Real Colorado is one of the most respected youth clubs in the country outside the pro academy system. Its elite teams compete in the ECNL and ECNL RL, three deep on the girls side and four deep on the boys. Those teams sit at the top of a 4,200-player club that runs from three-year-olds to USL W League and League Two.

"At the elite level, we expect our players to be college driven,” said CEO Jared Spires. “While the college pathway is our primary focus, we’re also proud of the number of players who have gone on to compete professionally. Ultimately, everything we do is about preparing players for their next opportunity, wherever the game may take them."

The pathway to the top

Most of Real Colorado's elite players go on to college soccer. A few go straight to the pros.

The results speak for themselves. Sophia Wilson, Mallory Swanson, Jaelin Howell, Janine Sonis, Ethan Horvath, and Canadian international Tajon Buchanan all came through the club. In a recent US Women's National Team match against Spain, three Real Colorado products were on the pitch at once.

"We were the vehicle," Jared said. "These players were special. We got to train them and make sure they loved the game."

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Why Real Colorado chose PlayerData

Real Colorado had trialed GPS from different providers at events over the years. But, they were reluctant to fully dive in. Before committing to a GPS tracker for soccer, Jared wanted three things: a wearable players would happily wear, data a coach could read without being a sports scientist, and a setup that scales across directors running several teams each.

When they came across PlayerData, they realized they found a product that checked all those boxes. And more than technology, the people sealed it. Spires particularly values his interactions with Maddy Tinsley and Karlie Young, two PlayerData team members who thoroughly understand the sport and the landscape as former NCAA Division I players with coaching experience.

"It felt a lot less transactional and a lot more like a partnership," Jared said.

When Jared had questions about how the data could serve goalkeepers, he learned PlayerData has been working with the US Men's National Team on goalkeeper-specific metrics.

"How cool is that?" he said. "They're working with US Soccer."

How the club uses the data

Real Colorado runs six sets of EDGE Air units across the top team in every age group from U13 to U19 on both the boys and girls sides. Neighboring age groups share a set, since they never play at the same time. The U15s, for example, share with the U14s. Several more teams have since signed up on their own.

"Soccer is one of the most subjective sports there is," Jared said. "Anything objective has real value."

Here's how the club puts it to work.

Training vs. match load. Coaches compare a training session to a match. "If a player's numbers are well below the match, they can see they're not getting what they need from training," Jared said. "And a coach can see they haven't trained the team to replicate the match that week."

Team benchmarks. Staff share the top three performers and the team average after sessions. Players see where they stand, and nobody gets singled out.

Explosive movements. Two players in the same position might cover similar distance. When one has three times the explosive movements, and three times the goals, the data starts a clear conversation about what it takes to reach a US Soccer training center.

Positional profiles. The club is building a picture of a Real Colorado striker at U15 and U16: accelerations, decelerations, sprint distance, and sprint efforts. "If you're not there yet," Jared said, "now you have something to strive for."

Advice for club directors

For Jared, GPS also signals something to families.

"It tells people you're a professional organization," he said. "And the players want to wear them."

His advice to other clubs is to start focused.

"Lean on the PlayerData team to understand what it can do, then work with them on how you'll use it," he said. "Pick a few specific things you want to measure and start there." 

Real Colorado set clear deliverables for year one and goals for years two and three. As the data builds, patterns emerge, from how training load stacks up against matches to what a U15 striker looks like at Real Colorado, and the club expands what it looks at. 

"Have a plan, so you have something to measure," Jared said. "That's how you know your investment is paying off."

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