USL Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC

Riverhounds Announce Elite College Showcase for Top NCAA Prospects

May 1, 2014 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC News Release


The Pittsburgh Riverhounds, in collaboration with Century United of Pittsburgh, on Friday announced the creation of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds Elite College Showcase, which Club officials have called a 'couture player platform'.

A three-day event over the May 30 - June 1 weekend, the Showcase will see multiple ages from the cooperative Riverhounds Development Academy and Century United system match up against some of North America's top boys and girls youth soccer clubs. The list of clubs heading into Pittsburgh to play on Highmark Stadium and Duquesne University fields includes Internationals SC ECNL out of Ohio, Ajax Football Club and Woodbridge Strikers out of Canada, DC United affiliate program NVSC from Prince William County, and the famed DC United Academy. The clubs were hand-picked by the Riverhounds and personally invited in to participate in what the Club expects to be an extremely valuable annual event.

According to Jason Kutney, the combination of participating teams and the grade of college coaches heading into Pittsburgh for the event will quickly qualify this as one of the most impactful soccer opportunities offered in Western Pennsylvania.

"This is designed to be a platform upon which the best schools can view some of the best talent we have to offer," said Kutney. "The top collegiate coaches want to see the best players perform right in front of them, within the best facilities, in an environment that gets the best out of each and every participant."

Kutney hopes the Riverhounds Showcase event will alleviate some of the concerns normally associated with large-scale college showcases around the country, in which college coaches try to divide their time and recruiting focus amongst many fields over the course of long days.

"There are hundreds of hours of work going into the development of this event, based solely on one goal - maximum, concentrated exposure for our players to the top collegiate programs in the nation. That never left our minds as we worked to finalize the program."

The showcase will feature a Saturday evening matchup between the Century United Under-17 boys and DC United Academy. DC United enters the event as one of the best youth soccer teams in North America, with a roster that includes Pittsburgh-native, Brennan Ireland. Ireland, who spent years within the Riverhounds and Century United systems, transitioned to the MLS Academy team last fall, an effort that was openly supported by both Riverhounds and Century.

"It will be exciting to see Brennan back in Pittsburgh competing against his former teammates of a year ago," said Mike Blatz, Director of Coaching for Century United of Pittsburgh boys. "He, as well as all the others involved in the game, have made tremendous sacrifices in becoming elite players."

Since the inception of the partnership between the Riverhounds and Century United, Club officers have been discussing the creation of an event that would showcase their joint efforts in developing players to perform amongst the very best. With their combined groups demonstrating consistent successes at regional and national tournaments over the past two years, attention from college coaches became inevitable. The Showcase aims to not only capitalize on this attention, but also convince the collegiate programs that Pittsburgh is now a very legitimate hub for recruitment.

According to Larry Guess, President of Century United, this new program is a step in the right direction for soccer families.

"Allowing our players to showcase their talents in front of top college coaches at one the premier soccer venues in the US is a welcomed change to the old development model. By bringing some of the best clubs into Pittsburgh to host this event makes a big difference to our families who traditionally are burdened with paying thousands of dollars in travel fees to attend showcases," said Guess.

All Showcase matches are open to the public at no charge. An official match schedule will be released at www.riverhounds.com in the coming days.

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