Trib Local: Eclipse Select soccer enjoys successful September

Jeff Vorva/Tribune photo

By Jeff Vorva
Tribune reporter

The Eclipse Select Soccer Club’s five elite girls teams combined for a 23-3-3 record through September, including an 8-1-1 mark in Kansas last weekend.

The organization is based in Oak Brook and uses several practice sites throughout the Chicago suburbs. Players who make the elite squads come from various locations, including Indiana, Wisconsin and Champaign.

“We have totally committed kids,” Eclipse President and coach Rory Dames said. “Besides family and school, this is their top priority. They want to play and hopefully use soccer as a vehicle to get into a good school or financially offset college costs. They are willing to put the time and energy to work here trying to fulfill those dreams.”

Read more at TribLocal.com.

Trib Local: Naperville soccer star ready for return home with Red Stars

Photo by Tribune's Jeff Vorva

By Jeff Vorva
Tribune reporter

It wasn’t always easy for friends and family to come watch Naperville’s Michele Weissenhofer play soccer during her last stint.

The Neuqua Valley High School and Notre Dame University graduate played in Germany from last June through March. She said her older sister, Kristen, and a friend from Notre Dame, basketball player Melissa Lechlitner, were the only two people she knew who came to watch her play. Lechnitner happened to be playing basketball nearby.

But that’s about to change. The 23-year-old hooked up with the Chicago Red Stars and will not only see some friends and family in the stands but will have some friends on the field as well.

“This is going to be fun,” she said. “I will get to play with some of my Notre Dame teammates and I’ve known a lot of these girls for many years.”

Read more at TribLocal.com.

Trib Local: DiBernardos enjoy soccer success

Photo by Tribune's Jeff Vorva

By Jeff Vorva
Tribune reporter

From 1979-84, Angelo DiBernardo played professional soccer with the New York Cosmos. He had a chance to rub elbows and practice with retired legend Pele and live the celebrity life for a while.

“We were on top of the world,” DiBernardo said.

The Naperville resident’s daughter, Vanessa, is not quite on top of the soccer world yet. But she could be on her way.

Vanessa closed out a successful first soccer season at the University of Illinois in the fall and was named Big Ten Conference Freshman of the Year.

She will spend most of her summer back in the area as she signed to play with the Chicago Red Stars, a former professional franchise that will play the 2011 campaign in the high-powered amateur division of the Women’s Premier Soccer League and will play home games at Benedictine in Lisle. The 19-year-old will be one of the younger players in the league but she doesn’t mind.

“There are a lot of girls who have been playing at the college level and I can learn from them,” she said. “I think it’s going to make me become a better player.”

Read more at TribLocal.com.