Ela Elite Soccer Team Has A Ball With British

In a recent visit to the United States, the Portsmouth University women’s soccer team from England visited Cary as part of its pre-season tour. The team, which is touring with the university’s men’s squad, spent two weeks earlier this month training and playing with local teams. One of the contests they played was against Lake Zurich’s Ela Elite U23 women’s team, recent winners of the State Cup.

“It’s always fun to have the opportunity to play against teams from overseas,” said Richard Drake, the Ela Elite Women’s head coach, “While we are fortunate to have many quality teams to play in the Chicagoland area, the experience of playing a team from another country is hard to match.”

Comprised mostly of college players who are home during summer break, the Ela Elite women’s team seeks out a high-quality environment and high level of training and competition while on vacation from college. “That way, they are well-prepared for their college seasons when they begin in the fall,” said Drake.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association sponsors women’s soccer in Divisions I, II and III, and the college season is during the fall after school resumes, much like football. Because NCAA rules stipulate that soccer players cannot train with their college teams prior to the official start of the pre-season in mid-August, it is extremely important for the players to have a place to train and play during the summer before returning to school.

Drake explained that there are Chicago-area players from an assortment of colleges, some affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics rather than the NCAA.

“This gives our team a different flavor, allowing all these different players to learn from and play with each other over the summer,” Drake continued. “Whether they are currently in college and on a team, or heading to college this fall as incoming freshmen, preparing to play, they are all working toward personal goals of high level achievement. This helps to ensure that our team will be able to play at a good level since everyone is looking to improve and make an impact on their college teams when they go back.”

The Ela Elite U23 team has players from 20 different colleges, including in-state schools like DePaul, Eastern Illinois, University of Illinois, Illinois Wesleyan, Lewis University, Loyola University and Olivet Nazarene. There are also players from out-of-state colleges like Carthage, University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Miami Ohio, University of Virginia, Washington University in St Louis and Rhodes College.

The Ela Elite U23 women's team and the Portsmouth University team quickly became a mutual admiration society — the Ela players were especially enamored of their British counterpart’s accents — and the two squads played a competitive contest during the visit.

Leading 1-0 at halftime courtesy of a goal by Lake Zurich native Kate Arends, Ela Elite maintained patience and ball possession into the second half, and it paid off when University of Virginia sophomore and Northfield native Amber Fry knocked in a second goal for her team.

Ela Elite put away the game with about five minutes remaining when Evanston native Kate Doyle, a student at Washington University in St. Louis, slammed in a free kick from 20 yards out for a formidable 3-0 lead, which was in fact the final score.

Ela Elite will be entering the final week of its summer program. At the end of July, the players will commence migration back to their respective college campuses to begin preseason training.

“The players get a good two months of training and games,” said Drake. “Then, it’s time to take a little rest, maybe a week or so, before they begin their preseasons. It’s important for the players to be well-prepared, but equally important not to be burned out. That’s why it will be good for them to get a little rest as August hits.”

To date, Ela Elite has a record of 7-3-1, which includes its Illinois U23 League games, a tournament held by Strikers FV in St. Charles, the State Cup Championship and the game against Portsmouth University.