Living here at Grande Sports Academy has been an amazing experience. From the coaching staff to the hotel staff, everyone here wants what is best for you, the athlete. I am so happy I made the decision to move down to “The Grande”. I believe that moving down here has truly helped me develop not only as a player, but also as a person. Living away from home is always a tough experience, but the caring and kind people who run things around here have been amazing.
I cannot say enough good things about the set up here at Grande Sports Academy. The facilities are extremely state of the art and the fields are unbelievably perfect. Grande Sports Academy is truly a desert oasis. It’s a place where a serious soccer player can hone in on their skills and make the step to either college or to professional soccer career. I do not believe I would have been able to land a soccer scholarship to UCLA without the help of the Real Salt Lake -Arizona Soccer Academy and GSA. I was able to move down here last August and put all life’s distractions behind me. By living here I am able to focus the majority of my time on soccer.
I really wanted to keep my skills sharp and continue to develop before I head off to college in July. Grande Sports Academy is ideally set up so that all the players here can minimize off field distractions and maximize their soccer potential. The rest of the MLS clubs will hopefully be able to follow in the footsteps of Real Salt Lake – Arizona soccer academy/GSW and build residential programs in the future.
I am very thankful to the creators of Grande Sports Academy, Mr. Ron Burks and his partner Ms. Michael Saunders, for putting so much into the GSA/RSL-AZ Soccer Academy. They are truly a part of our family here in Casa Grande and it is amazing to see how they care so much about our players and our teams.
After only one year, our Real Salt Lake – Arizona academy has become a respected and well-known youth soccer academy in the United States. Without the hard work of our coaches, staff, and players, we would not be anywhere near where we are now. I am so thankful to be a part of such an amazing and innovative place. I am excited to be able to look back 10 or 15 years from now and say that I was a part of Grande Sports Academy and Real Salt Lake’s original academy team in Casa Grande. I know this place will just get better and better every year.
We have had so many MLS teams come to train for preseason and it’s an amazing experience to interact with and speak to professional players. It inspires me to hear them talk about how much they love the facilities at Grande Sports World. Hearing the way the pros talk about GSW pushes me to take full advantage of this place everyday.
Outside of the amazing soccer life style here, I find a little bit of peace and quiet out on the golf course. The golf staff has been great to me and I appreciate them letting me play countless rounds of golf and hit a countless amount of balls on the range. I believe it is important to get away from soccer a little bit. Maybe once a week I try to find time to play golf or play guitar and just relax my mind for a few hours.
I cannot say enough good things about this place. GSA is professional, extremely state of the art, and just an overall great place to develop as a soccer player. It has been amazing to train under Martin Vasquez, as he is a very successful coach and was once a very successful player. Martin only enhances the professionalism of GSA. I am excited to check in every year and see how much this place develops in the future. The sky is the limit for the hard working people here in Casa Grande at the Francisco Grande Resort. My experience here at GSA for the last few years has been nothing less than perfection. I look forward to finishing off my time here with a great end to our academy season hopefully as national champions! It would be my greatest honor to bring back a national championship to the GSA/RSL –AZ academy!
