A year ago, Bode Davis and Chris Garcia came to Real Salt Lake preseason training camp in Tucson, Arizona, hopeful that they could earn professional contracts. They looked around the locker room at the likes of Kyle Beckerman and Nedum Onuoha that had been professionals as long as Davis and Garcia had been alive, and others like Justen Glad and Aaron Herrera that had gone through the RSL Academy to find success at the MLS and international ranks.
Now after a full year in the professional ranks, they find themselves on the other side of those conversations as RSL Academy players Zack Farnsworth, Griffin Dillon and Jaziel Orozco have joined the fray in preseason camp, looking to do the same as those who came before them.