Are Premier soccer clubs worth all of the expense and time needed to participate? Do they really make a player better? There are two ways to answer that, yes and no, but let me give you some insight into the whole experience. My 12 year old son is very athletic. He is one of those kind of kids that gets noticed everywhere he plays. He had been playing soccer since he was 2 1/2 years old with our local town rec league and by the time he was 6 yrs old he moved onto the travel division. When he was 9 he played against a team that had so much talent on it, that after a game in a tournament he actually went over to some of the players who were in the arcade and asked them...where do you guys get all that footwork? They told him that in addition to playing for their town travel teams they also play for a Premier club. Well my son's response to that was..Mom, how do I get on that team?
Having done it for two years now, I can tell you some of what a Premier team will offer your player. There are three main differences between a Premier team and a town team.
First of all the biggest difference is that the coaching staff of the team is experienced and PAID!! That is a huge plus because you no longer have "little Billy's dad" coaching the team and all of the inherent problems associated with that. The "politics" usually associated with town teams run by volunteers is gone. Usually the coaches are current or ex-college players and/or ex-professional players.
Second, there are no favorites or requirements for playing time. Kids play by there ability and skills and their desire to learn and achieve more. That is not to say that the less skilled players ride the bench, but when games are clutch, your key players will be on the field more. All players will play and be developed to the best of their ability.
Thirdly, The players who will be there really want to be there. The costs involved can be high so parents don't just sign kids up for this unless the kids are serious about it. The commitment to the team is elevated.
In our experience the Premier coach will offer your player a much higher lever of skill development and conditioning during training sessions and the sessions will go all year long, not just during the spring and fall. In addition they will probably offer Futsol ( a slight variation on indoor soccer that is great for training) during the winter in addition to a regular indoor soccer season. So you see there will be potentially 6 seasons...Spring outdoor, fall outdoor, 2 or 3 indoor seasons and 2 or 3 futsol seasons concurrently. Now that's a lot of soccer so this type of program is for the kid who really loves soccer and any other sport comes second. The team will compete at a state and possibly interstate level. They have different leagues for all of the premier teams to compete in so the level of play will be much more intense and sophisticated and frankly a lot more interesting and fun to watch. The down side to this is that frequently you must travel two hours or so just to play one game. But we looked at that as reading time in the car or sleep time or just catching up time. In addition to the playing seasons there are some great opportunities for the team in the way of tournaments. Some are local, but you can plan on traveling a good distance to at least 3 or 4 tournaments per year. You need to plan on hotels, and airfare if necessary. There is usually a team manager who will coordinate the team's travel so the team will be together. The experience your player will have traveling this way with their team is invaluable to them, regardless of whether or not they win the tournament. They love to play both on the field and in the hotels and they start to get to know all of these other teams from the region and elsewhere. Its a blast for the whole family as many tournament are held in places where there are usually other good tourist attractions so you can make little vacations out of them.
When my son took the spot on this team I didn't know if soccer was really his favorite sport and neither did he. But he knew he wanted to get better. I told him to try this out for a season. If you love it we can keep going, but even if you don't you will have the experience of raising your game to the next level and what you will learn from that you can take with you to any other sport you pursue. He had great success here and he developed into a terrific player, a primary midfielder and forward for this team.
The costs associated with premier soccer at this age of u-12 or less is about $1200-1500 per year. For the kid who really has ability and want to just play soccer this is the only way to go. When the kids reach the u-15, u-16 level they start going to college showcasing tournaments and become ranked teams and players. If you want to play in college you really should look into trying out for a Premier team.
As for my son, he played with this team for two and a half years and then decided he wanted to play football, lacrosse, basketball and baseball more. He just did not want to give up his other sports to only play soccer. And let me tell you, that is just fine with me. He knew he was not ready to dedicate himself to just one sport at this age. That aside, his experience on this premier team was so well worth it and what he learned about sports, teamwork and competition has been invaluable to him . I see what he learned from his coaches here coming out in everything he plays now. He loved being apart of a special team and he really enjoyed the success the team had. If your player loves the sport of soccer more than anything else and you can afford this, then yes....Premier soccer is the best way to go to get your child the maximum experience in the sport and have them the best prepared to go on and play in college.
