Jason Kreis’ life in soccer has taken him all over the world, from his native Nebraska to Duke University to a star turn in Dallas as one of early MLS’ first goal kings, then on to a coaching journey that ranged from Manchester to New York City to Florida and myriad points in between.
Utah, however, was the place that lingered longest in his and his family’s spirit. So there’s a deep sense of serenity and symmetry in Tuesday’s announcement that he’s returned to Real Salt Lake, 10 years and five days after he coached RSL in the 2013 MLS Cup final, his 266th and final match of a paradigm-shifting tenure.
“I left here, really, it was 10 years ago, almost to the day. And every stop that we've had, I've certainly learned a lot of things but I've always been sort of looking back at Salt Lake City as what I feel like is my home,” Kreis told MLSsoccer.com in a one-on-one conversation ahead of the news.
“Which is strange, right? I started my soccer career in Dallas, I was born and raised in Omaha, met my wife in Louisiana,” added the three-time MLS All-Star and 1999 MLS MVP. “But I think probably just the experience that I had here was second to none. And so I just have an emotional tie to the place, my wife does – every time we've come back for a weekend, we always say, man, that just feels like home. My sons’ formative years, they were both here during, I think, really their most formative years. And so for all of us, this just does feel like a homecoming.”
New beginnings
After some 16 years of coaching, a period that’s spanned RSL, New York City FC, Orlando City SC, the US Under-23 men’s national team and Inter Miami and their second team, the 2009 MLS Cup winner is moving into a position with a different outlook.
His official title at Salt Lake is director of operations and special projects, a new position in which he’ll report to club president John Kimball and work on a range of off- and on-field priorities while he builds out his own front-office skill set.
“From the soccer side, I've got all the experiences I think that are necessary to help me, to basically mean that I can help a club in a lot of ways,” Kreis explained. “But from a business side, I don't have any of those experiences, and so that's really what we're looking at here – kind of a 50/50 role where I can be learning a lot on the business side and then also really being able to help on anything soccer-related that anybody needs.”
He aims to be a resource for head coach Pablo Mastroeni, whose technical staff is being significantly restructured this winter. He’ll also work on the sponsorship front, liaise with season-ticker holders and has been tasked with streamlining RSL’s navigation of the immigration and naturalization processes, a vital area in which some MLS clubs glean significant competitive advantage by gaining green cards and citizenship for players more quickly than their counterparts.
Academy-first approach
Kreis is also delving into the workings of RSL’s academy, which has been a foundational element of the club’s structure and identity for many years yet recently has not pushed a corresponding number of players into the current first-team roster. Notably, he helped build Inter Miami’s youth system from scratch over his three years with the Herons.
“One of my questions for ownership, actually, in the interview process was, what's happened to the academy?” he noted. “Because if you look at the Justen Glads and the Aaron Herreras and the Bofo Saucedos and the players that were actually developed out of here and ended up in Europe, the Sebastian Sotos and those guys, that was still a really strong sort of age group of players.
“Now there's really this big gap that's happened, there aren't those academy players in Real Salt Lake right now, the first team. There aren't those academy players who have now transitioned to Europe just over the past couple of years. So I looked at that as perhaps an opportunity.”
Kreis watched RSL’s youth teams compete at the recent MLS NEXT Fest event in Arizona and came away convinced that strong crops of potential professionals are moving through the pipeline.
“It's obvious that we've got some real talent there. So there's just been a little bit of a, call it a generational gap,” he said. “Ownership has made it crystal clear that the vision of this club needs to be one of two things: We're pushing to win, but we're also pushing to develop players. And so we're going to really emphasize that as we move forward. That's a big objective of our club, and everybody needs to buy into that.”
Kreis was RSL’s first-ever player, joining up in 2004 from what was then the Dallas Burn ahead of Salt Lake’s expansion debut, and he became their second-ever head coach three years later, building them into a powerhouse with a fluid, possession-oriented playing style. He was one of the most sought-after coaches in MLS when he decided to explore new adventures at the end of 2013, but abrupt ends to his stints at NYCFC and Orlando prompted an evolution in his thinking.
“I feel like both of those experiences have led me to a place to have a real firm belief that there has to be an alignment, a really strong alignment between owner, between management and between the head coach. And I think I had that here at Real Salt Lake, there's absolutely no doubt, working with Garth [Lagerwey] and Bill Manning and the ownership that was here,” he said.
“Those experiences really, I think, probably started to lead me towards this path. Could I be maybe more of a leader for a head coach, could I be somebody that's implementing that type of alignment?”
Now he’ll apply those life lessons back where it began.
“I think I have all of the experiences plural, but not the experience,” Kreis said. “I do think I have a unique perspective as well to come about this as somebody that's had all of these experiences, especially player plus professional coach, at this level. I think that gives me a unique skill set, a unique set of experiences to also empathize with people and to understand on every level, as a youth player, second team player, assistant coach, head coach.
“I've stood in all those shoes. And so it's something that I'm really looking forward to, and I'm hopeful that I can add value at the end of the day.”
