By Charles Cuttone || PhillySoccerNews.com
Allison Falk might best be remembered as the first player to score a goal in Women’s Professional Soccer. She did it in the league opener last season, playing for the Los Angeles Sol, but that was a year and a coast ago. Falk, a defender by trade, was traded to the Philadelphia Independence before the Sol folded.

“It’s definitely a transition,” said Falk on a cold windy day at the team’s United Sports Training Center practice facility. “Even just going from California to Pennsylvania, I am a California girl. But I have definitely loved it so far.”

A Stanford grad, Falk said the biggest adjustment has not been the weather, especially since the winter temperatures have started abating and the snow has melted.

“It’s just getting used to a whole new team and a whole new coaching staff and playing with different girls out there on the field,” she said.

Falk played in 16 of the Sol’s 20 games last season. The first goal in the team’s season-opening 2-0 win over the Washington Freedom, was her only point of the season. The team went wire to wire in first place, before falling in the championship game to Sky Blue FC.

“It definitely was disappointing, we couldn’t get to win the championship in the last game,” she said. “We had a great year. We only lost 3-4 games all year.”

Perhaps more disappointing for Falk was that the Sol folded after the season, although she had already been traded to the Independence, along with goalkeeper Val Henderson, in exchange for Philly’s first round pick (5th overall) and its third round pick (22nd overall) in the 2010 WPS Draft.

“You don’t want to see a team not succeed in the league,” she said. “We have other great strong teams, with good owners and strong backing. Hopefully they’ll come back.”

Falk thinks the Independence is starting to gel, especially after all the national team players arrived in camp last week. “I really think we are starting to feel each other out, and how everyone is playing and getting a sense of where we are. We had people coming in gradually, so we don’t really have quite the whole team feel yet. It’s going to be a challenge.”

At Stanford, the Pleasanton, Calif. native was honored the by Pac-10 Conference in each of her four seasons. She was named to the league All-Freshman team, then in succeeding seasons, was a second team, honorable mention and second team selection.

A four year letter-winner at San Ramon Valley High school, Falk was the California High School Sports North Coast Section Player of the Year in 2004 and led her school back-to-back league championships in 2003 and 2004, as well as the NCS finals in `04. She also won two letters in track. While she graduated from Stanford with a degree in American studies, her passions are outdoors, including wakeboarding and waterskiing.

While she’s at home on the soccer field getting photographed by sports photographers, you might also find her on the other side of a camera lens.

“I took three years of photography,” she said. “I studied abroad in Florence my junior year in college and I took black and white photography there. It was exciting to capture the cities and towns there.”

By Charles Cuttone, Executive Editor – Philly Soccer News
Heather Mitts is happy to be returning to Philadelphia. Although in a way she never left.

Mitts, who was signed by the Philadelphia Independence on Tuesday, is looking forward to playing in the city where she started her pro club career, with the Charge of the Women’s United Soccer Association in 2001.

Continue reading the full article on PhillySoccerNews.com.

On August 17^th, NBC’s the 10! Show will be showcasing the community outreach and youth programs of the Philadelphia Independence. The pro women’s team youth development program, will be hosting a training session at Chestnut Hill College for a small group of local youth players.  The production, including interviews by team officials and youth players, will air at 11AM.  The youth programs are at the center of the team’s community involvement and a key component of the broader outreach program.

Independence Director of Outreach Kelly Rowland is excited about the opportunity. “We are thrilled that NBC is recognizing our Community Outreach Program and the grass-roots efforts of our youth player and team development.  We pride ourselves on being a community-based organization, and we believe that outreach within our neighborhoods is a crucial component to the success of our professional soccer team.  The 10! Show will be documenting a few things about our development programs and team events, all underscoring the commitment to and involvement in the community.”

“We are trying to be positive role models for kids both on the field and off; there are a lot of life skills that kids learn from soccer” notes Assistant Coach and Olympic gold-medalist, Staci Wilson. “As a professional sports organization, we have an amazing opportunity to have a positive impact in our surrounding community. It’s our job to make a difference.”

Make sure to tune in to NBC’s the 10! Show on August 17^th at 11AM to catch the Independence in action.

AMITY — The Amity AC Soccer Club welcomed several faces of a new women’s professional soccer team from Philadelphia to their fields Friday night, announcing a partnership with the professional program that is expected to improve the quality of the club.

“This is a very important day for Amity soccer,” said David Braunsberg, the Amity Soccer commissioner. “This is all about improving what’s going on (at Amity AC Soccer Club).”

With the signing of a few papers, the club was officially considered an affiliate of the new women’s professional soccer team, the Philadelphia Independence. Being affiliated with the Independence means Amity AC Soccer Club will be recognized on the Independence’s Web site and receive discounts for Independence home game tickets, among other things.

Because Amity AC Soccer Club is one of the first five soccer clubs to become affiliated with the Independence, it will also have its own club theme night at an Independence game.

Representing the Independence and standing before the crowd of dozens of anxious children and their parents were Olympic gold medalist Staci Wilson, who has three NCAA Division I championships under her belt; former Florida State University All-American Kelly Rowland; and Independence Assistant Coach Wayne Grocott.

“Amity seems like a great club,” said Rowland, who is the director of community outreach for the Independence. “We’re excited to be here.”

“We’re very excited to be joining you guys and helping you grow,” Grocott said.

In addition to giving a face to the new professional program that will take the field in 2010, Wilson, Rowland and Grocott also gave the children, each wearing soccer training gear, a taste of what they can expect having partnered with the Independence and its integrated youth development program, Team Dynamics.

Through Team Dynamics, club teams that partner with the Independence will receive high-caliber training from professionals. Braunsberg said the training will help further the quality of soccer Amity AC Soccer Club is playing.

He said that Amity AC Soccer Club will be bringing all premier level soccer to more age groups in the future.

“It’s an awesome step for the club,” Braunsberg said of the partnership with the Independence.

Abby Chirinos, 11, of Collegeville, who plays for a U-12 Amity AC club team, and Jessica Lineman, 13, of Douglassville, who plays soccer for Daniel Boone Middle School, were among the many children waiting to get their soccer balls or T-shirts autographed by Wilson, Rowland and Grocott.

“Soccer’s cool,” Lineman said. She said the training she saw Friday was more intense than some of the practices she has participated in.

Chirinos said that in addition to knowing that there were going to be “famous people” at the event Friday, she wanted to come because she’s interested in soccer. “My dream is to be a model or a professional soccer player,” she said.

Both girls said they want to be able to play soccer in high school.

Grocott said soccer is a great sport for children to participate in because it’s such an active sport and “you get a lot of fit out of it.” Plus, children learn lessons about working hard and working well in a team atmosphere.

“All my life skills come from soccer,” Grocott said.

He said working with young children ages 3 and 4 can be challenging, but “you see the smile on the kids’ faces and we want that smile.”

Wilson, who will also be acting as an assistant coach, explained that coming out to represent the Independence was simply “giving back to the community.”

She noted that “it’s not just about the wins we have on the field, it’s about the connection” with the fans and the soccer community, including programs that foster youth soccer.

Tammy Bartle, of Douglassville, was out with her daughter, Samantha, 8, who plays for a U-9 Amity AC team.

“I got my ball signed,” beamed Samantha, who said she loves the position of goalkeeper.

Tammy Bartle said learning of the partnership between the club and the Independence was exciting.

“It provides a really great opportunity because she’ll be associated with this (Independence) program,” Tammy Bartle said.

She also expressed that even for those children and their parents who weren’t deep into soccer, the experience to meet Wilson, the gold medalist, in particular was also unique.

Rowland said the relationship between the Independence and the club teams it affiliates itself with will be mutually beneficial. The clubs will have the opportunity to see premier women’s soccer, perhaps meet some of the amazing players, and do something really fun with their teammates, and the Independence will hopefully get a “groundswell of support” from the club teams when they come out to games and cheer the team on, Rowland said.

She said the Independence is “excited to bring soccer back to Philadelphia,” and wants soccer fans to be just as excited to welcome them.

For more information on Amity AC Soccer Club, visit http://tcteams.com/amity/

Click the Play button to listen to the interview

Women’s professional soccer will return to the area about a year from now, and the people behind it hope they have learned the lessons from the last time.

The Philadelphia Charge women’s team lasted three seasons and folded in 2003 along with the league. David Halstead, president and CEO of the 2010 entry into a new league, looked long and hard at the old one:

“I would say that there was not a tested business model that brought the kids to the field and brought some of the teams into the cities. I think there was a tremendous amount of lessons learned.”

Coach Matt Driver says planning for this franchise stretches back years with nurturing of youth teams and then minor leagues to develop a feeder system for talent and prime the pump of interest. Still, it won’t be all local talent:

“We’re hoping to bring some international level here, you know, world class players.”

The name of the team, to play in Chester, will be revealed with a splash next month.

Article posted with permission from KYW 1060. The original article can be found here: kyw1060.com

Matt Driver is well-acquainted with women’s soccer.

The former professional soccer player and Major League Soccer coach from Scotland left the sport a few years back to take a marketing job with the Tropicana Casino & Resort in Atlantic City.

But he didn’t stay away from the sport for long.

Driver, 48, returned to soccer two years ago, reinvigorated and with a plan to help build women’s soccer. He launched Team Dynamics, based in Egg Harbor City, Atlantic County, which owns and operates three area teams in the Women’s Premier Soccer League — an independent national league founded in 1998 to develop highly competitive amateur women’s soccer teams.

In May, he added a new line to his résumé: managing partner of the new Philadelphia professional woman’s soccer team set to begin play in the Women’s Professional Soccer league in 2010. WPS, which makes its debut next year, officially approved the addition of the Philadelphia team last week.

When word started spreading about the WPS, Driver envisioned Team Dynamics as the perfect partner — a sort of farm system that could supply players — for a franchise in this region.

Driver, through his playing and coaching career, knew several of the people involved with launching the WPS. “I spoke to those chaps and said, ‘There has to be a group of people in the Philadelphia area who want to get involved with this,’” he recalled.

Philadelphia had a professional women’s soccer team, the Charge, in the short-live Women’s United Soccer Association. The WUSA folded after three years in 2003, unable to attract sufficient support from corporate sponsors.

Driver learned the WPS founders had received a few calls from people in the area, but no solid commitments. They suggested Driver take a leadership role.

“I told them I didn’t have that kind of money,” he said. However, after talking with some potential investors, he decided to take the plunge.

The league is looking for its ownership group to have financial liquidity in the $7 million to $10 million range.

The first investor he lined up was a personal friend, David Hershey, a North Jersey-based entrepreneur whose family’s holdings include an ownership stake in the New Jersey/New York Boat Show.

Hershey, who once played semiprofessional football, decided to invest in the Philadelphia team because it provided an opportunity to combine his business background with his love of sports. He will be part of the front office for the as-yet-unnamed team.

“I looked at the numbers and the way everything is being put together and it looked like a great opportunity,” he said.

Driver said additional potential investors have ranged from hedge fund managers to farm owners.

“Most of the people I’ve talked with are from New Jersey where I know more people,” he said. “We want to get more people from Philadelphia involved.”

Driver is in the process of finalizing an agreement in principle to have the women’s team play in the 18,500-seat soccer stadium being built in Chester for the expansion Major League Soccer team set to begin play in 2010.

He has already developed an operating budget of $2.5 million to $3 million a year, which is based on what he believes is a conservative estimate of 5,500 fans a game.