Building an Academy in NTX

There are a lot of parents and coaches on this board who have had years of experience with academy level soccer in North Texas and I'd love to learn from these.

I'm in the process of taking a rec team academy and it has got me thinking - what do parents really want in an academy program?  I'd like to know what you like and don't like?  What can current academies be doing better?  What gaps in the market currently exist out there?  What is the best model for you (most important things to you)?

I've certainly got ideas based upon my initial research, but would rather hear from those of you who are knee deep into it.  Other questions for you - why did you choose your current team?  How did you hear about the team your BB is currently on?  If you quit a previous team, why?  

A couple of disclosures.  I'm currently in the Frisco area and my focus will be on younger teams initially U6 - U10 (boys first, then possibly girls).

Thanks in advance!

well coach paul! my experience is that the parents with really skilled players want to WIN! and the parents with children that are not in the elite category, want training and equal playing time for their child. if you win the parents will think you are a great coach. if you don't win the elite athletes will move on and say you were not so great. happens every single year lol

The problem is that most of your parents never played the sport in their youth and have limited knowledge of the amount of time it takes to learn the game. Your better players are going to get picked off by the bigger clubs, and you have the biggest club of them all in your backyard!

You're almost better off taking your team to an established club, or possibly to a smaller club, to take advantage of their reputation, facilities, contacts, coaching and skills opportunities. Just a thought. Depends how expensive the club is and what your parents are willing or able to pay. Staying independent is tough with the big clubs picking off your best players. I don't find parents having not played soccer in their youth to be an issue. You can tell if the practices are organized and the kids seem to be learning or if the coach is doing line drills and yelling at them. It's true that if you aren't winning in NTX that you will lose your best players though. Lots of people confuse winning with development.

Epic, I would disagree on the parents not playing soccer in their youth as an issue. These coaches thrive off that lack of knowledge. I have seen coaches make amazing promises to parents who don't have a clue. In their minds "they seem to be learning" so all is good. When in fact, they aren't learning how to play the game.

I want two things after I write that check, "Improvement" & "Increased Enthusiasm"...

"Improvement" - I want to see MY SON (not the team) improving. If the team improves but he doesn't, we’ll be looking elsewhere at the end of the season. I don't want to spend a small fortune on academy and not see noticeable improvement.

"Increased Enthusiasm" - It still has to be fun though. I don't want my BB to burn out. My DD burned out twice. Both times it happened when soccer stopped being fun. I don't want the same thing to happen to my son. As soon as my son tells me he’s not having fun, I’ll be looking for the exit. I’m not going to turn soccer into a punishment because his new coach is a prick.

P.S. Treat the entire family with respect, not just the player. Too many clubs treat parents with disdain. Realize that this is an experience for the entire family. If you treat the families like valued customers, then they will be a lot more likely to stay loyal to you.

I want to see MY SON (not the team) improving.

+1000, at the academy level, you are complete idiot worrying too much about winning. a coach once told me in a year you wont remember or care if we won this game, just whether your kid improved, best advice there is at THIS level...

bigtex75081 wrote:I want two things after  I write that check, "Improvement" & "Increased Enthusiasm"...  

"Improvement" - I want to see MY SON (not the team) improving.  If the team improves but he doesn't, we’ll be looking elsewhere at the end of the season.  I don't want to spend a small fortune on academy and not see noticeable improvement.

"Increased Enthusiasm" - It still has to be fun though.  I don't want my BB to burn out.  My DD burned out twice. Both times it happened when soccer stopped being fun.  I don't want the same thing to happen to my son.  As soon as my son tells me he’s not having fun, I’ll be looking for the exit.  I’m not going to turn soccer into a punishment because his new coach is a prick.

P.S.  Treat the entire family with respect, not just the player.  Too many clubs treat parents with disdain.  Realize that this is an experience for the entire family.  If you treat the families like valued customers, then they will be a lot more likely to stay loyal to you.

I couldn't agree more with this.

Best of luck starting a new club, I can tell you by experience it is a lot of work. Our club began with 7 girls and only reason I began coaching was to give my daughter and niece the opportunity to play at the highest level without the politics, drama and cost.  My goal wasn't to start a club but after the success of my 01's more doors opened up.  Today we have 16 teams and growing.  Again, best of luck with your new club.

finish1 wrote:I would disagree on the parents not playing soccer in their youth as an issue. These coaches thrive off that lack of knowledge.

I understand that, I really do. Though if you have been around decent quality sports programs you know what appears to be good and what's not. I do agree that I don't know all of what my son needs to know and couldn't tell you what is missing from a practice. My son may play in college. He might not. I don't know. I know he likes the other boys, I see the light bulb come on when he learns something he didn't know, and we seem to be executing at a high level as a team.

All I'm saying is when I see a coach doing line drills with 15 kids, 2 kids at a time, he's not going to spend any time with my son.

COACH PAUL... i mis-spoke earlier when i put the emphases on "WINNING". with me personally it is about being competitive. if my sons team lost every game by the hair of their chinny chin chin, i wouldn't run from that team or coach. but if david beckham (and we all know that the best athlete's don't necessarily make great coaches) came to town twice a week to train academy players and the team consisted of to many non talented players i would feel the need to move my son to wherever the talent pool was. good luck!!!!!!

Parents want to know that everyone is paying the same amount of $$$, or if they aren't, have those people do the field marshall duty, at least! And even more important, people want to know that extra $$ will not be accepted under the table for playtime.

It's very hard to accept not getting playtime if the kid in front of your kid is horrible but has a huge bank account. Open and honest accounting could go a LONG WAY.

Coach Paul, buy me a beer and I will share with you my experience so far Just joking of course on the beer. My advice is to find a club that shares your same values, starting a new club will be challenging in North TX.

I'm not trying to discourage you in anyway, shape or form.

soccerdadrandy wrote:COACH PAUL... i mis-spoke earlier when i put the emphases on "WINNING". with me personally it is about being competitive. if my sons team lost every game by the hair of their chinny chin chin, i wouldn't run from that team or coach. but if david beckham (and we all know that the best athlete's don't necessarily make great coaches) came to town twice a week to train academy players and the team consisted of to many non talented players i would feel the need to move my son to wherever the talent pool was. good luck!!!!!!

now that is better!

Do not go join an established club for your goal of a low cost option will then go from less than 1K to 2-3.5K.

Find a very good manager. Communication and organization are tantamount in keeping parents happy. Happy parents = successful team.

Do NOT divilge scholarship specifics. Parents pay a set price for a specific service. Specify exactly what they will get for that as far as number practices, any skills session you may want to include or not include, how many tournaments and what additional things may or will not be covered. After that what you do with that money is no one's business. Making the scholarship info available is the start of drama. "My kid should be playing because I pay" attitude pops out. The player can be stigmatised by this informtion being freely put out there . There is no up side to it.

finish1 wrote:Epic, I would disagree on the parents not playing soccer in their youth as an issue. These coaches thrive off that lack of knowledge. I have seen coaches make amazing promises to parents who don't have a clue. In their minds "they seem to be learning" so all is good. When in fact, they aren't learning how to play the game.

BINGO!!!!!!!! we have a winner!!!!!!  

Soccerinsanity wrote:Parents want to know that everyone is paying the same amount of $$$, or if they aren't, have those people do the field marshall duty, at least!  And even more important, people want to know that extra $$ will not be accepted under the table for playtime.

It's very hard to accept not getting playtime if the kid in front of your kid is horrible but has a huge bank account.  Open and honest accounting could go a LONG WAY.

wow you know ntx very well   

Getting to be old now...nothing we haven't seen!? Or uh oh, will there be something new tomorrow?

In for lol's on this topic. Classic NTX Soccer comedy hour.

Problem with parents, clubs and money in NTX Soccer. If your BB has the passion and desire to train and compete from u6-u15 then he has a shot at playing for his local high school. I think for the 99% that is great. Good for them and best of luck because I mean it. There are opportunities to pay and play at a very high level in your youth here in N. Texas and that is great too. But reality is they will all at 17 hope to be playing for there high school or a high level team. After that, hoping to get into a intramural squad in college, men's league or just quite the game. So why pay the max money at the youth level?

I want to give my BB the best coaching and fun opportunity I can. I just don't think it matters at u12 for example what team he is on and how many trophies he wins. How many friends in college care that you won Disney 3 v 3 or d1 boys when you where 14? My son thinks he will play in college and go on to the premier league. I say, great good luck and be the best you can be.

Disney 3v3 World Champs, Dark Horse! The only thing between bb and the USMNT is time. We are practically already there!

Once Elite, Always Elite. Everyone knows that and my coach says so!

[quote="finish1"]Disney 3v3 World Champs, Dark Horse! The only thing between bb and the USMNT is time. We are practically already there!

Once Elite, Always Elite. Everyone knows that and my coach says so!




Agreed!! One step away.

finish1 wrote:Disney 3v3 World Champs, Dark Horse! The only thing between bb and the USMNT is time. We are practically already there!

Once Elite, Always Elite. Everyone knows that and my coach says so!

   

I wanted to thank everyone for the great advice, I had many PMs as well with words of advice and encouragement.  I now feel silly having put "select" in the header and wanted to give an update.

Took our U7 rec team and played indoor at PSA, academy division up a age level.  As you might imagine, it was a major challenge for our team but it was a great learning experience despite losing 6 of 8 games.  We played both competitive rec and academy in the spring which was twice the fun for me.  In rec, we finished U7 fall/spring 19-0 and were named the DreamTeam in Frisco, got to represent the league at an FC Dallas game and walk out with the pros which was very exciting for the players.  

We lost our first two UAL academy games as our boys realized that offsides goals wouldn't count!    Won the rest, but it wasn't about winning it was really about playing better competition which was a blast - had some very competitive games.  We are also playing futsal this summer for the first time as another developmental tool.

I've enjoyed the process so much and want to expand the academy so we have just come up with a new name, built a website, social media presence, etc..  We are trying to do something different from what we currently see in NTX, building an academy with very strong volunteer coaches (so we can be low cost), adding in a strong development formula with some unique measurables/technology mixed in.  

We are also really trying to work with rec coaches by allowing their best players to continue to play on their current teams with friends while also being more challenged by adding academy.  There are a lot of great rec coaches out there really frustrated when they lose their 2-3 best players to academy.  We are trying to help solve this issue.  I'd love to connect with more rec coaches in the Frisco, Plano, McKinney, Allen, Prosper, Colony and Little Elm areas.

We are adding a U7 boys team as our current team will move up to U8 this fall.  They will be coached by a great guy who was an All-American in college.  We have a base of 8 players already committed and will look to add 3-4 more if anyone is interested please let me know (Frisco area, born 8/1/2007 - 7/31/2008, sorry can't play up at U7).  We also are getting interest to form a U9 boys team and a couple of girls teams as well - again, please PM me if interested or shoot me an email.

Again, I would like to thank everyone for your great advice to someone who was an academy novice (at least in Texas, did coach select in Michigan awhile back) at the beginning of the year.  I couldn't have had any more fun coaching this spring...  Feedback on what we are doing or on the website (see signature below) is welcome as are players U7-U10 looking to play academy this fall.

Coach Paul
paul@fcfastsoccer.com