A soccer club will be starting in Demopolis on Tuesday, April 2.

Dr. Ronnie Chu and J.R. Revis, with the help of the men’s and women’s coaches from the University of West Alabama, will be starting Demopolis Elite Soccer. The club will offer training to age groups from 6-U to 18-U.

The first period will be for eight weeks to gauge the interest for the program, then it will be evaluated to see where to go from there.

“We want to see the numbers and the turnout,” Matthew Thorne, UWA men’s soccer head coach, said. “We want to see what response there is in town, and after the eight-week period, sit down and see what we need to do.”

The first meeting will be Tuesday, April 2 at 5 p.m. at the Sports Plex. Each session will be $5.

Both girls and boys players are invited, and they will be grouped together based on age and the number of people in each age group.

“We hope that in 10 years time, we can have players more established in soccer and have them more technically sound in the game,” Thorne said.

Graeme Orr, UWA women’s soccer coach, said it is also a chance for kids to get out and be active.

“It gives them an activity,” Orr said. “We want to get kids more active to help fight obesity, diabetes and other factors.”

He added that there could be long-term effects for the city as well.

“This could make an economic impact on Demopolis as well in the long term,” Orr said. “It will bring in teams from other cities, and even other states later down the road, that would stay in the hotels and eat at the restaurants.”