Jason Vanacour is a retired American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who is the general counsel for the United States Youth Soccer Association. Vanacour played professionally in the National Professional Soccer League, USISL Select League,

Continental Indoor Soccer League The Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL) was a professional indoor soccer league that played from 1993 to 1997. History In the summer of 1989 Dr Jerry Buss, the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and California Sports, told his executive Vice Pre ...

and had stints in Germany and Austria. Vanacour grew up in Arizona, playing for the Cisco Lightning Soccer Club. He graduated from

Cactus High School Cactus High School is public secondary school located in Glendale, Arizona, United States, part of the Peoria Unified School District. The school opened its doors in August 1977. It is the district's smallest high school, with approximately 1,3 ...

and attended

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, playing on the men's soccer team from 1989 to 1993. During the 1992 collegiate off-season, Vanacour played for the Palo Alto Firebirds in the

USISL United Soccer League (USL), formerly known as United Soccer Leagues, is a soccer league in the United States and Canada. It organizes several men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Men's leagues currently organized are the ...

. Vanacour graduated with a bachelor's degrees in political science and economics. In the summer of 1993, Vanacour played for the United States National B Team. Following graduation from Stanford, he worked briefly as a stockbroker, but left the job to play for the National B Team in a game in Bermuda. He then decided to pursue a professional playing career, joining the Arizona Sandsharks of the

in 1994. He spent two seasons with the Sandsharks. During this time Vanacour also had brief stints in Germany and Austria, including traveling and playing with Casino Salzburg of the Austrian Bundesliga. In the fall of 1995, Vanacour moved to Florida to sign with the

Tampa Bay Terror The Tampa Bay Terror is the name of an indoor soccer team based in the Tampa Bay, Florida area that competed in the defunct National Professional Soccer League (NPSL). The team existed for two seasons before folding: 1995–1996 and 1996–1997. ...

of the National Professional Soccer League. In 1996, he did not play for Arizona during the summer indoor season, but remained in Florida to play the summer outdoor season with the

Jacksonville Cyclones The Jacksonville Cyclones were a professional soccer team based in Jacksonville, Florida. They played in the A-League from 1997 to 1999. The team originated as the Tampa Bay Cyclones, who played in Tampa, Florida from 1995 to 1996 before moving ...

of the USISL Select League. In 1997, Vanacour returned to play for the Sandsharks. Vanacour spent the 1997–1998 season with the Cincinnati Silverbacks in the NPSL. In 1998, Vanacour split his time between the outdoor Arizona Sahuaros of the USISL D-3 Pro League and the

Arizona Thunder The Arizona Thunder was a professional indoor soccer team based in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1997, the team was a member of the Premier Soccer Alliance. In 1998, the alliance, with some additional teams, reconstituted itself as the World Indoor Socce ...

of the Premier Soccer Alliance. He was All League with the Thunder. In 1999, he played for only the Thunder, now in the

World Indoor Soccer League The World Indoor Soccer League (WISL) was a United States-based indoor soccer league that existed from 1998 to 2001 and consisted of nine teams. History After the demise of the Continental Indoor Soccer League, four of its teams decided to create ...

. In 2000, he again split his time between two teams, the Thunder, and the

Tucson Fireballs Tucson Fireballs were a soccer club that competed in the United Soccer Leagues from 1997 to 2001. The club originally started as the Los Angeles Fireballs. They moved to Tucson, Arizona and became the Tucson Fireballs in 2000. Year-by-year Nota ...

. He was All League with the Thunder. By the 2001 season, with the Fireballs Vanacour had entered the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

. He graduated in 2003 and began practicing law with Snell & Wilmer L.L.P. in Phoenix in October. In April 2010, Vanacour was hired as the general counsel for United States Youth Soccer Association.Jason Vanacour named general counsel for US Youth Soccer
/ref> After leaving United States Youth Soccer, Vanacour was assistant general counsel for a large hedge fund based in Dallas until 2013. Vanacour then opened his own law firm, Vanacour Schuler Zarin, which then became Vanacour Perkins and founded North American Subrogation ("Subro Smart"), which he eventually sold his stake in. Currently, Vanacour continues to run his law firm, but is also General Counsel and managing director for the Americas for Phoenix Advisors, Ltd., an Abu Dhabi-based firm focused on litigation funding, asset recovery, and advisory services in the GCC, surrounding regions of South Asia and Africa, the Americas and Europe.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vanacour, Jason Living people 1959 births American men's soccer players Arizona Thunder players Sporting Arizona FC players Arizona Sandsharks players Cincinnati Silverbacks players Continental Indoor Soccer League players Jacksonville Cyclones players National Professional Soccer League (1984–2001) players Palo Alto Firebirds players Soccer players from Arizona Stanford Cardinal men's soccer players Tampa Bay Terror players Tucson Fireballs players Milwaukee Wave United players USISL players USISL Select League players USL Second Division players World Indoor Soccer League players Men's association football forwards American expatriate soccer players in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Austria American expatriate sportspeople in Austria American expatriate men's soccer players Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law alumni Arizona lawyers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Sportspeople from Glendale, Arizona