Our Mission
Our mission at Salient Touch Futbol Academy is to set a new standard. We focus on the holistic development of soccer players through talent, creativity, precision, and accountability. We aim to provide the highest level of skills and training structured specifically to achieve the individual physical, mental, and personal goals and needs of each player.
Our Philosophy
Meet Our Team
Antonio Perez
Director of Coaching, Co-Founder
Coach Tony’s love for the sport of soccer began at 4 years old when he started playing. He felt a natural attachment to the game from very early on and developed a creative relationship with the ball that allowed him to be his most expressive.
As a young player, he calls himself your typical overly-aggressive ball hog, uncoachable at times, and risky from taking half field shots on goal. Over the years, with quality coaching, he evolved into a more balanced player through discipline and a greater understanding of the game. Coach Tony has played the entire field, but he is a central midfielder or outside back at heart, because of his work ethic and ability to create opportunities.
Coach Tony played for FC Dallas from u10-u18, traveling to England at u16 for a 6-week training in St. Peterborough and trialing with Cambridge. At u18 he committed to play with SV Morlautern in Germany where he returned to play another season at u20.
His success in coaching stems from his natural love of the game, coupled with his extensive playing experience and ability to connect with each and every player’s unique personality to maximize their potential. It truly is incredible to see the transformation in the players he coaches.
Dominique Molina
CEO, Co-Founder
#1 Question for Dom: “Did you play soccer?!”
Nope! Dominique was too cool for soccer, she wasn’t interested in being a grass fairy. JUST KIDDING! 😉 Instead she captained the boys varsity wrestling team and wrestled at Women’s Nationals in Fargo, ND. She continued on in MMA, kicked a lot of butt and took some names.
Dominique graduated from the University of Florida, with a concentration in Sports Marketing. Her career began with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Sponsorship Marketing – yes, American football. She also started a boot camp fitness company called MissFIT’s which she instructed on the side straight out of college.
When she met Antonio, she knew she had found love… in the coaching sense. She and Antonio partnered to create Salient Touch Futbol Academy where they began training on public fields prior to acquiring the training academy at Real Soccer Center. Her love for soccer stems from her son’s passion for the game and her own experience in sports which she feels is the reason she is who she is today. “Never give in, never give up!”
Kelsey O’Mary
Director of Operations, Technical Coach
Kelsey’s love of the game started at age 4. She loved a lot of things about playing soccer as a kid, but she has to admit that her mom rocked the halftime and postgame snack responsibility – from orange slices to juice boxes to Scooby Doo fruit snacks, she and her team were never disappointed, nor hungry :).
Until age 10, Kelsey played forward and was the leading scorer on her team! Her claim-to-fame as goalkeeper all started when her team’s keeper didn’t show one day and she volunteered to play keeper for the team – her athleticism and fearlessness, coupled with the fact that she was a clutch player in the face of adversity, earned her the official title of Goalkeeper for her team.
Coach Kelsey captained her Richland High School team her junior and senior seasons. She was named District 5-5A Goalkeeper of the Year and the Most Valuable Goalkeeper in District 3-5A. She then went on the play for the Oklahoma Sooners where she was a 4-year starter. She holds the all-time saves record at OU with 390 and is fourth in career shutouts with 17. In 2016, she was named a WPSL All-Star. She played for both the Chicago Redstars and the Houston Dash before she went on to play professionally in Sweden in 2018 and 2019, winning MVP of the entire league and MVP of her team.
Kelsey’s coaching experience is no less impressive than her playing experience! She was the FC Dallas ECNL Goalkeeper Coach, Texas Woman’s Soccer Goalkeeper Coach, UT Dallas Woman’s Soccer Goalkeeper Coach, ODP Coach, and has 8 years of experience as a Performance/Strength Coach.
Kelsey’s ability to create intensity, while still bringing detailed technical coaching into the sessions, is what makes her an excellent coach. Her passion for coaching goes beyond the field and into the future of each player.
Rafa Reyes
Head of player development, Technical Coach
Coach Rafa started playing soccer at 5 years old with his school friends in his home country of Puerto Rico. His favorite part of the game is teamwork; as he grew up, he loved the learning process and the mental challenge that the sport offers.
As he became a competitive player, he developed as a striker and midfielder, more specifically the number 9 position. He always brought strength and speed, and excellent vision of the game. He was the kind of player to keep it simple, not much dribbling but always took the opportunities to score a goal. Mentally speaking, he’s always had a ‘never give up’ mindset and a captain attitude.
In Puerto Rico, he played for the best futbol clubs at the time where he had the opportunity to play in international tournaments and win. He played for a year at Turabo University in Puerto Rico and then in Mexico. After suffering a serious knee injury and after almost 1 year of recovery, he returned to play in PR for Sevilla PR and SFN PR. In this club (SFN) he was already a player and assistant coach.
Coach Rafa believes that what makes him a great coach is his passion for the sport and for teaching others to understand and love it in an intelligent way. He has coached and learned from the best local and international coaches, and obtained FIFA and Bfut certifications and licenses in the process. His experiences led him to train national team players both in PR and USA; most recently he coached for the professional club, New York Red Bulls.
AB Sanogo
Technical Coach
Coach AB started playing soccer at 4 years old. His dad grew up playing in Africa, so as soon as AB could walk, he had a ball at his feet. For as long as he can remember, soccer has been his biggest love and passion, feeling almost as if he was “born to play”. He says he loves the competition, the camaraderie within the team, the training, watching professionals, the winning, and even the losing.
Coach AB plays anywhere up top, an all-around forward. He feels his biggest strength is “striking the ball… HARD!” (We can attest to the truth of this statement!). He’s the first to admit that he’s not a flashy dribbler – he plays smart and simple, and if he has an opportunity in front of the goal, he says, “I’ll put the goalie in the back of the net along with the ball if I have to.”
Coach AB played for the Dallas Texans Academy. When he was 16, he was invited to play in the SC Freiburg academy in the Bundesliga, where he spent 6 months before electing to come home rather than signing away his option to play in college. He received a Division 1 Scholarship to play soccer at Colgate University in NY and, since graduating, has enjoyed several semi-professional playing opportunities.
When asked what he feels makes him a great coach, he says his personal experience as a player, along with his passion and love for the game, that it is 100% contagious. He demands the players’ best effort and attention, and he promises to create a fun environment all while developing their skills. “Soccer is supposed to be fun. It’s ‘The Beautiful Game’ – a creative art form that the people in every single country love. It teaches you how to work hard, how to lose and get back up, how to be a functioning member of a team, how to love, how to hate… These are valuable life skills that make people who they are.”
Bishop Carreon
Technical Coach
Coach Bishop began playing soccer at 4 years old at a conveniently located soccer field just across the street from his home in Terrell, TX. He began playing club soccer at the age of 8, and admits that initially his love for the game stemmed from the friendships he made with his teammates. He and his teammates motivated each other to be the best at their game, and he says it intensified the glory of winning games and major achievements together.
Coach Bishop always played a central role (mainly CAM) on his teams. He feels his greatest strength on any team and what he has been commended for is his vision on the field with and without the ball. He says, “Looking at the facts, in a 90-minute game, you run a total distance of close to 10 miles and only touch the ball 20-30 times for no more than a couple of seconds” – time without the ball is the majority of the game. He did well not only finding teammates in open space while he had the ball, but he did well creating space for his teammates when he did not have the ball.
Coach Bishop feels his focus on building strong character is what makes me a great coach. “Physical strength and technique is easy to improve through training, but it is the self-reflection and being able to take something you learned in training and apply it to your character is that makes a player a great player.”
Waleed Cherif
Technical Coach
As an Algerian, Coach Waleed says that football is part of his culture, identity, and ingrained in his blood. The earliest memory that he has a playing soccer is as a 4 year old but he has had a ball at his feet since he was born.
Growing up, he says he loved to “bang in goals!” Celebrating every goal, running to the corner flag with his teammates is a feeling that is unmatched and, for him, was the culmination of a player’s IQ, hard, work, and technical excellence. He played as an attacking mid/false 9, and believes his strengths are the understanding of the game, his passing abilities, and 1v1s.
Waleed played NCAA D1 for Duquesne University. Some of his greatest playing achievements started with being part of the US Youth National Team training centers, winning Best Player of the Region in UPSL (14 goals, 2 assists in 11 games), Ligue 1 (1st tier) in Algeria with RC Arba, and NISA with both Gold Star FC and Michigan Stars.
Coach Waleed believes that what makes him a great coach is his playing experience that has attributed to his great understanding of the game coupled with his love and passion for the sport.
Wariebi Jituboh
Technical Coach
Coach Wariebi was born in Queens, NY but grew up in Limerick, Ireland. He fell in love with soccer at a very young age. The thing he loved most about playing was the ability to express himself with the ball while competing at a very high level.
Wariebi’s career was spent in the winger and striker positions and he feels his biggest strengths were taking players on 1v1 and having an eye for the goal. He believes his playing style is pretty direct; he says he’s always been confident in his ability and never shied away from a defender.
Coach Wariebi represented the Irish youth National Team, and experienced both the Manchester City and Sunderland academies before moving to the United States.
He was named one of the nation’s top 11 players while playing for Solar Chelsea in 2017 as well as played D1 with the University of Dayton! He loves teaching soccer but more importantly, he says he loves instilling confidence into the future stars of the game. When he’s not on field, he’s probably studying to finish his Doctor of Chiropractic degree!
Malachi Walker
Technical Coach
Coach Malachi started playing soccer when he was 4 years old for a club team in his then hometown, Knoxville, TN. He loved that the game made him feel “unstoppable” and that he could forget about everything else going on in the world around him.
At his younger ages, Coach Malachi always played in the forward position. Currently he plays for the u19 FC Dallas ECNL team as the Center Attacking Mid or Left Wing. He says that as a kid he was always the attacking strength of the team, he would dribble the whole team and score every game. That still carries with him today, he’s the heart of the attack of his team. He’s a very technical skiller that also distributes the ball to the wingers and strikers.
We first met Malachi when he was 14, we spotted him working intensely and diligently every single day alone in American Indoor when he thought nobody was watching. We invited him into our trainings as a player and with his continued hard work, he quickly developed and the following season he made the FC Dallas team where he has played for the past 3.5 years and worked his way up to the ECNL u19 team.
He loves coaching because he feels he’s matured as a player through his years of experience and he’s able to challenge players in ways he wished he had been challenged to become an even better player. Coach Malachi is an excellent leader and his work ethic is unreal; ask him about the book he authored at just 12 years old!
James Doyle
Technical Coach
As soon as he could stand, Coach Doyle says he started dribbling and kicking balls around the back garden. Born in Liverpool, England, he joined his first team at 5 years old. His favorite thing about playing as a child was trying to recreate spectacular goals, passes, and tackles he had watched from that weekend’s Match of the Day show.
Coach Doyle says he played every position he could as a child never wanting to leave the field, and finding a home in central midfield around 12 years old and sticking there ever since. His biggest strength has always been his work rate, which allowed his range of passing to shine, as he always won the ball back quickly. While he admits he was never the most skillful, he always had success driving the ball towards the backline, finding shots and passes to strikers from there.
At the age of 8, Coach Doyle was signed by the Manchester City Academy and competed in tournaments all over the world. Some of his teammates included Phil Foden, and Jadon Sancho, who was recently selected for the England National team for Euro 2021. At age 16, he signed for Blackpool FC, playing for their u18’s whilst training with their first team for 2 years. He says he then traveled “to this side of the pond” to play for Northeastern State University as a 4-year starter and 3-year captain.
As a player, he says he has always had to fight for everything he ever achieved. He was very fortunate to be coached by ex-pros who are now some of the most promising young managers in the professional game. He feels this passion, coupled with the lessons he has learned from great coaches he met along the way, is what makes him a great coach.
Aaron Pondeca
Junior Technical Coach
Coach Aaron, brother to Coach Aydin, started playing soccer when he was 2 years old. As he matured into the player he is today, he says he loved the creativity of the game and the “free-flow feeling” he gets when dribbling. He plays several attacking positions including left/right wing, center attacking mid, and striker and possesses a higher level of dribbling skill than others in his position. Additionally, he is an intelligent player, which has made him an asset to his current FC Dallas u19 MLS Next team.
As a younger player, Aaron followed in his older siblings’ footsteps and started playing at City Futsal, not starting to play outdoor until he was 14, and at the age of 15, he began playing at FC Dallas.
Coach Aaron brings great intensity to his coaching sessions, demanding quality from the players. He is a great leader, and is a natural leader amongst our coaching team.
Aydin Pondeca
Junior Technical Coach
Coach Aydin, brother to Coach Aaron, started playing soccer when he was 2 years old, following in the footsteps of his talented siblings. As a young player growing up, he lived for the excitement of scoring goals! He plays as a winger and sometimes drops back to an outside back position and feels his greatest strengths are 1v1 defending.
Coach Aydin is currently player at the highest level at his age on the FC Dallas MLS Next team.
Christian Camargo
Technical Coach
Coach Christian grew up in DFW and says he was only 1 when he first touched a soccer ball and 4 years old when he started playing. What he loved most growing up was practicing a skill that he had seen on TV and mastering it. He loved the places that the sport took him, and the people that he met along the way.
Christian played center mid, both holding and attacking. His strengths that he feels he brought to his teams were creating chances, his vision for the field, and playing the game simply. His career began playing for the Texas Longhorns, FC Dallas USFF DA Academy and ODP. In 2010, Christian was invited to a one week camp in Mexico City with Club America. He then landed in Guanajuato to try out for Leon where he stayed a short time and went on loan to San Luis. Since then he’s played for UPSL teams in the area.
Coach Christian believes that what makes him a great coach is the love and passion he has for the game and can now pass on to the next generation of players.
Jay Lee
Technical Coach
Coach Jay started playing soccer at 8 years old, trained by his dad where he grew up in Georgia. He joined his first team at the age of 10. His favorite part of the game was always the skill moves, footwork, body feints, and most importantly the feeling of scoring GOALS!
For the majority of his career, Jay played winger with his secondary position as striker – his personal strengths were his ability and confidence in taking on players and creating goal-scoring opportunities for both himself and his teammates.
His playing career led him from Austin Lonestar and North Texas ODP to being scouted for a youth team in Italy, Empoli FC a Serie A (first division). He then transferred to Austria SV Horn (first division), a youth team leading him to playing in Spain for 3 years and then to beginning his professional career in the states.
Coach Jay feels that what makes him a great coach is his balance between fun and work. He believes in teaching players a strong work ethic – knowing when it’s time to train and work when you step on the field, but also loving the game, and enjoying the ball.
Pablo Sato
Junior Technical Coach
Coach Pablo was 7 years old when he started playing soccer in his home country, Colombia. His very first team was a very small team in his neighborhood; they had only 1 coach for over 40 players. He says that growing up, all the way to this day, his favorite part of the game has been all the friendships he has made, and says he has “this beautiful sport to thank.”
Pablo has always played as a Goalkeeper. He says his greatest strengths are the reflects, leadership, and good distribution. He transitioned into playing Academy for a professional team in Colombia until U-20. At that time, he moved to the United States and played 4 years of college soccer and continues to play semi-professionally.
Coach Pablo feels that his passion and love that he has for the game is what makes him a great coach. He wants to help build the new soccer generation in America!
Darrius Miller
Junior Technical Coach
Coach Darrius started playing soccer when he was 4 years old. He said that as a little kid, he just loved running around doing anything active, or playing goalie for fun, but as he continued to mature as a competitive player, he preferred any position in the attack. His strengths as a player were his speed, dribbling, ability to score GOALS, his aggressiveness, and his leadership qualities.
Darrius played in Spain for Club de Fútbol Motril and Base Gabia CF in the 3rd division and prior to that attended Kansas Wesleyan University, and since played semi-professionally for FC Dallas Dynamo in the UPSL. Coach Darrius believes that his knowledge of the game, his leadership qualities and his ability to connect with players are what make him an excellent coach!
Maya Walker
Junior Technical Coach
Coach Maya started playing soccer when she was 6; she began playing on the same team of her older brother Coach Malachi, in their hometown of Knoxville, TN. What she loved most about the game as a young player was the act of being physical. She loved playing with and against boys because they were more physical than the girls at those ages and she feels it helped her learn how to be tougher.
Currently, Coach Maya plays as Right Wing or Center Forward. She brings a lot of pace as a forward which helps her to get to through balls and accelerate past her opponents with ease. She also brings physicality to her team by competing for every ball.
Coach Maya started her career and love for the game playing recreationally. She wanted to play at the next level which is when she came to play for FC Dallas which provided her with the development and competition she needed. Maya began training at Salient when she was 13 years old to better her all around abilities and attributes Salient for making her a much more influential player on her team. Like her brother, she worked her way up to the FC Dallas u17 ECNL team which has helped her advance to the top level she plays in today at her age.
Coach Maya has an eye for understanding exactly what a player needs in both group sessions and her private sessions, and she can quickly make adjustments to show players in different ways what they need to get the most out of their training sessions.