This review is specific to York County CSA U9 to U11. My son spent three years in CSA.
Each year we were sold at tryout about how high standards of fundamental and high-quality practice and accountability from the top down would lead to long term growth and development of the kids!
The practices were run with no active coaching, the coach would do drills with no feedback given, no intensity from the coach, NO teachable moments, no reason given to why they are doing the drill. The coach never demanded any respect from the kid and had no leadership skills kids at that age need. Director said it's not our job to motivate these kids that a parent's job!
During games the kids played like a rec team no passing, spacing or formation and while winning or losing not important our team scored one goal in fall of 2023. They never once played as a unit or even resembled a team. The kids would argue with each other and many kids quit the team mid-season. Two kids quit in the middle of a game due to lack of leadership.
CSA has no practice facility and each practice is held at a middle school football field with 8 other teams. They have no room to do anything and only have two soccer goals on the field. Don't fall for the sales pitch at tryouts. After year two and all the issues we said we would not be back for a third season. However we were told and sold on how that it was just growing pains and things would improve.
The real issue is the director for York County Ralph Latchana is coaching too many teams while also being a director of York and Palisades. He is spread too thin and it’s too big of job for him. He is a coach not a organizational director.
CSA has no concerns about the player or experience and that comes from the higher ups. It's all about money and greed! They routinely will take younger kids with no travel experience and add them to an older more experience group to create more teams and make more money!
My son no longer wants to play soccer which is very sad! The CSA program in York County and Palisades (from what I heard) have significant growing pains and should be ashamed to be called a soccer club. Please choose any other club if you want your child to develop in soccer and life!
Absolute terrible experience with Charlotte Soccer Academy, could not be worse. Unlike many of the Charlotte area clubs where the directors and technical training staff take a hands on approach but scheduling special practice sessions and making an effort to attend all kids' games at all levels, you will NEVER see CSA directors at lower level games. It's been two years with the new 'Uptown' division that was created and it has been an absolute s*** show. "Tryouts" are anything but tryouts, with no individual player evaluation whatsoever and it being nothing more than staff taking the opportunity to do paperwork under a tent. The coaches have no support whatsoever and the lower level teams get absolutely KILLED in tournaments, with generally a -40 goal differential over the course of 3-4 games (not an exaggeration). You can email the director (don't ever expect a response back) or give candid feedback on post-season evaluations, but unless your kid is the next Messi, Charlotte Soccer Academy is nothing more than a glorified rec league focused on taking your money. We have 4-5 players from our current team that are leaving at the end of this season so unless there is a big shakeup as this age group moves to 11v11, the Uptown boys teams are not going to have enough players to field a team. Don't waste your time and money with Charlotte Soccer Academy - there are much better clubs in the Charlotte area that are more honest, transparent and provide a better overall experience for girls and boys that love to play soccer.
Don’t waste your time or money! My son is a great soccer player, but it is just too much. Too much travel- for example- one game was in Raliegh( we live in Mint Hill) ., just one game, not a tournament! For an 11 year old, pick something else.
If you are considering CSA Matthews for your boy, think twice, my parent advice is to go elsewhere. The prestige of the club takes precedence over teaching players’ soccer and sportsmanship. Your kid is very likely to be used to fulfill the financial gap in the club teams. The CSA Matthews Boy's team was having troubles picking players for the 2015-2016 year (currently has only two in the U14 age groups). They are using very deceiving practice of offering you a spot on the team and telling you to decide very quickly in fear of losing the spot. During the fall of 2015 they were so short on players they needed to run a second tryout. Once on the team, only the best boys will be used during games to make all possible attempts to progress their team to an upper league, so next year the club can justify its fees and attract more players. There was also a U13 player (I assume the best from the U13 team) brought on all of the U14 games to help the advancement of the team. There is no such thing as a fair play time or coaching time for your kid, they'll play on games just the best kids, and limit the play time of the rest to the bare minimum, but collect the significant club fee without remorse. If you start questioning their coaching style, the explanation would be "this is a competitive soccer, so don't expect to be equal". Also, there is a reason for collecting all fees months before the end of the year, in case you complain, you already paid the fee, and you are stuck staying. If you don't like it, you are free to go, but they get to keep your money. If you hear the name of coach Guevara, run away, he is a flat liar. He'll tell you everything to sell you a spot on his team, and if you dare question his coaching, he'll tell you your kid is the worst in his team and you've been told that already.
Review from Guidestar