Smith plays for Indiana Fire

Greencastle senior Evan Smith plays on the Indiana Fire of the United States Soccer Developmental Academy.

Evan Smith, a senior from Greencastle High School, was selected as a player on the United States Soccer Developmental Academy, Indiana Fire, sponsored by the MLS team Chicago Fire.

This past Saturday the Indiana Fire played it's first regular season game against Crew Soccer Academy at Columbus. Smith played the entire game for the Fire. The Indiana Fire won 3-2.

For the past three years, Smith has been a starter for the GHS boys varsity soccer team, but under the rules of the USSDA, he is not allowed to play on a high school soccer team.

The Development Academy is a partnership between U.S. Soccer and the top youth clubs around the country to provide the best youth players in the U.S. with an every day environment designed to produce the next generation of National Team players. The Academy's programming philosophy of increased training, less total games and more competitive games is based on U.S. Soccer's Best Practices utilized by the U-17 U.S. National Team Residency program.

The Academy also connects National Team coaches directly with the Academy clubs to develop and identify players and coaches for future Youth National Teams. Each Academy team is evaluated by a National Team coach at least ten times each year and each Academy club receives two formal evaluations in over 100 categories each year from National Team staff.