The Lowe brothers love soccer more than most.

    It appears the feeling is mutual.

    Fifteen-year-old twins Trent and Tevin along with 14-year-old little brother Terrell have accepted invitations to attend the Real Salt Lake-Arizona Residential Academy in Casa Grande, Ariz., a year-round institute where many of the top youth players eat, drink and sleep soccer.

    “We’ll be playing soccer pretty much 24/7,” Trent said.

    The daily schedule of course includes a heavy dose of soccer that starts early in the morning. Meals and regular schooling are mixed in as there are two choices of regular high schools that students can attend.

    “We’ll take an hour or two for studies and then after that, it’s more soccer,” Trent said. “That’s the routine every day.”

    Real Salt Lake is the only Major League Soccer team to have a residential academy. It’s very much European in the sense that RSL will have first dibs at signing any player from its school that is ready for professional soccer.

    RSL hosts a plethora of youth camps in locations across the West where talent is identified. Rob Karas, director of RSL Youth Camps, noticed the Lowes during last year’s event in Pocatello.

    “The only reason it was possible was because of (the) camp,” Karas said. “We identified them last year and then we came back and ran some training sessions.”

    Karas and a few other coaches made a trip to the Gate City just to see what the brothers can do on the field. They were then invited to a tryout in Salt Lake from which players would be chosen for the academy.

    “We’ve been thinking about trying out for it because in some soccer magazines there was an ad about,” Tevin said. “We were always like ‘we should go try out.’ But the tryout came to us.”

    Things went well for Tevin, Trent and Terrell, to say the least.

    “They came up to us after and said they might be giving us a call about coming to Arizona,” Tevin said.

    Sure enough, the call came and the three brothers have been preparing for a long stay in Arizona ever since. Training begins on Aug. 2.

    Out of 110 kids who tried out in Salt Lake, only a few were selected. RSL hosted other tryouts in different cities and according to Kari Lowe, the brothers’ mom, only “60 to 80 were chosen from thousands of applicants.”

    “They are the first brothers to be selected and the first twins,” she said.

    Terrell will be one of the youngest students at the academy. He was born in 1998 and most of the athletes  are older.

    “He wasn’t sure if he would be able to go,” Trent said of his little brother. “But Rob wanted to get him down there too. So I guess he was one of the few ‘98s that actually tried out for this and he made it.”

    For the Lowes, who can be found playing soccer whenever they aren’t in school, it’s everything they’ve wished for.

    “We could go far, but it’s pretty much our dream, to get to play soccer 24/7 on super nice fields,” Tevin said. “The fields are pretty much professional. There is good competition, too. Everything is pretty much handed to us.”

    What can the boys expect when they get to Arizona?

    Soccer, obviously, but it’s more than just training and working out. The players compete in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy, an organization of 80 teams that train potential members of the U.S. National Soccer team during 10-month seasons. The Real Salt Lake squad plays in the Southern California League.

    “Throughout the year they do camps for young kids, so we might be helping out with those as well,” Terrell said.

    Another benefit of attending the academy and subsequently playing in the U.S. Development League is being able to perform in front of the large contingent of college scouts and coaches that are normally in attendance. In fact, 100 percent of the seniors last year at the academy earned college scholarship offers. All but two will play at a university this fall. The two that aren’t continuing their schooling signed to play for Real Salt Lake.

    “All the graduates that have been there have earned college scholarships,” Terrell said. “Even if we don’t go pro out of high school, there is always the opportunity to play in college.”

    Tevin, Trent and Terrell will be staying together in a room where normally just two athletes sleep.

    “I think we all might get sick of each other, though,” Terrell said. “At least we will have family down there to help out with the homesickness. If I was going by myself I would miss them.”

    All three brothers are understandably anxious to find out what lies ahead for them. They will miss their friends, but for the most part they are looking forward to playing soccer.

    “We’re a little nervous,” Trent said. “We’ll miss our friends, but we’ll be playing soccer every day, which is what we do anyway.”

    “We just want to have fun playing soccer,” Tevin said. “It’s a great opportunity for us.”