Regis University, Colorado Rapids Youth Soccer partner to bring elite youth, women’s professional sports to North Denver

Regis scholarships worth up to $100,000 over four years will be available to participants

Regis University and the Colorado Rapids Youth Soccer Club are partnering to establish the Colorado Rapids Youth Soccer Elite Performance Center and bring premier youth sports to Regis’ Northwest Denver Campus starting in May.

Regis and Rapids Youth will also partner to offer academic college scholarships — worth up to $100,000 over four years — to qualifying youth participants in the club. In addition, there will be internship opportunities within the club for Regis University students.

Two new Regis sports facilities — the illuminated, 190,000-square-foot artificial turf soccer field and the domed Berce Athletic Center — and Regis’ premier natural grass soccer pitch will host 12 boys and girls Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) teams and its Elite Development Squads (EDS) for practices and games. More than 600 youth athletes participate on these teams.

The Colorado Rapids Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL) team, which won the 2021 Mountain Conference championship, also will use the fields for its practices and games. The 19,500-square-foot Berce center also will be the national headquarters for the Rapids Youth’s national and local futsal program starting this summer.

“We are excited to welcome Rapids Youth soccer to our campus so the kids and their families can enjoy competing at our new state-of-the-art facilities,” said Cody Teets, interim president of Regis. “Having youth, professional and collegiate athletes all playing here will enhance an already vibrant community here in Northwest Denver. The Rapids Youth Club is a wonderful addition.”

Regis’ student dormitories and food service will be used for Elite summer and winter soccer and futsal residential camps.

“Having Regis University as the home base for our Elite programming will provide the program with the highest-quality training and playing facilities in Colorado as well as a central location for our membership across the Front Range,” said Aaron Nagel, executive director of the soccer club. “This partnership helps us to achieve our vision of creating Colorado’s most elite soccer and futsal training environment.”

The club, which is associated with the Colorado Rapids Major League Soccer team based in Commerce City, offers camps, leagues and tournaments from three-years-old to professional with year-round programs serving 13,000 youth from Fort Collins to Castle Rock seasonally.

Teets thanked Thomas Gilhooly, executive director of Higher Learning Partners at Regis University, and Athletics Director David Spafford for their vision and hard work to secure the Rapids Youth agreement with Regis, and the soccer club’s Nagel for being a tremendous partner who exemplifies Regis’ core values of care for the whole person.