This Is the Los Angeles Sol: Brittany Bock

Part 11 in a series of articles on the players that make up the 2009 Los Angeles Sol.

The Los Angeles Sol is a team that has world-class talent: from the Americas, to Europe, to Asia. It's not just about Marta, but Han Duan, Camille Abily, Johanna Frisk Aya Miyama.

But it's a team that has an eye to the future. An eye that looks to young, aspiring faces who it has picked to lead the way onto the friendly confines of the Home Depot Center. It's part of the big picture that is the grassroots movement that Women's Professional Soccer aims to build its foundation on.

One of those faces is a midfielder by the name of Brittany Bock.

Possessed with a hunger to win and a will to excel, Bock holds her Puma WPS match ball like a hunter holds his BB gun in search of the kill.

Bock's history begins in Naperville, Illinois. She was born in this city on April 11, 1987. Naperville is a suburb of Chicago, a city that is among the top three best places to live in, according to Money Magazine (#2 in 2006, #3 2005 and 2008).

With a population of 147,776 (2006 estimate), this city is the home of companies such as OfficeMax, Nalco Holding, Alcatel-Lucent, Tellabs, the Grocery division of ConAgra Foods, and the North American Chemical Headquarters of BP, one of the largest producers of petroleum in the world.

Academically, the city has done its homework. Both its high schools-Naperville Central and North-are both among the top 3% of high school in America, according to U.S. News and World Report.

But neither of these schools-members of the DuPage Valley Conference-saw Bock as among its alumni. It was the Neuqua Valley High School Wildcats of the Upstate Eight Conference that saw Bock deliver her brilliance.

As a youth player playing in the preps, Bock led the Wildcats to the state title in 2005, scoring 24 goals and seven assists on her way to Parade All-American honors.

In the state championship against New Trier, Bock was instrumental in erasing a 3-0 deficit to double up on the Trevians 6-3.

Hardware has never been an unfamiliar sight for Bock.

She was a key player on Hudson Fortune's Team Chicago squads, winning four state titles from 1998 to 2001 before following that up with three state titles for Windy City Pride from 2002 to 2004 and a WPSL/U.S. Open Cup double for the Lionesses of FC Indiana in 2005.

At the NCAA level, Bock led the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to the national championship in 2006, scoring the only goal in a 2-1 defeat to eventual champion North Carolina.

With team recognition comes individual honors.

As a freshman, Bock was named second team all-Big East and first-team freshman all-American. As a sophomore, she against earned second team all-Big East along with second team all-Great Lakes Region.

And in her junior year, she was named to the NSCAA All-American first team and ESPN the MAnagine CoSIDA Academic All-American third team while earning the Big East's Offensive Player of the Year Award.

Currently, Bock is wrapping up her Bachelor's Degree in Marketing from ND's Mendoza College of Business.

Internationally, Bock is on the U-23 National Team pool as of this article date. As a member of the U-20 team, she competed at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup with FC Gold Pride's Carrie Dew, who also played with Bock at Notre Dame. The USA would finish fourth after losing to Brazil on penalties.

That Brazil side featured three players who currently ply their trade in WPS: Francielle of St. Louis Athletica, FC Gold Pride's Erika and Fabiana of the Boston Breakers.

In 2009, Bock, on the cusp of wrapping up her academic career, was picked as the fifth overall pick in the WPS draft by the Los Angeles Sol.

Bock opened her account on May 2 with a late score in a 2-1 defeat to the Boston Breakers at Harvard Stadium.

It seemed to be deja vu all over again...to score in a losing effort.

But you can be sure Brittany Bock will be intent to score while the Sol is on top. After all, when your team is leading the competition (at least as of this writing), why not?

Double B is on the hunt, like the gun that has her initials on it. Opponents B-ware.