MLS Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake Signs SuperDraft Picks DF Reagan Dunk and DF Justin Schmidt

Published on March 1, 2017 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Real Salt Lake News Release


SANDY, Utah - Real Salt Lake announced on Wednesday that the club has signed DF Reagan Dunk and DF Justin Schmidt . Dunk and Schmidt were RSL's first two selections in the 2017 MLS SuperDraft, with Dunk selected in the first round (13th overall) and Schmidt in the second round (35th overall).

"Our scouting of Reagan and Justin goes back quite a bit and we made no bones about it that they were the two players we targeted going into the draft. Neither one of them has disappointed and ultimately they both deserve this opportunity," Real Salt Lake General Manager Craig Waibel said.

Dunk, 22, is a two-time MAC Hermann Semifinalist and a 2016 First Team All-America selection and finished second in Denver's Division I history with 79 appearances, making 74 starts. The Dallas, Texas, native finished his college career with two goals and 18 assists, a mark good for third in Denver's Division I record books. Dunk was part of a team that had back-to-back unbeaten regular seasons, the first program since 1977-78 to do so.

Schmidt, 23, had nine goals and 19 assists in 80 career appearances for the Huskies, 78 of them in a starting role. He earned NSCAA First-Team All-Far West Region honors twice and was a First-Team All-Pac-12 selection in his senior season, when he had three goals and two assists and anchored the Washington defense that reached the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in his five years with the program.

Real Salt Lake Roster By Position

Goalkeepers (3) - Lalo Fernandez, Nick Rimando, Matt VanOekel

Defenders (10) - Danilo Acosta, Tony Beltran, Reagan Dunk, Justen Glad, David Horst, Aaron Maund, Demar Phillips, Justin Schmidt, Chris Schuler, Chris Wingert

Midfielders (7) - Kyle Beckerman, Jose Hernandez, Omar Holness, Luke Mulholland, Albert Rusnák, Luis Silva, Sunny

Forwards (7) - Jordan Allen, Chad Barrett, Brooks Lennon, Yura Movsisyan, Joao Plata, Sebastian Saucedo, Ricardo Velazco

RSL opens its 13th MLS campaign at home against reigning Eastern Conference Champions Toronto FC at 2:30 p.m. MT at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday, March 4. The complete 2017 MLS regular-season schedule, along with the national television schedules for the U.S. and Canada, will be announced in January, prior to the 2017 SuperDraft presented by adidas (Fri., Jan. 13 in Los Angeles).

Season Tickets for Real Salt Lake's 2017 campaign at Rio Tinto Stadium are now on sale; please visit www.RSL.com/tickets/royalty or call 844.Real.Tix for more information. An overwhelming percentage of current Season Ticket Members have renewed prior to the early deadline, with several hundred STMs looking to upgrade locations and add seats for RSL's 13th year.

On Saturday, March 11, Real Salt Lake - which returns nine of 11 starters (including club icons Kyle Beckerman and Nick Rimando, as well as leading scorers Yura Movsisyan and Joao Plata) from 2016 and a core of 16 players for Head Coach Jeff Cassar after qualifying for the postseason for the eighth time in nine seasons - travels to Toyota Park in Chicago at 12:00 noon MT, visiting the Fire in that club's home opener.

The March 4, 2017 date against Toronto will mark the club's earliest non-CONCACAF Champions League opener in its 13 seasons. All-time, RSL is 5-0-7 in its previous 12 home-opening MLS matches, including a 4-0-4 mark at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, dating back to 2009. Only once before - on March 29, 2008 at Rice-Eccles Stadium - has RSL opened its MLS season with a contest on Utah soil.

RSL boasts an all-time 7-1-0 mark at home against Toronto FC, outscoring the "Reds" 19-8 and amassing seven consecutive victories since losing 1-2 on a late Collin Samuel penalty kick on July 4, 2007, at Rice-Eccles Stadium. In the clubs' lone 2016 meeting, RSL dropped an 0-1 decision at remodeled BMO Field, as FW Toussaint Ricketts scored his first MLS goal for the 68' game-winner.

The 2017 Real Monarchs / USL season kicks off in April. Season Tickets for the Real Monarchs third season in 2017 are now on sale; please call 844.Real.Tix for more information. Coming in late Summer, 2017, Real Salt Lake's regional training center opens in Herriman, Utah, approximately 20 minutes southeast of Rio Tinto Stadium.

The $50 million facility will serve as the daily training home beginning in 2018 for both of the club's professional teams - RSL (MLS) and Real Monarchs (USL) - while centralizing the club's U-18, U-16 and future U-14 development academy youth selections. The Herriman facility will provide adjacencies for an on-site charter school opening in Fall, 2018, with STEM disciplines (Science/Technology/Engineering/Math) for nearly 300 boys and girls.

In mid-November in North Logan, Utah, RSL Owner Dell Loy Hansen broke ground on the first of a half-dozen regional training centers across Utah and Arizona to be built in the next 2-3 years. Each $5 million RTC houses a classroom, as well as an indoor and outdoor field, dedicated to fulfilling a curriculum dedicated to the club's vision and mission for youth soccer training and education, and the continued development of both recreational and competitive pre-Academy (ages 7-12) initiatives across Utah and Arizona.

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