Success Stories
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Leo announced his decision to play Division II soccer with Dallas Baptist University in April 2022.
Leo playing for the St. Paul Academy varsity team as a freshman.
Leo Larson
1st Year: U13 C2
2nd Year: U14 C1
3rd Year: U15 Premier for Minnesota Thunder Academy
4th Year: MTA Development Academy & St. Paul Academy Varsity as a freshman
5th Year: MTA ECNL & St. Paul Academy Varsity starter as a sophomore
6th Year: MTA ECNL & St. Paul Academy Varsity starter
7th Year: IMAC Conference Player of the Year, IMAC All-Conference team, Minnesota All-State Team, Section Finalist — all for St. Paul Academy.
Leo is a shining example of the rewards technical skill training can provide. Leo fell in love with soccer and always gave 110% effort in every practice and game. This brought great results, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t seem to truly advance his game and felt stuck at the C2 level. When he was introduced to the idea of private training for soccer he became obsessed, seeking to train 3 times a week or more. We made him pace himself, but what Leo did was remain consistent and focused. Sure enough, the results started to roll in, year after year he seemed to advance to a higher echelon team. At club level, he made it to the elite group playing at the U.S. Soccer Development Academy level for MTA — in club soccer there is no higher honor.
In 2021, Leo’s St. Paul Academy team had a fantastic run to the Section Finals. Leo, himself, had an even more impressive individual season as he was named the IMAC Conference Player of the Year. Leo’s star-studded senior season led him to become the first-ever Level Up player to reach the Division II level, as he chose to play for Dallas Baptist University in Texas.
(Video: Leo’s stunning game-winning volley during the Fall 2019 section playoffs.)
Brody Cook (Orono) & Jack Olson (Minnetonka)
In the winter of 2022, Brody and Jack became the first-ever Level Up students to commit to play NCAA college soccer. Brody will be a speedy attacker for Denison University in Ohio. While Jack will be a stalwart centerback at Saint John’s University.
Elijah Jensen, Ty Perkins, Maclain Rutledge, Henry Risser, Teagan Mechtenberg, Brody Meyer, Keane Perkins, Eli Tatalovich and Mason Lamettry
All of the boys were selections to the Minnesota United Pre-Development Academy. The initial stage of team selection for the highest youth soccer level in the United States.
All of these boys have been working with Level Up trainers since the age of 9. All of them have been a part of Coach Nic’s club teams at different age levels. At the times of these photos, they were a mix of U10, U11 and U12 age level.
They all received news that every kid would dream of: Minnesota United of Major League Soccer wanted him to join their pre-academy team.
Ty, Elijah, Henry and Maclain won the U12 state title this season. One year later at U13 level, Ty and Henry were invited to join the development academy team, officially joining the professional soccer organization’s academy full time.
As for Teagan and Brody, their chance to make the full development academy will come this summer. Likewise for Keane, Eli and Mason in 2021.
(Video: Ty scoring the game-winning goal in the final of the state championships with Coach Nic celebrating the victory on the sidelines.)
Tyler Bernstein
Tyler was on the top team in his age group. Often, though, he was getting stuck playing solely as a defender, even though he felt he could contribute further upfield. As a result, he scored just two goals throughout the whole year.
After training with Level Up consistently for about 4 months, Tyler got his chance to play some offense and surpassed his goal tally from last year in just two games. Now, Tyler plays exclusively as an attacker. And now he scores highlight goals like this:
Tyler is the epitome of what a player can become when they commit fully to their training and trust the Level Up training methodology.
Natalie Carlson
U12 C1 MYSA State Champion
Natalie joined Level Up Coaching a little over two years ago. Shortly thereafter, many of her teammates started to notice something different: exceptional dribbling skills. Everyone started to ask her parents what had caused such a drastic difference. They informed everyone that Natalie was receiving some additional training through private lessons. Now almost half of Natalie’s team trains with Level Up regularly.
Nora Chouanard
2019 State Champion Runner Up
As a freshman, Nora led the Orono girls varsity team all the way to the state championship game in Fall 2019. Her performances earned her a spot on the All-Tournament Team.
Here’s Nora’s unbelievably clutch semi-final winning goal in overtime:
Brody Meyer
Brody, one of Level Up’s founding members, trained under our tutelage since he was 8. Brody made Minnesota United’s Pre-DA, the highest club level in the nation, here in MN as an 11-year-old. After moving to North Carolina a few months ago, Brody was given a two-week tryout for the Pre-DA program at Charlotte Independence. Just a few days into his multi-week trial, Charlotte’s coaches said they had “seen enough” and quickly added him to their Pre-DA team. What an absolute LEGEND! We miss Brody at training sessions since he moved, but now Level Up is nationwide!!! Let’s goooooo!
UPDATE: Olivier and Etienne are now U15 and U13. Both were offered roster spots to join F.C. Barcelona’s La Masia extension academy in Arizona.
Both have chosen to instead, though, remain with their respective US National Futsal teams. Below are highlights of Olivier’s team defeating numerous Spanish league youth futsal teams in the winter of 2022.
Olivier and Etienne Testa
Olivier (U12) and Etienne (U10) are a pair of exceptionally talented brothers. The two have been soccer-obsessed since they could walk and play on average 5-6 times per week in various leagues no matter what the season. They’ve trained with Level Up for last two seasons and their technical ability has blossomed. In the last year, both have been selected by Minnesota United to join the MLS Club’s elite pre-development academy system.
Etienne did so in spectacular fashion making the U11 United pre-DA team despite only being a U10! Meanwhile, Olivier has proven to be among the cream of the U12s as he’s been chosen by United to represent the club in matches against other MLS development academy teams across the country.
There’s going to be more to this story, and we can’t wait to help them continue on their journey!
Connor Rahill
1st Year: U14 C3
2nd Year: U15 C1
3rd Year: Benilde St. Margarets Junior Varsity as a freshman
Sam Holmberg
1st Year: U11 C3
2nd Year: U12 C2
3rd Year: U13 C1
4th Year: Made Orono JV as an 8th grader
“Thanks SO much!! He loves working with you!! You are such a great role model!!”
Jack Olson
1st Year: U14 C2
2nd Year: U15 C1 and Minnetonka freshman team captain (voted co-MVP and defensive MVP)
Andrew Grace
Andy’s story is a fun one.
Andrew came to Level Up Coaching having played zero club soccer in his life. The only organized soccer he’d done was playing on recreational teams semi-consistently. When we met Andrew had a great motor, but to say he lacked the foundational skills would be an understatement. He also had an aggressively ambitious goal: make the varsity team with only one summer of training. We told Andrew that was mighty lofty and that he’d have to train especially hard, he nodded and we went to work.
Andrew was a model student, providing an incredible work rate and unparalleled focus in each session. After tryouts, Andrew made the DeLaSalle High School varsity pool and trained with the team for the first few weeks of the season. Eventually, Andrew would settle into a role as a prominent player for the junior varsity squad.
To achieve what Andrew did in such a short amount of time with his level of inexperience is remarkable. He did all the work, we just like to think we provided the proper platform.
Georgia Fischer
1st Year: U13 C2
2nd Year: U14 C1
