'We want adventurous players': Utah Royals head coach sets culture statement for 2025


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KEY TAKEAWAYS
  • Jimmy Coenraets, Utah Royals head coach, emphasized the need for adventurous and resilient players in 2025.
  • The team acquired seven new players, including Guatemalan striker Aisha Solorzano, to try and make the playoffs.
  • Coenraets aims to redefine resilience positively, with a high-pressing formation and tough team culture.

SANDY — To say Royals FC head coach Jimmy Coenraets has embraced Utah might be an understatement.

The 29-year-old Belgian arrived on the Wasatch Front seven months ago and has already visited the national parks, skied the slopes, and attended countless sporting events from Provo to downtown Salt Lake City.

Originally brought to the U.S. as an assistant to previous head coach Amy Rodriguez, Coenraets took over the head job in the interim just weeks later and was named the full-time head coach in October with a contract through the 2027 season.

He took the Royals from an NWSL basement dweller to challenging for a playoff spot by the end of 2024, and hopes to reach even greater heights in 2025.

"We definitely want to reach the playoffs this season," Coenraets said in his season-opening address at the Royals' media day Wednesday.

The top eight teams in the NWSL at the end of the season make the playoffs, so he asked his staff to learn everything they could about what it takes to be a top-eight team in the league.

A lot of what they discovered was the importance of having versatile players, especially in the attack. So Utah went out and acquired seven new players during the offseason.

The first name mentioned by Coenraets was 26-year-old Guatemalan striker Aisha Solorzano, who scored a hat trick for Liga MX Femenil club Tijuana against the Seattle Reign in last year's Summer Cup.

Solorzano said one of her hopes during her first season in Utah is to score 10 goals, a feat no Royals player has ever achieved. Rodriguez holds the record with nine in her best season as a player during the team's first iteration in 2019.

"I think people that move out to this state want to have adventures," Coenraets said. "So that's one of our cultural elements, as well. We want adventurous players. We want to take a risk on the pitch."

With a culture statement like that, the Royals may want to consider a jersey sponsor deal with "Adventure's First Stop."

It's safe to say Coenraets feels that Solorzano fits that mold, along with the six other newcomers, including 19-year-old Colombian prodigy Ana Guzman, veteran Chicago defender Tatumn Milazzo and Wednesday's newest signing from Spain, left-back Nuria Rabano.

"We want to be a team that is really tough, to be a high-pressing team and a team that is resilient," Coenraets said.

He shared the story of last season's exit interviews when players were asked to sum up the season in one word, and the majority said "resilient."

"We would like to give another definition to be resilient this season, but in a positive way," Coenraets said. "I think we will be resilient in a way that each and every day we're there, then compete again and again and again, and translate those negative connotations of losses into positive connotations this season. I think that's the biggest goal."

The team continues preseason preparations, with a scrimmage against the University of Utah on Saturday, before heading to Chula Vista, California, next week to change up playing surfaces from the indoor turf in Herriman to natural grass.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Caleb Turner covers Real Salt Lake as the team's beat writer for KSL.com Sports. He also oversees the sports team's social media accounts.
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