CASA GRANDE, Ariz. (Friday, March 28th, 2014) – The Grande Sports Academy – Home of the Real Salt Lake – Arizona Academy – is pleased to announce the addition of a U-17 developmental team (RSL-AZ Elite U17) for the upcoming 2014-15 school year.The new U-17 team will be the third development team at the Grande Sports Academy, joining the already successful RSL-AZ U-16 and U-18 Elite teams. The Grande Sports Academy is also home to the Real Salt Lake U-17/18 & U-15/16 United States Soccer Development Academy teams, in which the latter won the 2013 USSDA Championship.
Tryouts for the Grande Sports Academy will be held on the following dates: April 11-13; May 23-25; June 10-12 and July 11-13. Players born between the birth years of 1996-2000 may register for the tryout at www.grandesportsacademy.
Player who may be interested in seeing the Grande Sports Academy may sign up for a one, two, four six and eight week focused residential soccer camps throughout the year. Campers play on professionally manicured soccer fields and are challenged each day to improve technically, tactically, physically and mentally. GSA offers two unique striker and goalkeeper camps which run from June 20-22 and July 18-20, 2014. For additional information visit our summer soccer camp page at grandesportsacademy.com/soccer-camps.
The Grande Sports Academy is the United States’ first and only residency soccer academy program affiliated with a professional Major League Soccer Team, 2009 MLS Cup Champions, Real Salt Lake. Since the Grande Sports Academy’s inception in 2010, 56 graduates have joined the collegiate ranks and nine players have signed a professional contract.
Grande Sports Academy residents have complete access to the finest soccer facility in this country. The complex boasts 9 professional grade championship width soccer fields, 6 lighted; an impressive 58,000 square foot training and conditioning performance center with four stadium quality locker rooms of 71 lockers each; 16 flexible classrooms with multimedia capabilities; state-of-the-art training equipment for elite athletes; an outdoor grassed technical area; and two therapy pools for recovery and rehabilitation.
Grande Sports Academy has assembled a high caliber soccer coaching staff of professionals to ensure young players’ success on and off the field. Our coaching staff is nationally recognized as exceptional disciplinarians of the game. They believe in true soccer and embed our core values of integrity, hard work, respect, discipline, teamwork and a commitment to excellence into our student athletes. Our administrative and supportive staffs are professionals dedicated to encouraging self-esteem in individual athletes, pride in the academy community and a culture that will build a lifetime of friendships and memories that cannot be found anywhere else.
The academic staff’s mission is to provide our student athletes with the highest caliber of college preparatory education. We do all of this while still providing them with the highest level of youth soccer training. Our commitment to our student athletes is to academically prepare them for application and acceptance to the finest universities in the nation and physically prepare them for the finest teams in the nation. Our tutors for the upcoming academic year are bright, well educated and extremely dedicated individuals who will foster an excitement about learning in our academy students.