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Youth Soccer Player Chasing Dream

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By Eric Horchy | The Suncoast News

Published: November 17, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - For most youth soccer players, representing their country in Olympic or World Cup competition is the ultimate dream.

Watching inspirational achievements of U.S. international soccer stars such as Mia Hamm and Freddy Adu, can be an inspiration.

Success like that does not come overnight though, and it is the effort put in during the early years that let the top level athletes reach higher than the rest.

That is where New Port Richey's Danielle Gottwik finds herself.

The newly turned-12-year-old Seven Springs Middle School sixth-grader recently took another stride in her young soccer career by being named to enter the Olympic Development Program last month following tryouts in Naples.

The ODP is set up in states all across America with the intention of identifying young talent with upper level skills. These boys and girls are grouped by age and are put into specialized training that could eventually lead to representing state or national teams.

The program is split into four regions in Florida – A through D – with Region C encompassing the west-central Florida area.

For Danielle, who plays forward-midfield with the East Lake Arsenal Soccer Club's girl's under-12 team, this was her first ever crack at trying out for the program.

In a testament to the talent found locally in girls youth soccer, she was actually one of five players on her East Lake squad to be selected. There were only 28 picked from the entire region according to the Florida Youth Soccer Association.

"It's a pretty big deal to be selected to these teams," said David Gottwik, Danielle's father. He also mentioned the atypical nature of five girls from one team being chosen. "Right now it says you're one of the elite players in your age group."

Being part of the youngest level in ODP, there is not an actual state team. Danielle's and the other 27 girls involvement consists of having local training sessions held within the area.
If she performs well in these drills and practices though, the possibility remains that she could be selected to move up and play with the next age group.

Playing since around age five, when she began in the Holiday Recreation League, Danielle's father said it was her overall athleticism that proved she was a natural at the game.

Being taller for her age and typically one of the fastest girls on any team, Danielle progressed through leagues as the best player on her team for years, the elder Gottwik said.

Though the talent has begun to catch up and get better around her while she grows, Danielle obviously has remained in the upper echelon of athletes around the state.

While at only 12 years of age, her father said Danielle has already made mention of a couple future soccer goals.

These involve playing for the U.S. National Team as well as participating at the collegiate level as a Florida Gator – perhaps following in the footsteps of former Gator and current national team star forward Abby Wambach.

Right now, at such a young age, these are the dreams; difficult, but attainable.

Danielle is continuing to display she has what it takes to be one of the best at her level and if she persists at this pace, those dreams could rapidly become reality.

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