- June 14, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
These days, standing out in the prep sports scene and earning scholarship offers to play at the collegiate level is a full-time job.
Jared Antista is embracing that and taking it to another level with soccer in the Sarasota area.
Antista founded DME Academy — Sarasota, a soccer development program, in 2023 to give local players the opportunity to go all-in on their craft.
That includes trips abroad, players challenging themselves against some of the best soccer stars in the world and future plans of a commuter school.
The United States does not have the best soccer in the world and no one can argue.
That’s why Antista believes it's important to expose his players to other perspectives — in soccer and culture.
Players at DME Academy have already had the chance to take a trip to Spain, Ireland and most recently, Italy.
Antista returned home from his trip to Italy on April 21 and said he couldn’t eat another slice of pizza for ‘at least another month.’
Players watched Italian professional soccer clubs S.S. Lazio and AS Roma play matches, did walking tours of the city, made pasta, visited Vatican City and the Colosseum in Rome and played 16 games, including one in which they had to be escorted out by security after winning.
“You can see the world through soccer and the different levels of play,” Antista said. “They have great stories they come home with. At a kids’ soccer game here, it’s your parents and grandparents. Over there, there were people lighting off fireworks and waving flags at a U12 game. It was wild.”
Aside from the tourist side of DME Academy’s overseas trips, there has been value in being exposed to different styles of soccer.
Antista, who played collegiate soccer at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, said the soccer in Spain is the best he’s ever seen, and it impacted how he teaches the game.
“They’re very technical, very smart players,” he said. “When we beat FC Barcelona, the coach said, ‘Your girls are bigger, faster, and want it more, but more touches, more touches, more touches.’ So I came home and started changing all of our training methodology to get more technical touches for every age as part of our everyday practice so we get more contacts on the ball.”
Along with trips to different countries, some players at DME Academy have had the chance to take part in foreign exchange programs to play soccer in Spain and one player, Yan Diomande, had the chance to play in La Liga against French soccer star Kylian Mbappe.
Antista said the next trip he’s planning for the spring of 2026 is one to Argentina — the country of world-famous soccer star Lionel Messi and the 2024 Copa America champions.
But Antista has a bigger vision for DME Academy than planning its next trip.
DME Academy doesn’t have a physical location.
Its players currently meet up at fields rented by Antista at Tatum Ridge Elementary, Fruitville Park and Premier Sports Complex.
However, he said he’s looking into finding an office space so players can commit to day-long soccer training mixed with education.
Antista envisions that day-to-day experience looking like training from 9 to 11 a.m., rest from 11 to noon, showers and lunch and, online education with a part-time teacher guiding students through the material from noon to 4 p.m., a rest at home and then back to the fields at night to train again with their DME team.
He anticipates around five to 15 students for the first year in 2026.
“We need more touches on the ball to get better, and the only way to get better at soccer is to put more time into it, and that’s life,” he said. “I think COVID-19 taught us that you don’t have to sit in a classroom for seven hours a day to get your schoolwork done. My kids during COVID-19 could get through their work in two, three, four hours with my wife helping and then they could do other things. I think dispersing their energy into their passions is the right thing for people to do.”
This kind of commitment to soccer isn’t for everyone, something Antista readily admits, but it’s an option he wants to make available for those willing to make the sacrifice.
For a local soccer player with big dreams, DME Academy could be an attractive alternative for the typical experience.
