Class of 2012 – Page 2

RSL-AZ Soccer Academy Scores Six in 2013 National Top 100 Boys

Jordan Allen - Real Salt Lake - Arizona soccer academy - Class of 2013 — Jordan Allen

Grande Sports Academy’s soccer team place six Real Salt Lake – Arizona players into TopDrawerSoccer.com’s 2013 National Top 100 Boys. Two players were also named in the 2012 National Top 100 Boys.

RSL-AZ led the 2013 National Top 100 Boys soccer rankings with six players, followed by the LA Galaxy with five and Chivas USA with four soccer players.

Jordan Allen (ranked 5th) started the Top 100 ranking for the 2013 RSL-AZ graduating class to only be followed by Jose Navarro, Benjamin Lopez , Andrew Brody, Isaias Juarez, and Ive Burnett.

Each of these players have a healthy resume of accomplishments. Allen and Lopez participated in the U18 Men’s National Team camp in December 2011. Brody is currently leading the RSL-AZ U16 team with 8 goals and shares the most minutes played with Juarez. The entire 2013 U16 team leads the US Development Soccer Academy SoCal Divsion of the West Conference with 2.33 points per game.

The future for playing soccer at the collegiate level is bright as well. Verbal commitments have been made by Allen to attend the University of Virginia and Brody has selected the University of Louisville to continue their soccer and academic careers.

Cole Nagy - Real Salt Lake - Arizona soccer academy - Class of 2012 — Cole Nagy

Midfielder Cole Nagy (ranked 19th) and Forward Maikon Orrellana (ranked 38th) found their way on the 2012 National Top 100 Boys soccer rankings. It is not surprising that Cole and Maikon were selected as they both earned spots for the NSCAA All American team and contributed playing time to their respective National soccer teams. Maikon also led the league with 20 goals last season and played in official Reserve League Games for MLS’s Real Salt Lake. This year, Maikon’s 10 goals and Cole’s persistent attacks have assisted in keeping the RSL-AZ U18’s soccer team in the top half of the division standings. Nagy has made a college commitment to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

Grande Sports Academy is holding open soccer tryouts and residential soccer camps for the Real Salt Lake – Arizona soccer academy. The academy is providing plenty of opportunities to become a member of one of the leading soccer programs in the United States. This is BIG, this is GRANDE SPORTS.

Elliot Farmer – Soccer Changes his World View

Soccer Academy

I am lucky to come from the family I come from because they have provided me with opportunities to develop the tools necessary to become a successful person. I am not like many other children who scarcely see their parents; my mother is a stay at home mom because my father has a stable job in which he only works about a nine hour day, as a partial owner of his architectural firm. This combination allows for a secure environment in which I have been able to spend sufficient time with both of my parents. They have taught me how incredibly crucial it is to have a great education, but also the value of extracurricular activities to learn things that cannot be taught in school. The relationship I have with my parents built the foundation for how I live my life.

My parents have always put me in the best atmosphere possible where they know I will be challenged and can grow as an individual. For my first three years of high school my parents were able to put me into a private high school, St. Pius X, where the motto is “Commitment to Excellence.” My school integrated this into everything that takes place whether it was community service or school work. Here I was forced to teach myself the meaning of hard work and motivation. The classes were quite rigorous and it was no easy ride. At times I wanted to give up, but I was taught to persevere, and by working hard I would get through the quarter or semester.

I am very thankful for the school I went to because it was required of each student to serve at least 40 hours of community service. Many people may look at community service as a waste of time because there is no financial benefit in it for you. I was one of those people until I found the project that really changed my opinion. My father who is a philanthropist got me into his program, Rebuilding Together Albuquerque (RTA). RTA is a continuous project in which people go and restore homes of those in need or elderly. This experience taught me to appreciate everything I have because the types of places I worked were the places you hear about but never actually thought they really existed. It also taught me to respect people from all walks of life because even though someone might have a house equivalent to a cardboard box there is still something special about that person that makes them unique from everyone else.

I am on my fourth and final year of high school and I choose to spend this year at Grande Sports Academy in Casa Grande, Arizona. I am all the way out here by myself because of the basic principles I have learned from my parents and school; respect, hard work, motivation and not being a judgmental person. The sole reason for being in Casa Grande is to play for the Real Salt Lake – Arizona Academy soccer team, which is the youth team for the professional team based out of Utah. There are about forty kids who live at the residential academy in dormitories, and I am tested daily because I am surrounded by some of the most talented youth players in the nation and the world. Here, my dreams are in the making because I am put in a situation in which almost every player in this country would kill to be in.

My dreams of becoming a collegiate and professional soccer player are finally in the works because of all the positive and negative experiences I have had that shaped the very person I am today. Even though I would like to play soccer at the highest level possible, I plan on graduating from college with a Biology major, and to pursue a career in biology.

One experience I have that really stands out from all the others is my trip to Costa Rica during the summer of 2009. This trip included flying out to Costa Rica and staying about 100 yards from the warm Atlantic Ocean. This trip was put together for my soccer team Albuquerque United Football Club (AUFC) solely to play some local teams and tan in the sun for a week. What originally was meant to be a vacation became an eye opener for me.

I did not know Costa Rica was a developing country before I landed, I imagined it to be a country full of warm waters and lovely weather. I quickly learned it is much more than that. Driving to our home for the next week we drove past shanty towns and five family members riding on one dirt bike. I was very appalled at what I was seeing and I did not know how to react. I was quick to judge the country, and labeled it ghetto.

Our team volunteered to do some humanitarian aid and help clean up some schools and teach some of their local students about our values in the United States. What I thought were ghetto people were people just like me. Even though they were wearing hand-me-downs and ripped shoes they looked happier than anyone I had ever seen. It was surreal to me because I always imagined people in need as sad and in pain.

When we played a local soccer team we showed up in our rental vans all dirty from the mud roads. We got out of the van in our flashy uniforms and starred in astonishment of the quality of the fields. The grass was higher than your ankles with patches of mud and rocks. Being a pampered American, this did not suit very well with me. I was quick to comment on the terrible state of the fields and incredulously asked how anyone could possibly play on them. When the other team showed up and strapped on their boots started playing like it was the best day of their lives. I was still in shock, but admired their positive spirits.

What I gained from this trip was a paramount level of appreciation for everything I have because like most Americans we just want and want and want. We never take time to actually see what we have because we are too busy complaining about what we do not have. The players in Costa Rica just played soccer because they love to play, they did not play for the expensive shoes or amazing fields. This resonated with me because I try to notice everything I have in life and not take it for granted. I want to get the most out of everything I do because I know there are people around me who dream of the opportunities I have and would do anything for it.

Alfredo Zendejas – Moving for Soccer and Education

Soccer Academy

I was born in Juarez, Mexico, and seventeen years later, I never thought that I would be in the place I am right now. Playing soccer and continuing my education at a US Soccer Development Academy, Real Salt Lake – Arizona. The day after I was born, we had to rush out of the hospital because my parents could not pay the medical bill. My family’s next mission was to move to the United States in search of a better life. We packed up our house in two suitcases and moved to Michigan, where my dad had a job prospect. Luckily, my dad had the foresight to finish his schooling before we moved to the United States, and was a certified business accountant. With two other siblings, my mom was forced to stay at home and take care of us while my dad worked for BOSCH, an auto part manufacturer. A year later, he was transferred to El Paso, Texas. By then we had a little idea of what we were doing, and we began integrating into the American life.

Alfredo Zendejas during a Real Salt Lake - Arizona soccer practice at Grande Sports Academy

Every kid has nightmares of their first day of school. However, my nightmares were nothing compared to everyone else. I did not know any English at all. I slowly started to get a hang of the language, even though I was still speaking only Spanish at home. It took me about a year and a half to be able to communicate well with others, but I still had a hard time overcoming my insecurities. Every time I would talk to someone, my thick Spanish accent would come out. I had a very difficult time dealing with kids from school because of the way I talked. As the years went by, my accent started to fade and I began to fit into the American community. I started hanging out with friends from more diverse backgrounds. One thing that helped me transcend cultural divides was the unifying power of sports.

In the sixth grade, my parents signed me up for a recreational soccer team over the summer. At my very first practice, I fell in love with soccer. I slowly started to get better, and the next year I left the recreational team and moved to a competitive soccer club. I stayed at that club for six years, and they made a huge impact on my development as a player. I was confident enough in my play where I thought I could attend a tryout for Real Salt Lake Academy in Arizona. At the end of the weeklong soccer academy tryout, the head coach of Real Salt Lake Academy, Martin Vásquez, asked me to stay and become part of their residential program. Moving away from my friends and family my senior year was a sacrifice, but that sacrifice helped me make my dreams a little bit closer to reality. While my friends back home were enjoying parties and senioritis, I was training hard to prepare myself for the next step in soccer and in my education.

I have come a long way in a short time. I have crossed border in search of a better life, moved to Grande Sports Academy in Casa Grande, Arizona to pursue my soccer dreams, and will venture on my next journey to college. I know being a student-athlete at a university will be very challenging. I have faced many changes in my life, and I have learned how to adapt with hard work and perseverance. I plan to explore different majors during my first year at college until I find the right one for me. My Dad’s dedication to finishing school so he can provide for our family serves as an example for me on how education can affect your life. In college, I plan to take advantage of the opportunities presented to me to ensure I have a more promising future. Playing soccer for my university would just be icing on the cake.