Grande Sports World is a recently completed 40 acres (161,874.4 m²), $20 million athletic training and physical rehabilitation complex adjacent to the Francisco Grande

Francisco Grande

Francisco Grande is a hotel and golf resort is located in Casa Grande, Arizona approximately 46 miles south east of Phoenix.- History :In 1959 the San Francisco Giants' owner Horace Stoneham developed the property as a spring training camp for his popular Major League Baseball team...

 Hotel & Golf Resort located in Casa Grande, Arizona

Casa Grande, Arizona

Casa Grande is a city in Pinal County, approximately halfway between Phoenix and Tucson in the U.S. state of Arizona. According to 2010 Census, the population of the city is 48,571...

, approximately 45 minutes from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport located southeast of the central business district of the city of Phoenix, in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States...

. The hotel and golf course was originally developed as the Spring Training headquarters for the San Francisco Giants

San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....

.

Facilities

The Grande Sports World ("GSW") complex includes a 58000 square feet (5,388.4 m²) training and conditioning building, which exceeds the quality found in most professional sports training facilities. The sports performance building has four professional locker rooms with 284 full-size professional lockers; physical therapy and rehabilitation areas; 16 meeting rooms/classrooms with each accommodating up to 30 people; and a 10000 square feet (929 m²) training and conditioning area with state-of-the-art equipment, and two physical therapy pools. In addition, nine soccer/lacrosse/football/rugby/field hockey fields are available with professional lighting on six of the eight fields.

GSW is unique in that it is a multi-sport team training facility that offers athletes the opportunity to have their hotel, all of their meals, the fields, and their training and conditioning located in an attractive campus environment in one convenient location.

Soccer Coaching Staff

GSW's soccer staff is composed of MLS and US National and Mexican National Team veterans. No soccer camp or academy in American has a soccer coaching staff with the amount of actual professional playing time competing at the highest levels and as qualified as the staff at GSW.

Martin Vasquez, the Grande Sports Academy Head Coach and the Director of Soccer, is also the First Assistant coach for Jurgen Klinsmann, Head Coach of the US Men's National Team. Martin is a former US National and Mexican National team player, Mexican First Division professional player, MLS player, and MLS Head Coach. Martin was an assistant coach to Klinsmann at FC Bayern Munich, under Klinsmann.

U.S. Soccer Development Academy - Real Salt Lake-AZ

The U.S. Soccer Federation  approved GSW as a U.S. Soccer Development Academy affiliated with Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake is an American professional soccer club based in Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. The team competes in Major League Soccer , the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. They currently play their home games at Rio Tinto Stadium. Real Salt Lake won...

 of Major League Soccer

Major League Soccer

Major League Soccer is a professional soccer league based in the United States and sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation . The league is composed of 19 teams — 16 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada...

(MLS) for Under-16 and Under-18 boys in Arizona. Ten members of the academy have previously played for one of the U.S. National teams . This is the first and only soccer residency program in America associated with an MLS team . The academy teams are coached and trained by the GSW Soccer Staff to compete at the highest level in the United States and to eventually play at the collegiate, professional and international level.

Achievements of the RSL-AZ Academy during its first year of 2010-2011 were the following:

• Every senior was awarded a college scholarship
• One senior signed a professional contract with Real Salt Lake
• One senior signed a professional contract with "Club Atletico Penarol", a First Division team in Uruguay, which is considered Uruguay's best club and considered by many as the most successful South American Club of the twentieth century.
• Six RSL-AZ Academy players played on the Real Salt Lake Reserve Team during the past year.
• Graduating seniors were accepted into Georgetown, Clemson, Indiana, New Mexico, Denver, Oregon State, and the College of Charleston, the University of Connecticut, Loyola-Marymount, the YUniversity of Wisconsin, and San Diego State. A junior who has previously been a member of the US and Canadian national teams received a scholarship from UCLA beginning in the fall of 2013.
• The US Soccer Federation selected two RSL-AZ team members to the Starting XI teams from among the 78 Development Academy teams.
• U-16 team placed third among the 78 Development Academy teams in the national championship tournament, and was undefeated in the play-offs and the national championship tournament.
• U-18 team was among the top 16 teams of the 78 Development Academy teams in its age group.
• The U-16 and U-18 teams were undefeated in three matches each in the Winter Showcase tournament in Phoenix with 78 U.S. Soccer Development Academies participating.
• Eleven RSL-AZ team members previously played on the U.S., Canadian or Mexican Youth National teams.
• Players participated in the Real Salt Lake Pro Combine for the 2011 MLS Superdraft and potential MLS HomeGrown contracts.
• Both RSL-AZ teams competed in the prestigious 2011 Dallas Cup, and the U-18s were one of only four US teams chosen to complete in the Super Elite Group.
• The team RSL-AZ defeated the New Zealand U-17 National Team in a friendly match at GSW prior to the U-17 World Cup in Mexico, where the New Zealand U-17 team tied the U.S. U-17 National Team 0-0.
• Runner-up in the 2010 SUM Cup championship between the 16 MLS affiliated academies held at the MLS All Star Game, losing in a penalty shoot-out to DC United.
• Two members of the 2011 U.S. U-17 National Team decided to become members of the RSL-AZ U-18 team for the 2011-2012 season.

Hotel

The 103-room Francisco Grande Hotel and Golf Resort was built in 1961 by Horace Stoneham, then the owner of the San Francisco Giants baseball club as the Giant's spring training facility. The ballroom can accommodate up to 400 people, there are meeting rooms, restaurant, bar, swimming pool and considerable space on the hotel grounds for other outdoor activities. The resort received a $10 million renovation in 2003. A beautiful tree-lined golf course adjoins the resort.

Golf Course

The fifty-year old golf course at the Francisco Grande Hotel and Golf Resort is 7,500 years in length (depending on the chosen tee), one of the longest in Arizona, and was designed by Ralph Plummer, the architect for the Colonial in Fort Worth, Tryall in Jamaica and Ben Hogan's home course, Shady Oaks in Fort Worth. The tree-lined golf course has approximately 1,500 trees and adjoins the resort.