Storm Academy soccer duo getting national look

Two Hilton Head Island teens are in Arizona this weekend to audition for U.S. Youth Soccer's Olympic development program, the latest in a growing list of Storm Soccer Academy players drawing interest on the regional and national stage.

Abigail Brighton and Miya Poplin are among just 112 players nationwide to receive invitations to the camp for U14 level girls in Phoenix, where they will be evaluated by U.S. Youth Soccer's national staff for even more elite competition.

Both girls are members of Storm's '01 Girls Black squad. They are the seventh and eighth Storm players this season to earn invitations on the national stage with one -- midfielder Juan Zuniga -- recently returned from camp with the U.S. boys U15 national team in Florida.

"We've got a really unique thing going on here," said Jeremy Aven, Storm's club founder and director of coaching.

Aven noted that the eight invitations are significant for a small club like Storm, which has about 600 participants in various age groups. Most invitees, he said, come from clubs two or three times as large, from such major metro areas as Atlanta, Orlando, Fla., and Raleigh, N.C.

"We're almost at a tipping point of people catching on that we have something going on in Hilton Head," Aven said.

Brighton, a midfielder, is a student with the Connections Academy charter school. Poplin, a central defender, attends Hilton Head Middle School. They were invited to Phoenix after impressing coaches at a regional training camp last month in Boca Raton, Fla.

"I'm really excited," Brighton told a club liaison before departing for the camp. "It's a great opportunity for me to play with some great players from all over country."

Meantime, Zuniga and three other Storm boys were part of regional and other elite camps in November and December. James Brighton, a U16 striker, was part of a regional camp in Tampa, Fla.; Zuniga, Dominic Claudio and Jesus Morales were on regional elite teams that went to Phoenix to take on top players from other regions.

Hilton Head is one of three training hubs for Storm Soccer Academy, along with Savannah and Statesboro, Ga.

This story was originally published January 24, 2016 at 12:35 AM with the headline "Storm Academy soccer duo getting national look."