Yeah I haven't kept up with club soccer since I graduated HS in '96. I am not familiar with the workings of the Dynamo Academy either. I guess the point of my comment was really that the DA is rather young and given some time and (I'm assuming) better resources they can outperform the other clubs. I guess the other question really is though, is the purpose of the academy teams to win or to eventually develop first team quality players? So maybe the more pertinent metric, like you mentioned about Holden and Shea, might be number of players developed rather than wins?
I'm old enough to have started playing club soccer in the area before the Texans. The Texans take 20-35 kids per age and aren't perfect. You just have to do is pick better......that being said, the Texans personnel, they're not yokels. I generally agree that the Dynamo Academy's results are unimpressive. I won two state titles, some Dallas tournaments, and played in Dallas Cup. We played Andromeda, etc., and won our fair share. Ho hum indeed. To compete for players I think they have to move down towards U-10, so that you are fighting for kids at the start of club play. Otherwise you're either a parasite on existing clubs or nibbling around the edges by signing hispanic kids, which is not bad but means you're not really competitive for recognized club talent. Last thought, when the Texans are producing players like Holden and Shea and you are homegrowning players onto your reserves, it would help the Dynamo sales pitch if it looked like players had a first team chance.
