Colorado Flair Joins San Diego Surf SC Coaching Staff
San Diego Surf Soccer Club’s most recent additions to the prestigious coaching staff are Colorado raised Ryan Carruth and Seth Trembly who will be joining Surf from Albion Soccer Club. The two youth soccer coaches are both products of the fields of Colorado with highly successful youth soccer experiences.
“I have known Ryan Carruth for years,” SethTrembly explained. “I grew up in Colorado in a soccer family; my mom and dad were both coaches, my brother and sister both played, and I got into soccer that way.”
“The way Ryan and I met was that he played with my older brother for my dad’s team in Littleton, Colorado, when we were 15 and 14, so we grew up together. I was always around that team because my brother was on it and my dad was the coach. I was always picking on Ryan and dribbling past him.”
When Ryan Carruth moved on to high school in Boulder, the two lost touch for several years. Carruth eventually moved on to college, playing for St. Lawrence University in Upstate New York. There he helped lead his team to an NCAA Division III championship and an NCAA record 60-game win streak.
Meanwhile Trembly was invited to join the U.S. U-17 Men’s National Team at the age of 15 1/2, moving to Bradenton, Florida, for the residency program. There he took the pitch alongside future national team players and professionals Bobby Convey, DaMarcus Beasely and Landon Donovan. In 1999, while Carruth was winning a D-III title, Trembly and his teammates were placing fourth in the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
Fast forward several years, and the two met once again on the pitch – this time in San Diego. After several years playing professionally, Trembly was on the field at the Nomads Tournament as a coach for Colorado Rush and who should be scouting a match but Carruth. After nearly ten years, the two resumed their friendship and the rest, as they say, is youth soccer history.
During those years in between, both players had exciting careers in soccer. After graduating from St. Lawrence, Carruth had the opportunity to play professionally with Rochester Rhinos of the USL. Unfortunately, seven weeks into his career with them he broke his leg and ruptured his patellar tendon, resulting in extensive surgery and the end of his playing career.
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Not wanting to leave the game he loved, Carruth moved into coaching and returned to St. Lawrence as a graduate assistant while completing his Master’s degree. He then went on to teach and coach at the Merchant Marine Academy, a federal service academy with their own D-III soccer program. Eventually he had the opportunity to move to San Diego to join Albion, where he became College Guidance Director as well a director of Peninsula Soccer League. In 2012 Carruth was hired as an assistant coach for the San Diego State University men’s soccer program, and will join Phil Wolf and the Point Loma Nazarene University men’s program for 2013.
While Carruth was moving through the college soccer and coaching ranks, Trembly’s path was taking him in a different direction. After his successful debut with the national team, Trembly signed a contract with MLS Colorado Rapids. He played with Colorado for six years before being traded to Real Salt Lake, where he spent two years. While at RSL he was named a 2006 MLS Humanitarian of the Year. He closed out his professional career with Montreal Impact in 2008, and then turned full-time to coaching.
“Surf is one of the top youth soccer clubs in the USA,” said Carruth about the decision to make the move. “The facilities are top notch, the environment – environment is everything. Surf has one of the best environments – the closest, in my opinion, that you can come to being at a European club. When you walk out to the Polo Grounds, I think it has a great feel to it. It’s good for the players.”Trembly had his first chance to coach with Colorado Girls Soccer Academy while he was playing with the Rapids, later moving on to Real Colorado and Colorado Rush. It was Carruth who helped him connect with Albion and make the move to San Diego two years ago. The two are looking forward to continuing to work together as they make the move to Surf.
“It’s a great opportunity to join one of the top clubs in the country on both the boys’ and girls’ side,” said Trembly, who has helped coach girls teams in Manchester United Cup and Gothia Cup and will assist with Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) at Surf.
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“Obviously working in the ECNL and going after national championships is one of the reasons that drew me here. I look forward to working with my GU13 and GU15 teams and competing for regional and national titles.”
“When I was growing up I was such an early bloomer, in times of my competitive spirit and focus,” Trembly continued, “so I love working with kids who have that early drive and that have really focused and worked hard to pursue their goals of playing at the highest level. I think that’s what is most exciting about Surf – they have proven that they produce great players and great teams and they play a good brand of soccer.”
The style of soccer also drew Carruth to the club, as well the opportunity to work with Surf Director of Coaching Colin Chesters and Director of Boys’ Coaching Wayne Harrison.
“Wayne Harrison has impressed me,” Carruth said. “My values as a coach really seem to match with Wayne’s. Wayne values playing soccer well and moving the ball and intuition in players, and he supports teaching methodologies like guided discovery – this is the style of soccer I believe in as well.”
“After I had the chance to talk to Wayne and Colin Chesters, the Director of Coaching for Surf, I was really attracted to what was going on at the club and really supportive of Wayne’s vision for player development,” Carruth explained. “Wayne has a great vision for the club on the boys’ side. So for me it was a no-brainer. I’m delighted and can’t wait to start training my teams.”
Carruth is pleased to be working in what he calls a “player-centered” environment. He believes that the way to create high-level players is to challenge them to make decisions and to support them in taking risks. He sees Harrison’s focus on “guided discovery” teaching and the development of player intuition as being in line with his own principles of coaching.
“It’s very easy as a coach to want to give all the answers, but soccer is a game where the picture is always changing every millisecond,” Carruth explained. “So a player to play at a good level has to develop intuition, the ability to read the game on the fly and make decisions. The only way to get intuition is if there is opportunity to discover the game and not be told what to do. Players with coaches who do too much are constantly listening for instructions as opposed to making decisions on their own. It’s exciting to know that kind of direction is coming from the top. I know I’m going to learn a lot from Wayne.”
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It is clear that, in Carruth and Trembly, Surf have added a pair of coaches who not only know what they are doing but are not afraid to take risks if it will help their players grow and develop. While Carruth will be focusing on the boys’ teams and Trembly on the girls’ teams, the duo from Colorado both look forward to giving back to the game they love and inspiring their players.
