Minnesota United today announced the addition of Jeremy Clark and Angel Rivillo to the MNUFC Development Academy staff. After a successful first year that saw the program add a Pre-Development Academy program for younger players, build a daily training environment to support player growth and foster connections with regional clubs, the Development Academy is preparing to start its yearly cycle again in June with trials.
“As we grow and add teams and programs to our Academy, we will bring on coaches who can make a difference in player development and subsequently add to the mission of our Academy,” said Academy Director Tim Carter. “Jeremy and Angel have experience that will enhance our player development process. While their backgrounds are very different, they both have the qualities and values necessary for our work in developing young, highly-motivated athletes. They bring to our Academy culture another perspective that will significantly add to the work we do to develop players to reach our first team.”
Clark will assume the position of Academy Goalkeeping Coach. In this role, he will work closely with Minnesota United’s first team Goalkeeper Coach, John Pascarella, to deliver the daily training plan for all goalkeepers within the Pre-DA and DA teams. In addition, he will also assist with elements of Minnesota United’s Youth Programming to further serve community youth soccer clubs who are part of our club membership program.
Originally from Venezuela, Rivillo brings an understanding of the game based on his roots growing up in South America, where he represented the Venezuelan Youth National Teams at U15, U17 and U23 levels. Rivillo will assume the Head Coach position within Minnesota United’s Academy and will also serve as the Academy scouting coordinator, where he will work closely with Director of Player Personnel, Amos Magee, and Academy Director, Tim Carter.
“Minnesota United is making a significant commitment to the Academy with the hiring of these individuals as full-time members of our coaching staff. As we enter the second year of play in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy, our Academy continues to grow both in size, and most importantly, in quality,” said Carter. “We are very ambitious and although we are young in terms of the number of years we have been around, our goal is to provide Minnesota and the players within our designated MLS youth development territory with an outstanding player development pathway and an Academy program that is second-to-none.”
Meet Jeremy Clark
Jeremy Clark joins MNUFC from the Santa Barbara Soccer Club where he served as the club’s Director of Goalkeeping. In this position, Jeremy was in charge of developing the club’s curriculum for goalkeepers and implementing the daily training programs for goalkeepers in the club. He also served as the Head Coach for the club’s U18/19 Boys in National Cup play in the highly competitive Cal South area.
In addition to youth coaching, Clark coached six seasons of intercollegiate soccer at the NCAA Division I level as an assistant and goalkeeper coach, most recently with UC Santa Barbara, University of Evansville and Michigan State University.
Mike Jacobs, Technical Director for the newly named MLS Nashville Soccer Club and the former Head Coach at the University of Evansville, summed up the qualities that Jeremy will bring to the Minnesota United Academy. “Jeremy is a tireless worker, a consummate professional, and is committed to growing young goalkeepers into future professionals. I know that he will be a success with Minnesota United.”
As a player, Jeremy was a goalkeeper at Michigan State University, where he captained the team in 2011, and was a member of the of the Spartans Big 10 championship in 2008. Clark also had several playing stops with various PDL and NPSL teams, most recently with Detroit City FC.
Jeremy currently holds a USSF National "B" license. He earned his B.A. from Michigan State before receiving his Master’s degree from the University of Evansville.
Meet Angel Rivillo
Angel Rivillo started his playing career in his native Caracas, Venezuela, where he represented the Venezuelan Youth National Teams at the U15, U17 and U23 levels. After moving to Dallas, Texas, in 1994 and playing for Dallas Inter Soccer Club, Rivillo went on to play collegiate soccer at ETBU (1996–1998) and Creighton University (1998–2000), earning All-American honors both as a player and as a scholar-athlete at both universities.
Rivillo began his pro playing career with the Dallas Burn of MLS in 2000, playing the rest of the 2000–2001 season in the French 3rd Division with the Toulouse Fontaines Football Club. The following year he played in Venezuela’s First Division Professional League with Deportivo Tachira and Deportivo Galicia Football Club. Returning to the states, he played for the Milwaukee Rampage in their A-League Championship series in 2002 and won the A-League Goal of the Year. He won another championship with the Milwaukee Wave of the MISL in 2005.
As a coach, Rivillo has over 16 years of youth and collegiate coaching experience. Most recently, he coached at Shattuck St. Mary’s School as the U15 Development Academy Head Coach. In addition, he has numerous coaching experiences on his resume at Academy, ECNL, High School and Collegiate levels with FC Delco, Philadelphia PA, Malvern Prep-School, Malvern PA and NCAA programs at Penn State Abbington University (NCAA D3) and St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia PA (NCAA D1). He currently holds a USSF “A” License.
Angel Rivillo has also been involved in the community as an ambassador of soccer, running after-school programs, grass root soccer programs and soccer foundations to help children in need. Some of these programs were: Soccer in the Streets (GA), Starfinder Foundation (PA), and Wave of Kindness (WI). During these programs, his primary focus was on teaching soccer, providing school assistance for foreign students, and providing life lessons through the game of soccer.
Rivillo holds a Computer Science degree from Creighton University and resides in Faribault, Minnesota, with his wife, Lourdes, and his three children, Mairia, Amelie and Santiago.
