The dream of professional soccer can take a player down many paths. To destinations never imagined. To the highest highs and the lowest lows.
It can also take you back home.
That’s what former Real Salt Lake midfielder Raphael Cox has learned in his winding journey through American professional soccer. He’s played at every level from PDL to MLS and won championships at the top two levels. He’s landed in cities around the country, but now, he’s back where it all started.
The 30-year-old hadn’t been spending much time focusing on the MLS schedule, so didn’t realize that his former club, Real Salt Lake, was about to meet his hometown club, the Seattle Sounders, at the stadium where he experienced his greatest soccer glory in winning the MLS Cup at CenturyLink Field in 2009. His focus, instead, was on coaching his alma mater, Stadium High School to a 17-1-0 record in his first season as head coach.
The only problem was that the only loss came in the state tournament, ending the undefeated season just short of the ultimate goal. That heartbreaking defeat capped a tremendous first season for the debutante coach.
He used lessons learned in a life on the field that started at the professional level with Real Salt Lake in 2009. From there, he went to the PDL’s Tacoma Tide after a series of short trials around the country. In 2011, he moved across the country and into the NASL with the Atlanta Silverbacks. Then a midseason move to the Tampa Bay Rowdies landed him alongside Jeff Attinella and Luke Mulholland on a team that went on to win the NASL title in 2012. After two seasons in Florida, his next stop was with the Harrisburg City Islanders in the USL and he went with the Pennsylvania club all the way to the USL championship game before losing to the Sacramento Republic. He would play one more season with the Charlotte Independence before moving back to Tacoma with his wife Rachel.
“It was getting to be that time when I needed to figure out what my next move was,” Cox said.
After one year working as an assistant at Highline College and as a head coach for two youth teams with the Rainier Valley Slammers, he accepted the head coaching job with the Stadium High School Tigers. There, he took a team with 13 seniors and pushed them to the brink of glory by taking bits and pieces from each of the coaches who worked with him along the way. From the first day, he used methods learned from Jason Kreis and his staff at RSL in 2009 to create competition on the field every day at training. That not only kept players sharp, but kept morale high within the group and was a key, he said, to the team’s success.
“I think I take all of my different experiences of all of the places I’ve been and all the coaches I’ve had and I try to take the things I liked as a player and incorporate that into my training sessions and gameplans and my message to the guys,” he said.
His schedule is always busy, too. During the high school season, he spent the days with his seven-month-old son Maxwell before coaching at Stadium. From there, he would go on to work with his club teams. After working with two teams the previous year, he now will take on three teams as they get into the summer months. He will also continue his work as an assistant with Highline College.
And if that wasn’t enough, he also plays on the indoor circuit with the Tacoma Stars.
It’s all in keeping with his lifelong soccer dreams and passing those opportunities and lessons on to the generations that follow.
“I know where these kids are coming from,” Cox said. “To be able to work at such an amazing school with a rich soccer history … it’s fun.”
While each stop along his path has been special, RSL and Utah hold a special place for him and his wife, his high school sweetheart who moved with him to Salt Lake City in 2009.
“I think just how down-to-earth everyone was. The community, the fanbase … it was a great place to be and we were sad to leave. But the relationships we built with some of the players and staff … It’s a special place to play,” Cox said. “I could see why guys like Beckerman and Rimando have been there for so long and why they want to stay.”
Cox played seven matches across all competitions for RSL in 2009, scoring one goal.
