PORT ARTHUR, Texas — Gulf Coast Soccer, a leading youth soccer club in Southeast Texas, is excited to announce that MLS Legend Roy Lassiter is joining the club as Director of Coaching & Methodology.
"He has such a unique eye for identifying talent and developing talent," Gulf Coast Marketing Director Daryl Miller said. "He's helping us put in a new training methodology, a new coaching methodology and a playing style. We're really excited to have Roy."
Before joining Gulf Coast, Roy was the Technical Director of Washington Premier FC where he also coached two ECNL teams, one of which is ranked 7th in the country. During his tenure at WPFC, Roy has been instrumental in creating and implementing the club's game model, curriculum and training methodology throughout the club and according to Soccerwire, the club's boys’ and girls’ programs are now ranked 14th nationally. As Gulf Coast Soccer’s Director of Coaching and Methodology, he will be responsible for implementing a club-wide philosophy and methodology and overseeing player and coach development to lead the club toward its goal of becoming one of the top clubs in South Texas.
"He's been at the highest level for such a long time," Houston Dynamo forward and son Ari Lassiter said. "U.S. National team, MLS, goal scoring champion, all those things he can bring down to a level for everybody to enjoy and continue to lift people up and for player to get better."
Roy has over 16 years of coaching experience at the college and professional ranks and at the youth level serving in roles as Development Academy Director, ECNL Director, and Director of Coaching. Throughout his career, Roy has developed a reputation for elite player development and has had 15 of his players signed by the Seattle Sounders Youth Development Academy in the last 3 years and has 5 players currently playing with the U14 & U15 US Youth National Teams. He holds the new USSF National “A-Youth” License, USSF “A” license and National “Y” (Youth) License, and earned a BA Degree in Interpersonal Communications from North Carolina State University. He began his coaching career in Texas in 2004 and is looking forward to getting back to the state.
"We want to produce players that can play ODP (Olympic Developmental Program) and national team levels," Lassiter said. "We've partnered with some high MLS clubs to get their development, how they're developing things, get their knowledge for our coaches to expand their learning capacity. We want to have all that within the Gulf Coast Soccer Club and provide that for our player's in the club."
Roy also had a distinguished college and professional playing career of 14 years including 8 years in MLS (Tampa Bay, Miami, DC United, and Sporting KC), Alajuelense (3 years- Costa Rica 1st Div.), Genoa (1 year Italy Serie A) and 8 years with the USMNT and an alternate member of the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France. Roy has also worked with the U20 US Men's Youth National Team coached by Tab Ramos and is still involved with the US Soccer Federation in a network of assistant coaches on call. Until the record was broken in 2019, Roy was the all-time leading single-season goal scorer in MLS history setting the mark in 1996 with 27 goals.
