Garth lagerwey

Grande Sports Academy featured in The Salt Lake Tribune

CASA GRANDE, Ariz. – Salt Lake Tribune reporter Christopher Kamrani spent a few days at the Grande Sports World during Real Salt Lake’s weeklong preseason camp in late January.

During his stay, Kamrani explored the GSW and spoke to Director of Recruiting Miha Kline, RSL general manager Garth Lagerwey, first team right back Tony Beltran, and Academy defender Justen Glad about the $20 million facility, the soccer pipeline and the “empire Real Salt Lake is building in the desert”. Check out the article here.

Photo Gallery: Real Salt Lake Combine day 2 at the Grande Sports Academy

Grande News, Performance News, Real Salt Lake, Soccer Academy

CASA GRANDE, Ariz. – Over 20 players are participating in Real Salt Lake’s fourth annual Pro Combine at the Grande Sports Academy this week. The goal of the RSL Pro Combine is to identify quality players who have flown under the radar for any number of reasons.

RSL Pro Combine alumni include RSL MF Sebastian Velasquez (2011) and current Seattle Sounders FC DF Dylan Remick (2012), Colorado Rapids MF Tony Cascio (2011), Seattle Sounders FC MF Alex Caskey (2011), former New England Revolution MF Michael Roach (2011) and Columbus Crew MF Bernardo Añor (2010). All six above players – as well as three more from the 2010 class – were selected in the MLS SuperDraft.

Real Salt Lake General Manager Garth Lagerwey was on hand and spoke about the importance of the Combine being held in Arizona:

“In a broader sense this is also about us linking up and combining with our Academy staff. Our Academy staff last year said that there was a player, Devon Sandoval, who they really thought was a quality player and wanted us to look at. We brought him into the train with the first team and of course we were able to select him in the second round last year and he did quite really well with us. Events like this and working with our Academy have proven to be successful for us. We had our first Academy player start some games for us this year Carlos Salcedo. We are cautiously optimistic that we may add one and possibly even more Academy players ahead of next season. If that’s the case that’s a credit to the guys down here and the work that they put in. They won the U-16 National Championship this year and there are some special players on that team. The guys down here are doing everything right.”

NOTE: Click on one picture and a slider gallery will form.

Grande Sports Academy Holiday Party: RSL GM, owner, president, GSA graduates and more attend

Grande News, Performance News, Real Salt Lake, Soccer Academy

CASA GRANDE, Ariz. – The Grande Sports Academy hosted its annual Holiday Party on Monday night and Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen, general manager Garth Lagerwey, president Bill Manning, Academy graduates Coco Navarro and Ricardo Velazco were in attendance with the Academy coaching staff and players.

Hansen and Lagerwey spoke to the players and congratulated them on their U-15/16 National Championship title, while Academy goalkeeper coach Ignacio Hernandez showed a video that recapped the 2013 year.

NOTE: Click on one picture and a slider gallery will form.

Exclusive: GM Garth Lagerwey talks Real Salt Lake Academy

Grande News, Performance News, Real Salt Lake, Soccer Academy

SANDY, Utah – Real Salt Lake vice president and general manager Garth Lagerwey spoke to Grande Sports Academy marketing manager Garrett Cleverly about the Academy before the Claret-and-Cobalt’s home match against D.C. United in the U.S. Open Cup Final.

Lagerwey’s thoughts are below…

(On the status and development level of the Academy…)

LAGERWEY: “We are happy with the progress we have made. We need to continue making progress. We have our first player Carlos Salcedo, who is now starting for our first team. That is a really encouraging development. I think the next step for the academy is to identify players at a younger age. Potentially now getting kids at 14, 15 years old. That way they train for multiple years before they come up to us. I think we have made the first step of we can produce players and we have proven we can produce players. Now can we produce special players? I think Carlos could be that, but the idea of the pipeline is when we talk about how do we become one of the best leagues in the world, you must have elite youth players like the rest of the world produces. I can’t pay a higher compliment to the academy, than I think we have the staff, support and infrastructure there. Why can’t we aspire to be Barcelona? Are we there yet? Are we close? Of course not. But if we can continue to recruit the players in that training environment with that staff and with the support they have there is no reason to set any limits on ourselves. That’s how high our expectations should be. That we produce special players and I think it’s improving every year so far.”

(On the performance of the Academy players in Reserve League matches…)

LAGERWEY: “It’s funny. The Reserve League games make the players visible . But what’s more important to us is how they train with us. Take the point you made and I would tell you the kids are more prepared to succeed consistently. That means they have been well coached, well-trained and the expectations are high enough that they are being held to professional standards. When they come and train with us it’s not a shock and not a different world to them. It’s a higher level, but they have the building blocks to that equip them to adapt. What we have seen at training sessions is consistently better performance. I think if they make an impact on the game that’s great to me. That’s the icing on the cake. I’m less concerned at how they play Reserve Leagues game at 15, 16, and 17 years old. They have their whole careers ahead of them to play in front of big crowds and all that. It’s how they train and there is no question that the training has improved since the advent of the academy.”

(On the current Academy graduates the team has signed…)

LAGERWEY: “Benji Lopez and Lalo Fernandez are waiting to break through and I think they still have work to do on terms of an impacting on our team. Carlos Salcedo is a different animal. He’s come through and we signed him last July, so he’s been with us for over a year and he’s really adjusted. Big thing for Carlos was when he left he has his indoctrination happened at the end of last year. He had a little baby fat still on him and he was still adjusting and adapting. When he came back to us he was rocked and ready to go. Clearly took the off-season program very seriously changed his body. Became faster, leaner, stronger, and was better equipped to success this year. We have now initiated a strength and conditioning program down at the academy as well. Through Marshall Stoddard, who joined the academy a few weeks ago. We are excited about that and we think that’s going to make the kids better as well.”

(On winning the 2012-13 U-16 Academy Development championship in July…)

LAGERWEY: “That was a cool moment for our franchise to have those guys win that title. I think there are some promising players in that group, but those guys also have to be dedicated and understand the ultimate measure is producing good people not just good players. Winning the championship is fantastic. It’s the highest achievement you can record on your way up. But we need every one of those teams to remember that they are on their way up. One great mistake they could make was to decide they have arrived now. We want to consistently compete for champions, but also for the personal and professional of the kids. If they do that we will continue to see better and better players for Real Salt Lake.”