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Kyle Beckerman encourages USU students to score goals

One of the most well-known stars in Utah’s professional sports scene spoke at the Taggart Student Center Ballroom on Thursday night.

Kyle Beckerman, captain of local Major League Soccer team Real Salt Lake and regular choice for the U.S. Men’s National Team, was the featured guest speaker at the free event put on by USUSA. Beckerman’s speech focused on his thoughts regarding leadership, goal setting and persistence, which he gained from his experiences playing for both club and country.

Turnout to the event was expansive, as people arrived as early as an hour before the start. A line twisted past the ballroom doorways and down the adjacent flight of stairs as fans, students and parents with children waited to enter. Clad in claret red and cobalt blue, Real Salt Lake fans anticipated the opportunity to see the midfielder up close. His name, along with a large, bold number five, distinguished fans who chose to wear their replica jerseys to the event.

“I’m just excited to see him, to meet him,” said Rachel Marchant, a family, consumer, and human development major. “He’s a really good player.”

Other attendees had their own unique reasons for their interest in Beckerman.

“To be honest, he’s the only name I know off the team,” said Walker Hoopes, a secondary education major. “I’m just interested in talking to people who have had success in their life, and to build off of that and learn from it.”

“Success” is a brief but accurate term to describe Beckerman’s career. Since his arrival at Salt Lake in 2007, he has played a crucial role in the club’s revitalization and success within the MLS. Shortly after his second season for the club began, he was named team captain and has retained his position ever since.

Constant hard work and unwavering determination were strongly emphasized in his speech.

“I put my head down, do what I know and work hard,” Beckerman said, when describing his approach to practice and training.

This approach carried him into starting positions early on in his career.

“The guys who worked hard, that I respect, those were the guys I was trying to be,” he said.

For the USUSA coordinators, Beckerman’s philosophy on persistence may have resonated well, as making the arrangements for the event proved to be no easy task.

“Kyle is someone that our office has been trying to get up here for years,” said Nate Dukatz, arts and lectures director, in an email. “This year, it happened to work out.”

Few players have the same type of experience as Beckerman, making his appearance at Utah State a unique one. Nearly 600 first-team players are active in MLS at one time, and of those, only 10 were selected to play in team USA’s 23-man squad for the 2014 World Cup.

Playing for his nation was one of Beckerman’s lifetime goals. Watching Team USA in the 1990 World Cup was a pivotal moment in his soccer career, and it stuck with him in his quest for international greatness. Beckerman recounted a conversation he had with his mother when he was considering trying out for Team USA’s youth squad.

“She told me at that time, ‘You know, someone’s got to make the team, why not you?’ I take that to everything: tournaments, games and tryouts,” he said.

Making it onto the youth team was a crucial stepping stone toward his goal, one he said he would not have achieved if he doubted himself.

Overall, Beckerman’s message was simple.

“Control what you can control,” he said on several instances. “Being a good example, working hard and believing in yourself are all things that you can control and learn.”

The night concluded with a Q&A session from the audience, with questions ranging from his thoughts on pay equality between men and women in soccer to how long it took to grow his signature hairstyle. Beckerman graciously answered every question, regardless of how arbitrary some of them were, but his message was clear. Goals aren’t only scored on a soccer field, but also in every aspect of life.

—edcollins270@gmail.com