What is the origin story of Club Atletico St Louis? Who founded the club and what inspired that to happen?
In 2017, Saint Louis Club Atletico was started by three owners, one of them being the current owner of Club Atletico Saint Louis. After the 2017 inaugural season, Saint Louis Club Atletico folded, and the Garza family decided to rebrand the team and start fresh as a Non-Profit Organization. Lisa Garza – President, Ricardo Garza – VP & Head Coach, Martino Garza – Director of Operations. The Garza family pulls their paychecks to keep the team going. They do not have a business or soccer club to pull funds from, a portion of their savings and income goes right into the club.

Ricardo Garza co-founded a soccer academy in Bolivia and launched a semi-pro team there to build a foundation to break generational poverty and gain academic scholarships in the United States. The experience of this academy gave Ricardo the motivation and confidence to launch the semi-pro team here in the NPSL.

The local mission of Club Atletico Saint Louis is to develop young amateur players to become better college players as well as continue to the next level after college. The heart and purpose of the field are to be an Anti-Human Trafficking partner in St. Louis to educate families and organizations about child sex trafficking here in St. Louis. Currently in the works is to build a stadium that could not only fund the club but provide a free youth soccer club. With revenue from the stadium, CASTL would like to build more rehab centers for youth victims of human trafficking.

In which league do you play and with so many options for clubs these days, how often is that evaluated?
CASTL plays in the NPSL. In St. Louis, we have MLS, PDL, UPSL, and MWSL teams offered in our city. We will decide next year based on travel logistics. Teams come and go from the conference, and we will decide the best economic and professional option for Club Atletico possible.

Does your club operate or work with a youth organization? If so, are youth players developed to see playing time with the first teams as a goal?
We do not work with a particular youth club, but we are always open to provide free training for just about anyone who has asked us in the past. Our goal is to one day have a proper youth club at no cost but financially covered by the first team revenues.

In addition to developing players, where does your club draw its players from? Local tryouts? College players?
We draw players from the local College and Universities. We do offer to open tryouts but most of our players come from college coach relationships and returning players loyalty.

Do you have a rival or a favorite city for an away day? Who or where is that and why?
Honestly, we have not developed a rival yet. I think our Heartland Conference is so competitive, we don’t need to single out one team to battle with. Every game is a quality competition. Also, the owners all get along great for the most part and those relationships are more important to maintain to keep our investment safe and professional. Collaboration is key.

How did you finish this season - regardless of league position, did you meet your goals? What goals are you setting for next season?
This season was the youngest team we have ever produced since 2017. For us, we want to give young players, U20, to develop and compete. We are not focused solely on conference championships. We want to produce quality players to help area college program improve their talent. At some point, our focus might become winning championships but at this time it is to be a platform for young players.

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