The Pittsburgh Strikers U11 girls soccer team plays for 10 and a half months out of the year.

And six tournament titles proves the team members are making great use of their time.

The squad's latest championship came in Maryland in late August, where it went 5-0 and outscored its opponents 21-3.

"The championship game win came against a team from Bethesda (Md.)," said Strikers' coach Greg Helsel. "That's the same program that (Major League Soccer) star Freddy Adu came from. It's a nationally known program.

"It seemed like every game, there were two or three different players stepping up to help us win," Helsel added. "In our first four games, we had seven different goal scorers. We were getting contributions from the starters and the substitutions."

Following the tournament win in Maryland, the Strikers were ranked second in their Region and 21st in the country.

"Does that mean that there are only 20 teams around the country that could beat us ... certainly not," said Helsel. "But the ranking does make it nice when you are trying to recruit girls."

The Strikers are just getting started. They play in two more outdoor tournaments by the end of November and will then move on to the indoor tournament season.

"We take the whole month of July off and the first half of August," said Helsel. "Other than that, these girls are playing soccer for 10 and a half months out of the year."

The Strikers were formed following tryouts in March 2004.

"At first we had 18 girls, most of them coming from the Seneca Valley and Moon school districts," Helsel said. "Now we're down to 12. You want to include as many girls as possible, but it's getting to a point where you have to look at the players and see how they can come in and help the team right away."

Team members from the Seneca Valley school district include Amy Kolor, Morgan Williams, Melissa Lynskey, Alex Bilka and Misha Demchuk.

Also on the team are Bethany Perri (Mars) and Amber Fichter (Slippery Rock).

"What's really great about it was we were able to get into the

tactical things right away," said Helsel. "Instead of teaching fundamentals, we were able to work with the girls on why they made certain decisions with the ball, things like that.

"Most of these girls have been playing soccer since they were four years old. It's very competitive."

A big reason why the Strikers have become such a solid tournament team is that the teams it plays against are equally as strong.

"Our organization is able to offer the girls great competition," said Helsel. "We'll go to places like Cleveland, Buffalo, Syracuse … we go all over to find that kind of competition."