“Don’t Ever Take It for Granted”: Steven Beitashour on his 14th Season in MLS and Being a Veteran Leader for the Rapids

March 9, 2023 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – Colorado Rapids News Release

As the Rapids prepare to take on San Jose this weekend, we sat down with MLS veteran Steven Bietashour about his journey in the league since being drafted by the Earthquakes in 2010.

This is your fourteenth season in MLS; what’s one of the biggest changes you’ve seen take place over time?

Obviously, there’s a lot more teams. From when I started, I think there were 16 teams to now we’re at 29. So almost doubled, which is good to see just the growth in that aspect. But also the clubs, like the stadiums that are coming in, the locations of the stadiums, the fan bases for each new club that’s coming in. It’s pretty cool, just because when I started, it was really big if a team had a soccer-specific stadium. And now the question is ‘How big is your fan base? How passionate are they? Where’s the stadium located?’ And so it’s pretty cool to see some of these teams coming in-Atlanta’s selling out, Seattle’s been doing it for a while. But it’s cool to see the amount of teams coming in. And then the fans that are just showing up every week and supporting them. So I think that’s the coolest thing.

Do you have a certain piece of advice you give to young players when they come in?

There’s a lot of things that I try to do to help the younger generation and I think it’s just don’t take it for granted. I think a lot of athletes when they get drafted or whenever they sign their first contract they think they’ve made it, and then they think the work is done. And you can’t take it for granted, that’s just the beginning. You have to constantly be improving and working harder and sacrificing and just dedicating your entire life to the game. People ask ‘Oh, how many hours do you work a day playing soccer? Oh, you only train for two hours. That must be amazing.’ But there’s so much more to it than those two hours-the preparation involved to get ready for those two hours. And then afterwards what are you doing? Are you going out and about and just on your feet and fatigued and doing all this stuff? Or are you resting up? Are you eating right? Are you sleeping right? So training is more than just those two hours, it’s the whole day. And so I give a lot of advice. It’s not just one thing, it’s more of a big picture. So however much of it they want to take in, it’s really up to them. And some guys, they really embrace it and they do well, and some guys are out in two years. So it’s unfortunate, but it’s a…