Since its inception more than 20 years ago, NorCal Premier Soccer has always promoted development as one of its core values. To support this pillar it started the Player Development Program (PDP), a free-of-cost, recommendation-only platform in which the best players throughout the state would receive extra training and play more matches against similarly skilled players.

The PDP process is quite simple. Players ages U12-U14 are nominated by their clubs to participate in regionalized trainings, once per month. After the fall training program, a selection of the top 22 players from each region U13s and U14s, play games against teams from other regions at the PDP playdate.

From the Regional Training Centers, selected U15-16-17 players move up to the state training center (PDP State Pool) where regional pools are combined into three state training centers on the boys side and two for the girls. After a fall training program, the state pool breaks for high school before returning to one centralized training center for the final three months. Finally, around June of each year a state selection is chosen.

And while the extra training has proven important and has helped several future professional players improve, NorCal had always wanted to reward its top players with a life-changing experience.

So 10 years ago, NorCal launched the first of what would become annual summer trips in which at least the top 18 players from the oldest age group of the entire State Pool would travel internationally to take on the youth teams of professional and amateur clubs abroad while experiencing the world’s game in another culture.

“We’ve found over time that these trips draw players to the program and keep them interested because there’s a chance for them to participate, they strive to earn this opportunity,” said NorCal President and PDP Director Benjamin Ziemer. “If we just have them train, ideally they’d be motivated just by experiencing high level training and playing against top players, but we found this extra carrot helps them.”

“For the top players who get to go, it’s unbelievably valuable,” Ziemer added. “Here we play soccer. There they go to experience world football. In addition to playing, they get to be fans and go watch games. The exposure to different cultures, different countries, different teams, players from different continents, it all brings value.”

For the first decade of PDP, NorCal took the State Pool to tournaments in places like Las Vegas or San Diego.

“That was a good step but these kids are already traveling the country,” Ziemer said. “If you think about it, for what someone spends to go to an ECNL or NPL or MLS Next showcase, except for in Northern California, they almost could go to Europe for 10 days for the same price.”

Which is why NorCal changed the scope of its planning in 2015 when the PDP boys traveled to Mexico to compete against the academies of several top Liga MX sides.

One year later, the girls were given the opportunity to travel to Japan for a similar trip, playing games against youth players from the country the US had just met in the Women’s World Cup final two times running.

From here, the summer trips became a yearly operation, with the NorCal PDP girls making their first appearance in Sweden’s Gothia Cup in 2017. And in Sweden, the girls have made something of a name for themselves, even earning local fans who follow the team each year.

With a squad that would include future professionals such as Angelina Anderson and Maya Doms, NorCal PDP captured the Gothia Cup’s Puma Division title, an invite-only bracket that regularly includes some of the top women’s clubs in the world such as Bayer Leverkusen and Tokyo Verde.

NorCal’s girls would then go on to make the final of the Puma Division five years in a row, prompting PDP staff to expand the operation to bring a second girls team in 2024 (who won the tournament’s U17 open division playing a year up) and to then play a year up in the Puma Division this past year.

Since 2018, NorCal has also sent boys teams to the Gothia Cup, where they captured U18 Division’s B Bracket title that first year before ultimately being selected to regularly participate in the boys Puma Division. Last year NorCal’s U16 boys captured an open division title without conceding a goal, coming on top of a bracket that featured nearly 200 teams.

“It’s only gotten bigger and better, we’ve opened it up and started bringing more teams to start giving more NorCal players the opportunity to experience these trips,” said PDP Assistant Director Justin Selander. “The competition has gotten better, the organization has improved, the details have become more finely tuned, the coaching staffs have gotten more experience, and we’ve improved our ability to scout and prepare. But the biggest thing is that we’re able to take more players to gain these experiences because we’ve started taking more teams.”

Because NorCal felt that it wasn’t always getting as much of a challenge as it wanted on the girls side, this summer the organization elected to take its U17 girls to England to play against the youth teams of Women’s Super League clubs.

Over the course of a 10 day period, the PDP girls faced off against Aston Villa, Brighton and Hove Albion, Everton, and Manchester United.

“It was a world class experience for the players and staff to be able to play four Women’s Super League professional academies and for the players to be able to go to the training facilities and be in the locker rooms and play on these beautiful fields against some of the strongest players in England,” Selander said. “After the English women’s team winning the Euros it was an incredible time in English football for us to challenge ourselves against up and coming English talent.”

For NorCal, these trips prove paramount, but it’s just as important that those selected to participate don’t solely come from a pool of players who can afford the travel. While overall PDP is free for the players, the trips are heavily subsidized and players can qualify for financial aid based on their family income.

“If we were to charge the parents full price, we could take 10 teams, but we don’t want to,” Ziemer said. “We do ask them for something to have some skin in the game, but it’s a fraction of what we spend.”

And it’s these experiences that serve to motivate players to reach higher levels. In addition to Anderson and Doms, current Columbus Crew and US National Team wingback Max Arfsten of Columbus Crew have benefited by attending the NorCal summer trips, having helped the 2018 team win PDP’s first-ever trophy on the boys side.

“Footballing overseas is like no other,” said Placer United midfielder Ayden Scammacca, a member of the 2024 and 2025 squads. “The competition, the fans, the culture, the respect…it was all there. It was definitely a life changing experience for all footballers. Playing against top European teams and players definitely helps build your confidence on the field.”

Added winger Nora Snearly, a member of the 2025 girls team: “The level of competition pushed me to grow as a player and being surrounded by such talented teammates really motivated me. It felt like a new challenge because the pace of the game and technical demands were higher. It gave me a glimpse of what soccer is like at the next level.”

Next year, NorCal won’t attend Gothia Cup as its schedule conflicts with the home-based World Cup, but there are already plans underway to take the boys and girls teams to an alternative competition or set up a series of friendlies in countries like Argentina, Japan, or Norway.

But regardless of the country, NorCal PDP will continue to organize such trips for those deserving because of all the value they provide.

“If you are thinking about going on a trip with PDP you should,” Scammacca said, “because you will realize that football is life.”