I have 8 year old twin boys that have shown promise in soccer at the rec league level and I’m trying to figure out how to best advance them. I’m in the DFW area.



Of course we are working on skills like crazy. But there seems to be a lot of different options as far as academy teams. Also, there are a lot of options as far as playing while we’re doing academy. Some academy teams seem to compete while others don’t.



Cost is an issue so I’m trying to find the best bang for the buck. Any advice?

Look at the boys classic league standings and its history to find what clubs do the best yearly. I would make a top 5 list of the top clubs that are close to you and go watch a few academy sessions. I would pick the one that you think is best for the boys. I think a great coach is more important than a great team, but they do need to be playing against the best competition that they can be successful at. Be honest with yourself after watching a session and make sure they are near the ability of the other kids.
Some clubs that have a good reputation for putting out quality players are
1. Dallas Texans
2. Andromeda
3. Solar
4. FC Dallas

Just my 2 cents. Good luck.

Play, play, play!! My opinion is that your boys need to be on an academy team that plays games during the spring and fall and summer if they are willing and of course when they are of age they need to advance to a club team which most academy teams do!

My daughter was 11 when she started playing club after playing rec since she was 4 and it was the best decision we have ever made, her skills have improved year after year and continue now during her high school years!!

Best of Luck to your boys!!!

You're in a great area as far as being able to take advantage of everything out there. I think aflopper covered it pretty well but I'll touch on the money issue that you brought up.

You have some options to help since you don't just have 1 kid to pay for. You can continue to play rec which should be getting them around 16 games a year plus tournaments and on the side send them to academy practices. oyu can find academies that just have skills practices and you pay per session. I did that with my son when we first moved here and the sessions were very good. Seems like we payed $10 per session. The big question here is other than touches and experience (which are very important) what are they getting from their rec team. Rec teams are hit or miss and I think most are miss. Not knocking the guys, and gals, th volunteer their time to coach these kids. Most just don't have the experience or know how to train the team.

The also have the PAL program. Someone can chime in on this but I'm pretty sure in this program they play for their rec team and they also play on a PAL team, which I believe is a more advanced team but the cost isn't much different from rec. I don't have any experience with this program but I know they play a lot and the money is more rec like. Worth looking into.

Go to your home associations website and look up PAL to find more info or just call.

Thanks for the responses.

I did look into all the teams you mentioned. I was a little put off by the facilities that these teams have. Obviously they are making a lot of money. I'm wondering whether I need to spend that kind of money at this point.

I've heard that those teams basically keep large pools of players and then plug and play them according to the level of competition. Furthermore they recruit / raid lesser teams good players. So in other words, if you are good enough, you can probably get into their system in later years. And if you've been with them for years but don't develop talent-wise, then you get relegated to lesser games but they keep taking your money.

I'm considering going to a lesser team for now. There is a trade-off there ... if you play for a lesser team you aren't playing with the same level of competition. But I figure if we join a second tier team that also plays in Classic, there's probably not too much of a drop off ... especially at this age. We've been to a few of these practices, and I know my kids would be major contributors on these teams.

These kids are all so young, I'm just thinking we are shooting for playing high school soccer for now. If my boys show promise of playing beyond that level, I'm guessing it won't be too hard to get on one of those top teams.

Any thoughts on this plan?

Keep it fun for the kids. I know of kids that played several years of club who were burned out by the time they were in high school. Usually from parents having greater expectations than the kids. It's a shame when you see a kid with great natural talent and skills have no interest in playing.