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Soccer “HEAT”ing Up in Laredo

Wednesday, February 28, 2006 (Laredo, TX):

The Defending Premier Development League (PDL) Mid-South Division and Southern Conference Champion Laredo Heat Soccer Club are getting ready to initiate the 2007 PDL Season by hosting their Annual Invitational Tryouts this weekend in the Gateway City.

The team will be holding the three day tryouts at two locations in Laredo. On Friday, March 2nd, the lighted Laredo Job Corp soccer field will host the initial tryout starting at 6:00 PM. That will be the day that Coach Israel Collazo will get his first look at the potential talent wanting a spot for the 2007 season. On Saturday, March 3rd and on Sunday, March 4th, the tryouts shift locations to the beautiful TAMIU campus and nicely manicured soccer field for morning workouts at 10:00 AM and 8:00 AM respectively.

Laredo Heat SC General Manager, J.J. Vela, said, “Coach Collazo knows what he is looking for in order to fill in the gaps left by departing and non-returning players”. Vela added, “As an organization, we found out last year during the PDL Finals that speed kills and that speed with size wins championships”. Vela concluded, “We have a great base of core players returning that are really looking forward to getting the season going and they are excited with the news that their Front Office is going to do what it feels it needs to do to get Laredo not only back to the playoffs but bring home the PDL Championship.”

Heat Owner and Team President, Shashi Vaswani, also added, “We have worked very hard in trying to illustrate to the soccer community within the United States that the Laredo Heat is committed to running a first class organization and that any player that decides to come play with our club will realize that immediately. This seems to be working, as due to this fact, as well as, our success last season, we have had many more players contact us about the possibility of playing for the Heat this coming season.” Vaswani concluded by saying, “We have players coming to Laredo to tryout either this coming weekend or during their Spring Break from as far away as New York and South Carolina. This is a very good sign for the entire Heat organization and it shows that Laredo was showcased properly last season and most especially during the PDL Final that was telecast nationally on the Fox Soccer Channel.”

Along with out of town talent that will be coming to Laredo this weekend, the invitational tryouts will have plenty of local flavor with players from Laredo, Nuevo Laredo and TAMIU. In the PDL this coming season, the number of foreign players on a club has gone down from seven to six. This new rule will impact teams like the Laredo Heat and division rival El Paso for the obvious reason of both teams depending on talent from Mexico.

For additional information on the Laredo Heat Soccer Club, please visit www.laredoheatsc.com .