SHea Travis
Shea is entering his 20th year of coaching in San Diego in the 2026/27 season. The Detroit, MI native made his way out west in 1996 through a full scholarship to play at UCLA, eventually earning a BA in History. After Soccer America named Shea as a top 5 recruit, UCLA’s legendary coach Sigi Schmidt made Shea his first freshman signing that year. Entering the professional ranks after college, Shea passed up opportunities with MLS sides to pursue a European dream. Shea spent a 4 years playing in the Netherlands and Sweden with NEC, Nijmegen and BK, Boden, respectively, working with top coaches including Dutch National Team captain during the Cruyff era, Johan Neeskens, who years later became FC Barcelona’s assistant coach under Frank Rijkaard.
In 2006, Shea began Coaching with the Del Mar Sharks, now Legends FC, and spent 10 years there building his craft from the ground up, taking teams of every age and level of play during that time. While at the Sharks, Shea and his co-director Roy, also ran the Sharks tournament, Copa Del Mar. The pair took the event from 75 teams to 450, within 4 years, making the event a premier competition in San Diego.
After leaving the Sharks, Shea took a coaching and assistant directors role with Murrieta Surf, now City FC Temecula, successfully creating a Pre-Academy program that formed the base of the clubs acceptance into MLS Next in its initial year. After 5 years coaching in Murrieta, Shea returned to coaching in San Diego with RSF Attack, where he has spent the last 4 years, winning 4 league titles and assisting a State Cup Champions title.
Shea’s Coaching philosophy is such that he believes every player deserves to be treated like they are a future professional, and every team deserves to play in an healthy environment, where communication is key and a multi-faceted approach to learning balances success and failure, great plays and mistakes, and wins and losses, in a manner that embraces full and complete technical, tactical, physical, and mental strength development.
More About Coach Travis
• Married his college sweetheart, Meredith
Won a NCAA National Championship with UCLA in 1997, as well as numerous youth State Cups, High School State Championships, and youth National Cups
Was a mainstay in US Youth National Team Pools from U16 to the U23's, along with briefs stints with Canadian Provincial Teams