The big news is that there will finally be an elite women's soccer team in the area that doesn't require me to drive to another county (or state) to see: They'll be playing at the Prince Georges Sports & Learning Complex (next to FedEx Field), including a pre-season exhibition match with FC Indiana, a perennial powerhouse among women's amateur teams. The preliminary roster already includes three familiar names from the 2007 W-League champion Washington Freedom: forward Anabel Jimenez, supersub midfielder Jill Porto, and Ali Andrzejewski, who was first on the team and second in the W-League in scoring that year. Additionally, there's a meet-and-greet this evening at the Greenbelt Sportsplex, which conveniently is within hiking distance of where I'm sitting right now.
I stopped by the evening's practice. Emily Janss was another familiar face there from the Freedom days, though she said she hadn't decided which team she was going to play on in 2012 - she captained the Chesapeake Charge last year but said the DCU Women were actually the most convenient commute-wise except that some of their practices are in northern Virginia. The coach also claimed he had a couple of college "ringers" lined up whom he thought were very promising. He's really trying to put together a team that will contend for the WPSL championship. The Capitols will be playing FC Indiana in Indiana in March and here in April. He's also trying to get an exhibition match or two with the DCU Women, but that's kind of unlikely since it requires the approval of both leagues.
I assume the Mid-Atlantic conference, any news of what teams are coming back going away? They were a 10 team conference last year, I wonder if there is a limit on how many teams can be in the conference, could they shift some of the more Northern teams to the Northeast division?
WPSL says they're also adding an Atlantic City team, which by default would be in the same division and would make 12 teams. But they could move the three New York teams to the Northeast Division, giving that division 10 teams and the Mid-Atlantic 9. Or they could carve out a NY/NJ division in the middle and have three 6-6-7 divisions. The Mid-Atlantic would contain the MD, PA, and southern NJ teams.
Just a note that the Headers for Hope soccer tournament takes place tomorrow at the Soccerplex and features two local club teams, a bunch of college teams, and what's left of the Philadelphia Independence: (Fields 4,5, and 7 are right next to each other, so you don't have to decide ahead of time which match you'd prefer to watch.) Per Beau Dure, this is the "SuperGroup" roster:
They've actually created a "Northeast Atlantic" Conference with three divisions, North, Mid, and South. The North Division contains five New England teams plus a Long Island team. The Mid Division contains four New York teams and a New Jersey team. The South Division contains three Pennsylvania teams, the Capitols, and a Virginia team.