Funny as it may sound to someone not involved with travel soccer, Cleveland-area standout Danielle Hubka got a rather late start with the game of soccer, first playing on a recreational team at the ripe old age of 9.

On the other hand, the success that Hubka is enjoying even in the past year may send a signal that starting later is better, and that what she was doing before her soccer days is a good preparation for the sport.

Hubka is a standout member of Cleveland-area club Internationals, playing for coach Keri Sarver and director Zdravko Popovic on the U18 team. She participated last week in the combined U18 and U20 Women’s National Teams camp under interim U20 coach Jillian Ellis at Chula Vista, Calif.

Her mother Debbie recalls that Danielle’s initial foray into recreational soccer caused a bit of a conundrum for the league director due to the player’s instinctive tenacity.

“She was just so much more aggressive than the other kids,” Debbie said. “They told me ‘You need to take her to a travel program or something because I don’t know what to do with her.’ She’s always been a really competitive kid. It didn’t matter what she was doing.”

What she was doing before soccer was gymnastics, a sport she continued with until age 12 before the time demands of both sports forced her to choose one. Danielle is adamant that her time in gymnastics helped her in soccer.

“I still recommend it to younger girls who don’t know what they want to do,” she said. “The way you learn how to use your body, the strength you develop and the mental toughness you need are helpful to you in everything. I still love to watch it. I wish I could still do it but it was too much of a time commitment to do both.”

Gymnastics’ loss is definitely soccer’s gain. Hubka, who first played club soccer with Ohio Premier, before going to Internationals for the U13 season, is a fast striker who enjoys and excels at beating defenders 1v1. She’s been playing the past few seasons with the Internationals W-League team as a striker and winger and while she didn’t participate in ODP on the advice of club coaches, was noticed by US. Soccer National Staff coach Mike Dickey, who recommended her to then-U18 Girls National Team coach Dean Duerst. After a camp last May in Florida, Hubka was invited with the squad to a July tour of Denmark and France for matches against European youth national teams.

Her recent invitation to the combined camp is confirmation that she made a good impression, despite being used mainly at fullback, a brand new position for her.

“I think I did pretty well. Getting to work with Jillian Ellis, especially with her being the women’s national assistant coach now, was really cool,” she said. “I learned a lot. It’s not like things you haven’t heard before, but the way she was teaching us to apply it in a game. So I think I improved a lot and of course my goal is to make the U20 World Cup team in the next year and a half.”

Hubka was a relatively new face among the group, but she welcomed that role, as well as the opportunity to continue learning a new position.
“Most of those girls play their positions all the time, but the coaches helped a ton and after the first couple of days you get settled in and adapt to it,” she said. “It’s just fun to be on the field and play with the best girls in the country.”

The squad for the camp included Jenna Richmond, Amber Brooks, Kristen Mewis, Hayley Brock and Chelsea Cline.

This youth national experience has come well after Hubka brought her college recruiting process to an early end by committing to Maryland at the beginning of her junior year of high school.

Hubka noted that Maryland is the alma mater of her club coach Keri Sarver, but other than a somewhat-formal email at the beginning of her college search, she had forgotten about Brian Pensky’s Terrapins’ program as she was deluged with offers from all over the country.

“I was going on a visit to Virginia Tech which is where my grandparents are, and when I told her (Sarver) I asked if we should go visit Maryland too and she said she thought we should,” Hubka said. “So I went and just fell in love with the school, the coach, the campus and the girls I met. When I got down to my final two schools, Virginia Tech and Maryland, I enjoyed hanging out with the girls at Maryland so much, and just seeing their soccer life, I had to go there.”

Hubka, who is considering business or education as possible college majors, continues working to get better. She spends 4-5 days a week on strength and conditioning and has soccer practice 2-3 times a week with teams, plus a weekly footskills class with Cleveland-area trainer Al Reynolds - something she has done since age 11.

“He has helped me so much,” she said. “We always work on first touch and shooting and things. You really see how important controlling the ball is the higher up you go.”