FRISCO – The FC Dallas Youth affiliation program launched seven years ago with the aim to provide structure, support and opportunities to affiliate clubs around Texas and other regions. Today, FCDY announced the restructuring of the FCD Rio Grande Valley affiliate by merging the existing partnership with another club in the region to improve the available facilities and the overall structure of the club.
“I’m really excited about this affiliation. It’s kind of branching into a different form,” said Vice President of FC Dallas Youth Chris Hayden. “There is a fantastic facility that is down in that area that is investing a lot on youth soccer, in coaching and the people, and the kids down there and really believe in what they’re doing.”
Golazo Soccer, which has the only indoor and outdoor soccer stadiums available to the Rio Grande Valley community, will allow the RGV affiliate to growth through its facility and continue to attract high-level players for the FC Dallas Academy, Pre-Academy and ECNL teams.
“It’s kind of a sweet homecoming that we can actually affiliate like this,” said Golazo founder Sebastian Sobczak. “What we saw was an opportunity to recreate the infrastructure that we saw in Dallas, but do that in the RGV, to get those kids on this side of the border that don’t get those chances to play. They have the passion, the skills, the natural fire and it is our job to harnest them and bring them [to the FC Dallas Academy] and see what happens from there.”
With a population of more than 1.3 million, this South Texas-Mexico border region has the highest concentration of people between the ages of 18 and 24 in North America and an overall average of 34 percent of people are under the age of 18.
Hector Veliz, Director of Coaching in RGV has been a part of the FC Dallas RGV Affiliate for two years and is excited to see the growth in both the community and the pathway FC Dallas has created.
“I am very excited. We are the fastest growing Academy in the south, the most competitive being guided by FC Dallas here,” he said. “It was time to make a big change now with the facilities, the support from FC Dallas, Sebastian, Esmundo Rodriguez and Golazo Soccer, it’s helping us become the best and biggest thing in Rio Grande Valley for our youth.”