Pali Blues News Release - www.bluessoccerclub.com

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

PACIFIC PALISADES, CA -- As their inaugural season in the USL W-League approaches for the Pali Blues Soccer Club, the team continues to add accomplished players to their talented roster, announcing the addition of Manya Makoski and Danesha Adams.

“Manya is a very exciting player with great quickness and versatility,” Blues head coach Charlie Naimo, who previously coached Makoski with the New Jersey Wildcats remarked. “She has the qualities to be one of the best wide midfielders in the league and can cause tremendous problems for the opposition up top.”

Makoski is a 2006 graduate of Arizona State University, and she has competed internationally at various levels of the U.S. national team. She recently helped the U.S. U-23 national team to the Nordic Cup championship in Germany. She was a member of the 2002 U-19 World Cup team that won the FIFA World Championship, and she also played with the U.S. U-21 national team.

“I am very grateful and excited to be playing for the Blues in addition to being again coached by Charlie Naimo,” Makoski commented. “I want to become a better and more effective player, and I want to help my teammates achieve similar goals.”

Due to her national team commitments, Makoski's time with the Wildcats in 2006 was minimal as she saw action in just one match on the year. In 2004, however, she posted seven goals and three assists in eight games.

Makoski was a four-year standout for the Sun Devils, earning All-Pac 10 accolades each year. She tallied 24 goals and 22 assists for 70 points during her collegiate career. She was also the 2002 Gatorade High School Player of the Year in Connecticut and was named the Connecticut Junior Soccer Association Player of the Year, NSCAA/ adidas state Player of the Year and Parade All-America in 2001. She also led Trumbull High School to three state championships (1998, 1999, 2001).

“Everyone within the Blues organization has put such a great effort into this so far, and I know it will continue throughout the season,” Makoski continued. “I am eagerly looking forward to the first time I step onto the field as a member of the Pali Blues.”

“Danesha is a very versatile player,” Blues head coach Charlie Naimo commented. “She possesses sound technical skills, keen tactical awareness and tremendous athleticism.”

Adams, the 2006 U.S. Soccer Young Female Athlete of the Year and former UCLA standout, earned her first cap with the full U.S. Women’s National Team on October 1, 2006, in a match up against Chinese Taipei, tallying an assist. She recently helped the U-21 team to the 2007 Nordic Cup championship in Vaasa, Finland, a year after they finished as runners-up in 2006. She was also a U.S. representative at the FIFA U-20 World Championships in Russia, earning the Bronze Ball as the tournament’s third most valuable player. Adams began her national team play as a member of the U.S. U-16 Player Pool.

Naimo remarked on the type of impact that will result from her addition to the Blues roster.

“With the team that we have been assembling, she will have the opportunity to become extremely dangerous,” he said. “Danesha is a player we wanted on this team from the start, and we are very excited to have the chance to watch her excel in the Blues environment.”

Between stints with the national team program, Adams was a key player for the Cleveland Internationals last season as she recorded 10 goals and four assists in her five games.

Adams started all but two games during a brilliant career at UCLA. In her first college game, she netted both Bruin goals in a win over San Diego, and she followed up that game two days later with a pair of goals against Lincoln Memorial University. The two games were good enough for her to win Pac-10 Player of the Week accolades in her first week of collegiate play. She finished that season fourth in the Pac-10 with 28 points, and she was named a Soccer America and Soccer Buzz Freshman All-American. After netting four goals including game-winners over Duke and Princeton in the NCAA tournament, she was selected to the 2004 NCAA All-Tournament Team.

Adams went on to lead the Pac-10 in scoring her sophomore season by recording 46 points on 21 goals and four assists. She was a NSCAA/adidas Second Team All-American and First Team Soccer Buzz All-American selection, and she was a member of the Soccer America Collegiate MVP Team. The First Team All-Pac 10 selectee scored an NCAA Tournament record four goals in a 5-0 win over Virginia in the NCAA Quarterfinals, registering six goals in the Bruin run to the NCAA Final. That season, she set the UCLA single-season school record with nine game-winning goals.

Adams missed six games during her 2006 junior season due to playing with the U.S. National Team. She still ranked second on the Bruins with 28 points on 12 goals and four assists and hit seven game-winning goals. She was again selected to the All-Pac 10 First Team while receiving Soccer Buzz All-America Second Team and NSCAA/ adidas All-America Third Team accolades. She followed that up her senior season this past fall with 38 points on 15 goals and eight assists, again being named a NSCAA/ adidas All-American.