GREEN BAY – The high school girls soccer season is over, but the games are not done.
Players from some of the top prep teams in the area will compete as members of the Wisconsin United FC Premier girls soccer club during the United States Youth Soccer Association National Championship.
The event takes place July 22-27 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.
Both the U17 and U15 teams qualified after going 3-0 at the National League semifinals in February.
Wisconsin United is one of only 11 club teams in the nation, boys and girls, to qualify more than one team to the national championship.
There were two ways to earn a placement in the national championship: A team could win one of the four regional championships — Midwest, Southern, Far West and Eastern — or do what Wisconsin United did and qualify through the National League Playoffs.
Both the U17 and U15 teams advanced past the quarterfinal round in January in Arizona before its run through the semifinals in Texas a month later.
The club on the girls side was promoted to the top tier of the USYS this year after previously competing in the regional league.
No matter what level, Wisconsin United continues to win.
“I think it’s the progress of the grassroots, growing from the bottom up and not trying to recruit players from other clubs,” said Eric Gebhard, who is the executive director of Wisconsin United FC Premier. “Most of our players are grown from within, and I’d expect us to have even more success as the younger players come up through the new design of the club.”
The U17 and U15 players are waiting to find out their first opponent. Games at the tournament will be broadcast by ESPN, although it’s unknown if any Wisconsin United contests will be featured.
Neither team is just happy to be there. They believe they can compete against anybody.
Both are led by Dusty Rhodes, a longtime area coach and the former leader of the De Pere boys team that went to state under him during the alternate fall season in 2021.
U17 team continues to shine
Anybody who pays attention to local club soccer knows about Wisconsin United’s U17 team, which has dominated for several years and features some of the best talent in the state.
It is 25-3-2 entering the national championship.
The squad has won four Wisconsin state championships and is a two-time Midwest League champion, four-time Wisconsin State Cup champion and a five-time USYS Midwest Regional Championship qualifier.
There are 14 players on the roster, highlighted by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee recruit and Kimberly star defender Emily Urban, a first-team all-conference pick in the Fox Valley Association this spring and a big reason the Papermakers qualified for the WIAA Division 1 state tournament.
Wisconsin United also features Stevens Point midfielder-forward and University of Minnesota-Duluth commit Amelia Castleberg.
The Wisconsin Valley Conference player of the year scored 28 goals this season and, along with Urban, is joined by five others who made first-team all-conference in their respective leagues.
Among the area standouts include Bay Port midfielder Macie Brosteau, Green Bay Notre Dame midfielder-defender Charlee King and Green Bay Preble forward Olivia Wiernasz, who had a breakout junior year and ranked 13th in the state with 34 goals.
The bad news for Wisconsin United is that it won’t have King for the tournament after she sustained an ankle injury that required surgery during the spring season.
King wasn’t with the team when it advanced in the quarterfinals in Arizona but was with it during the semifinals in Texas. Her absence is a significant blow.
The club is bringing two guest players from the U16 team to help cover for injuries, selecting Bay Port defender Myla Nichols and De Pere forward-midfielder Adaiah Rezachek.
“It’s a huge loss,” Gebhard said about King. “That’s not a deep roster. It’s like an army of 300 style on that team. We really only have 14 girls that are rostered. Not having Charlee is a huge loss.”
The good news is the team should have Appleton East forward Marley Wreath, who missed much of the spring season with a collarbone injury but is expected to play in Orlando.
U15 team is on the rise
The spring season saw the emergence of several future stars on the U15 squad, which enters the national championship with a record of 22-6-2.
Nine of the players on the roster were freshmen in high school while the other seven recently completed eighth grade.
All nine of those freshmen made their high school varsity squads, including six who started.
The list includes Notre Dame forward Lillia Stachura, Bay Port defender Gabby Schmidt and midfielder Josie Sheedy, De Pere forward Delaney Widmer, West De Pere forward Jordyn Clarke, Oshkosh North midfielder Emaly Duran and the Kimberly trio of forward Vada Sousek and midfielders Ashlyn Krueger and Lindsey Owens.
But one of U15’s leading scorers along with Sousek hasn’t even arrived in high school.
Future Notre Dame forward Serene Adamski has six goals and three assists in the playoffs and was selected to Team Wisconsin and Midwest Regional ODP Pool Team for the fourth time this spring.
Another future Triton, goaltender Stella Boye, won the Keeper Wars Midwest Regional Tournament — an individual goalie tournament — this spring.
Boye qualified for the Keeper Wars National Championship, which takes place next month in Orlando during the same time her team is there.
“Players have improved themselves,” Gebhard said. “Each year we have added a new piece. Somebody else found their way to the club. Recently, (Kimberly midfielder) Ashlyn Krueger was a big addition last year. A player like that, when you have 16 solid players, you add one more, when you go on the road like that you need all those players to get through the heat and the travel.”
Both teams will face some of the best clubs and players in the nation, and both likely will be considered underdogs.
But the way Gehbard figures, why not win it all?
“We always expect to win, it doesn’t matter who we play,” he said. “I think that is the only attitude to have. Dick Bennett said play the Green Bay way, where it’s fear nobody, respect everybody.
“My hope is that people don’t see us coming and underestimate us. Those have been our biggest opportunities. … For now, at least, we are still able to wear the underdog moniker. We know that’s more fun to be in that position than having that target on your back.”
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay area girls soccer stars to play for Wisconsin United FC Premier at national championship
Reporting by Scott Venci, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
