Quakes Academy Announces Coaching Staff for 2025-26 MLS NEXT Season
MLS San Jose Earthquakes

Quakes Academy Announces Coaching Staff for 2025-26 MLS NEXT Season

Published on August 29, 2025 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
San Jose Earthquakes News Release


SAN JOSE, Calif. - The San Jose Earthquakes and Academy Director Luchi Gonzalez announced today the Quakes Academy head coaching staff for the 2025-26 MLS NEXT season. The four age groups will be led by Luis Garcia (Under-14), Ivan Mirković (U-15), Renato Bustamante (U-16) and Alex Covelo (U-18).

"I'm very excited for the start of this upcoming Quakes Academy season," said Gonzalez. "We've built very competitive teams in each age group. They have individual talent to one day be professional and in the pathway-working collectively to compete, represent our club, and play with an identity and a style that we want to be proud of."

Gonzalez is entering his first full season after taking the helm in January. In his previous experience as an Academy Director with FC Dallas (2016-18), he oversaw the most successful youth program in the United States. During that span, the club won four U.S. Soccer Development Academy national championships (U-16 and U-18 twice each), the 2016 Dallas Cup U-19 Super Group and made two appearances in the Generation adidas Cup finals. The club not only enjoyed success at academy level, but also with their professional pathway. Gonzalez was directly involved with 26 of 32 Homegrown signings for the FC Dallas first team, with a staggering 18 of those players eventually earning U.S. Men's National Team senior caps.

"It has been great to integrate new staff and new players," Gonzalez added. "I was new as the Director in this program and I needed the staff to be there for me. I feel like there's that togetherness. There's that unity in the staff to work together. We want to be the example for our players. We want them to work together. Our desire is to compete and get better every day and develop. If we can do that as a staff, which I know we will, then the players will model that."

Garcia is entering his sixth season with the Quakes Academy. Last campaign, his U-14 team clinched the MLS NEXT Northwest Division title. In all competitions, the team scored 180 goals while conceding just 12. Originally from Cádiz, Spain, Garcia played professionally for various clubs in Spain and Austria before earning his UEFA B and UEFA A licenses from the Royal Spanish Federation of Soccer. He was also recognized with a Specialized Coaching Youth Diploma awarded by the Andalusian Federation of Soccer. Stateside, Luis previously coached for Liverpool FC International Academy Bay Area and Michigan Chill SC.

Mirković is starting his first full campaign in charge of the U-15s after joining the club in February. Last season, his team was crowned MLS NEXT Northwest Division Champions, winning their MLS NEXT Flex Group in Maryland and scoring the most goals in the conference. A standout defensive midfielder for several domestic clubs, he made his mark with Sacramento Republic FC, winning the USL Pro title in 2014. He finished his playing days as a player/coach with Fresno FC before returning to Sacramento after his retirement to coach in their academy. Among his accolades during that period was being named to the U.S. U-15 Youth National Team staff for its trip to the UEFA Development Tournament in Lisbon, Portugal. He also spent one season with USL Championship side Las Vegas Lights FC as an assistant coach.

Bustamante is the newest addition to the Academy lineup, having arrived earlier this month from the coaching staff of USL League One side Spokane Velocity FC to lead the U-16s, who made program history last year by being the first Quakes Academy team in the age group to reach the U-15 quarterfinals of the Generation adidas Cup. Originally from Lima, Peru, Bustamante was an All-American attacker at both Truman College and Fresno Pacific University before joining the pro ranks with Fresno FC and Central Valley Fuego. His youth coaching background includes time with Odyssey Soccer Club, South Valley United and Santa Barbara Soccer Club. At the collegiate level, he served as Head Coach at College of the Sequoias, where he guided the program to its first-ever playoff appearance and conference title, in addition to assistant roles at Clovis Community College, UC Irvine, and Westmont College, where they won the 2023 NCCAA National Championship.

Covelo also enters his first full season in charge of the U-18 team after taking over in the middle of the last campaign and finishing strong, especially in the pro pathway. Midfielders and MLS NEXT All-Stars Kaedren Spivey (who played up from the U-16s) and Rohan Rajagopal signed contracts as Homegrown Players, joining U-18 teammate Chance Cowell, who did so the previous year. All three have now since earned professional playing time with the Quakes' MLS NEXT team, The Town FC. A native of Barcelona, Spain, Covelo played for FC Barcelona's famed La Masia academy as a youth. A goalkeeper by trade, he played several years professionally before beginning his coaching career in 2013, serving as head coach of San Marino in the Italian third division from 2014-15. Covelo originally joined the Earthquakes as the team's first-ever Director of Methodology in 2017 and has also served as an assistant coach for the MLS first team on two separate occasions in 2017 and 2018. In 2022, he took the reins of Earthquakes II in MLS NEXT Pro before finishing the season as interim head coach of the Quakes' first team. He also was a coaching instructor at Barcelona-based Ekkono Soccer Services Group, which leads the technical programs of French powerhouse Paris Saint-Germain, and the Football Federations of Japan, Finland and Poland.

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