Women's soccer in Chicagoland.

To me the addition of Red Stars to the soccer landscape of Chicagoland, is like the star on top of the Christmas tree. The area is great for women's soccer at so many levels. At the youth level there is Eclipse club. They are one of the top two youth clubs for girls in the country, not just the state or the region. At the college level there are some very good programs at various levels. At the D1 level there is Northwestern which is always one of the top Big Ten schools and consistent NCAA playoffs participants. In addition you have improving programs at De Paul and Loyola. Also, I'm not really sure why UIC does not have a women's program. At the D3 level there is Wheaton College which is one of the top programs in the country. They have won several national titles and had a undefeated season two years ago. In addition you have good programs at Univ of Chicago. At the NAIA level there are several teams in the area that have been ranked in the 25 in the country over the last few year. These are Trinity Christian College (went to the national semi finals in 08), St. Xavier, Robert Morris College and Trinity International College. So you can see that this area has a number of programs that excel at the national level.

I think having this base of good women's soccer in the area does two things for the Red Stars. It provides a good potential fan base for the team. In addition it provides a possible source of quality players. Hopefully the women's soccer community will support the Red Stars in their first season.

This is my first effort at Blogging and will try and write more going forward.