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James Stase Georgeff
A Bit About James
James Stase Georgeff, Born to Suzana and Stase with one brother John. James’ father and uncle were esteemed soccer players in their hometown, Newcastle, Australia. James’ father playing in both Australia and having a stint with English first division side Lleyton Orient. James’ Uncle after his playing days became a notable youth development coach in California, coaching several players from juniors into the professional ranks.
James started his journey in his home town, Newcastle, Australia, playing for local club Adamstown Rosebuds. At the age of 14 James began to play with the U/18s, and was leading goal scorer. The next year, at 15yrs old, James broke the record for the youngest player to play in the first division team which was a semi pro level, scoring 5 goals in the first 5 games.
In news interviews James accredited his success and chances to two factors, a good coach (Neil Owens) and one on one coaching from his father Stase.
The next season James joined the professional team in his city, then known as the Newcastle Breakers. He was a member at 16yo of the reserve grade team (2nd team). At the end of this season, James left to train in Europe with Lokomitiv Sofia in the Bulgarian 1st Division. He was noticed in the USA by college teams, notably Clemson University, offering James a full scholarship to play for their soccer team. The following year James made his way to the USA.
James spent two seasons with the Clemson Tigers before moving to University of Central Florida, following coach Bryan Cunningham advice who also coached in the ACC conference against Clemson. The move to UCF was successful, as by the end of James’ last season with UCF, he was drafted by the Major League Soccer Champions, Houston Dynamo through the MLS Draft. James became the first ever Australian to be drafted to the Major League.
That following season James joined the Houston Dynamo, on what was said to be a very difficult position, as in international roster player, which usually was designated for high level experienced players, not necessarily draft picks, but Houston Dynamo, Dominic Kinnear and John Spencer (coaches) liked what they saw enough to give James one of the few international roster spots they had. At Houston James was building himself as a player, working and improving, but slightly prior to the end of the first season, James had reached an agreement with European Agent Karl Heinz Granitza to move to Europe and play.
First stop in Europe was 2nd division team looking to promote into the first league, Arouca FC, who james joined and scored 2 goals in the first friendly match which confirmed the presidents intention to sign James. The club purchased James’ fifa player card from the MLS. James spent one successful season in Portugal then agent Karl Heinz Granitza brought him to Germany where James spent the next several years.
During his time in Germany, he joined youth development coaching roles, under the likes of ex-bundesliga greats, which James later mentioned in interviews, shaped his whole worldview of youth development soccer coaching.
“In Germany, what I was exposed to was like nothing else in youth development. The coaches for young kids are high level ex professionals, it’s incredible to see a coach who could be coaching anywhere, choose to be with 8 yr olds, and happy to do it. The way they teach the kids, you understand why they are one of, if not the best countries in the world for national team and club teams performances overall. The mission of the coaches was player personal development, but also teaching the fundamentals of defending first, then learning to play through recovery of the ball and possession, but always the focus first was team system defense until possession was recovered. At first I did not fully agree, but when you see a group of ‘average’ athletic kids, all on the same page, playing against a group of highly athletic kids that cannot beat them, you start to see the magic of this kind of development. The kids would come out of these few years with incredible grit and understanding of the game. The understanding was so intrinsic that any of the players in any position could be moved into a new position and the team would almost go on unnoticed. Try this on most teams…”
Following the 8 years in Germany, James returned to Tampa where he co-founded a company in the nuclear waste storage industry with private equity firm based out of Vienna, Austria. Tampa is where he now resides with his family of 5. Serving several roles in various businesses, James made sure to keep creating, Georgeff Soccer, where he intended to replicate the youth development he experienced in Germany, in Schools, starting with his own kids and then branching out since his arrival in Tampa FL.