Just my opinion. Most important is to determine what your goals and his are and keep them realistic (example : make the middle school or high school team).

Coaching is important for basic soccer development, but individual development is going to be through private group or individual lessons and on his own touches. Less than 1% of these players will play college and none pro, so learn to be a teammate, find people you enjoy being with and let him have fun. In the next two years, the competition will become much better and due to population in Houston, you are playing in a talent rich environment. As an example, just today 173 players tried out for 36 spots on the middle school 7th and 8th grade volleyball team. I expect the same for all the team sports except football. That is a lot of disappointed club, select and AAU players.

So make sure they time and money you spend are for the right reasons.

Buff6 has several good points in his post. I was going to bring up getting individual technical lessons as well.

I am certainly not an expert on this but I do know a thing or two about it. Here's my background....grew up between spring and tomball (went to KOHS) and played club soccer on a really good team. Our home field was Meyer. I grew up as club teams started growing here. Roy Rees starting Texans with the Baba brothers (one of which lives in my neighborhood now) and the Houston's and Lyon's families starting Challenge for the girls.

Now I have a son who is 15 and just left playing club soccer last year. I was in the super know back in the day, lost it while at college and entering the real world but obviously back into it a good bit with my son. He was good enough for D1 club team but not ECNL/MLS level although plenty of kids around us were/are.

The first thing I will say is the entire O'Toole family is absolutely top notch. Always have been. My goalie for my club team growing up is now womens college coach and he says the same thing about them. No, I am NOT part of their family. If you want straight answers to your questions why not ask Pat or Danny? If you do, tell them Trip suggested you do so.

Now, my understanding of club teams on north side...again no expert here...

1) Challenge took over what was left of Texans as they fell apart. The Challenge boys groups over in your area are really strong which is usually a combination of talent pool and coaching
2) Have friends who drive across town for one boys Albion team and they've been very happy and they are at the ECNL level. What I saw of their teams they were mostly all really good.
3) Aspire teams were REALLY good....as in dominant good for my sons age group. EVERY player was very technical with the ball and their movement and pace was fun to watch
4) HTX up in The Woodlands area is where they did ECNL, etc last I knew a year ago. I doubt that changed. Some of my sons teammates moved to those teams and were happy. Also, on related note one of my sons classmates was on the Dynamo Academy team but when he hit either 8th grade or maybe it was HS when he wanted to play another sport they bumped him down to ECNL which he is still at now so he can be kicker for football team
5) GFI....I only know of one team up there but it was a top flight team in my boys age group that when they started basically took on an entire team from our area that was really good. Those folks have been with GFI since they started up there and I know if they weren't happy the whole team would have left by now.

I hate how the teams all magically have tryouts the same week trying to horde talent. A simple thing you can do is contact each club during the season. Tell them what team your son plays on and that considering exploring options and ask to attend AND PARTICIPATE in a couple of practice sessions. Go watch and have your son experience what the coach is like. Usually several teams practicing at the same time with multiple coaches so go watch other coaches. Doesn't matter what age group...but should help give you a feel for the depth of their coach pool.

you're lucky that you have a lot of options not TOO far from you. I'd say a big piece of it is as others have mentioned...make sure your son likes his teammates and his coach. Then factor in drive time and cost.

as for age group....yes, when US soccer made the switch from following school year to calendar year it really sucked for the younger kids. But it helped the older kids within that year. I'm not sure what you mean by development year but at some point they will have to play either in their age group or up (if they have the size/skill)

someone else mentioned indoor teams/games it's been many years and not sure how far you are but have you checked out uscore soccer by Hooks airport? I grew up playing with/against the Baker brothers and they've really grown that operation. Not sure exactly what you're looking for there but figured I'd throw it out there

To reiterate what Rudyjax said, coach over club all day everyday. I know nothing about boys soccer in Houston. My daughter has been playing high level soccer in the DFW area for a while now. She just left a high profile club to play at a club that is considered "not as good" bc coach got a higher profile position there. They will probably struggle this season but my daughter will probably have an opportunity to play past highschool solely based on her coach, who he knows and the people he is able to get his team in front of.
I know not much help but find a coach you like and who can help you kid grow as a player.

Yeah we did one year in the select baseball world and I wanted to fight everyone because it's just dumb how most orgs have it set up, some have it figured it out. No one at the high levels are playing 3-8 games in a weekend. No one. So why are young kids doing this over and over. It's no wonder there is so much injury. Not to mention, how baseball has become a country club sport with all the "needs". Coach told my son not to come back to practice until he got a better bat (aka one that didnt cost less $100) and I told Coach are you going to pay for that bat? But the damage was done my son thought he wouldn't be able to hit without an expensive bat, which he figured out later on wasn't the case. But I was in the minority while everyone else wanted to travel and do all these things and have $400 bats. I didn't travel until I was in high school and even then it was limited, and back then my parents weren't in it for me to get college scholarships like a lot of these parents do, although I was fortunate enough to walk on and compete D1.

At least soccer they just need a ball and some decent cleats for equipment expenses.

Like my husband said all these people spending all this money to try to get their kids into college ball and there are so few spots (plus I know how hard college athletics is, and some may not be able to handle the pressure). If they just save/invest that money they would have a 529 plan or be able to pay for their kids to go to School no problem.

So when my son said no more baseball for now, while it sucked to hear because we love watching him play, we also were ok because I didn't want to commit to all the nonsense again (and having the extra $$ is nice). I wish there was some middle ground between rec and crazy select in baseball for those kids that need a little more than the rec leagues have to offer but don't want to commit to travel ball at 10. Soccer at least has figured that out.