Latest / Rick Outzen: (we don’t) color on the dog / Pensacola FC's National Championship Run
Transcript
- speaker-0: Welcome back to Rick's Blog Live. I'm Rick Outson. We got with us Justin Whitkin, attorney that we all know, but also the owner of the Pensacola Football Club, the National Champions. ⁓ celebrated that last night at Seville Quarter. us a little bit about, well, a a lot I think we need to learn, but ⁓ about league that you're in and about the team. speaker-1: Thank you, thank you. Sure. Well start with the team and then I'll I'll talk about the league. So Pensacola FC, the club actually started as the Texans. Goes to 2011, kind of focused on the women for a few years, actually won two national championships on the women's side of things, 2012, ⁓ 2019. six years ago, we formed a side that would compete at a higher level. So this is our sixth season of having you know a a a competitive men's team. US soccer, there's if you imagine a pyramid and probably many of the listeners, they know baseball and ⁓ major triple A, double A, single A. In the soccer pyramid, we compete in what would be the single A, the fourth tier. So there's true professional MLS, ⁓ there's true USL, then there's the next level which is it's just there are professionals, they're a level higher than us. speaker-0: More like mid city, little bit larger cities. speaker-1: Exactly. Yeah, exactly. and that's USL Championship and USL One. Where compete, it's it's specifically it's called the League for Clubs, and there are a number of ⁓ of ⁓ the NPSL is one, USL two, ⁓ a of different leagues that sort of vie for the attention of teams in that space, but it's the fourth tier. ⁓ And players are typically either college players or immediate post-college players still looking for that ⁓ full-time professional And we play a pretty short season. We play from May until July. We just had our our national championship. And ⁓ so it's a very sort of compacted schedule, but it's of it's full of lot of games. We played ⁓ 14 games in over two months. Wow. ⁓ so very, ⁓ very compact schedule a and a high level of soccer. I mean, these guys, these are the best of the best of the college players and and guys that are still looking for professional contracts. So it's a it's a really good level of soccer, but it's a it's a whirlwind and man this year we got to end it with lifting that trophy which was speaker-0: So you play your games at Brosnaham? And and so what's the conference? do you get up to the championship level? Yeah. speaker-1: We do. So again, we're in something called the League for Clubs. The League for Clubs has four regions. We're in the South region. we're in the Gulf Coast, ⁓ Gulf Coast Division, and the Gulf Coast Division has two divisions, has an East and a West. ⁓ So first task is to win ⁓ our Right. We played against Tallahassee, who in the history of Pensacola FC is our arch rival. We won that. Then we on the West Division winner, which is a team that plays out of Daphne called Union 10. We beat them. They were they had beat us last year, so it was a great rematch, a big great revenge win. So then we are the conference winners, the Gulf Coast Conference winners. then took on a team from Austin, Texas. We traveled over to Texas, Capital ⁓ Now, interesting ⁓ that game we ended up on the wrong end of the scorecard, but they forfeited game because of a violation. Actually they played some players they weren't supposed to play. ⁓ So we were Awarded that win, still not a loss for us. Right. So now we become the South Region representative. And then this past weekend we headed to Dallas, back to Texas, where we took on first team out of New York. they were the East Region winners. And then ⁓ the ultimate final game against a team from California, Iron Iron Rose Roseville, California. So you had the East, the Central, the West, and the South winners, and we we came on top, won nothing. speaker-0: Now is is this the first men's champion? speaker-1: The first men's national championship for Pentacola FC. speaker-0: How did it feel when you went to to hoist that trophy at the end of that game? speaker-1: You know, ⁓ I I wear a lot of hats, as you know, Richard. I do a lot of things and and I really surprised by the amount of emotion that I felt. you know, I'm fortunate to have a lot of people that help me and my my my family, my wife, my children. If you come out to a Pentacle FC game, everybody knows everybody out there. They are all themselves into it. ⁓ And I guess didn't even realize how much I was invested in it because when we won that trophy, boy, I was just I just I was I was flying. And I was literally flying. The players picked me up and threw me in the air. And it was it was so cool. It was a lot of fun. It was yeah, it was a great speaker-0: Do you are you able to keep the same players from year to year? I know y you're gonna lose some for from attrition, but speaker-1: Yeah. no, you know, we that's one of the things I think that's been pretty neat about Penskill FC is we have kept a a good core of players. We'll see anywhere between, you maybe a high of fifty percent, somewhere around fifty percent we'll we'll turn over. We'll get some new college players. A lot of our players are are the ones that are in college, many of them are international students and they may have to they may have to But so we see a good number, but we've had some we've had some guys, we've got Our oldest player, our captain, Mikey Lightburn, he's been with the team for six years, and we we've got like five players that have been with the team all six years that we've had a team, which is pretty neat and gives you that real, you know, that veteran leadership that you look for in any sport. But I'll tell you what, I should have mentioned this earlier. gonna be needing rely on those players because one of the cool things about winning this championship is we qualify for something called the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open This is a deal, so ⁓ I'll use another analogy, I'll analogize it to golf. So in the in the golf world, there are four majors. One of them is the US Open. And one of the things that makes the US Open unique is that you have non-PGA professionals that get to compete. Like the US Amberger Camp gets to win, certain club pros get to come and play. so you might be Rick lining up next to Scotty Scheffler. Now, Scotty Scheffler beat the pants off of you, but it's pretty neat that you have that opportunity. Right. By virtue of winning, we now get go line up against the big boys and potentially host. even an MLS team here in Pensacola. So Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, ⁓ got passed, not do not pass go right into the right into the tournament. So that's fast. Super excited about that and ⁓ again we'll be relying on veteran players and seeing who else we can pick up and bring in. speaker-0: It really seems a lot like, you know, as you watch soccer in England and and where you have ⁓ they if if they keep winning they get to move up to another league and play at a different level. Yeah. that's what this seems to be a sense of that happening. speaker-1: There's a little bit of that. I'll tell you that's the referred to as the promotion relegation system and it's it's one of the the think the best features of a lot of sport in Europe. ⁓ so wonderful to have that opportunity. If you're this minnow, you're in a small market and and but you can tell that story. There's that Netflix documentary, you know, Welcome to Wrexham, where they took that team way down there and now they've come up two leagues. And the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup is that opportunity for us to go up against the the big boys and be a giant killer and kind of write our own Cinderella story. So we're excited about that and and yeah, just just just excited about the growth of of Pensacola FC. ⁓ know. speaker-0: we interviewed you last year when the USL League was l looking at at coming here. they had an exclusive to a year to spend on looking at at as a possibility. how do you see that into everything? ⁓ you were s you were excited about it a year ago. Yeah. speaker-1: I I still am. I still am and I've I've I've been able to spend some time with the mayor and others that have been, you know, interested in in bringing it to to Penskol it being USL soccer. I It it is a challenge, right? I mean these are ⁓ this a big jump from like the level where we're at now. This is true professional soccer with year rounds. Right. I think that Pensacola would support it. I mean we've got a very vibrant soccer community. and so I'm still excited about it. ⁓ have spent some time again kind of in the search for a a location and kind of had a an initial place that we were hoping the mayor and some of us were hoping would work out and it didn't work out and so and now there's maybe a a a an alternative and and we'll continue to look at it. So this is I would say. I I am I have been ⁓ player, a coach. I I've been since I was like seven years old. I so I'm not gonna tell you how old I am now, but it's a lot of years. Maybe maybe a half a century or so. maybe. But I'll I will continue to do everything I can to support the growth of of soccer in this community and and to provide opportunities for our youth and and then the next level. And I would love to see U S L be able to find a home here and and make come together and I'm gonna do everything I can to help. speaker-0: Right now, the the mayor's announced and it today Administrator David Stafford brought up at the press conference is there is a study being conducted ⁓ look at how Blue Stadium could be adapted. And you behind the scenes conversation and talking to Stafford and ⁓ you I just little bit of a conversation, there is a need to do some renovation of that stadium already. It's going to be 20 years old, not too far in future. It's not quite really at the level a major league baseball requires, but it's such a great fan experience qu and Quentin has such a great relationship with League Baseball, we've been able to stave that off. But at some point there that's need to happen. I know one the big challenges is that north-south orientation, which makes sense because don't want players playing one one team playing into the speaker-1: Right, right. Yeah. there aren't a lot of baseball stadiums that are doubling as like professional soccer pitches for number of reasons. I mean, ⁓ the physical process of transforming them, taking out that pitcher's mouth, right, the dimensions themselves can be a challenging depending on how the stadium is built. ⁓ so you don't you don't see it often, but you know, there is no better place. mean, if I could pick right I would Number one, always pick Wahoo Stadium. It's so wonderfully located. And as you said, I mean Quint, the reputation that they've built and and just kind of the the community awareness of, hey, let's go to the ballpark, right? Maybe we combine it with a dinner or something else. would be perfect to be able to do it there. I'm glad city's investing in the study and and hopefully it will provide answers and maybe as part of those renovations you referenced, you know, we can ⁓ we can unlock what's necessary to have it be a really first class soccer facility. speaker-0: And I think that'll be the challenge. We're way early in this process of figuring out whether that can happen. I think the study is worthwhile. But it lets but let's don't end on that note. Let's end that ⁓ congratulations on team. I know all your partners are as excited as you are. the and have a national champion and to be to hoist the was pretty darn cool. speaker-1: No no no doubt about it, man. I ⁓ again, know, I at a lot of things, played a lot of sports, had some successes, ⁓ it's not often get to say, I won a national I don't care what level, Pee Wee level, whatever level. Right. And we did it this year and it felt darn good. I'm gonna tell you what. speaker-0: That's great. Well Justin, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for the hat Proudly. All right. I'll tell you what, we're gonna go ahead and break, we'll pay a few bills. I'll come back and wrap up this show. speaker-1: Absolutely.