From player to coach: How Tacoma Defiance's Lars Helleren became Sounders Academy GK Coach

The Sounders’ development pathway does more than just produce professional soccer players.

In August, it was announced that Tacoma Defiance goalkeeper Lars Helleren would transition out of playing with the MLS NEXT Pro side to pursue a career as a goalkeeper coach for the Sounders Academy teams.

“I'm from Seattle, so I'm happy I get to stay as a coach in [the city], and coach at a great club,” said Helleren.

Following a strong collegiate career at Seattle Pacific University as a 2022 First Team All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference selection and United Soccer Coaches Third Team All-American, Helleren continued his soccer endeavors with MLS NEXT Pro side Colorado Rapids 2 before moving over to Tacoma Defiance for nearly two years.

The plan was to finish out the 2025 season with Defiance, but when Development Director of Goalkeeping Fred Bragaglia initiated a conversation with Helleren about the open position on the Academy side, he knew he couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

“I thought, no better way to start my [goalkeeping] coaching career than at the Academy,” said Helleren. “They gave me some time to think about it, obviously. And I kept playing too. And then eventually, I thought [since] the season is coming up for the Academy, why not start [now]?”

The switch comes as no surprise with Helleren having previous experience coaching in Seattle United’s goalkeeper program in addition to private training sessions with youth players.

It is his leadership attributes and just being a “fantastic human,” however, that made Bragaglia believe that Helleren could thrive as a coach.

“When we brought him to Defiance, one of his jobs was to lead the guys in the locker room, be the locker room guy like we have Cristian Roldan, Stefan Frei, João Paulo, those guys that have a good personality, and he did that really well with us,” said Bragaglia.

He continued: “[Lars] has that quality that can transfer to our academy keepers. And they’ve seen that already because they had a chance to practice with him [whenever] I brought them to Defiance.”

While it will take time to fully adjust to his new career path, his familiarity with the Sounders goalkeeping structure and standards set at the club will allow him to navigate the role more seamlessly.

“At Defiance and as I got in with the First Team here and there, and going to pre-season with them, you kind of start to see what they like, what they don't like,” said Helleren. “So I got accustomed to that pretty quick over the year or two I was here, and I could tell what kind of style, especially, [Club Director of Goalkeeping] Tom Dutra wants to build.”

The 26-year-old has a lot on his plate, managing nine keepers across three different academy teams. But, he’s found it to be fulfilling, knowing that he’s already making a difference in their games.

“I feel like the most rewarding part so far is just to see how these keepers came in and just after three, four weeks of working with me, just the development already and watching them implement what we've been working on into games,” said Helleren.

The Seattle native only just scratched the surface of what he’s capable of in the coaching space. And with Bragaglia and Dutra serving as mentors, he will be sure to build upon the success that he’s already instilled with the Academy keepers after only a month in the role.

“We're going to keep helping him to improve his knowledge,” said Bragaglia. “And even though we have our methodology and the way that we want to train goalkeepers, the one thing that Tom always [voices] is to be ourselves. There is a little bit of freedom for us to do things that we think are going to be helpful for the kids.”

Bragaglia added: “Our job is for myself and Tom to [advise] him, but also [encourage] him to seek new opportunities to learn from different people.”