academy suggestions? (North)

I think it depends on skill level. If it doesn't matter go with the best commute. U-12 is first year of SCCL and Concore Fire North doesn't have a team in SCCL for that age group. UFA Norcross, Ambush and Atlanta Fire all have teams in the league. If you have already moved to the area I would check out practice. Also there is a thread from around the holidays from a disgruntled Concord Fire North parent for this age group.

Most of my knowledge of the clubs in that area is on the girls side. However, I would agree with just about everything stated above. You are definitely in a good location because you have choices which aren't too far from where you live. I would definitely consider a smaller club like Ambush, and not just automatically head to one of the bigger clubs. I would also give a lot of consideration to which club will be the most convenient.

With that being said, if Gregg Tavani will be the coach for your son's team at AFU, I would go there.

It’s funny what some describe as “North”. I assumed North was Forsyth, Cumming, Gainesville or Hall County. To me johns creek/Alpharetta is still Atlanta Metro as you can go anywhere from there.

Major advantage of the Atlanta market is lots of options.

Depending upon when you move, I'd try to work in some sessions at a few clubs. True honest perception of the kid's desires and abilities is important.
You always will have the flexibility to move after year 1 for sure, once you have an opportunity to take in the Atlanta youth soccer structure.

in a nut shell, lots of different leagues to compete in with different travel expectations.

But as others have mentioned, we have so many youth clubs to select from - Beauty is in the eye of the beholder for sure.

I live in this area and here’s my two cents:

CF North: this is a branch of CF. Never go to a branch of a club. The main HQ of a club always gets better treatment. Also, CF North took a major blow three years ago when they had a mass exodus of directors and coaches. It actually been impressive that they have been able to stabilize the north branch. No top flight leagues offered at North.

NASA Milton: not the main branch. Cobb Co is NASA’s home. Some SCCL Championship teams here but sporadic. No ECNL.

AFU: not a huge club and not a small club. Seems to have some very poor teams in ECNL especially on the boys side. Different than the big 4 clubs in that they are more loyal to families with multiple kids and that be part of why they struggle in ecnl. Access to ECNL and SCCL.

Ambush: smaller club with that old school community feel. Most coaches have been there for decades so they must be taken care off. Nice mix of turf and grass so trainings don’t get cxld. The highest level of play is SCCL Championship so if you son is top flight material (ECNL) that will be an issue after u12.

UFA: located maybe 25m from you up north in Forsyth Co mostly at Fowler park but some train at South Forsyth park closer to Johns Creek/Suwanee. Turf fields at Fowler park prevent rainout. Big club with 5 teams per age group. Access to ECNL here but not SCCL’s highest flight bc that’s at their Norcorss branch. SCCL second and third division at Fowler park.

I see two choices:
1. Ambush if you want something very close by, smaller club where you get to know the coaches and directors and they have a turf field to prevent rain cancelations. Con is that it doesn’t have ECNL for the best of the best outside of MLS.

2. UFA Forsyth. Main branch of the club, turf fields and many teams. They also offer ECNL but if you can’t make that team there is no top flight SCCL, only 2nd and 3rd division SCCL. Longer drive but not bad traffic.

One other thing about coaches is that coaching assignments typically do not come out until May. The coach is much more important than the club.

NASA would be one of the big boys’ clubs around here. Tophat Milton has some phenomenal coaches. I think UFA has a pretty strong boys program. I’m much more familiar with the girls’ side, though.

The question really is how good is your kid?  Do you have ECNL aspirations or is SCCL going to be good enough?  Personally I would *not* look at clubs south unless you do not mind driving in Atlanta traffic.  There are plenty of good choices OTP North where we are to choose from.  Clubs like Ambush and Roswell only field one maybe two teams at the upper ages, where clubs like UFA and AFU will field 3 to 5 depending on the age group.  Depends on how good your kid is honestly where i'd look.

Lots of previous discussion re boys 2010 age group:

gasoccerforum.com/thread/5122/wrong-team-son-concorde-fire

Just as an FYI, ECNL doesn't start until U13.  The club might be calling the top team Pre-ECNL, but officially ECNL isn't until the next year.  Those clubs participating in SCCL do typically start at U12.

Long term, should it matter if an academy only has SCCL but doesnt have ECNL or ERCL?

Maybe make the move at U12 so you're at the club when you age to playing at ECNL/ECRL.

If you feel (as you said) that your child is not top team level, then going to a club that has U12 SCCL that feeds into U13 ECNL/ECRL is not that important. If you feel that he could make ECNL in the future, then you need to get to that club ASAP because it's much harder to break into a top team unless your son is markedly better than an existing player on a team who he would be replacing. Incoming coaches for the most part already know who most of their players are going to be before tryouts. Moving up from a lower team is already challenging. Coming in from outside is even more difficult unless the coach has seen that player during the season as an opposing player.