Latest / I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth / I Hate Soccer #134 - Mike Surniak & Everett Palache from Cleveland Force

Transcript

I Hate Soccer #134 - Mike Surniak & Everett Palache from Cleveland Force · I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: This episode is with Mike Cernian, the pre-club academy director and camp director of the Cleveland Force.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: And he overlooks everything from UA and Under.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Also sitting in on this episode is Everett Palace.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: He is the technical director of Cleveland Force.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: And he was actually on two episodes during my Cleveland Force interviews.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: We basically discuss what a lot of clubs are missing out on.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: And it's the it's the two to eight years old.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think this is an underutilized portion of a lot of clubs.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's a neglected age group.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: And especially if you're a club that relies heavily on feeders, the biggest, the biggest takeaway from this is feed yourselves.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: Start at two years old to eight years old.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: And the way that they are running it always makes me happy when I see clubs doing it this way.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think for the longevity and the overall health of your club, I think you need that age group taken care of.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: In 2026, we can't neglect this age group.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: This was a fun episode.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: I just looked at my YouTube stats for the last month, and 58.4% of you are not subscribed.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: So please, if you're enjoying this episode or any of the episodes, please subscribe.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: It really helps me get the guests to say yes to coming on the show.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: It also helps me with a lot of these tour clubs that I'm trying to work with and partner with.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: My goal is to get this under 50% in the next six months.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is ridiculous that I did to do this, to be honest with you.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and it's really just about transparency of the club and getting like what we were just talking about about uh you with the deaf national team and being able to coach and just sit there.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: And now, because at the younger ages, uh parents get upset if the coaches aren't screaming and yelling, and as like this is an education for everybody that hey there's again there's layers to this, but so uh okay, you're like director of U9 to U no, yeah, U8 and below.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: U8 and below.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so three to eight.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: How long have you been doing that?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh this is year seven.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: Told you.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: And you like it, love it.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: Wouldn't change.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: Told you.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: Have my USFC and stay here because I want to.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean so I would I would consider myself a chaser.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: So when I started coaching, I had like a U10 girls team and then a U13 boys team.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: But then I always wanted something more.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: I always wanted to go and coach college.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then when the DA came around, I wanted to go coach the DA.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then when the ECNL came, I wanted to go coach the ECNL because I wanted to go coach at the highest level kids.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: Did you at you being here for seven years in that role?
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: Did you ever do you ever feel that like I want to have something else?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I don't think so.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: I get rewarded by seeing those kids that I've coached and the parents enjoying seeing their kids play in the ECNL and get invited to Europe for trials or get invited to national team stuff.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: That's the joy and the push that I find and to grow my craft and support more of those players.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I that's funny that you said that because I just got in like a heated battle on social media with the DMs.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: And basically the comment was basically I care more about uh the individual player success than any team success that I've had.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because in my role over the last 11 years, I had a technical training company that was supplemental that was not club affiliated.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: So when I see one of my former players who played at Flash, that is the leading goal scorer for Nebraska, or a grow at Wisconsin playing 90 minutes, that is my joy.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: That is like I I get a kick out of that.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's pretty awesome, and that's exactly what you're saying.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: To go now and watch my son play in high school and all these kids he's playing are kids I coached or kids that I was adjacent to through the development.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's really rewarding, and that's that's the joy I find because we're able to then share the love of the game and instill passion, and we see that that it works and it continues, right?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: And then they give back, and that's even the best part is those players then give back because of what we're doing here.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: How many kids are in that program?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: Which one?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: This the the U8 and under.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: Uh U8, our U8 program runs seven teams.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: We have 69 kids.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: So we have three girls' teams and four boys' teams.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: We have another 65 to 70 in our use five and six program.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: And then below that is our like our entry point, our minis, which is like three and four year olds, runs between 150 and 250 per year.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: And you do all of it.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I don't do all of it, right?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: Because you have to empower others to do with you.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I can't.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, to be honest, though, man, the best thing is to to go from an environment, even at U8, where it's an intense tournament, and the next weekend get to go coach three and four-year-olds and do that is just the best.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's so fun.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: What are you doing with them?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: With them?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: So we actually have a curriculum.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: It's seven games that we rotate through a six-week process, and they're all pillar skills.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_02: So passing, shooting, dribbling, um, even concepts of defending, and we just base them around cartoons or movies, and we're silly and it's fun.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like this week, for example, we did a game called Apple Picking where we just take 30 soccer balls.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: There's a progression where they go pick it up, throw it in the goal, they come back.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: The next one they go out, they dribble it, they kick it in the goal.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: The next one they come back, use the bottom of their foot, put it in the goal.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: So it's just all these progressions, or another one we call protect a castle.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: We have dragons and knights.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: The knights have to stop the dragons from bringing their eggs into the goal.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: We encourage these little tiny things that you see progress through three and four into five and six, where hey, would the knight want to let the dragon, the bad guy, come close to their castle, or are they gonna stop them when they're far away?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: So it's those little details, and you see their little minds go off, and it's just fascinating and and entertaining all at the same time.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: How so when I was in Utah, I stopped at Wasaj Soccer Club, and they do kind of something similar with their youngest.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: They have a year-long theme.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: So, like this year is Jurassic Park.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's so fun.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: So, like the coaches sometimes will like wear dinosaur uniforms or dino dinosaur like costumes or something like that.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then last year it was Avengers, and so it was kind of like the same kind of concept of you guys, and I love like exploring through play and it meet them where they are, man.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_02: We use these little terms from whatever cartoons are relevant or whatever, and connect with the parents and or my nieces and nephews to know kind of what's going on in in popular media, and then use those terms of those characters in our sessions.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's fun because at that age, we gotta get them to gotta make sure that they're not crying on the way to training.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, crying at training is fine.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's normal.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's normal, but you want to make them like, oh, I cannot wait to go for sure.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's something it's stuff like that that just get like captures their imagination, and and it's you know, um some of them will remember it.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: They do, they do.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's fun to to watch them go and play you at U9, and they'll come back with their brother and sister, and then they're helping.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, because right they're showing or they're showing them how to do the runs at the end with like ice cream runs or animal runs with different sprinting or running techniques, and they do it with their siblings, and it's just it's fun.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's a cycle that keeps giving back.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: Do you guys have like your older teams come out and coach at all?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: We or all professional coaches.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: So we have our professional coaching crew, our core training group.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we've just launched this past summer where we have players within our club that can apply and now coach in our system.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: So we had our first two this summer, Ret Our Soccer Camps, which was just incredibly well received by the players and the families.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: And we're now expanding it.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: We're going to the process of interviewing seven different players that have showed interest.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: And starting in November, we'll have additional players within our club exploring options off the field in soccer before they even get out of high school.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, this game can only be as good as the coaches, right?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: The next generation of coaches.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: And if if we're able to develop and instill a passion in our young people, then our game can only get better.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: And it's almost like you guys gotta remember where you were at one point.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: Where I was evil eight, nine, ten years ago.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't know any of this stuff.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: You just learn.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: Learn from others, learn from mentors like Everett, or or other people that I've worked with.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: You know, in Cleveland, it's been awesome to learn, and now it's time to share what I've learned and developed with others so they can make it better and keep it relevant.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: One thing that I'm upset with in all of my travels is realizing how many clubs neglect the two to eight years old.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: That they don't even offer anything from two years old to eight years old.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you're missing an opportunity to never have to worry about where your kids are are are coming from when you get to the older ages, right?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: I don't understand.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like when I took my B license, uh they had us rank uh everything from what's the most important thing to your club?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: Is it the curriculum, the coaching staff, um a youth academy that's feeding into your system, facilities, and we all like ranked facilities last and facilities they said no facilities should be one because staff can come and go.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Staff can come and go.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: We need a facility where that's our home.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: But the second one was really a youth academy, it was the feeder system, and it's like nobody again going back to you know how we started, nobody wants to coach those age groups because it's babysitting or below them or over big time below them and how they view it.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I think what we found is that it's a great place to start, honestly.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like some of our better U9, U10 coaches have spent time with me in and our team really learning and cutting their teeth in those 5v5 games, literally sitting here at our complex on a Saturday and running four or five 5v5 games in a row and learning what works, what doesn't work, how to communicate, how to get those actions out of those players.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: And then they can then apply that to 77 and 9v9 and the EC and L and the RL, right?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a great way to cut your teeth.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: What age do you form teams?
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh U6 are U6 and U7 is our first introduction into team play.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: But they play outside U8 is our first one.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: Got it.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: Now, last year we did have an incredibly gifted set of young people that we played outside of our organization at U7, and they played against U8 and U9 teams.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: Now, was their success on the field winning wise?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: But the expectation wasn't that.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: They learned what it was like to go to a game day, what it was like to play at our local, our local league facility, which is interesting, right?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: What you know, the truck stop, all the noise, all this stuff.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: So now as they come in as U8s and they're competing, they're comfortable.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: The parents are comfortable, they're less stressed.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's a really good exercise to see and challenge our families more than the kids, I think.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: And it it was it's paid dividends for us this year.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: How much coaching for parent education goes into that?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: So that's probably 40% of my job is educating people around.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: Like the conversations or what I've done today has all been around stuff from the weekend or what's coming next and the why.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: And just really encouraging families that it's a journey, it's U8, doesn't it matter, but like the overall goal in our pathway is U16 or 16 years old.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's what we encourage and continue to just preach and and share with our families.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: And the greatest thing is we get to show, right?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_02: We can show it with with Everett's and I've old and children, we can show it with kids we've coached where they start at the bottom.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: Now they're getting invited to a youth national team camp.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's all these things that are just fascinating.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: That if you're patient and you take the time with not just the kid, but the parent, it really pays dividends because they don't leave the sport as quickly or they don't club hop.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like retention when you do have that two to eight years old locked in to your club, I do feel like the retention of those players is longer versus let's say you get to the club at eight and then I think at least in my experience.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: So our data supports that.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: So we do track that across smart between U8 and the club.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: So U8 and the club, and then our are pre-club, so that U6, U7, and how many kids could start there and s play at least a year to two years within our organization.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: And if we can maintain our which we consider homegrown players, right?
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: Home grown grown across the landscape.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: The landscape might be that if they were your club, they went pro, our homegrown here, of course.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: Is they start at three now.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: And we got kids getting noticed now at you know, Iber Cup that started at three years old and four years old with us.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a fascinating like way to prove that this is the place where spending your time is not just good for the health of the organization, but the health of the sport in general and and just the health of the player, man.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, if we can give them these foundationals and learning, you're just teaching kids how to train and enjoy themselves.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: The amount of celebration we get out of kids now that this is established for the last five to seven years, like the joy you see in these kids is fascinating.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: There just seems to be less pressure and training because they don't have to learn to train at nine.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: We've taught them how to train at five and six.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: He that's a good point.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's a really good point.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: And listen and listen to instruction, proper listening, right?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_02: How you engage with your body, like how you communicate with not just your mouth, but your body, your shoulders.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like, all these things are important.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: We start that.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like, we start telling your five efforts all this last week.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: I yelled at a group of kids, stop raising your hand.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: You're not open in soccer if you have to raise your hand.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god, thank you.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: Tell your teammate with your shoulders and your hips that you're open.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: You're not, you're not in math class, you don't need to raise your hand.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: You have to wide receiver running open.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: I say that all the time.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, I'm open, I'm over there.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, this is another thing on coaches.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's like it's like, okay, what color am I holding?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, why are my eyes up?
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Why are my eyes seven feet in the air?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: They would never never get me started.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: We could get me started.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, yeah, what do your sessions look like in terms of like time for like obviously two to three is probably what 45 minutes?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and our expectation there is that we get about 60, like week one, we want 50 participation.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_02: By week six, we have about 80 to 90 percent full participation, right?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_02: Right through that session.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: Those are 45 minutes.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: We do the same little warm-up where we're touching the ball, moving our bodies for about 11 of 12 minutes.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: We do our core game, and then they play.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: We get our kids playing, whether or not they all play, but they play uh and they play for 10 minutes and then we do some fun running, so it's always looks like what our sessions are gonna look like as they get older.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I think the most rewarding part about that is when you start a new group of kids and it's just a cluster.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: It's crazy.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's they're crying.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they're crying because we're not using their ball, we're using mine, whatever it is, you know.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: But then, like last week, you know, last Sunday, uh, Coach Gabby and I had the pleasure to split the group.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: So a group of boys and girls.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: There was two girls and four boys that had been there for probably 12 weeks, two sessions.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: They played without a bounce, they played with the team kicking it into their own teammate, they were able to go directionally without instruction.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_02: They they understood that there was an object to the game.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: Now, are they still in the me and the ball phase?
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_02: Do we expect them to pass?
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: But they were still able to conceptualize the game as the game was intended.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: And that to me is fascinating.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because we have to we have to challenge these kids are smarter than people think, man.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_02: They just are, they're capable of so much more.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Well, think about it.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's what you if you were to learn another language when you're six, you're much more likely to be fluent when you're 26 in that than if you just wait.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: What what's the so one of my buddies in Buffalo?
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: He runs soccer ruse.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and it's it's a similar program, but it's not affiliated with any club, like little kickers or something like that.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: A lot like that, a lot like happy feet.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: He was part of Happy Feet originally out of Kansas City, and then and then he broke off on this his own thing.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: And he does things where like there's two, oh there's always like two balls.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like if they're playing 3v3, they're playing with two soccer balls because it's just more touches on the ball and stuff like that, like little things like that.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so when we do it with kids that don't want that, the out of bounds doesn't work, right?
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: The coach or sibling goes out there with three or four balls, the ball goes out, coach yells freeze, drops the ball then.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: So it's just yep, nonstop, non-stop because it, you know, three and two, three, four-year-olds, man.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: Once the activity action stops, they're done.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: They're on to the next thing, right?
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: So just trying to keep them engaged for that seven to ten minutes, and once they do and figure out, so much fun.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: We would talk about how we never go above really three v three with that age group either.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: And and we don't go three v three or over three v three or four v four until we get to u eight.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: Really, there's no point.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: There's no point.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: There's no point.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: No, you can do even if you're high aptitude players at U6, U7, and you're teaching defending in threes, right?
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_02: You can still defend in three with four.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_02: Or you can defend in three to three, right?
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: You're we don't need we teach basic positional numbers and understanding, but not hard like a position is a space or a concept, not a rigidity.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: So you could do all of that in small-sided games and just grow through that.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: My facility in Buffalo was five perfect for five aside.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, just like ours is looked at.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I I would I would I would be training this like U-12 team, and we're doing 3v3 or 4v4, and they had no concept of spacing or width or depth or anything.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: And and I'm like, why are you guys playing 11v11 when you guys can't handle 4v4?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: And and and then we like we try to graduate into the full 11v11 game, or we graduate tried to graduate into 7v7, maybe an a year early, sure, or a 9v9 a year early.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, can we just like be just a little bit more patient?
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: Patient and proficient.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's okay to be better than everybody.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it is okay, and I think that's that's one of our big parent conversations at five, six, seven, even eight.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's okay that your kid is awesome.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: Don't they can they're gonna have plenty of time to play above their pay grade.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: Let them enjoy the game and just be the best kid.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: Who cares?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: I think more kids need to experience that being the best.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they need to understand what the pressure of being the best is.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_02: Because what when we see the success of some of these kids that have come through this program, now playing an Hyper Cup or playing at Blue Chip this weekend, able to handle the pressure of being the girl or the man, like the woman or the man on the field, because they've been put in positions to carry a team.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: And they understand what that feels like in a positive and a negative way, right?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's really, it's really fun to I mean sp I mean we talked this weekend about what happened on a blue chip, and we know the kids and we know their personalities and what they've been able to do with self, self, self-growth, not just on the field but outside on the classroom.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's been fascinating.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: All through the game, all through just becoming a human.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: I see your mind going.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's important, and I'm trying to uh so you've been here seven years.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Was this program here before he was here?
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: It was.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, COVID put a real damper on all this.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I was involved with an affiliate of the club prior to COVID, uh, then worked, you know, with the masks and outside, off do all that.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, my old co worker Chris and I came over.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: I came under him.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, he decided to move on to something different that he wanted to pursue, and I took on this role.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_02: So we Chris started that growth process, Chris Mueller, and then we've continued it and modified.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: It to fit what we want it to look like as a pathway and a true development of kids, not just of numbers, um, to really support the growth of the club and the environment of soccer in the city as all.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: How many how many like let's say U15s came from this program?
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Would you know that off the top of your head?
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: Not U15s.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: We can go to like U13s or 14s.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: U13s or 14s, about 20 right now, 20 to 25.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: And then it gets bigger as we get closer to COVID.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because U12s is a larger number, U11s is a larger number.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: U11s is like 60%.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: And then U U8, our U9, U10 is even better.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_02: U9 is like almost 80.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty much the whole thing.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: Are you our U8 program?
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: There's only of the 69 kids, there's eight from the outside.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: That joined and how many kids?
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_02: Out of out of 69 U8 boys and girls, there's only eight kids from the outside.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: 61 kids are what we would call homegrown that either started in minis or juniors, five to six.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_02: And came all the way through our system.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: See, it drives me nuts that clubs don't think of it like this.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry to interrupt.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: No, you're fine.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's the people part.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: I said it earlier.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_02: Because you have to invest in not the not just the players, but the families.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but hard.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Invest in the people.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: What I mean is he's special.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate that.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's like, I'm sitting here just like you know, like this is amazing.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm watching your body language.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, hold on a second.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean are you real?
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like this can't be true.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's just I hope people that listen to this are like that run clubs, just pay attention.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: Tom Byer, do you know Tom Byers?
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: He's he is an American from New York.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and he is in Japan, and he is all about soccer starts at home.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's a big program that uh some of our coaches use as well.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, soccer starts at home, and the concept is getting parents involved, getting the kid to work on the ball at home.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: And what he says, because US soccer he was gonna work with US soccer, but the US soccer didn't want didn't have the patience.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: They wanted a quicker ROI.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: They wanted a quicker ROI.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like, well, this isn't developing players.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: You give me two years.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like how how much ROI are you expecting when we're talking about five-year-olds?
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's gonna take a minute.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: And he says that US soccer looks at youth, that age group as an obligation, not an opportunity.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas the other countries either through their culture of all their parents played and they've been around the game their entire life, or just by parents putting forcing a ball on their foot, those cultures, and why is Japan so technical?
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's because partly because they have their relationship with practice, first of all, their discipline, their discipline is so different, but it's also their starting point.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like, think about like Clint Dempsey, who is arguably our best player ever.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't start playing until he was six.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: Messi had a ball at his feet at 18 months.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: We're immediately starting five years behind, and people don't realize this.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_02: They don't, and I think it's even more evident when we see those players that started with us, that might be U12 now, and their four-year-old brothers do minis and is coming and juggling at four.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: So, like we have two siblings, three three or four siblings that are the third player in the family to go through our our club, and they can juggle three to four times at three and four years old with one mouse, can actually can do it, can do L turns, can they know what a step over is, like they are incapable, and they just they might fool around and look at you and laugh, but they can.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it's fascinating to see what that came up with Paul and Nick is that all of the best players I've ever been around as a coach, they either had a parent who played or older siblings.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: You see it because the younger, the younger the kid, or the younger the sibling, are the youngest sibling is usually the best, the best of the family.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: Usually usually also paying the booty.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now the third's the worst, the third one.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um I was I was a third.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Patience right there.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he's like, hold on, the third.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: I look at some kids some days, I'm like, you're the third, aren't you?
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, do you know?
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, because you got all the spirit in the world, kid.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: I I can pick out middle child, uh middle children really well.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna go at it, aren't you?
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's just it's a sly look, they look at you and you say, You know you can do better.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: They're like, Come on.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_02: Duh.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's just I hope people just it's the joy, man.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: There's so much joy in seeing this happen.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: It just is.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna go one step further, too.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Something that has to come up in waiting and listening to Mike and watching is he's gotta give himself more credit, too.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, as a technical director, there's an in my opinion, there's an expectation of certain things being taught, right?
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: You guys have talked a lot about the games, um, the engagement of the player, right?
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: But it's really special when you can go to like a U8, U7 game, and you can see the goalie picks up the ball and everybody gets in position.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then you can see the build over six weeks.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: The player that's a six pops in the middle and they make a nice diamond because the six is there, the goalies, and then they play out of it.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: I have video of stuff that he's done that we are trying to put together to say here's uh day one, here's day six, here's day twelve, because by time they're done with the process that Mike has put together, they come in a U8, they actually have principles and understand football.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I took it pressure cover, pressure cover balance, building out of the back, yeah, playing a target nine.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I challenged them a few years back.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was able to go to La Mesa and study, and I was super blessed with all that.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I came back and it was a U9 game.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_02: And it's we've watched this together a few times awesome.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's great learning six-year-old in the middle of the field, bossing the game, and bossing a U10 team, I think.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, they're playing up.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was a U9 team and so on and so forth.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I showed it to Mike and he's like, Really think we could do that?
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: I go, I think you can do this.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: We have, and it's been awesome.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it's he's at that point now where these little people like he's created a space and he said it a couple times.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: The runs at the end of the practice, like it's actually fitness, but they don't see it that way, right?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: So he's building that athletic stride.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: So again, I'm looking at it through a lens of like, I need something out of this.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: You've talked about ROI from US Soccer on this.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Mike has been really committed to the idea of like it takes time to get there.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is you don't see a lot of programs in a pre-club, this U8 and below level, where they come out of it.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just athletic kids that can run around and dominate a game because it's a 7v7 game and you have the best athlete.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: He's able to provide us three teams or the first, second, and third team.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: The third team functions just like the first team because they have the ideas.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, do we move them based on aptitude as he brought up in learning athleticism?
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, but he's done a great job of then communicating with the Knicks of the world or Lauren who takes over the next one to say, what's the right classroom?
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: We use that language here is the classroom.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: But the point I'm trying to get across is like the kids don't just get the the technical football piece, they also are getting the essence of football.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: That what is my job?
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: What do I need to do?
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: They play together as a team, cause and effect, cause and effect, like all these things.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: Mike is taking it where you look at the rest of the world and they say you got to get your best coaches at the youngest age groups because they have experience, they have teaching ability.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we feel blessed, Marco, and I and the club as a whole, that we have Mike doing that, right?
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: That he's really committed not just to creating a uh social experience for these kids, but he's really crafted a way that he connects with the families, but he connects with the players in a sense that there's a sense of discipline and boundaries.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: So they're actually learning, right?
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: So now when they get to, like you said, a U9 game, it's not anything new for our players.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Nick and Lauren are seeing wild success at nine and 10 because these kids have been together four or five years, but not just to socialize and have a pizza party.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's a standard and expectation of like you gotta learn some football while you're here.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: We come to work, enjoyment on the field, fun on the field is competing.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: So that's a that's a big term we like to use.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_02: We don't fool around at practice once we get to six, seven, and eight.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_02: We come to training because we want to compete.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_02: Competing is fun.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: Goofing off is for water breaks and after, right?
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_02: But we want to come and compete.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like, we love to ask, like my coaches and I, like Max and and Liv and Caroline and Andy, we love to ask, like, doesn't that feel better?
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: Look at the way this just happened.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: Isn't this more fun to play this way?
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: And they're like, Yeah, isn't it easier?
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, let's just do that next time, right?
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like, it's just really fun.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I appreciate those kind words from Everett.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I think something that he brought out is that when we educate kids, we we look at school, right?
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_02: We we look at what the kids are learning in school.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: We go and I make relationships with the teachers, right?
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_02: What are the kids learning at about that time of year?
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_02: So at UA right now, um to get that level of support or overloads or whatever we're working on or like building out of the back, we use what they're learning in science.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_02: So, right now, for the most part, in second grade science science, they're losing learning cause and effect.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: So we actually use their education, what they're doing at school, and apply it to if we do this, what happens?
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: So we use like if we all collapse in a straight line, what happens?
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: Space opens behind us.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_02: Is that good or bad?
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's bad, right?
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_02: So we use these little learning tools that they do in the classroom and just make it an easier transition for them.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: And that's and and that's just like knowing who your audience is, right?
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: And it's known as like any job you've ever had.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's the key.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: Spending time and learning.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's really a unique thing because hopefully you see that thread and you go around these different clubs, but you hear about force, and I brought it up in my role.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Every one of the people you met with is intentional about the learner based on their age and stage.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then hopefully it's also coming through where force they're interconnected.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he's brought up, but it looks like when they got to get to Nick, when they got to get to Lauren, and the celebration that he has when uh a kid that started at six is now 12, and they're going to some of our bigger events and they're doing it, he's aware of it.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: You know, but I go on the weekends and I like look at the results.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_02: And the kids see him sometimes, coach my just show up, I watched it.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_02: Love it, dude.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_02: Love it.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_02: Just go and double coach, just sit.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, fantastic.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: And just enjoy it.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: Go talk to the parents.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it's a big deal.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then also stretch it.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: He had a goal uh last year to take our U8 team into our State Cup as U9s.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, and one of the teams got out of the group, and they finished second in the division, the state at U8.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: So you got to keep in mind, he's playing younger kids up.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the kids on that U8 roster are still six turns seconds.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_02: They're still U8s this year with the H right.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they're and they're showing, and I don't want to use this word too loosely, tactical principles.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're playing, like he just said, there's overloads and they're intentional.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: And Mike has um taken on that mantra.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, he coaches in the sideline, but he doesn't say much to the players, right?
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Right during games.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: How much are how much of your focus is developing their confidence in like duels in the attacking 1v1s?
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_02: So we do a lot of everything we do in our pre-club.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_02: So you six, u7 is no more than three v3.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_02: So we do a lot of one v1s.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_02: We do one v1 to a goal, one v1 to an area, and then two v two v1.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: So two attackers versus one, yep, to really introduce ironically pressure cover.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_02: Because if you bend your run.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_02: Or if you don't bend your run, you can't pressure cover.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_02: So we really focus on that bending our run, and now two v2 defending, and then two uh three attackers versus two defender defending, and then everything we repeat that defensive principle duels up to three v3, and then everything after that 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3 goes into game-like scenarios.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_02: So everything is is very similar to the US soccer concept of a game-like activity, but within the unit, right?
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_02: So we might have everybody on the field, but we're really working on you know, the central midfielders, the eight and the ten, or we're really worried about the back line, the four, two, and three, right?
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_02: Or the the relationship between the ten and the nine.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_02: So whatever you're working on is really about individual actions against another or another proof.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: And they know the numbers at that age.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: He's got them already at U7.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_02: They know they know the goalkeeper, the center back, the nine, the two, and the three.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_02: And by now, where we October, they know all the positions and the actual function that are two and threes are sevens and elevens in the attacking phase, and twos and threes in the defensive phase.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: And everybody obviously rotates all the positions.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, so what we do and learns the roles of each yes.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_02: So the only time we do that is when we go to tournaments, then we go to 70% their what their profile looks like, okay, and 30% of what they're what they want to do.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_02: And then like this weekend, we kids were moving around all the time.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: And he educates the families on that last piece because that's a method, right?
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: So you brought up a game environment.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: He said clearly, nope, they all rotate, they learn, but then we go to a tournament, which in our culture is a quiz or a test.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: So we're really trying to see where you're at.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's a 70-30 split because all of us can walk up to the field and that kid's got the personality of a striker.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that kid's takes care of everybody.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_02: He's a center back, right?
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, theoretically, right?
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in those things.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: So at the events, we do position because then again, you got to remember we're putting younger players in an environment where the other is their first team.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: It might be he might have mixed the groups too.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: He might not have his total.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_02: He might have girls on a group.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: He might have girls on the group.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_02: Or high aptitude girls, but against the boys, yeah.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: Which is good.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, and so it's the intentionality that I think that a lot of um directors in a space that Mike works in, he's elevated himself and we're blessed.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a club that we've elevated to that place where those level of details that hopefully is coming through are heard, right?
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: So when someone enters into a minis program where they sign up, a lot of people are just like, Hey, we're signed up for a program.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then six weeks into it, they're like, Whoa, this ain't just a program anymore, you know.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then he's able to move them, you know.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: So he's really good, and and we're good at um, and I say I shouldn't say we it's it's literally him, right?
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: And he educates his staff, he sends out notes to his families, he's he's in overdrive, like making sure everyone knows what's going on.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the point, he's very good at putting the kids in the right classroom, but not leaving them there.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: So he always makes sure, like, hey, you might be an A kid.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then come back.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: That retrieval idea.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_02: Another really good moment, even our older kids come back down because of the environment in Cleveland of us having not in a bad way, but having to play our U8 and U9 and our U7 at U8 gives us the ability over the winter to bring our U8 kids that need some confidence or some variety back down to 4v4 and 5v5.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, to either raise confidence or you know, hey man, if you work hard, this is what you get, kind of thing.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: And think about that conversation we said earlier.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: He's willing to talk to a parent about that.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no problem.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: Taking a young person that's kind of graduated based on social, like, oh, I'm I'm at U9 now.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm fantastic.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: And Mike's like, hold on a second, how about we blend this together a little bit?
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: How about you come over here on Saturday and play some 5v5 and really lead and be dominant and have some fun and do these things?
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_02: Key word though, lead.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_02: Empowering young players to then help others, right?
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_02: So even having those U8 players come down to U7 and empower and coach and be like, no, no, move here.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_02: Having that kid play goalie and move the center back.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_02: Nope, open your hips, physically grabbing his shoulders or her shoulders and moving him to the side is awesome.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it has a ripple effect that Mike, I think, is seeing more and more.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: So now a top-level player and EC and L player, they've had this experience from their foundation.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: So parents to go, hey, we think this RL game is a little bit better experience for your kid right now.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're seeing a little less resistance with that in our younger ages because more willing to listen to you.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they've already learned it, right?
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_02: When they see that it's not a sales pitch, they see it's reality because it's consistent.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like that, the conversation I'm having with a parent is the same that Lauren or Nick or Chris Green or Rob is having with who else uh Paul was having with all of these people.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, all these families.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a sales pitch, it's not and it's not a death sentence because a lot of people think a lot of people, oh, I'm gonna move down to RL, I'm dead.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: No, sometimes RL could be better competition, it could be better environment for your kid to shine.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_02: Would you rather sit on the bench?
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like, that's my thing.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like as a parent and somebody who's lived this with their children, I can say, hey, just come play.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna be on the field, you're gonna play 35 minutes or you're gonna play 10 minutes.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: Which one you want?
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_02: Just come play.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_02: Who cares?
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_02: Who cares about the alphabet soup?
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, just come play.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_01: One of the best developers in Michigan, uh, probably 15 years ago, Michigan Burton.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh, Joey Gallagher, he would take teams of five-year-olds and six-year-olds and play play them in U8, and they'd get smashed.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_01: But then the following year, when they are playing U7s and they're U7s and they're playing U8s, it's a little bit more competitive.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_01: They win some games, and they're close.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_01: They win some games.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, yes.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_01: By the time they're true age group, they're the best team in the state.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_02: So that is exactly what's happening here.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so we have to play, you know, U6 has to play U7, U7 has to play U8, U8 plays U9.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_02: So by the time our kids that are graduating this year are you or last year, because the last year happened.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_02: So we had three teams in in our club on the boys' U9 side go to the State Cup, right?
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_02: The biggest tournament for us.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_02: And at that level, three of the four teams were forced teams, and the top team won, which graduated.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_02: They're the top team in the state.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_02: Second team beat us in the top, and our our top U8 team came to second.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's pretty awesome.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's proven, it's proven and it works.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_01: And unfortunately for them, they'd keep on losing kids to the platforms, they would lose kids to the Hawks, they lose kids.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_01: But we'll see them back.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see you soon.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like, that's you have to be okay.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_02: Like, and I learned this a long time ago, and I learned this not in soccer.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes losing a customer or losing something is is part, it's part of one growing and part of education.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like, not fighting for that parent says, Well, I'm gonna go to somewhere else, that's fine.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I appreciate it.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_02: My door's open, I'm gonna support your kid.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like, my promise to you as a as a former player is if you have questions and need help, I'll call me, I'll help you.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_02: But if you ever want to come back, also call me, and I'm here to help you.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_02: But sometimes just letting people go and realize, oh, it isn't that, and that's okay, right?
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like, don't always have to be worried about losing others, right?
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_02: Because the reality is if the environment in our town or in Michigan doesn't continue to grow, and if we're a part of that player success at any point, and we get to play against them and have a better competition, is that necessarily the worst thing in the world?
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes sometimes we know that to be yes, yeah, we fix it.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_02: But the reality is like if we can overall help the environment of good of soccer in this town by developing more kids that that aren't gonna stay here, that's not a terrible thing.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's not a terrible thing.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's not.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we have to stop thinking about we can't you just have to stop worrying about your ego and just go, just play.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_01: Luckily, they're now part of the RL that's the burnace, the Michigan, you know.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: We played them l some my son might have played them last year.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um and also you're right.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's okay, especially for if you're not in the platforms, it's okay to be a feeder.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's okay not to have an identity crisis and think that you're competitors.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you need to and I one of my questions for you is like this program is so important to you because it guards against the feeders that don't want to feed you.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so you're feeding yourselves.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sure.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: First hand, race dad, poor dad.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because because so many uh clubs in the platforms think well, we're in the platform, they'll eventually come.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's not always true.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's not always true.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_01: It depends on where you are, depends on your club, but also it's like if you build it they will come.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's not that's Also, not true, or who you used to be, or you're the oldest club in town, and you'll just always have kids.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_01: You're one age group away from losing everything, everything.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_02: So take care and start focusing on the younger age groups, and then you're able to take care of those families and those kids for a long time.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: Then when you get older, you know what kind of tactics you can do.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's awesome.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody's sharing that.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what kind of tactics you can do when everybody has a technical foundation, everybody has the same terminology, everybody came up with the same pathway?
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like I just lived it.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's awesome.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_02: I just lived.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why we spent time like last year and the year before, I spent time with our R NL and our RL coaches.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_02: I went to games, I went to training sessions, and I watched.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, okay, we can help them fix this.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_02: We can help make this easier for them when our kids get there.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_02: We changed some of our curriculum and our teaching based on that experience of being around those coaches and and what you know they were seeing as gaps and and holes.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_02: And we wanted to make it so they didn't have to go find somebody to help fix the problem.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_02: We were just gonna create that solution here and allow it time to then make it easier and more sustainable for our older teams.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_02: And that was awesome.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_02: That was a great great great work between both because they came down with us.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_02: We aligned our languages, you know.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_00: Still a lot of growth there, but we did start it.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_02: We started, but I mean we spend a lot of time, especially you know, at the U9, U10, making sure that we're understanding what they're doing and why they're doing it and what the overall goal is, right?
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that's key.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to go back to your brain with losing them to the platforms, right?
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: We're lucky, you're you're going around, you're doing these different clubs in this area.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we're fortunate on the boys' side.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have a ton of competition, right?
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's starting to change a little bit with the RLs coming and things like that.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: But we're the only NL EC NL platform, and we're only USL Academy platform.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, on the boys' side.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_00: On the girls' side, there's only one other club international that has it, right?
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: So we are very stable with our top teams, right?
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: But losing players in those other tiers, RL, N1, that's the reality.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: So when you brought up boozing into the platforms, but Mike said it eloquently is like we really aren't bothered by that because of the insulation of what you said.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like he's feeding the machine.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: And not only that, we he referenced it uh when I do cover games, I use that methodology I talked about earlier where I'm not coaching onto the field because to me it's an assessment opportunity to do it.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I was lucky enough, I was working with some of our nines and things this weekend, and the ability to speak to a kid about hey, we played a three, two, one, and I wanted the left-sided player, the three, to actually just run in the midfield.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: And he turns to me, he goes, So we're we're playing inverted.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_02: I went, Yes, you're welcome.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_02: You're welcome every do that.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I just sat there like, he doesn't even know what that freaking word means.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then sure enough, we go out there, I have two center backs, all of a sudden I have three midfielders, and I went, look at that.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't a kid just getting the ball and running down the field.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: And Mike talks about connecting like one and two players, those twos, and the one measure we had is connect one pass.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_00: That little dude went in there and was like, I'm gonna pass it to him.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_00: So they would get it and just give it to the kid next to him.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm there going, I love Michael.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is so cool to watch.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it's just simple things like that where we're not concerned by any more than connecting the platforms because families are starting to see that it's not about going to the greener grass.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, no, these guys are actually pretty cool with what they're doing, and my kid is so happy because, like Mike brought up, we are doing a much better job, as he just said.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_00: Those older coaches come to his environment.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: So those little families and kids are like, oh, that's Paul.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's Nick, oh, that's Lauren.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, wait, that's one of their staff coaches, Rafa, or there's CJ, or there's so and so, because what he's done for us, he's been really great with setting boundaries.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_00: Of um, sometimes I'll I'll break the rules.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm blessed, I sit in that seat, I'll do it.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: But most of our staff do start with Mike.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, some stay there longer than others, what I'm saying, to break the rules.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: Some we we get out of there because it's just not who they are, but they need to be in there, right?
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_00: To take on all these things that we're bringing up, educating them.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: And Mike does a great job of that.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: He he has coaching clinics with his staff.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he gets them on the field, he continues to develop them.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: But he speaks about that narrative you brought up earlier about it's always about you know the narrative and the culture of like be on the top team and driving it there.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we do a great job here of like nurturing that to the side.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to say not be on the top team, like Mike said, like you should be empowered to be awesome.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you not awesome?
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: You you are awesome, be awesome.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: But also turning around and saying to ourselves, hold on a second.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: If all these other platforms are in the area, wouldn't it be cool to have them go and like compete against us?
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_00: But then we have kids that come to our supplemental training programs, we have kids that are in our USL futures platform as well, because USL is a separate entity, they're not carded in the ECNL, so you can play for the other club and still get our training.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel Mike is creating an environment where maybe it is a better space for a kid to go and do that stuff.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_00: So we literally, when we hear that, if you haven't noticed, we're kind of reacting to it.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_00: That word platform and losing on the platforms, we don't care.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: We actually think it's a decent thing because it's immeasurable for us.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_00: If kids leave, we actually have what does Marco call it?
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he checks in to find out why they left.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we tip, we know why our families leave.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_02: We pick up the phone and call even at tryouts.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_02: If they decline at U8, or if they decline even like winter to fall in our pre-club programming, or six is in U6 and U7, we want to know why.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_02: And if they go somewhere else, that's great.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_02: Can you say why?
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_02: Convenience, siblings, okay, great.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for letting us know.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_02: We didn't like it.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_02: Your coaches weren't consistent.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_02: Great.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_02: Let us know.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_02: We can we can't know how to make things better if we don't know why you're leaving.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't want to sit here and have everything be rosy, right?
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: Not always not always rosy, but he's willing to do the two things we brought up so far is have that hard conversation with a family at a young age to say, Hey, you may be U8, but I need you to come over here and do this.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I know you've left, but can you give me some feedback on it?
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_00: And there's no remorse.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he said it before I said anything.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_00: The door's open.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_00: He's had players go, try something new, and come back within months, and they're our biggest advocates because with work that he does is so relatively advanced.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_00: He brought up a uh a gentleman that worked with us before.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_00: I still think he's an absolute savant at this.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_00: I really do.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_00: He legit is.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's he's unbelievable.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I tell everyone on the planet, like, this guy gets it, like when it comes to youth, and Mike and I were both blessed to be around them.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a better person, a better coach because of that interaction.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_02: 100% agree.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but the reality of it is what we learned from him, and we continue to do is have a direct conversation, have people understand that it's okay to go explore the world, especially at a young age.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_00: But as Mike has brought up, we know you'll be back.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're not back, you weren't meant to play the game with what we're trying to create here, and that's okay too, you know, and that's where we get blessed, where we do play against our former players.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_00: And to Mike's point, we've got better games because of it.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_02: Or they come and give their old teammates a hug.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love that.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_02: That's my favorite.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_02: Where they're yeah, like they they're you know, enemies on the field, and after the game, they're all going out to the pancake out afterwards.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, obviously, that happened this weekend.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_02: This weekend too for us down at Ludak.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, high five from girls that left that are at other clubs that come and say hi, got like a hug, even though not a big hugger.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, so I really want to like make sure that was a part of the conversation with Forest is like that's again our values, the humility to understand our role within this whole landscape, right?
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_00: We don't ever think we know where we are in the food chain, we're not an MLS club, we're not gonna be producing all we don't have that desire here.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_00: We just, as you've heard from everyone that sat down and been a part of what we are in this landscape, is we know where we are.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_01: Would you would you guys do that at the older ages if somebody left?
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_02: We and we have, I mean, I I can I'm not involved, but I'm from the outside saying it happens, and sometimes it's and find out like why they left, why they went to international we have two players right now in our USL um 20s program, okay, all right, which is the middle, that have left the club.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_00: They left.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_00: They left because our directors, who are amazing, held a standard.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_00: Period.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_00: They said to the family, like, you don't fit the profile of what we're looking for based on our depth charts.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the classroom we're recommending.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's your kid.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_00: You you you can choose to go somewhere else.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna shun you.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_00: But now our academy program in the USL is a training-based program.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, you can come in and train.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna give you a game because I run that program with Paul where we were just honest with the family.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like, absolutely come and train.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_00: How's that any different than what I offered you?
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: But you're looking for a different game experience.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_00: We kind of touched on this earlier, but is if you go anywhere else in the world, youth academies do this all the time.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's called a player alone, right?
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_00: How many stories have you heard?
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like Ezekiel, as a left Arsenal to go play at Bolton or whatever to get more experience, and now where's he back at?
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_00: Arsenal.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_00: Arsenal.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_00: I feel, in my own opinion, I hear again, I've been able to travel the world.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's a normalcy around the world.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's normal.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_00: Players go and find experiences, and then the club doesn't shun them.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you can play, you can play.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_00: We say the same thing in our older age groups.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I said it earlier when the Rob situation, where a player left and they're only here for like a year or two, they come back and they go back and forth.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's different.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you leave us and it's a bad situation, and where you're just like club hopping, okay, that's silliness.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, if a kid leaves at the older ages, we check in with them, hey, what what happened?
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like you said, coach, travel convenience, fell out of love with it.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we do a really, I think a very good job with vetting that and not taking it personal, but going back into our lab and saying, what can we improve?
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_00: And and do we need to?
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it wasn't about us.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but sometimes, and and we don't want anybody to think we don't fight for players.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_02: That is not, we're not, they don't pick up the phone and say, Can we have a release?
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_02: We're like, Yeah, okay.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_02: That is not no, that is not, that is not and never will be it, right?
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_02: From from a group of professionals.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_02: That is not what what we're we're here to do.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_02: We do fight and want those kids to stay, but if the end all conversation is we're not here to burn the bridge, yeah.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_02: Of course not, right?
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_02: And too many, uh you see it, like you hear the stories and the horror stories where that is, and we don't want any part of that culture.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, right.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_01: How many coaches okay?
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_01: What's your uh player to coach ratio usually for let's go let's go the sevens and and now let's go like fives and sixes.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_02: Five and sixes, we are at the worst case scenario, so call it to everybody's thing.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_02: Sixteen to one is the max.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_02: We're typically two per sixteen.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_02: Let's say we have a call-off yeah that we don't cancel for one to sixteen.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_02: A one to eight ratio is three and fours.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_01: Got it.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_01: One to eight.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_02: And then we're about twelve to one because we like at U8 we do pool training.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_02: So we train like both teams together.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh girls one hour, boys the next.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_02: We have two coaches or coach per team, so one to twelve, one to eleven ratio.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_02: When do you separate them into boys and girls?
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um for games at U6 and U7, but they train together at U6 and U7.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_02: Our pre-club academy.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_01: Why do you do games differently?
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh because of the platform.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_02: So we actually participate in a facilities platform.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_02: Oh at that moment we're we're kind of bound by the rules.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_02: If that makes sense.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_02: Got it.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_01: But whenever possible or anything, sorry, and they don't do like co-ed or something.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_01: Only one way.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_00: Only one way.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_00: Only one way is when we force it.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, only one way because the girls can go to the boys, but the boys can't go to the criminals, and not every girl can play with the boys.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_01: What are your thoughts on that?
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I feel that, and I've and I saw somebody pitch this.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like, up until you 10 or do you 12?
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_02: 12, they shouldn't be separated, not as much as they are, is my opinion.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_00: Not as much as they are.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_00: I agreed with that.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's some.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_02: So, like it is cultural girls so much, so it does, but it we also have to be aware of the cultural and the expectations of our families, yeah.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_02: So we have to we don't we can't just push our views on the others all the time, right?
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_02: Would we like that to be the case?
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_02: Would I think our U8s and our UA girls and boys should train together?
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_02: But would our program be as large and have as many players as it does if we did that?
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_02: It wouldn't.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's just reality.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um because parents would be pissed off, correct?
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_01: The girls' parents more than the boys.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_02: Really?
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I thought it was gonna be the other way around.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_02: No, the boys love playing with the girls, and the boy parents love when the girls come and help.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_02: Love it.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the second time you've heard that, by the way.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_02: Love it.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_02: It is the second time they love it, so it's opposite.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_02: So our girl parents typically want not all, so this is not a generalized statement.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_02: No, they typically like to be with other young girls or the other girls.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what I said earlier is the blessing of being on both sides and both from the oldest to the youngest.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_00: I said the way, and I say this as a father of daughters.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I treat her differently.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_00: I did I 100% look back on and I have one beach, so I can tell you that was the case.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_00: I literally am like, holy mackerel, and then associating with other families.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_00: There are families where they're like, I don't want that happening because again, they're with their daughter and they're intimidated.
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_00: So they're dealing with, like you said, you don't want the kid crying on the way to practice.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_00: No, correct.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_00: If they know they're gonna go play with boys, most of them are like now.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_02: What's funny is to Everett's point, my daughter will go like tonight, they're scrimmaging the boys' team.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_02: That's fine with her.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_02: But if I tell her, hey, your coach is sick, you gotta practice with the boys today, she's gonna feel a fit.
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_02: And she's 12.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_02: But she's more than happy to go beat them.
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like, she and she'll toss them around.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_02: Well she'll toss them, like she will be told to calm down tonight.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_02: But if she has to train with them, she's just the anxiety level rises.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_02: It's and that's that's just her, and that's fine as a parent.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I've totally fine with that.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_01: I used to coach at a community club before I coached at Vardar, and uh I coached there were two thousands, so they were they're like yeah, they were like 12 years old at the time, boys and girls.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_01: The girls team was very, very legit.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_01: When and the boys, I ended up having probably four that ended up playing in in the DA, and I had five or six girls that ended up playing in the ECNL.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_01: But when I would bring the girls, the boys' parents were so happy.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_01: They were like, Oh my god, we're gonna win today.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, because the girls were that good.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_02: That's how it is.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we have that this weekend we had that where we were in a situation where there was a school event, we lost half a team, brought half the girls' team.
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_02: The parents are like, Can we do this every week?
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, No, but you know, maybe again sometime.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_00: I have I have a young man that's graduated from the program that still references a young lady that played with him, was like, What is Sam up to these days?
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, She's playing in Greece right now, professionally.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, What?
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_00: That makes sense.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but he was like excited back then when he was a teenager.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is Sam coming?
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_00: Is Sam coming?
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because yeah, if they can play, they can play, right?
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_02: And all the reality is too, we create this environment where they come up together.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_02: So then when the young ladies came this weekend, all the boys knew their names, they knew their strengths, they knew what foot they were dominant on, they knew where they were good on the field, they knew all these things.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_02: So then they could play her on her right foot, or they could play the other girl on a through ball, knowing we call her wrecking ball, and she's gonna run through anybody.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like they're aware of these relationships.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's so fun.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's so fun.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_01: How much bigger could this get?
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_01: How like before you're busting at the scenes, like you're there now.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_00: We're there, yeah.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because yeah, because of space.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_00: Space and coaching.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_02: So that's where our focus now is developing what we like to call multiplying ourselves, right?
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_02: That's really not just a coaching terminology, but like how do you multiply yourself in any industry?
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_02: So we're really finding those people that also like doing this, or we'll at least do it while their kids are little and allowing us to then you know expand the right way.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_02: Because the reality is if you overexpand, just like any business, can also decrease quality, and that's not where we want to be.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_02: So we want to maintain that fine line, right?
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_02: That direct that correlation.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_02: Do you have parents' help at all?
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um a little bit.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, most of our parents that come into the environment end up coming on as staff coaches because of their playing experience.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_02: Our rule after our pre-club again is you don't coach a kid.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_02: So right now I have one of my assistants.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, one of my assistants including me.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and me too.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_02: I don't coach my children at this club.
• 1:01:09
  SPEAKER_02: That's good.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_02: So um, like coach Andy's son plays for us.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh he does not, he purposely does not coach his son.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_02: I coach that team.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_02: Unless there's obviously a company.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's there's you know circumstances or whatever, but the overarching is that we don't want that relationship to have to be crossed if it doesn't have to.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_01: If you hire a new coach, do you always send them to him first?
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's so smart.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_01: At least at least for part of our program, like our in-house leagues or whatever.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's like an onboarding process to be like, hey, this is our foundation, this is what we're trying to do, and this is our terminology.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, because one of the biggest things is terminology.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_01: When you go to when this is a big red flag, if you are part of the same club and your coach last year talks completely different than what your coach is saying this year, it's a problem.
• 1:02:07
  SPEAKER_01: That is a huge, huge problem.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's a big learning problem.
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_02: And we spent a lot of time with that.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_02: So even like our coaches this year, we brought on two coaches that are coaching U8 for the first time with us, and then for the first time graduating up from our pre-club coaching.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_02: So I spent all fall with them.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_02: I was at their games.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_02: Everett was at one of the games just to help, like with their cadence, with how much they talk, with their subbing rhythms and the whys, especially we had a young lady um graduate from Ohio State that coached at OP.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_02: Nice, moved to Cleveland and now coaches in our U8 program.
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_02: We're really lucky to have her.
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_02: But she said it's similar but different.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_02: So she was appreciative of us spending time.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like I was at her sessions to help her learn like our why and our delivery for quite a while.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then Max also spent time with her.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_02: So it was kind of cool to be able to do that and see now those girls, you know, two kid girls from her team are gonna play with our West well with my team in an event in two weeks, and it's gonna be seamless.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that you brought up language because hopefully it's coming through.
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_00: We're really intentional about the learning environment, and they've worked really hard and and pushing it as just a common language throughout.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_00: And they're at the stage now as directors, where it's age and stage deliberate.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_00: So last year they really worked on looking at what Mike's delivering, and then what are the languages that we're adding on, and how do they go back and retrieve it?
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_00: So now it's becoming even more intentional, in my opinion, where the next stage is going back and bringing information from the beginning stage.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_00: So they may not be hitting it at 80% over here, where it was hit 80% with Mike.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're only hitting it at five or 10% over here, but they're gonna retrieve it for a week, right?
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_00: And just make sure that foundation is real solid based on core things.
• 1:03:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's appropriate to say, like, if you've heard, even at the youngest ages, we teach the fending first because it's such a deficiency.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_02: We actually teach our terminology, starts at three and four.
• 1:04:00
  SPEAKER_02: So we actually teach though like a couple key terms.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_02: Key terms, the main one is scanning.
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_02: So, like, how what's the soccer word for we use we say what's the soccer word for looking around, or what's the soccer word for side to side?
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_02: So those are the first two.
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_02: Side to side is lateral, right?
• 1:04:16
  SPEAKER_02: The what's the soccer word for looking around?
• 1:04:18
  SPEAKER_02: Scanning.
• 1:04:19
  SPEAKER_02: And they start and can repeat it back to you.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_02: So when you ask a group of eight four-year-olds, and three of them yell scanning, that's awesome.
• 1:04:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just little things like that, and then it keeps on going and building on from scanning.
• 1:04:32
  SPEAKER_00: You heard it earlier about the yep, the movement off the ball or what it might be.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_02: So there's a little opening your hip, like all these things.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_00: Then they all become a metric or a rubric for us to then place players because you heard the word aptitude here.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_00: So all that stuff started really with Mike's intentional, like, hey, how are we teaching?
• 1:04:49
  SPEAKER_00: And how do we protect that as well?
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's times when he might go observe a game and we have a new coach that's like, what is this person saying?
• 1:04:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, but we don't hold them accountable right in the moment.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_00: We go back to ourselves as directors and say, Hey, are we aware of this?
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then we go back and we work on it.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_02: And that's can we help the coach, not just the player?
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 1:05:07
  SPEAKER_00: In that sense.
• 1:05:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, the language piece, again, what makes us unique when I think makes us special is you're going around and seeing these things is and I and if other clubs are doing this, I'm sure, but it's what I think starts to separate clubs, right?
• 1:05:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you're looking at, I'm gonna make this investment.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_00: You said club dues earlier is not a big thing.
• 1:05:23
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, if you quantify it the dues versus the actual service you get, it's like 10 bucks, give or take, right?
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_00: Less than that, actually.
• 1:05:30
  SPEAKER_00: But now you're starting to ask yourself, what is that real investment that the people are making behind the scenes?
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's what's lost these days, right?
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_00: You talk about parents, you talk about anything else.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they don't actually know the inner workings of what Mike does for this age group, right?
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_00: They don't actually know how difficult it is to have a coach commit to that level with a level of intensity and in desire and passion and commitment to those kids.
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_02: And the amount that even our families can work.
• 1:05:55
  SPEAKER_02: So I I wanna, I think that's always key.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's my kids and Everett's children.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_02: Also, they are committed to this process.
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_02: My kids are very aware they get to play for this great club.
• 1:06:05
  SPEAKER_02: And part of that is the humility and like the ability to let dad not be at all the games.
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_02: Because I have commitments that I am responsible for.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_02: Not saying I'm going to miss every game.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's no longer happening.
• 1:06:17
  SPEAKER_02: I have made that very clear.
• 1:06:19
  SPEAKER_02: That is no longer happening.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_02: Success is.
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_02: Successes.
• 1:06:22
  SPEAKER_02: But that is like I think if if there's anybody out there in the world that is not involved in a club that listens to you, is that we do sacrifice make.
• 1:06:31
  SPEAKER_02: And not just us, but our families and our children.
• 1:06:35
  SPEAKER_02: And in a good way.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_02: But like we're also teaching that part of it to our children, if that makes sense.
• 1:06:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:06:42
  SPEAKER_01: How how do you set up your seasons?
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_01: Is it fall, winter, spring, summer?
• 1:06:47
  SPEAKER_02: Or yeah, fall, winter, spring.
• 1:06:49
  SPEAKER_02: And then we do take off the summer.
• 1:06:51
  SPEAKER_02: For the most part.
• 1:06:51
  SPEAKER_02: So we do optional workouts, just like skill stuff.
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_02: So we actually didn't do that in the past and had people asking, asking, asking.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I said, yeah, fine, I'll do it.
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_02: It was awesome.
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_02: Had a blast.
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_02: We just did 20 minutes of skill and 40 minutes of 3v3 rotation all summer.
• 1:07:05
  SPEAKER_02: We had like 35 kids, I think, at U8 do it, rising U8s.
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_01: So if somebody's not in the fall and somebody wants in in the winter, yes.
• 1:07:14
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have spots available?
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yes, as of today, yes.
• 1:07:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and what about spring?
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_01: It gets tight.
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_02: Spring, spring gets tight.
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_02: It gets tight at our U8.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it gets a little easier at like our pre-club, our U6 and U7, because we do have families typically that leave for the spring to go play in their communities.
• 1:07:35
  SPEAKER_02: So we can take them on in that area.
• 1:07:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, also, there's some inner workings with you know back end stuff.
• 1:07:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you've known the business, uniform cycles, all that fun stuff.
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_02: We're just really aware of when and how we start to add on players.
• 1:07:49
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 1:07:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I love it.
• 1:07:52
  SPEAKER_01: I love I love and this is part of that ambitious thing too.
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 1:07:59
  SPEAKER_01: Because everybody does this, but it's fun.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_02: If you're doing if you're doing things that people think are hard or impossible, it's just so much more fun.
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_01: So when I posted this last night that like you guys were gonna be a partner for this tour, somebody messaged me and was like, Cleveland Force is the most ambitious club in all of Ohio.
• 1:08:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then I I wrote back like, what do you mean by ambitious?
• 1:08:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I never saw his reply, or he didn't reply.
• 1:08:29
  SPEAKER_01: And now I know it's like it's this, it's the Europe trips, it's it's how uh the uh what U9 to U12 are set up where they're they're in a pool or together and love it.
• 1:08:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that that's why Nick really and and he does a great job too.
• 1:08:49
  SPEAKER_00: The word pool, especially for those that are a little bit educated, change that or something because it is a team, like they're teams, they have a coach, there's a roster, you know where you're going.
• 1:08:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we've eliminated all that nonsense of you don't know where you're gonna be or what you're gonna do.
• 1:09:03
  SPEAKER_00: But the training environment gives everybody an opportunity.
• 1:09:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's equalized, right?
• 1:09:09
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have coaches that are like, oh, this is my thiefdom.
• 1:09:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go over here and train on this little patch of grass, right?
• 1:09:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is no, this is our environment.
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_00: All of you are welcome.
• 1:09:19
  SPEAKER_00: As you heard Nick say, like they made and compete.
• 1:09:21
  SPEAKER_00: You've heard it across the spectrum of everything that we did is that, yeah, we train as one ecosystem.
• 1:09:28
  SPEAKER_00: We are one brand, we are one family, one team, but we're also honest with you.
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like that kid's better than that kid.
• 1:09:34
  SPEAKER_00: And they need to go play over that.
• 1:09:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
• 1:09:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's okay, and that's okay.
• 1:09:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, it might not be that way forever, but today they're gonna go play over there, you're gonna go play over there, and your kid's gonna have fun with a way.
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_01: Really good.
• 1:09:45
  SPEAKER_01: And we've been uh I've been part of clubs where there is no plan, it's just a collection of coaches and a collection of teams, and there is no leadership, and there is no where are we headed?
• 1:09:58
  SPEAKER_01: And this is one of the good things about this is that I'm finding out that there is a lot of clubs that are organized and know what they're doing.
• 1:10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I said to you earlier.
• 1:10:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think the culture is changing now that you go back and you and I guarantee it, I feel very confident saying that the education of their leadership and the people involved, their experiences is driving that opportunity.
• 1:10:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't have those things and you're still that everybody, every person for themselves kind of scenario, whereas now through US soccer, experiences, good people, we're all looking at the environment based on what do you have, right?
• 1:10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I give I'll even speak to other clubs in the area.
• 1:10:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think that we're doing a much better job in the environment.
• 1:10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we've had a person that left our organization that is replicating a lot of our principles other places, and we love that.
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_01: I I we love it, 100% agree with that.
• 1:10:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like if I had a trainer that left me, I'm like, good, she's probably learned something from me that she is going to take uh to her own thing or whatever she goes.
• 1:10:57
  SPEAKER_01: So we shouldn't always worry about who leaves.
• 1:11:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, because you're gonna make an impact one way or the other.
• 1:11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they just made a whole thing on ESPN with Nick Saban.
• 1:11:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's literally they celebrate in every other sport.
• 1:11:10
  SPEAKER_00: You have a coaching tree.
• 1:11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 1:11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Why can't we be the why can't we have a tree?
• 1:11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:11:15
  SPEAKER_01: I a hundred percent I love that.
• 1:11:17
  SPEAKER_01: That is a great point.
• 1:11:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm uh I'm born in Kansas City, so I'm a diehard cheese fan.
• 1:11:21
  SPEAKER_01: Who's has who has had a better coaching tree?
• 1:11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Was it Andy Reed or is it Bill Belichick?
• 1:11:27
  SPEAKER_01: Usually it's mostly the teacher of the two, yes, which is Andy Reed.
• 1:11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Reed, amen.
• 1:11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Give me a fist pound on that.
• 1:11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate you saying that.
• 1:11:37
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, guys.
• 1:11:37
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, man.
• 1:11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
• 1:11:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'll let you get to the field.
• 1:11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Appreciate that.
• 1:11:41
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome, man.
• 1:11:41
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, man.
• 1:11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Appreciate your time.
• 1:11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 1:11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Have a good one, man.
• 1:11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 1:11:44
  SPEAKER_00: One more time.
• 1:11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 1:11:46
  SPEAKER_00: I hate soccer.