RSL captain Kyle Beckerman speaks to packed house at Utah State
Real Salt Lake captain Kyle Beckerman, speaking on the Utah State campus to more than 700 students and community members on Thursday, knew how to connect with his audience right from the start.
“My brother-in-law graduated a couple of years ago from Utah State,” Beckerman said. “So I kind of have Aggie blood in me already.”
Later, when asked by a young child in the audience what his favorite color is, Beckerman wryly replied, “Claret and cobalt” – RSL’s team colors – “and Aggie blue, of course.”
The standing-room-only crowd – many wearing shirts, hats and scarves with the claret and cobalt – greeted Beckerman’s appearance on-stage with a cheer and a rendition of the team’s fight song.
The defensive midfielder, who has played in Salt Lake since 2007 and led RSL to the 2009 MLS Cup, spoke to the enthusiastic audience of his journey from wrestling and playing soccer as a boy in eastern-Maryland to starting for Team USA in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
He used those life experiences to share what he’s learned about setting goals and being a leader.
Beckerman’s interest in soccer, he said, really took off while watching Team USA play in the 1990 World Cup. He decided then that he wanted to play for the national team someday. He visualized himself playing for the team, he said, to the point that every note he left for his mom when he was younger would include his autograph and “USA #15” below his name.
His dreams were realized when he started the first game for the United States in the 2014 World Cup, the number 15 proudly displayed on the back of his jersey and the U.S. crest over his heart.
“The way I really looked at that happening is this is a door that just opened,” Beckerman said. “I’m ready for this. I’ve been waiting for this my whole life.”
Beckerman also talked about taking an RSL team that won just one game the year before his arrival in 2007 and turning it into the league champion two seasons later.
“Winning and losing, they’re contagious,” Beckerman said. “If you start losing, it becomes contagious and you find ways to lose the game. That was Salt Lake before … The first thing we had to do was try to change this mentality and try to get this winning mentality.”
Real Salt Lake has been a perennial contender since Beckerman’s arrival and is the only undefeated team left in MLS this season.
He finished his remarks with some advice for the students in attendance.
“If I can give you guys one thing to take home,” Beckerman said, “The biggest thing is once the door opens, you’ve got to be ready. You have to be prepared and you have to be ready to walk through that door and never go back through it. You have to be ready for when that opportunity knocks.”
After his planned comments, Beckerman answered questions from the audience, then stayed an extra hour shaking hands, taking pictures and signing autographs.
“It was actually really cool to learn who he is,” said Jimmy McAllister, a sophomore at Utah State and an RSL fan. “That was probably my favorite part. Not just hearing about his leadership skills, but who he is and what he did to become that.”
Beckerman spent a few minutes before the event speaking to members of the USU women’s soccer team and men’s club team.
“He talked to us about our season and we talked about his season,” said Jayne Robison, a junior on the women’s team. “We just talked about soccer … It was pretty cool.”
“He kind of talked about his own training and stuff like that,” said Landon Howard, a junior goalie for the men’s club. “Not so much advice, he just seemed friendly, wanted to know how we’re doing.”
Beckerman’s speaking opportunity was organized by the USU Arts and Lectures Committee, who also manage the monthly PoBev event and a few other concerts throughout the year.
“We were kind of brainstorming and I was like, ‘What about Kyle Beckerman?’” said Derrick Saunders, a senior at USU and a member of the committee. “Someone who knows the owner of the team was like, “Yeah I’ll just talk to the owner’ and that’s how it worked out.”
The organizers were encouraged by the number of people that showed up.
“We didn’t want it to be one where a handful of fans came and that was it,” Saunders said. “We’re glad that it was big. We were talking to his wife actually and she said that this was bigger than the one at UVU.”
Though he has the familial connection with USU, this was Beckerman’s first visit to Cache Valley.
“I’m going to have to come back up here with my fly-fishing gear,” he said. “I’ve got the fly-fishing bug. Somebody’s got to show me the river to go to up here.”
— thomas.sorenson@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @tomcat340