Two juniors at Ida Baker High School, both members of the girls’ soccer team, have been selected to the pool of players for the U.S. Soccer U17 National Team.

Payton Van Horn and Brittney Herrera were invited to attend a tryout in the Miami area last October. They were notified in January that they had been selected. Based on performance at the tryout, U.S. Soccer officials chose players to fill out the pool for once-a-month training sessions and practices in the Miami area for national games later in the summer.

Both attended a training session last week and were told another pool selection level would be announced in two to three weeks.

“It’s pretty cool,” said Van Horn. “It’s like the ODP (Olympic Development Program) only a higher level.”

Herrera said she is very excited about it, especially the enhanced training part of the program. Their selection adds to their soccer resume for college recruitment. Just being named to the player pool for a national team at this level is a privilege whether the girls are named to the final squad or not.

“This does make me want to work harder toward getting the best (college) offers that I can,” said Van Horn.

Joining Van Horn (midfield/forward) and Herrera (midfield/defense) on the national team pool are three of their teammates on the Lee County Strikers U17 competitive team – Cydney Niedermeyer (defense/midfield) of Riverdale, Paige Law (midfield/forward) of Canterbury, and Amanda Ivankovic (midfield) of Charlotte.