This FAQ page focuses on the NASA Tophat Marietta Junior Academy Girls soccer program. We are based out of Metro North Park and United Quest Park in Cobb County, and we include girls who were born in 2016 or 2017.
- What (who) is NASA Tophat? The North Atlanta Soccer Association and Tophat Soccer Club merged in 2016 to become NASA Tophat, also called NTH.
- What is the NASA Tophat Junior Academy? The Junior Academy Girls soccer program develops 6-8 year old players through professional coaching in a fun, but structured training environment. Our mission is to build a strong foundation for the soccer stars of tomorrow, while providing a fun and healthy soccer environment.
- What are the age requirements? For the upcoming Fall 2023 – Spring 2024 soccer year, girls are eligible for the various Academy programs based on their birth years as follows:
- Junior Academy (U7 / U8): girls born in 2016 or 2017
- U9 Academy: girls born in 2015
- U10 Academy: girls born in 2014
- U11 Academy: girls born in 2013
- U12 Academy: girls born in 2012
- How does the NASA Tophat Academy fit into the programs offered at NASA Tophat? The Academy programs serve as a bridge between the U6 / U8 / U10 and U12 recreational soccer programs and the U13 select (i.e., travel or “Athena”) program.
- Where are you located? Our NTH-Tophat Marietta program has two main locations: Metro North Park (MNP) in East Cobb near Johnson Ferry Road and the Chattahoochee River, and United Quest Park (UQP) in north Cobb near Town Center Mall and I-575. Our coaching philosophy, training curriculum and coaching staff are the same at each location. NTH has additional locations in Buckhead, Milton, Smyrna and Woodstock.
- Is this a year-round commitment? Yes and no. It’s a 1-year commitment that covers fall and spring seasons. But we don’t play year-round. After tryouts are complete (late May or early June), we have a break until we start preparation for the fall with our Academy Team Camp in August. The fall season ends the weekend before Thanksgiving. We start preparation for the spring season in February, and wrap up with the NASA Tophat Adidas Select Cup tournament in May.
- How often do you practice? The Junior Academy groups practice twice a week at each home park. If a player wants to attend extra practices, she’s welcome to attend practices at the other park, no reservation needed.
- Is this a travel team? Yes, but with very limited travel. During league play, we typically play most of our games at NASA Tophat fields, with occasional away games at other Metro Atlanta clubs’ fields.
- How many tournaments do you play? The Junior Academy program usually plays one spring post-season tournament. Tournaments are in the metro Atlanta area, and our tournament choices rarely involve a holiday weekend. A typical tournament schedule calls for two games on Saturday, one or two games on Sunday. Schedules could include early morning games and / or a Saturday night game. Tournament schedules are determined by the tournament host and are usually made available 5-10 days before the event. Link: info about tournaments
- Do you have to tryout? Usually. Admission into the Junior Academy is through invitation only. We select most of our players through tryout sessions in late May or early June. Tryouts are open to all age-appropriate girls, whether they currently play at NASA Tophat, another soccer organization, or are new to soccer. We also evaluate players from the NASA Tophat recreational programs during the spring season. Some players may make a strong enough impression that we issue an invitation prior to our tryout sessions. In most cases, though, we want candidates to attend tryouts so we can confirm our previous evaluations.
- What happens if my daughter tries out and makes it? We will invite your daughter to join the Academy via either a phone call, a face-to-face conversation at the fields, or via e-mail or the web. If you need a day or two to think it over, that’s no problem. If you decide to join, you review orientation material for info about registration, uniforms, schedules and other details. If you decline the invitation, you are still welcome to register for the NASA Tophat recreational program.
- What happens if my daughter tries out and doesn’t make it? If your daughter had the initiative to try out, this speaks well of her desire. We strongly encourage her to keep playing! She can register for the NASA Tophat recreational program. If she loves the game and sticks with it, she’ll always have a chance to achieve her goals. Players develop at different rates, and a player who isn’t selected this time around may blossom by this time next year. Over the 22-year history of our Academy program, we’ve had plenty of cases where a player wasn’t invited after her first tryout, but made it into the Academy the following year.
- Who are the coaches? See our Academy contacts list.
- What are the coaches’ qualifications? Coaches are licensed by the US Soccer Federation (USSF) and/or United Soccer Coaches (formerly known as the NSCAA). Most have many years of experience coaching youth “select” teams, and many years of playing experience. None of the coaches have daughters who play in their age group’s Academy.
- What do the coaches look for in a player? Three main characteristics: game awareness, personality (for example, desire, enthusiasm and creativity) and athletic ability. Current technical skill is a bonus, but if a young player has the other three attributes, we believe she can develop technical skill through focused training sessions and by playing with and against strong players in training and games.
- What are the coaches expectations? We expect three things from each player. A good attitude and consistent effort will yield good results. We’re accepting of mistakes, which are a key part of the learning process. (We are teachers, not drill sergeants.)
- Give your best effort
- Be enthusiastic
- Treat yourself and others with respect
- Is Academy soccer all abut winning? No. It’s all about learning. We want the girls to try their best to win every competition. But we’ll measure learning and fun, not scores and standings. The Academy program doesn’t post scores or keep standings. At young ages, player development is much more important than winning a game. Our goal is to create an environment where players compete with themselves, teammates and opponents, with our focus on quality soccer, not immediate results. At young ages, some teams win games by playing “superstar” soccer, where most players on the team are instructed to kick the ball to a superstar player and let her do the rest. That’s not our style. We want all of our girls to develop into skilled, creative soccer players who are confident in their own abilities and eager to display their abilities on the field.
- What do you expect from parents? We expect five things from parents:
- Arrange to get your daughter to training and games on time.
- Be supportive of your daughter and her teammates. Be your daughter’s biggest fan, and the other players’ 2nd biggest fan.
- Leave the coaching to the coaches. You’re welcome to cheer from the sidelines, but you should not try to direct your daughter or any other player from the sidelines.
- Stay informed. Each age group has one or more communication channels. Please make a point of checking the appropriate channel(s) on a regular basis.
- When fees are due, please pay them promptly.
- What are the yearly fees? Fees for the 2023-2024 soccer year are posted here. The fees paid to NASA Tophat cover player registration and coaching fees for both fall & spring seasons, capital improvement fee, plus our summer Academy Team Camp. Uniforms and tournament entry fees are not included. (Regular league games are included in your NASA Tophat fees; tournaments are extra.) Fees can be paid in installments. Link: fee details
- I already registered my daughter for the NASA Tophat fall recreational program. Do I have to pay twice? No! Money already paid toward registration for the NASA Tophat recreational program will be applied to your daughter’s Academy registration fees. So you only have to pay the difference between the recreational and Academy fees.
- Which team will my daughter be on? We don’t have pre-set teams. Some weeks we’ll create teams by current playing level, some weeks we’ll create teams by age, some weeks we’ll create equally balanced teams. We normally post team assignments for the upcoming Saturday’s games on Monday night. We normally post tournament team assignments 1-2 weeks before the tournament. Team assignments are available via our web site. Link: team assignments and levels of play
- What happens on game days? Junior Academy game days will vary and could include intra-Academy friendly matches, games against other NASA Tophat teams, and games against other Atlanta-area clubs. Link: game day details
- What size soccer ball does my daughter need? The Junior Academy age group uses a size 3 ball. It’s perfectly fine to bring a smaller ball, but we discourage bringing a larger ball.
- Do you play full-field or small-sided soccer? We play small-sided games on smaller fields. Our most common game format is 5v5 (four field players, one goalkeeper) on 40 x 25 yard fields. Games usually have either four 12-minute quarters or two 25-minute halves. We’ll occasionally play other formats (3v3, 4v4, 7v7), adjusting formats and field sizes as needed as the players develop skill and understanding.
- How many teams do you put together? This depends on the size of the player pool. For the spring 2023 season, we had 32 players on our roster. We usually fielded five teams for 5v5 play, or 3 teams for 7v7 play.
- How much playing time will my daughter receive? All girls play at least half of each game. We keep roster sizes small for regular game days, so girls typically play 2/3 of each game.
- What happens if my daughter has to miss an event? Just communicate this in advance with her coach. The flexibility of the Academy program usually allows us to work around an occasional schedule conflict.
- What happens after my daughter completes a year in the Junior Academy? If she’s a U8 player (2016 birth year), she can tryout for the U9 Academy program. If she’s a U7 player (2017 birth year), she can tryout to play another year in the Junior Academy program.