DeAndre Yedlin has left a few heavy hearts behind at Crossfire Premier.

Yedlin, a blazing midfielder who had long played for Crossfire, decided earlier this year that he will join the new Sounders FC Academy team which will debut next season. He had played the entire year up until that point including the showcases but decided to head in a new direction along with teammate Ryan Herman.

Players come and go at the youth level – it’s the way is – but Yedlin is a special one on and off the field.

He’s very dangerous going at defenders and is a spectacular athlete despite lacking imposing physical size or strength. Yedlin doesn’t play in a region that garners a great deal of attention but he is too good to ever fall completely off the radar.

He’s been invited to U.S. National Team camps, most recently with the U18s in December where he joined guys like Michael Ambrose, Luis Gil, Miguel Lopez, Bryan Gallego, Sean Cunningham and Scott Thomsen.

“U.S. Soccer camps have impacted me a ton,” Yedlin said. “The times I have gone, I have not been the best player and that’s something I’m not used to. I think my speed of play has gotten much faster because of these camps.”  

A scary proposition given Yedlin’s ability to accelerate as it is.

“He’s by far the quickest, fastest player I’ve ever played with,” Herman said. “I have played with some of the best players in the nation and none of them have the same burst of speed as him.”

The Crossfire had big plans for that speed. As he had already starred for their U15/16 group, Yedlin was expected to get some run with the 18s this spring.

Instead, he’ll be running with the Sounders starting later this year. His coach and former MLS player Sean Henderson has joined the Sounders staff as well, a motivating factor for Yedlin making the move.

He’s also drawing interest from a variety of schools awaiting his graduation in 2011: Virginia, Akron, Wake Forest, UCLA and Michigan among them.

Thought of as a great teammate and pupil by everyone who knows him well, Yedlin will bring those same positives to his new club.

“In a word, he’s incredible,” gushed Yedlin’s high school coach at O’Dea in Seattle. “He is an unselfish player who is polite to his coaches, teachers, classmates and teammates. “He works just as hard in training as he does in games. He’s all that you can ask for.”

Just ask the Crossfire.