USA Field Hockey has published its 2010-2011 Futures Elite list, identifying what it deems to be the best high school field hockey players in the nation, with the skill, talent and potential to successfully continue through the Junior High Performance Program. Local programs were well represented on the list with three players from Baltimore area schools, among the 200 selections.
The locals include Dana Allaband of Rising Sun, Christina Conrad of Fallston, Christine Galligan of Archbishop Spalding, Danielle King of C. Milton Wright and Alyssa Parker of Glenelg.
Allaband, who’s one of four alternates on the U.S. National U-19 team, had seven goals and eight assists last season for Rising Sun. Allaband recently committed to play field hockey for James Madison University next fall.
All participants receive coaching based on a nationwide curriculum developed by Terry Walsh, Technical Director for USA Field Hockey. The Futures Curriculum is a cutting edge technical program and first of it’s kind in the world for field hockey. The program is available to our Futures Coaches online and comes complete with ten futures sessions and video skill illustrations to compliment each skill, technique, tactic, and strategy. A video based program provides a consistent and systematic approach to training our Futures athletes.
The curriculum is designed to improve a participant’s fundamentals and tactics and to teach advanced skills being used by Olympic level hockey players.
Athletes in the Futures Program are divided into age-group categories: Under 19, Under 16, and Under 14. Ages are determined as of December 31.
Within the Futures Program, athletes are regionally split into two levels, Level I (regional best) and Level II (developmental). These levels are based on the athlete’s present skill level and /or the athlete’s potential for development as determined by the athlete’s performance based on the National Selection Criteria.
A third level, the Futures Elite, is a national select group of athletes identified from the National Futures Championship to participate in additional training opportunities. Within the Futures Elite level a top tier is identified as the Olympic Development Select.
