Soccer: Outlaws provide local players a chance to play, develop

WASHINGTON TERRACE — Former Mountain View soccer star Mike Chesler understands his dream of one day being a professional soccer player may not come true.

But he's going to do everything in his power to make it a reality.

That's why he traveled across the country this summer from his university in North Carolina — High Point, where he's starred at goalkeeper the past two seasons — to Utah to play for the Ogden Outlaws of the Premier Development League.

You see, when you're an up-and-coming soccer player like Chesler, getting high-quality minutes on the pitch against high-level competition during the summer months is vital, and that's precisely the opportunity the Outlaws afford their players — to get quality minutes against quality opposition.

"It's all about getting minutes," says Chesler, who played for a PDL team in the south last year but came back to play for the Outlaws this year in part because he could also train with Real Salt Lake "every once in a while."

"It is huge because if you can't play, you can't develop. I mean, you can train and practice and practice and practice, but you just can't simulate game action. To sit here and play 90 minutes every single game to get ready for the fall is huge, as opposed to playing six games because you just see 200 more opportunities if you (play more)."

Providing an opportunity for Utah's brightest soccer talents to be able to play during the summer months was the main impetus behind creating the Ogden Outlaws back in 2006 and subsequently bringing them into the PDL.

"The whole idea when we put the team together was to allow a lot of Utah kids to come home from college during the summer and have a place to perform in a professional setting while they continue their development (and) they're getting ready for college in the fall," said owner Mike Hickman. "Our goal is to try to get young players mixed with a few older players to help integrate them and see how to act like professionals and work like professionals and how to take care of your bodies a little bit.

"We try to send them back to college better than when they came."

For the most part, the Outlaws, who finish up their 2010 season tonight in California, have been successful in achieving that objective. There have certainly been exceptions — as you would expect — but Hickman feels the players that have come through his team have returned to their colleges better than when they arrived.