Families are traveling up to 200 miles -- each way -- several times a week so their sons can train at the Kansas City Wizards' youth academy ... English club Sunderland sent scouts to the town of Los Gatos, Calif., seeking out players as young as 12-years-old ... Aztecs FC Premier, a Southern California U-15 powerhouse, features a true two-way player: Alejandro Guido, who plays on both U.S. and Mexican youth national teams.

Academy's goal: Seek out soccer talent by Judy Peterson
(Los Gatos Weekly Times)
English club Sunderland was in the town of Los Gatos, Calif., seeking out players from the local Pacific Soccer Academy. Bryce Clark, a local seventh-grader, will be heading to England next month for training at Sunderland's youth academy. Bryce has been forewarned about the differences that await him. "Even the weather plays a role in the boys' development," Sunderland coach Les Shaw claims. "They play faster in England because it's so cold."

Sacrifice for Soccer by Bob Luder
(Kansas City Star)
Two or three times a week, Louise Witherspoon shares car-pooling duty with two other families to make the 2-hour, 45-minute trek from her home in Ankeny, Iowa, to the Kansas City Wizards' training center with her son, Will, and two other boys in tow. Laotian immigrant Kit Saybounkham travels up I-35 from Wichita to Kansas City -- almost 200 miles -- so his son, Jordan, can compete with the Wizards youth teams.

Aztecs Premier on the go in youth soccer by Glae Thien
(San Diego Union Tribune)
One of the hottest teams in Southern California is the Aztecs FC Premier, which won the U-15 boys division at the San Diego Surf. One of its stars is Alejandro Guido, who has played on the U.S. under-14 developmental national team and played on Mexico's under-15 national team that won the Santa Osoria Cup in Spain.