Women's College Soccer in the Area

Women's College Soccer in the Area

On November 8th and 10th, the ACC Women's Soccer Championship will be in Cary. WakeMed Soccer Park will be the site of this year's tournament, which is sure to feature some of the best women's soccer in the nation, and many of our former CASL players! Be sure to SAVE THE DATE for this year's tournament - we'll be posting more information about tickets soon!

CASL families are lucky to be surrounded by some of the best college soccer in the nation. (I'll write about the men's side in another post, but for today, the women are the main focus) The ACC represents 10 of the top 50 women's soccer teams in the nation according to the NCAA Women's Soccer RPI rankings. The NSCAA Coaches' rankings has 6 ACC teams in the top 25. The local triangle teams, NC State, Duke, and UNC are all among this top 50 ranking, and we are fortunate to have these teams in our backyard. Before all these teams battle for the ACC Championship in November, they will be fighting for seeding with each regular season conference game they play. There are a few games I want to highlight for various reasons, so if you are looking for some great soccer in a family friendly environment, I encourage you to take advantage of these opportunities:

Thursday, September 26, 7pm ~ Duke vs. #1 Virginia

The Duke Blue Devils will host #1 nationally ranked Virginia Cavaliers on Thursday night at Koskinen Stadium on the Duke Campus. Come watch the Blue Devils and former CASL player, Christina Gibbons, take on her former '94 CASL ECNL teammate, Alexis Shaffer and the Cavaliers.

Children under the age of 12 receive FREE admission and groups of 8 or more receive a $4.00 discount. Regular admission is $8/adult. For more information, call 919-681-BLUE. For a full schedule, click HERE. 

Sunday, September 29, 1pm ~ NC State vs. Boston College

On Sunday, it's US Youth Soccer Night at the NC State Women's Soccer game. For this special game, parents receive FREE admission with their youth soccer player. NC State and Boston College are both ranked in the top 50 NCAA Women's Soccer RPI poll and are battling for position in the ACC. Seven former CASL players are on the roster for the WolfPack this season. For a full schedule of NC State's schedule, click HERE. 

Thursday, October 10th, 7pm ~ UNC vs. NC State

The WolfPack will be travelling down tobacco road for an in-state, conference match-up with the Tar Heels on Thursday, October 10. For this game, CASL players, coaches, and families are invited to celebrate CASL Night at Fetzer Field with a special ticket rate of $2! Similar to the NCSU roster, the UNC roster is dominated by many CASL players including Sophomore Caroline Lindquist and freshmen Joanna Boyles among many others! You might see CASL player-to-player match ups this night! For a full list of the TarHeels' schedule, click HERE! Be sure to mention you are with CASL when you purchase tickets to this game.

Powerade and Daly Seven Hotels Fields OPEN

New Turf Fields are OPEN!

After a summer of construction and anticipation, the new turf fields - PowerAde Field (#1) and Daly Seven Hotels Field (#2) are open for business. Back in August, we had a Ribbon Cutting ceremony to celebrate the progress of the field upgrades at WRAL Soccer Park. Raleigh Mayor, Nancy McFarlane, City Councilmember John Odom, and our very own Charlie Slagle were among the speakers at the ceremony. They all spoke about the joint venture of these multi-purpose, million dollar field upgrades and how the fields will also benefit our community at the economic level by making WRAL Soccer Park a destination for sporting events (e.g., lacrosse, ultimate frisbee, etc.). 

These fields bring CASL's total synthetic field number to five. These fields can handle the wear and tear of high use sports traffic and can withstand the elements of rain. Therefore, the grass fields will continue to be improved and receive needed attention and rest after weekends of game use. Since the field signs were originally torn down for construction, we are working on putting up a temporary solution while new field signs are being designed. In the mean time, please review the field map. 

PowerAde and Daly Seven Hotels Fields

This weekend, the fields saw their first game action on Friday night (pictured) and for an ECNL event that was held on the fields over the weekend. When your team is playing on these fields, take a minute to think about the investment, care, and quality that the City of Raleigh and CASL put into this project. CASL is continuously finding ways to improve the experience at WRAL Soccer Park - these field upgrades are just one example. 

CASL Park Rangers

One other way CASL is planning to improve your experience at WRAL Soccer Park is through our newly appointed CASL Park Rangers. The primary focus of these staff members are the safety and cleanliness of the park. We'll introduce you to this team in another post, but for now, know that there are people out there who care deeply about the presentation of the park and you and your children's safety. If you see someone in a green CASL shirt, this is a Park Ranger. If you ever see anything that deserves the Park Rangers' attention, please feel free to stop them at the park or email them at parkrangers@caslnc.com. You are additional eyes and ears at the park, and you can help us improve our services to all those who come through WRAL Soccer Park by informing our Park Rangers. WRAL Soccer Park is CASL's home, and we want to treat it that way. We all should take pride in our home facility, as we are one of very few youth soccer clubs that has a facility to call home. 

From Labor Day Tournament Champions to National Team Championships

Taylor Otto Called Back to U17 Women's National Team Camp

Taylor Otto ('96 CASL ECNL) is one of 26 players called up for the second-to-last U17 Women's National Team training camp before the CONCACAF Women's World Cup Qualifying Tournament. She is in Florida with the rest of the National Team preparing for the October 30- Nov. 9 Championships. The camp started on September 15 and will run through September 22.

Taylor Otto

The U17 Women's National Team is the defending champion of the competition, having defeated Canada 1-0 in the final in Guatemala during the last cycle. This year's tournament will feature the USA, Canada, Mexcio, host Jamaica, Central American qualifiers El Salvador and Guatemala, and two more Carribean nations to be determined. 

Taylor will be participating in an inner-squad scrimmage tomorrow night (September 20) as she continues to fight for a final roster slot on the tournament team.

CASL Representing in Tournaments Early in Season

Many CASL teams have already hit the tournament scene early on this season, and they are already leaving their mark. The U12 Nitro Boys participated in the DSC Rock Hill Classic last weekend and they came away with the championship. Head Coach Chris Dunn said "the team performed very well...the boys worked very hard to accomplish this...the greatest accomplishment of the boys was not giving up one goal during the tournament. This is a difficult task. The boys put 100% of their effort and functioned well as a team." 

Nitro Boys run across field to thank their parents

We are always happy to hear of teams who know what it means to work together as a team. CASL promotes teamwork among other positive traits, and we are fortunate to have dedicated volunteer coaches at the Recreation and Challenge level, like Chris Dunn, who are willing to promote positive youth sport participation and teach life lessons beyond what happens between the sidelines. Show your support for promoting positive youth soccer experiences by taking the Liberty Mutual Responsible Sports quiz and crediting your quiz point to CASL. Your participation can help CASL earn a $2500 community grant. The quiz is really easy (I've taken it!), and every vote counts. Don't forget to credit your quiz point to the Capital Area Soccer League and to verify your email address.

Nitro Boys with Gold Medal

Nitro player, Riley Shields

The weekend before, the U11 Elite Black North girls won 1st place in the Adidas Labor Day Shootout. The girls competed in the Platinum division for 4 games and finished with 17 goals. 

U11 Elite Black North

We're #1!

Vote and Volunteer for CASL!

I've only been employed with CASL since early June, buy since then I've seen and heard a lot that has made me proud to be a part of this organization. Whether it's club accomplishments from being a top 10 ECNL Club, team accomplishments for early-season tournament championships, stories of good sportsmanship (note: the Hamilton Sportsmanship Award night is THIS SATURDAY at the RailHawks Game!), or individual achievements - It's always nice to hear the stories that demonstrate what it means to be a part of the CASL family. 

Today was another one of those instances. I logged on to see where we stood in the Liberty Mutual Responsible Sports Community Grant national competition. Yesterday, we were in 4th place with 17 votes. Today, we are at 71 credited votes as of 2:30pm, and we jumped up to 1st place in the large division! It's amazing to see the quick rally of the CASL family jump on an opportunity to help our entire organization. The top 5 organizations with the most votes at the end of November each win $2500. CASL is starting off on the right foot taking an early lead, but voting stays open for another 2.5 months so we have a ways to go! 

I encourage you all to Take the Quiz today, whether you are a coach, parent, or future parent. I took the quiz and I don't have kids, but it was a great reminder  about promoting responsible and positive youth sport experiences. Also, please share the link with friends and family. We can take it viral! I've just posted it to my personal Facebook page, and I hope that you all will reach out to your social networks. CLICK HERE to take the quiz. You may have to search for Capital Area Soccer League at the end of your quiz (which is really easy, by the way, and fail-proof). For the point to count for CASL, you'll have to verify your email address.

CASL has jumped up to #1 in the large division for the Community Grants. Quiz/Voting remains open through November - Take the Quiz Today!

Volunteer Sign-Up Sheet

CASL has launched a public sign up sheet for volunteer organization. If you are interesting in helping out with CASL's community outreach program, please visit our sign-up sheet to see available slots, time frames, locations, etc. We've had a few teams sign up as a group for Saturday morning time slots. This is a great way to earn community service hours or just give back to the game that we are all so fortunate to be a part of.

Help CASL win a $2500 Community Grant!

CASL Needs Your Help to win a $2500 Community Grant!

From now until November 30, YOU can help CASL win a $2500 Responsible Sports Community Grant from Liberty Mutual Insurance. This program is all about rewarding sport clubs who demonstrate a commitment to a Responsible Sports environment. This is a competition grant and is all about engaging YOU as a parent and/or coach. 

All you have to do is

1. CLICK HERE (for parents) or HERE (for coaches)
2. Read through some tips on how to maintain a responsible sports environment as a parent or coach
3. Take a short 10 question multiple choice quiz (I took it - it's really easy. It only takes one attempt and you get to change your answers until they are right)
4. Credit your quiz to Capital Area Soccer League - you may have to search for us!
5. Verify your email - this is key as we won't get the point until you verify your email address.

If you are a Parent AND a Coach - just pick one! You should then get an email that allows you to send it out to friends and family. It's simple - the club with the most votes wins. The only key rules are you have to be 18 years or older and only one submission per person/email address. These grant funds will allow CASL to serve you better and to help us fulfill our mission. 

I don't know if any of you have noticed, but CASL's mission statement recently changed. It now reads, The mission of CASL is to provide positive and high-quality instructional and competitive youth soccer opportunities at all levels of play that enhance character, community and the love of the game for a diverse membership of children ages 4-18 and their families across Wake County and to serve as a community partner to improving the quality of life in Wake County. 

A mission statement is the purpose of a company and outlines an organization's values. It is a reason for existence. Without it, CASL would not have a clear direction. The purposeful mission realignment of CASL is a way to get all of us on the same page. There are roughly 9,000 youth players in our club who we need to take care of across all divisions and ages of play. Additionally, parents and coaches deserve our attention as they are instrumental in allowing CASL to work toward achieving its mission. They help us fulfill our mission because they are on the front lines (or sidelines) of our players' experiences and are the foundation for a positive club experience and the associated positive youth development traits that we hope our players will take with them throughout their lives. 

Two U14  CASL teams (CASL WF United and CASL Pride) faced off against each
other in the Furniture City Classic Finals - players, parents, and coaches
supported a Responsible Sports environment by engaging in and supporting a
pre-game handshake between teams!

Parents and coaches are an extension of the CASL brand as we all represent this club on a day-to-day basis in conversation, carpool lines, on business trips, or travelling for soccer games on the weekend. Parents and Coaches are often the first sources of feedback and conversation with our players, whether it's at the pre-game breakfast meal at home, on the car ride to the game, during warm-up or half-time, a post-game chat, cheering from the sidelines, or the car ride home. These are just a few instances where parents and coaches play a pivotal role in the experience of young athletes.

It's still the beginning of the season, and this is a great time for a simple reminders about the small things we can do to promote a positive environment at CASL. Please join us as we compete for this nationwide competitive grant - we are competing for 1 of 5 $2500 grants for large sport clubs!