Coach Cameron Soccer Podcast · David Cameron

Julian Dragomir | Playmakers | E738 | Secrets to soccer development

·1 hr 6 min·4 clips

Julian says some Santos sessions were two hours of running, bungees, hills, and carrying teammates.

The episode starts with the kind of live-show scramble the program handles pretty naturally, including a sound problem and a restart. Julian Dragomir is introduced as someone who came up in Phoenix, was scouted out of the Santos organization, and built his career through a long run at Benefica Academy in Lipson. His path then takes him to a Romanian club, back to the U.S. through Real Salt Lake Academy in Casa Grande, and into college soccer at Yavapai College, where he was number three in the country in assists with 14, 11th in the country in goals with 19, and helped win the conference title in 2012. After two years at Yavapai, he continued at UNLV and later became the director of coaching for Playmakers. The hosts use that background as the starting point for a bigger conversation about what youth development actually looks like on the ground. They ask where he grew up, how long he was with Santos, and what those early years meant. The tone stays informal and familiar, with the interview moving the way soccer conversations often do when people already know the scene. The discussion widens into the way families organize their lives around the sport. There is talk about kids missing school for big matches, especially when Champions League games or Barcelona are involved. The conversation lands on the idea of taking players out to watch the game together, treating it as part of the culture rather than a distraction. Julian notes that his club has already done that for a World Cup watch party, with a big turnout of parents and players. The hosts remember the crowd’s reaction and the energy of seeing a local soccer community gather around the U.S. game. That leads into a broader reflection on how the women’s World Cup will fit into that same routine and how the rest of the world is catching up quickly. The episode also shows the show’s usual clubhouse rhythm, with side comments, live chat energy, and small detours that make the conversation feel unforced. Production chatter, guest history, and coaching talk all sit in the same room. By the end, the episode has settled into a clear shape: a player’s journey, a coach’s perspective, and a community’s habit of organizing life around soccer. The show closes with the usual promo and schedule notes, but the core of the episode is the long arc from Phoenix youth soccer to coaching the next wave of players.

As heard by us

A Phoenix-to-coaching soccer story that stays grounded in the day-to-day of player development.

Julian Dragomir's path runs from Phoenix club soccer to Benfica Academy, a Romanian club, and back to the U.S. through Real Salt Lake Academy, Yavapai College, and UNLV before he moved into youth development with Playmakers.

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Want a real youth-development story from Phoenix to Europe and back?

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