A parent's guide to getting kids into competitive club soccer before age 13. The speaker argues early enrollment is essential for making high school teams and pursuing college soccer, sharing how his own coach helped channel his childhood obsession with Didier Drogba into serious play.
If you're under the age of 13, you need to be thinking about club soccer. First of all, if you're not playing club soccer at that age, by the time you hit that age, there's no way you're going to be able to be able to play club soccer in high school. You just won't be the level, you won't be good enough, the people that will have passed you by, and then you won't even be able to play high school soccer. So forget college, which is my job, you won't even excel in high school. Like, you won't even be good enough to play, make your high school team. So if you really, given how competitive sports are, if you really want a chance to do well in high school, forget college soccer, you're going to need to be good at the age of 6, 7, 8 years old playing for fun. By 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, you gotta be in a club team. Now again, my audience, people I'm talking to right now, I want the crazies, I want the psychos, I want the families who go, my kid is addicted to soccer so much I don't know what to do with them. I used to sleep with a ball, I wore a jersey the same day every day of my life all the way until I graduated high school, until the letters fell off because it was my favorite player named Didier Drogba. And that's how crazy I want my kids. My parents never played soccer. They didn't know what to do with me. And luckily, when I was about 14, I found a coach who was a British guy, knew nothing about college soccer, but he was able to handle my passion. Now, had he known about college soccer, who knows what my career would have gone. I did have a very good career still, but I want you guys to make sure you take the right steps early on in the process, which means what do you say to the club teams? How do you write their emails? What should you be doing technically? How much soccer footage should you be watching? Should you be going to college ID camps of the middle, middle school and elementary school age? You're going to be going to camps anyways. You may as well make a plan. Son or daughter does not need to know your plan necessarily. They just should be having fun, frolicking in the woods or in the, you know, garden, playing soccer with, of course, but going, I'm just having a great time. But you are their conductor, gently saying, well, let's go try out for this team. Let's drive over here. Let's try out for these people. And then, you know, I don't really remember any of my childhood from the ages of 5 years old till 12. I just remember playing lots of soccer. Luckily, my parents were like, well, he really loves soccer, gotta find the best team. Who's the best team? And there was no college soccer guy, so they just did their best, and they did not do the best job, but they tried their best, and I love my parents deeply. Now that I'm— you're watching my page and you're here, I have the information, and I want to make sure that you get it custom for your child. If you want more help, give me a call, links in the bio. Talk to you soon, or DM me, call, and we can schedule a call with you and your parents. Bye.
