Our soccer journey began in 2007 when we introduced our 2 boys to Soccer Tots. In 2008, our 4-year-old started playing in his first youth rec soccer league as our second son watched with anticipation from the sidelines for when he could play also.  Both boys had a love for the game from the very beginning. While some of the other 4-year-olds were still staring at the airplanes as they flew overhead, we had to tell our boys they weren’t allowed to score another goal in a game – pass it to someone else! At the young ages of 6and 7, we made the choice to sign them up for Jr. Academy at the largest local club and our pay-to-play journey with youth soccer began. 

The first few years were exciting and fun with games nearby and the teams consisting of other kids who loved the sport and excelled early as well.  The ups and downs over the ensuing years included tears of joy and tears of pain.  We experienced everything from good and bad coaches, clubs that wanted to develop their players vs clubs that only cared about winning and money, team changes, club changes, league changes,  injuries, and ever-increasing expenses and travel.  

Our oldest son was an exceptional soccer player with so much talent, but through a series of negative coaches and negative teammates became disenchanted with soccer and left the sport to play basketball when entering high school.  Unfortunately, he found out he could not compete with the kids who played competitively through their younger years and he eventually returned to playing soccer when he earned a varsity spot on his high school team.  We are so grateful for this experience as he ended his high school years playing and enjoying soccer with his friends on a very successful high school and club team.  He even had a few college offers to play but turned them down and has since gone on to his chosen college and now plays for fun on intramural and indoor teams.

Our second son powered through each change and was lucky to have some incredible coaches and teammates along the way.  He is currently playing at the highest level with an MLS Next team and is navigating the process of where to attend college next year and if he wants soccer to be a part of that.  With several D2 and D3 offers and one D1 offer, he has much to deliberate on where he wants his academic and possibly athletic future to be.

With all that being said, we hope to share our experience and our knowledge and do what we can to help others navigate along their soccer journey!