That Washington Premier U16 Academy team is downright offensive.

It was their coach, Jimmy McAlister, who made the assessment recently about the squad which is situated 2nd in the US Soccer Development Academy’s Northwest Division. He wasn’t talking personalities, but playing styles.

“We’re very much an attacking-type soccer team. We play a 3-5-2 and basically throw caution to the wind,” he said. “We do our best to defend properly, but watching them you get the idea it might not be the main focus of our boys.”

McAlister’s squad has managed to perform well despite losing standout midfielder-forward Nicholas Palodichuk, who recently performed for the U17 Men’s  National Team at the CONCACAF Qualifying Tournament, scoring two goals despite just being called into the squad in January.

While Palodichuk is missed (McAlister described him as one of the most physically-gifted athletes he’s seen in 30 years of soccer), the squad has managed well enough without him.

“We’ve added a few players to what was basically a club team,” McAlister said. “We have players from Portland, Oregon, to Vancouver, British Columbia. We have a lot of good players and some outstanding players in midfield. I think in any sport when you have a player as dynamic as Nick, people tend to stand and watch him. When you lose that individual, other people have to pick it up. It’s been big for all the kids that they had to do more on their own, and they’ve picked it up quite nicely.”

While recognizing problems with cost and travel for clubs in the Pacific Northwest, McAlister is a big proponent of the USSF Development Academy.

“The only games we can drive to are FC Portland and Crossfire. The rest of our games are airplane flights, that’s just the reality of it,” he said. “You need to be a pretty well-adjusted club to make it work. We’ve had time to set up some fundraisers and that sort of thing to help minimize the cost.

“But you need to have this kind of competition to improve. The Academy allows our kids the chance to get better,” he continued. “We need to get it right in the U.S. so we have to have this. Now there’s more to it than just winning and going to regionals. This is so much more.”

McAlister also lauded the player identification aspect of the Academy.

“This way there are scouts who see the players week in and week out in their own environment,” he said. “It’s not like ODP where you look at a kid once when is 11 and if he’s not good enough then he might not ever get a chance to really be seen again.”

The Washington Premier U16 Academy team roster:

GK: Eric Owen, Brandon Shipley

Field Players: Jacob Bechtel, Nathaniel Boatright, Brandon Brockway, Christopher Chu Jr., Jamael Cox, Nathan Cox, Pablo Delacruz, Stephen Dutson, Chase Hanson, Darwin Jones, Alexis Magana, Christopher Miller, Sean Okoli, Troy Peterson, Kenneth Phillips, Evan Robicheau, Max Thomas, Andrew Weishaar, Jeremy Wentzel