Katie Cousins (pictured right with teammate Indigo Gibson) recently returned from an intense seven-day training camp with the U.S. U18 Women’s National Team at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA. A true U-16 player, who currently plays an age group up with the Kickers U-17 Girls Elite, Cousins was one of 24 players called up by U.S. Soccer Women’s Technical Director April Heinrichs.
With programming designed to introduce the athletes to the National Team environment and to prepare them for world-class competition, last week’s training camp hosted the U18 players that will likely form the core of the pool that will train in preparation for qualifying for the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
The camp concluded with a scrimmage against the San Diego SeaLions Saturday afternoon, which saw the U18s drop a narrow 2-1 loss to the WPSL side, who boast several top regional college players.
Cousins caught the eye of the U.S. technical staff, having previously attended several U.S. Girls National Team camps at the U-15 level last year. The high school sophomore plays basketball and soccer at Jefferson Forest High School in Lynchburg, Virginia and recently verbally committed to attend the University of Tennessee upon graduation.
