“I grew up through American soccer,” head coach Damon Rensing said. “What U.S. Soccer has done in the past years is great, and they provide a motivation for all the players in this country to strive for.”

U.S. Soccer headquarter is made up of two mansions in the Prairie Avenue Historical District on the south side of town.

The federation is celebrating its Centennial year, and many events have been hosted at the main office, including a watch party for the Gold Cup Final and a meet and greet with U.S. National Team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann and some of the coaching staff.

Junior forward Tim Kreutz said anything Damon and the coaching staff puts together as a team building exercise only benefits the moral on the squad.

“Doing things as team, we don’t get that much time out of playing and practicing with each other as a whole group,” Kreutz said. “We have our cliques and people we hang out with outside of soccer, but anytime we do anything outside of soccer, but not really on the field, it’s always beneficial on our team as a whole.”

Sophomore midfielder Jay Chapman is from Canada, so going to the U.S. Soccer headquarters is out of his world.

“Damon and the rest of the staff are really generous getting us in there,” Chapman said. “There’s so much history there, so it’s going to be cool for me because I’m not even from this country. It’s always good to see a lot of high-level soccer things.”

Three Spartans work at U.S. Soccer, including Elizabeth Sanchez, who works in the marketing and communications department, and General Manager Tom King. The third, Jeff Ricondo, who also is in communications and marketing, is a former MSU soccer player under Rensing.

While it’s good for the players to see what they’re aspiring to get to on the playing field, it also was a learning experience seeing what they should aim for in the career world.

Rensing said the examples that Ricondo and King have set in the real world are something he wants his players to recognize.

“It’s great for our guys to connect with what goes on at the highest level for us,” he said. “It’s nice to see what Tom and Jeff did through their majors and academics to put them in a position to work for U.S. Soccer.”