US Soccer U-20 Women’s Coach to Present at Summer Coaching Symposium

In yet another in the impressive list of lecturers and clinicians at NorCal Premier Soccer’s June 29 – July 2 Summer Coaching Symposium, United States Women’s U-20 head coach Jitka Klimkova is scheduled to lead both 90-minute field and classroom sessions for those looking to learn from the best.

Klimkova’s field session will focus on possession to penetrate, while her classroom lecture will go over the youth women’s national team’s style of play.

“I want to introduce the USA way, the style of play with our women’s youth national teams and give the coaches the opportunity to ask questions about our program,” Klimkova said. I would like to show the coaches the type of training sessions we are running that put a lot of emphasis on the player’s decision making and share our terminology so we can be more connected.”

Klimkova comes to the Symposium with an impressive resume that includes taking over the U-20 program this year after previous stints as the US U-19 coach, the New Zealand U-17 coach, and as the head of Australia’s Canberra United.

The former Czech Republic international defender had a lengthy playing career in her native country before taking up coaching and management in 2004 with Czech side Slovacko, before moving on to coach the Czech Republic’s U-19 Women’s National Team in 2009.

US Soccer hired Klimkova in 2015 after she led New Zealand to a quarterfinal finish at the 2014 Women’s U-17 World Cup in Canada. With New Zealand, she also served as an assistant to both the U-20 and full national teams.

This April, she was promoted to head the U-20 US program, which along with the U-17’s, is considered the most important age group for youth national teams because of the corresponding World Cups that take place every two years.

“In hiring (U-17 coach Mark Carr) and Jitka as our U-17 and U-20 coaches respectively, we’re putting two of our best and most experienced coaches in front of our best players,” US Women’s Youth National Team Director April Heinrichs said in a statement released by US Soccer in April. “They have age-appropriate head coaching experience on the international level, are familiar with our player pools, methods of coaching, style of play, and philosophy.”

For more information or to sign up for the Symposium, click here.