State ODP Technical Director and the Cal North State Office. All information regarding State ODP will be posted on the Cal North website.
Regional ODP
The regional level of ODP is administrated by US Youth Soccer Region IV. Players are selected to the regional pools from those who attend Region IV ODP Camp. Players selected to attend ODP camp are upon recommendation of their state association or come with the State ODP team.
Youth National Teams
The Youth National team program is administrated by US Soccer. For more information on the Youth National Team program go to ussoccer.com