Latest / I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth / I Hate Soccer Jags Show #6 - Joe Ahearn, from USMNT manager to Big Ten assistant to Michigan Jaguars!

Transcript

I Hate Soccer Jags Show #6 - Joe Ahearn, from USMNT manager to Big Ten assistant to Michigan Jaguars! · I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: Joe Ahern is a MLS next coach at the Michigan Jaguars, and he's also the college recruitment coordinator for the boys at the Michigan Gens.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_03: His story is incredible.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_03: He played a DePaul in Chicago, and then he was actually an equipment manager for the U.S.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_03: men's national team in the 2002 World Cup.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_03: Like the best that we've ever done.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_03: He was part of that team.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_03: He then had coaching stints in college and club.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_03: He was at Northwestern.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_03: He's in Michigan State, obviously, and he's in the Michigan Jaguars now.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_03: And we talk a lot about college recruitment.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_03: We talk about the player development.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_03: We talk about obviously his career and just like all of the stories is uh incredible.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_03: We talk about Frankie Hadock a lot, and then and and just being around that 2002 roster.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_03: It's just unbelievable.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I I I thoroughly enjoyed this episode, and I hope you do too.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: I hate soccer.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Deep hat, because I'm a St.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Louis.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you are?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into it.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's a uh let me turn my make sure my ringer's off.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: Let's get into that.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: Cause alright, so next week I am actually headed out to go ahead and throw those off.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_03: The war already started.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, if you've seen any of the long stuff that I've done with you guys, it's just a conversation.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's like I don't have like a set standard, but okay.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I was born in Kansas City and uh basically just known about UMKC and then that when they are they still in Oakland?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_03: They're not in Oakland's uh conference anymore.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_03: But uh I was always like uh okay, I'm a fan of them too.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: So that's basically the gist of the story.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_03: And then they got they were like really good, like what, two years ago, three years ago when they were ranked.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: They're good now.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Are they good right now?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think the l I checked the other day, they're top five RPI.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm glad I'm representing.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_03: So you're from St.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: Louis originally, or what's going on?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Originally, born and raised.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so uh next week I I was actually just talking to Holly about this.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: I'm going out to Utah.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna talk to uh her brother-in-law, and uh I'm also going to Idaho and I'm going to Nevada, and I'm doing this like little tour.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_03: I want to do one in Missouri because St.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_03: Louis, everybody shoves St.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_03: Louis down my throat about like how well it's a hotbed.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_03: You got Gallagher and everything there, but it's the what is it?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_03: What is it about St.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_03: Louis?
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, the history?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there is some, I think it's the second largest.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: You'll have to fact check me, but uh Bosnian population.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I think more importantly, the tradition of soccer in St.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Louis, when you look back at a handful of of the guys that were on that World Cup team in the 1950s, um, St.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Louis University for so long was a was a powerhouse.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And Kevin still does a good job there.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um but um yeah, for so long, that that that's the culture in St.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Louis.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: When you when you grow up, it was baseball, the Cardinals and soccer.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um and when I was growing up, we were very fortunate at the time because a handful of my buddies' dads played at St.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Louis University.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And they were our coaches.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_03: So second generation and third, maybe even third generation players.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and that's the key.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm playing youth soccer and being coached by these dads, but these dads played at a high, high level.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Former pros.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we have guys like Gary Renzing, who's defended Pele back in the day.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, Denny Hadtigan scores big time goal against UCLA when playing for St.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Louis University, and he has a stint in the pros.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: So here I am playing youth soccer with some of my buddies whose dads are the coaches, but their background in itself was so influential.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And and in in many ways, uh I'm very grateful that I had those experiences because it's it's definitely a piece of who I am today as a as a coach, you know, on the field.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_03: And when okay, go into your whole career, when where did you play in college?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_03: DePaul University in Chicago.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'm trying to think.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, okay.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: And then when did you come here?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so um I came here.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, let's rewind a second.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um born and raised in St.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Louis.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um at the time my my father was uh working in Chicago.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: He was commuting back and forth.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, hey, there's a school, DePaul University.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: I drive by through where it might be worth checking out.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: I go up there, um, I meet with a coach and uh incredible man.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm still really close with his sons to this day.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I found myself at DePaul University because it was really important at the time for my my my dad was like, I want you to be around a good man.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: And and Coach Barrett was was just that.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I had an incredible experience.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um when I graduated, I worked with U.S.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Soccer for uh two or three years, two and a half years post-grad.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um I was the equipment manager um with the 2001 U-20 national team, which was Landon, Donovan Beasley, Kyle Morgan.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: With the national team with the U-20s, U-20s, and then I went with the full team for O2 World Cup and O3.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Who was the head coach of that U-20 team?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Wolfgang Sunholz.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And his assistants were Bill Irwin, Eric Visser.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Bill was at the University of Portland.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Eric Visser was the University of San Francisco head coach at the time.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I spent six months with them, and then uh I transitioned into a full-time um position with the the first team, the full team.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh went to the World Cup in 02 in Korea with them, and then my last trip was Confederation's Cup in June of, or I should say July of 03.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: June of 03.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Or excuse me, yeah, June of 03.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then they moved their offices out to LA.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And at that point, I had to decide is this the path I wanted to go?
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Do I want to move to LA and be an equipment manager?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and ultimately the decision was no.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then that's when I made the decision to get into coaching.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I was coaching um some youth teams with the Chicago Fire Juniors at the time, and Larry Sunderland was the director.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, okay.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was a volunteer at DePaul University.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it was um it's crazy, you know.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's okay.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_03: I did not know this about you.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_03: So well, 2002, you were part of that squad.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was on staff as an equipment manager.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_03: You're part of that.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_03: You're part of that squad.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, were you treated like that you were part of the squad?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, they were unbelievable.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_03: Like Bruce, I'm sure, was great.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Bruce, I'm forever grateful to Bruce.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: He was very, the first five or six months was very challenging because he demanding.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, um, but he he he was also um constantly testing me um in a way that I didn't understand at the time, but I fully appreciate now.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: He would question certain things I did, and it wasn't that he was necessarily questioning it, but making sure that I had a thought process behind it and believed in what I was doing.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: So an easy example might be um Joe, I need you to set up a 20 by 20 yard grid for possession, for example.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I would set it up and he might go, that's not 20 yards.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it would be in front of the whole team, you know, and I'm like, it was it is Bruce.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: I walked it off, and you know, he would he would walk it off in in front of the guys, like, okay, we're gonna find out, you know, and um I think he wanted to know that I had the courage to stand up for myself as well, yeah.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and just being confident in in what I was doing.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And and I was the equipment manager, you know.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: So but after I got through that five, six month period, one of the most loyal leaders, coaches I've ever been around in terms of he would do anything for his people.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's the type of culture Bruce created.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he his locker rooms were awesome.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody felt a part of it, everybody felt valued.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: He put people in positions and and let them do their job.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he had, like I said, he held you to a high standard, but at the same time, you felt valued because he he let you do your job.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_03: And wow.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm all uh obviously I like I'm I'm a big NFL guy, and I'm I love looking at organizations and how how they run, and a lot of them is like you treat everybody in this building like it's the most important person.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_03: I don't care if it's the kitchen staff or the equipment manager, everybody is a part of this team.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_03: And is that how it is when when you don't see those players?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what were you guys what was your role when it wasn't World Cup or tune-up or international window?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, good question.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: I worked at the soccer house down on the south side in Chicago, and we had um obviously Nike was our sponsor.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: So there was an equipment room down there, and you we also outfit the youth teams.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: So even when I wasn't in with the first team, um I might bounce into some youth team camps.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um the other experience I had was I was a youth team coordinator.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: So back then they would bring 100 125 youth 15-year-olds to like Deerfield Mass.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I had to plan that whole trip, get flights for all the for all the kids, um, organize the coaches, the officials for the intersquad scrimmages, um, essentially just coordinate the camp.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I I would fill that role as well on those those downtimes with the first team.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I I was very fortunate to to dabble in a few different roles at US soccer, um just to keep just to keep moving, keep growing, you know.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Did you okay?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_03: So at that time you didn't know you wanted a coach.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_03: Do you wish you could go back and look at that experience or that opportunity and be like, I need to keep notes.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_03: I need to because I r I wish that I could go back and start a journal, a soccer journal, uh, with all of the coaches that I've uh that I played for.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_03: But I didn't know that I was gonna go coach.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_03: But then when I started coaching, then I started writing down every single thing that I learned.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_03: But I wish that I could go back as a player and keep those notes.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_03: Any of that?
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, um specific to US soccer?
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_03: No, just soccer in general.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_03: Like in terms of his training sessions, how organized they were, how much time he spent on this versus this.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_03: Did he ever get absolutely just pissed off at landing on him or something like that?
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_03: Like, just like any of that.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_03: Do you wish that you could, or do you have a really good memory and you just remember how Bruce was?
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_03: I I remember how I felt.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the vibe.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: I remember people ask that a lot.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, what were the training sessions like?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uber simple.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: One coach, you're responsible for getting them ready, warmed up, technical work, you know, maybe Mooch, Glenn Meyernik.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, will you run the possession?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, um, and then we're gonna play, and then Dave Saragin, you know, will you do some finishing with the guys after training?
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um like I said earlier, he gave his coaches that he trusted responsibilities, and then they had to perform that task.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: But there was no fancy training sessions, or you you know, you see a lot about Pat Guardiola or and who I have a ton of respect for, too.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: But Bruce was all about culture, and um just it was crystal clear on what your role was, uh, what your expectations were as it related to the team.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um and he acted the same way with his staff, you know.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: But I do remember just how the guys made me feel.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was clearly in a servant role.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: I had to serve them and make sure that they were in a position to be the best version of themselves every day in training and at games.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I just know how Bruce's approach at that time filtered into his players and how they treated the staff, and it was an incredible experience.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I draw upon I I didn't realize it at the time, but I do draw upon the experiences I had with with that group and my everyday coaching and organizational leadership and and whatnot.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_03: Do you do you think that the culture and the importance of culture led to the success in 2002?
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_03: 100%.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_03: How did he uh so I always complain about you know, oh we didn't win a World Cup.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_03: Well, uh that group is really only together 12 weeks out of the year, maybe.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_03: I don't even think it's that much, probably, unless it's a World Cup year or a big tournament year, right?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_03: So how how did he build his culture?
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_03: Or was it just was it player-led or was it coach-led?
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: No, it was very much player-led.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um we had a a number of different personalities, and I I just think Bruce did a great job piecing that puzzle together, you know, mixing in some young talent, you know, Landon and Bees at the time, who were 18, 19 years old, um, with some veterans like Kobe Jones and Ernie Stewart.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um John Halter was in that group, John O'Brien.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_03: John O'Brien was my favorite player in that role cup, probably.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_03: Clint Mathis, uh Pablo, uh Pablo Mashrani, Brad Friedel, obviously.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_03: Brad Friedel.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_03: I mean Casey was the backup, right?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_03: Casey Feller.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Casey was the yeah.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: Tim was Tim Howard on that roster?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: No, but he was with us in 03.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: The third was Tony Miola.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_03: Tony was on that roster?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't realize that.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so um, yeah, Bruce just did a great job of piecing the puzzle together, both on the field and off the field.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I could argue someone like Frankie Hiddock, in my opinion, was one of the more influential just because of his uh contagious personality in the locker room.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when did you have to make his coffee?
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: I did.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_03: What?
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so his espresso's or whatever.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: So there was a cap, there was a ceiling to to the expectations he had on me, but it was something as simple as we might go on a road trip and he'd go out and buy a bag of a coffee or beans.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_04: Uh-huh.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I always had a coffee pot in the in the locker room, and then I would just brew it and have it for those guys when they they came in.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I would there was no espresso, there was no that is fantastic.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there was no lattes being had, you know.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: But when you're playing, when I look back at like that Mexico game, there's obviously nerves, you know.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's just but someone like Frankie who could just walk in the the room and just say something or act a certain way where everybody was like, okay, it's gonna be okay, you know, like you know, um, yeah, he was fantastic, and he was extremely fit and he was hard at training.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I share this story a lot with with younger players that are extremely competitive.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Frankie went into every tackle like it was um the most important tackle of the training session.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: And at times he would he would get guys, he would he would get into them.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um guys might take a knock or two when Frankie went into a hard tackle.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but Frankie would do it with Claudio Reina, he would do it with Landon, he would do it with Pablo.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: But the one thing that Frankie always did was he would always circle back to him and check in on him.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, make it Are you good?
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like Frankie, as much as he was trying to win the moment or he had a competitive spirit, the players always knew that he cared about them as people.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, all right, I'm gonna win a tackle, and then on his jog back down the field, he just checked me.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Are we good?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, are you good?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: So now the players are like, he's not mad at me necessarily, it's just it's the game.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: That was the play, you know.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_03: So what took me out to Buffalo was working with the NWSL Western New York Flash when they're still in the league.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_03: And I came away, I thought working in a pro environment and working in a pro staff, I thought I was gonna get blown away by the and learn a lot from the staff.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_03: I learned more from the players.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_03: I learned more from the players about obviously what it takes to be a pro, but just how they communicate on the field, how how hard they work on the field, how they communicate with staff, how they take care of their bodies, obviously.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: I learned more about that, and more learn learn more even about coaching.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_03: Because I'd watch I'd watch a player like Sabrina D'Angelo, who just finished up playing with uh Arsenal in in England, and now she's back in Toronto, and she's on the Canadian national team, and just listening to how she communicates and watching her distribution with her left foot, which is her strong foot, and her right foot, and you couldn't tell the difference.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_03: If you were just going to watch her, you will you couldn't tell if she was left or right footed.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like that's a pro.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_03: I learned so much more from the girls than I did from the staff and the environment.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and it sounds like that's kind of like at the point, that's what your memories are, and that's what like learning from Frankie and for sure.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's funny you bring that up.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: I remember when we were in the World Cup in Korea, there were guys that put um slides, you know, the the sandals next to their bed at night, because if they had to get up to go to the bathroom, they would put on those slides.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you get up in the middle of the night and it's dark and you kick the bedpost or you accidentally kick the the desk chair, you could stub your toe, break your toe.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Bruise your toe, break your toe, and now you're out of a World Cup, which is a for many might only be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, to your point, the the preparation, what these guys ate, how they treated their bodies, um at the that the that's your weapon.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, your body is your weapon.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: If your body's not working, it's it's it's not gonna be a great, it's not gonna be a great run.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_03: There was back then there was rumors about how like Brad Friedel was like one of the fittest guys on that team.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_03: He was.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_03: Is it true?
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_03: It is, and that he would win some fitness tests.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: He will and my Time, I don't know if he ever won it with Frankie Hadick.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um but he was typically top five, you know, top seven um in terms of he was extremely, extremely fit.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_03: And so you could just teach all those lessons to your players and the staff.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_03: I I mean I'm sure you get questions all the time.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, I learned from my staff too, and I still learn from the players um that I continue to coach today, and a lot, you know, none of the the kids that I coach today were living or would remember the O2 World Cup.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um you choose so some of those stories might be a little bit more dated, you know, um to resonate with those kids, but you still share it every once in a while because you don't know what's gonna stick with with these these kids when you when you speak to them.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um but you know, Pete and I talk about it all the time, and it's such a a unique profession because you're dealing with with humans, you know, and uh the games and the motivation is not always there's a certain element that a tactic board comes into play, but the games and the education, majority of it's done just like this.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_04: Right, relationships.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, can you can you find out what what drives a kid?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Can you find out you know, some kids you gotta pull aside and and talk to them as individuals, other kids you can bark at them in front of their teammates and they respond just fine.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: So learning as much about the individual as you can to try to get the most out of them and and try to create an environment where they they love being at training, um, but they still feel that um they're being challenged, you know, that that fine balance between the the joy and the struggle.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that's that's the sweet spot.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's where they that's where the growth happens.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_03: How much time uh have you spent uh uh trying to teach young coaches all of that?
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_03: Because I think that's vital.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I I think we get too wrapped into the tactical boards and I want to do pep tactics and stuff like that.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's like d the the kids focus on the kid, focus on the person.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'll have that conversation daily with anybody who wants to have it, you know.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um it takes time.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: It does, it does take time, and that's where you know, you go to these events, um grab a bite to eat with your colleagues, and you share stories and and and talk.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: And there's you know, some of my colleagues, you know, I'm blessed because uh I'm in a role that I continue to maintain the relationship with the college coaches that I've crossed paths with.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um and there's so many incredible leaders um at these universities and other clubs.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, Bruce would even share the stories of like when he was at UVA, and you you learn just as much with Coach K coming to campus with his Duke basketball team and just popping in and watching what they're doing at their training, or just trying to learn from other people who are just really good at their craft.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I was at Michigan State and Damon was awesome like that.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: He was all about developing his people, and we would go in and take in an ISO session.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what what what is what's Izzo doing with the basketball team?
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: And is there stuff that we can pull from that?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: But just trying to find people who excel and are incredible leaders, and what are they doing in their environments?
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: And if you can take bits and pieces from from them and make it your own, then you just continue to find ways to grow.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_03: I remember when Bruce Arena, this is probably when he came back and tried to get us into 2018, right?
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_03: I think it was then.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_03: When he came back after Clinsman and he tried to get us in, and he was talking about Bill Belichick.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_03: And he was talking about something that Bill does with the Patriots at the time.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_03: And soccer people uh uh ripped him for it.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, what are you learning from?
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_03: Why are you learning from something that's not soccer?
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_03: You don't need to you don't need American football.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_03: It's like you we are closing off so many people.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_03: So French has a tennis, so uh you're saying that French coaches don't learn from like Raphael Nadal or his coaches and his style or his mental preparation?
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_03: It's like you are too good to learn from others, it doesn't compute to me.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but it's just yeah yeah, that's frustrating.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_03: And going back to VA and when he uh was there, you're on the homegrown side, right?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_03: So there's an um EBU, Elmbrook United in Milwaukee.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um Chris Kelderman, yeah.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Chris played for it, it was Bruce's assistant at UVA.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think he played for him at UVA.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_03: He played for him and he played for him at DC United.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_03: So I had him on.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_03: He'll be it'll be released in a couple months, but yeah, and it's just a small world, and that's crazy.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is a small world, and um you know, I'm so fortunate to be a part of it, you know.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: I I uh soccer for me is is the vehicle in all this.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what I've learned about myself over the last eight to ten years, I mean 15 years, is that my passion lies in people development, player development, organizational leadership, culture development.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um soccer just happens to be uh the vehicle, and it was such a big part of my life growing up.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's the tool, you know, uh for me to be able to tap into that that passion of development.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think people look at it like that, or not enough people look at it like that.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_03: But they need to realize that soccer is just what we do, it's not who we are, and it's not what we're trying to build.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_03: We're trying to build something more cliche or or a tagline, it's more than a club.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_03: It's more it's and I I love that.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that that's what I feel here, and that's where I what I feel with a lot of clubs that have their own uh at least offices and they're around each other and they build a community within the club and they're talking to each other and they see each other.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_03: How often or have you ever been part of a club where they don't have an office and they just see each other when they're out at the field, and there's none of that.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_03: There's no, it's just a collection of coaches.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: It's just a collection of teams.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're blessed, you know.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: And and it starts from the top, and Paul does an incredible job in in um promoting an environment like that where we all feel part of it, and um we have a so many of us come from different backgrounds, and uh, if we can get under one roof and and share ideas and share learning experiences, it's only gonna help the next guy.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're in it this long, if you don't have the mindset that that you want to continue to to learn or or grow, um then you need to just ask yourself, what am I doing this for?
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because the minute you think you arrived or that you have it all figured out, it's just it's coaching looks a lot different today than it did 20 years ago, you know, and you just gotta grow with it and keep learning and continue to surround yourself with good people that um have had a variety of of experiences and that are willing to share that with you and take, you know.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: I I I I don't know what coach said it, but I read that quote like coaches, we're all thieves, you know, in terms of just steal steal things from different coaches and just make it your own and be true to yourself.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, I've been extremely blessed with the the coaches and leaders that I've been around.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just very grateful and my family that supports that, you know.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_03: So how long were you coaching in Chicago?
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um I had two stints in Chicago.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um my first stint was at DePaul as as an assistant, and then we left to go to Colgate University in New York as an assistant.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Eric Ronning's the head coach there, and he was the assistant at Northwestern when I was at DePaul, so we built a pretty good relationship.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: What year were you at Colgate?
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um oh five to oh seven.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_03: Was Soto there?
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_03: Or were you you might have been Soto from he was a Vardar kid and he he might have been later.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_03: I think he was later.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_03: Well, he might have been like a year later.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_03: He might have been an 08 or a 08 high school grad.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_03: And he where did he play co I think Country Day?
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know, I don't know.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_03: I'm losing my mind.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_03: And then, okay, so you go to Colgate and then I was there for two years with Eric.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um we got that we got that program going, and then I was presented with an opportunity to um with a a Division II program uh just outside of St.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Louis where I was born and raised, um Missouri S T as a head coach.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: And every move that I've made over the last couple, well, every move since I've been working has always I've had to find that balance between what's what's gonna help me grow professionally, but also what's what's good for the family.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we loved our time out in New York at the time with Katie, myself, and our oldest Frankie, just the three of us, and we had no family around.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: And um it was a cool experience because we had to lean on each other.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but ultimately the idea of getting back to the Midwest where our roots were and running my own program to see is this really do I have it?
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, is this what we want to do?
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and Missouri ST is a as you see in the name, uh science and tech school, and 90% of my roster was engineers.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: And at the time there the GLVC was SIUE, Bellerman, um, Rockhurst, um, Missouri St.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: Louis, Drury, who's now D1, SIUE, which is now D1.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was a 16-team league.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: It felt like the Big Ten or ACC of Division II at the time.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we had a good run.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: We won first time ever that we went to the NCAA tournament.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: We won the league in 2010.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it was great.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then uh soon thereafter, 2012, Coach Lennon from Northwestern asked if that's something we would be interested in.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: And Big Ten, go back to Chicago, yeah, move to FAM, and um and we did it.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so I spent um it was 2013 to 2018, and then we transitioned to Michigan State uh from Northwestern.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, it's been Pete and I were just talking about this up the other day.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: Just uh I look back at each of my experiences and I learned something from all of them, you know.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh all of them have been really good for the fam.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: It just we just got to a point, you know, in 23, 2023, where the the kids were in a place in school where we didn't want to move.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um they were settled, everybody was happy.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, they got their feet on the ground with their academics and their sports, and the thought of moving them wasn't appealing at the at the time.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: So um, but it's been like I said, I've been blessed.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh these moves, and I again if Katie's been phenomenal and a family that's been so supportive of of this profession.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's um it's been it's been fun.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_03: So when you were at Northwestern, that's like is that Oliver Coupe?
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I Oliver graduated a year or two before I got there.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_03: What about Jeff or John Rogers?
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: Jeff I had for one season, I believe.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um might have been two, but I think it was one season.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and Reed Losey was before that too.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Reed I had one season with as well.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: Might have been two.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: How did Fact check?
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_03: What's Lenahan doing now?
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, he we still stay in touch.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I think he's down in Naples, he's retired.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: I still he still stays connected to the game.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: I saw a couple interviews of him on some news stations around the World Cup, and um, but uh he deserved it, you know.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's he deserves it.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's earned it.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's at a place now of you know retirement and and taking care of himself.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he's been in, I think he's in Florida right now in the Naples area.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then he um I'm sure uh that he still heads back to the Jersey Shore during the summers where he's built a lot of memories and he has family and friends there.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_03: So did you go up the other night with Northwestern at Michigan State Tuesday?
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_03: It was a good game.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_03: It was a good game.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_03: Some good finishes by that number nine.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Andrew, yeah.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_03: He's a transfer, he's from Oakland.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's a he's a he's a Michigan guy, and uh, I think he was at Vardar for a couple years.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, they look good.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: Michigan State looks good.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: They have a good energy about them right now.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: You you can tell when you're sitting in the um the stands what it feels like.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: They're playing for each other and they seem to be on a good path.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: They're about ready to jump into this Big Ten gauntlet um over the next month.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: Big Ten is strong this year, really strong.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, especially when you add the West Coast teams, it's crazy.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_03: But Washington hasn't looked that they don't look like they did last year.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, at least not yet.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but um they got that front runner up top who's I've watched he's scoring some goals for him.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: So Jamie will get it going.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: He's a great coach, he's an incredible leader, he's a good human.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um they obviously had an awesome run.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: It was gonna be hard to get it.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_03: He's got the blood in him too.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_03: He does.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: He does, he does.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_03: Did he play at Notre Dame?
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was Stanford.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_03: He played at Stanford?
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, because at Notre Dame, legend, you know, and Bobby was at Stanford before Notre Dame.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, he was okay.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know that.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_03: Isn't it crazy?
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_03: I feel so I I'm emailing Chris LeMay, right?
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm trying to get him on while I'm out in Utah.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_03: And I tell Holly that completely idiot.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_03: I could just completely forget, oh, that's our brother-in-law.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_03: It's like how small the soccer world really is.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it seems so big because what, there's three million kids playing soccer, yeah.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_03: But when it when we narrow it down just to the coaches, it's not that big at all.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's um it's cool.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's really cool.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um because you know, we touched upon it, um, even with our own players today.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, when they we're so proud of all of our boys when they graduate from the club um and whatever they do.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it's still rewarding to get an email from a former player who wants us to write a reference letter for them that's not even soccer related.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because to your point, the skills that they acquire being part of a team in a competitive environment um are transferable to life.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um so anytime that they we hear of them standing up in each other's weddings, you know, or doing really cool stuff or getting promotions or starting their own business, you hope to feel that you had a small impact in their lives and the success that they're earning now.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_03: So I heard somebody uh has and I always bring this up, somebody said that you can measure a coach by how many uh weddings that you get invited to a former employer.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_03: I don't like that, or grad parties or whatever it is.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, some some type of life event.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_03: Did you coach club when you were at Northwestern?
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: I coach I did with the Chicago Magic.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_03: Which is now I mean, is Magic still Yeah, they're still there.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: Bato's the director.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um they're they're in ECNL.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, at the time there wasn't.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_03: Were they DA?
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm trying to think at the time.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know that they were.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: But that that's something that I would I I don't know with the landscape of college soccer right now, I I feel like it's still reasonable ass, but I think I would always encourage assistance if they can make it work, to try to coach at a club or maybe in the summers a team, because you can you can hone your craft a little bit.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I learned a ton just um whether it was new training, I made plenty of mistakes, you know, and um but just coaching outside of my role at at the university level was really helpful because it's a lot different when you're sitting in that that last seat, the you know, the seat where you have to make the decision.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right, you know, um, and having that experience while I was an assistant in the Big Ten was really beneficial for me.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: Or even when I was in New York, I would I would coach at the youth level, and you still draw upon those experiences when I transitioned to be a head coach at Missouri S T because it's one thing to share your opinions as an assistant, but ultimately when you're a head coach and the buck stops at you.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's on you.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you have to make decisions and and live by those decisions, and um it looks and feels a lot different.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 41:39
  unknown: Yeah.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_03: When I mean let's talk about colleges a little bit.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_03: One, do you miss it?
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_03: Do you miss the college game?
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: The college game, yes.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um the college game treated me very well.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um I loved it.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_00: I loved everything what I miss, and you taught you you touched upon it earlier.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um the locker room, the guys, I miss you know, we our offices in both in most of my programs that I was a part of, the office was down the hallway from the locker room.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: So guys, it was really easy for guys walking down the hallway to stop in and say, Hey, can we go over this clip?
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: Or just the daily um interactions, you know, with with the guys.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um I miss in the university environment having access to the other leaders and the other coaches.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um that was a cool experience.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, when were you at uh Michigan State?
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um 19 to 23.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_03: So D'Antonio was already gone.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Coach D was there uh it might have been gone, actually.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: Mel was right up there.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: He might have had one year.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: Coach D might have one year.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: Coach D might have one year.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um but just incredible environments to just expose yourself to fantastic leaders.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so Fitz was at Northwestern when I was there.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it was really cool to see Fitz.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_03: Get the state job.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: Get the state, and there's obviously a buzz around campus um and the Spartan community, and that's that's Fitz.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: He's his energy is contagious, and it's the the thing I always appreciated about Fitz was um he was not he was willing to roll up his sleeves or he would do right by the athletic department.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um he didn't live in A silo, he he was constantly interacting with the other coaches and the other teams, um, very much like you see Izzo.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure there's a lot of other coaches out there that do this stuff.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: I just speak upon my my own experiences, but Izzo's cut from the same cloth in terms of somebody that um operates in a way that it's not it's so much big picture, and how can they help the athletic community and the university?
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's not just about them and what they're doing with their teams.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that that stuff I we kind of went on down a rabbit hole.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I missed that.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I've I've loved um my experience here in my current role because I I do have that passion for leadership and culture development and player development.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so to be able to lead my own teams um at an extremely high level, a competitive level.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I still get butterflies when we go play at Toronto FC, you know, I still get butterflies when we play Wolves on game day.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's that'll always be there.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's never I put enough pressure on myself.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um so in in that sense, uh uh again, I'm grateful for the experience.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then even in my role with um the college recruiting on the boys' side, it's just educating the families, um, implementing programming that continue to shine a light on the process and try to share as much as I can about my experiences sitting on the other side and how that might be able to help um the boys and the families as they navigate their own journeys for their college search process.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_03: Did you ever think that youth soccer?
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_03: Like, think about when you were with the fire, right?
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_03: And you're Larry.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_03: Did you ever think that it'd be what it is today with the MLS next?
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we you wouldn't even know that the DA was going to be a thing at that point, right?
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's wild.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_00: It is wild.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there's more positives than negatives for sure with all this.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, can we get better?
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: There's plenty of w areas we can get better, but I'd I it'd be a hard argument to say that we haven't grown over the last 25 years, you know.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_03: And people have a short-term memory of like where we were just 20 years ago to 30 years ago.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_03: 30 years ago, that was the start of the MLS, and you're expecting and everybody's mad at that we lose the Belgium.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_03: It's like I had Barry Scott on yesterday from Tigers, and he was talking about a trip that he actually went on with James.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and he was talking about Brazil.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_03: And he was talking about oh, the difference of those kids and how they fight.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, we just don't have that culture.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_03: And then I we're we both came to the realization that they have a hard time winning a World Cup now.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_03: And we're talking about Brazil.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_03: Of course, they're putting in players in every league in the world, but they can't win a World Cup since 2002.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like we act like it's so easy to say, well, I can't we're gonna win one day.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like, okay, don't forget about where we were and where we are now.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_03: Let's not blow up everything.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_03: The world is not falling.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_03: We've come a long way.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_03: There's a lot of good people in the sport.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_03: Let's just continue to grow and make sure that the kids love it so that they'll give back to the game someday too, and they'll coach.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_03: And then they just repeat the process, and it's a it's a wheel.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_03: It gets so frustrating.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: I know, and it's um what a cool experience to host the World Cup.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, at one point I was sitting watching a game, and I look around, and I got four kids, and then we were with extended family, and only one of my well um Evelyn's eight, but you know, my oldest played lacrosse, my daughter's 16, she plays basketball.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: Charlie's a freshman at UED, plays soccer, but we're all sitting around watching a World Cup game, and we were, you know, country road.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like the feeling that we got, uh, the energy that that that team provided us as a country, that World Cup was something that the world badly needed, and I just thought it was a success in so many ways.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_00: As much off the field, you know, again, we can all debate on whether or not we should have been more successful on the field.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, I get text messages from relatives that aren't really quote-unquote soccer people, but they're loving it, they're energized, they feel a part of it, you know, and I thought when you look at it, the country came together and it was really neat to see how this team and um US soccer was able to galvanize a huge fan base, you know, um, for that four or five weeks.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was cool.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_03: My favorite thing was all the Europeans coming over here and falling all over the country.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_00: Bucky's gas station and uh like what was it, ranch dressing.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, oh my god, they're trying to they're trying to take it back, and they it's like this is too much liquid.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and you look and you're like, you know what, we don't have it so bad.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_00: People are coming over here trying to stuff ranch dressing in their suitcase to bring it back, and you're like, you know, it sometimes it's just you gotta look and say, what's the big picture here?
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, it was a cool, it was a cool song, it was a fun summer.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_03: Do you think it'll have the same impact that '94 did?
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_03: Or are we or I feel like We'll see.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like nowadays it's so easy to watch a game.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody plays FIFA.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_03: So we're we're a little bit more connected than we were in '94.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_03: 94 was the first time I think I watched soccer on TV.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_03: For me.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and look how much room for growth there was in '94.
• 50:33
  unknown: Exactly.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_00: And how much progress we've made as a country where we sit today.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_00: And what's look, the higher up the mountain you go, the harder it gets, right?
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like um it was easy to measure growth over the last 25-30 years because we didn't we didn't have a league, you know, in the early 90s.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now we do.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: And exactly.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so um yeah, I'm excited to see where it takes us.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm excited to you and I can be sitting here 10 years and out 10 years from now, we're like, absolutely.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_03: Like, look where we are now.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_03: And I hope the women's does something similar when it they hosted it in 31.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, hopefully that just grows and catapults because that was the same kind of thing with we had 94 and then we had 99, and it was that type of thing, right?
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I I think we're starting to get to this point where a lot of parents now um have had some sort of soccer experience maybe in their background, some l more than others, but um maybe the fan is a little bit more educated right now, you know.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think parents are more educated than ever before.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_03: And they still kind of get attacked by some coaches, or they don't, or a lot of a lot of coaches don't want to um interact with parents.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_03: They want to I usually want to be like the intimidating coach that like nobody comes and talks to, and just I jet after a game and don't talk to anybody.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_03: You can't like do that anymore.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's hard.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um parents are stakeholders at this level, uh, they deserve to be communicated um with to a certain extent.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um I also believe um you will not see myself or our staff in the hotel lobby on road trips mingling with the parents.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um my doors always open, particularly if they have issues with their kids off the field that there's certain things that need to be addressed.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I do, I'm very much a relationships-driven person leader, and because of that, I have to know that I can't cross that line of building relationships with parents because I don't want that to disrupt my ability to to coach their kid.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um you'd hate to get to a point where you're like, man, I should just play them because you know, we were out to eat last night with his parents and it was a great night, and you know, I just so just being able to draw that line for me personally, yeah.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it's hard, it's hard because like I said, we have some phenomenal families in the club.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_04: Of course.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but for me to be the best coach and leader I can be, I have to be willing to um create an environment where I'm I'm being fair.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um it won't always be equal, but I'm being fair to our players in terms of playing time and expectations and all that.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_03: So when I coached with Demir, Demir was always like, we are not staying in the same hotel as the team.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, at first I was like, okay, why?
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_03: And then what he said was uh spot on.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, we don't have to Okay, so we're in Denver, ECNL playoffs.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but I'm with the 16s, he's with I think the 17s at the time, or maybe I was with the 15s and he was with the 16s.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_03: The 16s just lose a heartbreaker, they don't qualify to go on.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_03: He's in the elevator.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_03: A parent walks in and goes, Hey, I saw you talk to Central Michigan after the coach.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_03: Were they talking about my daughter?
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_03: Demiro looks at me and he's like, We just lost like 30 minutes ago, and I'm still trying to process the game that we just lost and why we lost it.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_03: We'll talk about this on Monday.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_03: And then and it's like, and then I said, I was like, Oh, that's why you don't want to stay in hotels with because in that time I we couldn't or we weren't able to or something like that.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_03: But it makes so much sense.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_03: It's it makes sense as a as a club-wide standard.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, and then if you want to have a team meeting or something like that, then you just drive to the hotel, have a team meeting, and then go back to your own hotel.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I started to do that when I was coaching with The Flash, I started doing that.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_03: I I demanded, I was like, don't put me in the same hotel.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_03: And my life on those trips was much better.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it's just like I said, it's it's the clarity piece, you know.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's just um and it is it and in all fairness to the parent.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a parent.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_00: In all fairness to the parents, um we're all crazy.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_00: We want what's best for our kids.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_03: You're dealing with your most prized possession, yeah.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_00: And there's an emotion involved.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think by removing that opportunity in that hotel lobby, too, is helpful for them as well.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like just a little bit of separation.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let's think about it.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_03: Let them just talk about me without me being at the church table for sure.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_00: Or are worried about me walking walking by in the lobby, and absolutely, you know.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we still gotta continue, you know, you gotta communicate with them.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_03: And there's a club in New York, uh RNYFC, that was in the MLS Nets.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_03: They they're getting bumped down to Academy from homegrown.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_03: One, because they don't have a travel partner, but two, just competitively, they so they move to the ECNL.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_03: But how their club structure works is their initial fees are are higher, but they include bus travel to every game.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_03: They provide the hotel and they provide the meals.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_03: Parents do not have to go, but if they do and choose to go, they have to stay in another hotel.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I wonder if I know it's more expensive, but I like that model a lot because then it's a business trip.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, and how many families turn a uh an event in California into a family trip?
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_03: And sometimes they have to, right, because they don't have you know the opportunity or whatever the reason might be, you know.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_03: But I was like, why don't more clubs do that?
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_03: Now it's like I think they're I think they're all in is 6,500.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_03: And so people would say, I can't pay 6,500.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, yeah, but you're going to a club that's 3,500, but you have to pay for every travel, every every bus ride or flight or car ride, you have to pay for the hotels and you have to pay for every meal.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_03: That adds up to being more than$6,500.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_03: And so I'm thinking, it makes sense.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_00: In some ways.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_00: But am I paying for my kids' hotel and my hotel?
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_03: So no, so that's the the$6,500 that is included.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_03: Hotel is included in all that.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_03: So and a lot of parents opt not to go.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_03: So they set they hook up their VO, uh and then you stay at home and you can watch it on YouTube or whatever the site is.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_03: So it's like$6,500, and every travel trip is up to you.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_03: I like it, especially for conference games.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe showcases may be a little bit different.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_00: I do when I put on my college director hat, um, I do think that some of these events are good opportunities for parents and their children to go visit college campuses, you know, particularly those older ages.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_00: The the autonomy, and like for some, they you go to Chicago, maybe there's a boy, you know, they go on a Friday, go watch Northwestern play Loyal of Chicago.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_00: Or DePaul.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_00: Or DePaul.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and and now they can check out that campus and kill two birds with one stone.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_00: And and selfishly, um, and I again I can only speak for myself, and I know it gets expensive, but I miss the time in the car with my kids.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_03: I miss it with my dad.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, just the the cool conversations you have, or um I mean, my playlists look a lot different, you know, on Spotify when I'm traveling with the kids, and they're you know, I do appreciate that time with them.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, I'm speaking through my parent lens.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_00: Of course maybe it's because I'm a coach, um, but for me it was never about the win and loss, it was the experience with my kids.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I went to Louisville with my with Katie, my daughter Annie and Evelyn, and we spent four or five days there.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I honestly I couldn't tell you how many games she won.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_00: I it was did you were you a good teammate?
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_00: Did you compete?
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_00: Did you put in a good effort?
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then we we went and checked out Churchill Downs, you know, we we got to do some cool things together that sport provided, you know.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know that I would have gone down to Louisville the four of us if there wasn't a basketball event, you know, when we just try to build a you know, a little bit like to your point, a vacation around the AAU basketball tournament.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_03: So what is your role with college?
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_03: Like college director and everything, and get in it get into that a little bit because obviously you're so experienced in the college game, you can give up a lot of people like a peace of mind in that entire process.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_00: I try to.
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_00: What I'm not is an agent.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um that is so well put.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_00: I you know that's I'm here to That's what they expect from you sometimes.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe not Jag's.
• 1:01:25
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not sure.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I never I'm talking globally parents, yeah.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_03: Not just I'm not talking about Jags parents.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, um Yeah, I haven't run into we have good families.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't run into too many, I feel a lot of questions, and for the I had to remind myself what seems so simple to me.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um I can see where it's daunting for a family where they're contemplating whether or not to write an email to a coach or overthinking the wording, and I'm like, I get it.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_00: I I certainly understand, and if I can help just be a voice, or I'll never tell them what to do, but if I can shine a light or bring some clarity to the process, that may help them because each one of them is different.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_00: Every there's no handbook to this process, and every kid is different.
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of my discussions with the families really has has less to do about soccer and more about what what what speaks to them off the field, you know, what's sort of they want an urban campus.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I learned that with my own son when we went through the process.
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we lived on Michigan State's campus essentially for five years.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_00: We lived on Northwestern's campus for free.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_00: He saw, Charlie saw, he lived it.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe that wasn't as he he kept gravitating towards an urban school.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh so that we focused our energy on urban schools, and um not everybody wants that.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_00: Some kids, some kids want something different, but with the club, um there's a couple things with my with the U-17s.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, first, let's talk logistics, it's more programming.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we started an event when I arrived, uh, Martin Luther King weekend.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we include all of our MLS peers in the state of Michigan.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um we could have easily said, we don't want you guys involved because this is super competitive, but we're like, let's all come under one roof over two days.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_00: We'll invite all the college coaches we possibly can.
• 1:03:44
  SPEAKER_00: And essentially, in a pretty quiet weekend in the recruiting period in January, Martin Luther King weekend, um, we'll get 60 to 80 college coaches where they're essentially getting their eyes on the majority of top talent in Michigan.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_00: So let's all do this together.
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then we invite um in years past, we had Philly Union, FC Cincinnati, St.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_00: Louis City.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we bring in a Canadian team or two every once in a while.
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_00: FC United's come in the last couple years.
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_00: So we try to bring in a couple other uh clubs, a variety of clubs.
• 1:04:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um programming is a big piece of that education.
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_00: We do um six or seven Zooms uh over the 10-month season, and it's education, how to build out a highlight video, um uh you know, managing an ID camp on campus, the do's and don'ts, so to speak.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um have you thought about or have you done this on those Zooms?
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_03: Having a player that maybe just committed, or maybe a freshman in college, or maybe one of your successful juniors in college coming back and just being on that Zoom call so that because I when it comes to requests from parents, parents want to hear or want me to interview more of my former players because that's how this whole thing started.
• 1:05:16
  SPEAKER_03: I it just because I didn't know the full I helped Nick Darren at the University of Detroit and Mike Lupinek, but I was never part of the recruiting process, so I didn't really know the ins and outs of recruiting.
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_03: So I have one of my players that she's at Nebraska, and I was like, hey, let's do a podcast.
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_03: And then all this stuff flooded in about how they learned more from that conversation that I had with my player than what the club was providing.
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_03: And so then I was like, okay, then I'll start having more of my players on.
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_03: And then and then and now it is what it is, and it's crazy.
• 1:05:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that's a great you know, that's um Yeah, that that's a great shout.
• 1:06:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um we we do use our players as examples, but I think hearing it straight from their mouths could be very beneficial.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um and in multiple, uh I I could argue it doesn't always have to be if they're at an top 25 Division I program.
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_00: It could be players that are having an incredible experience at Calvin or Hope.
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, those guys do such a great job, you know.
• 1:06:35
  SPEAKER_00: So there's there's a lot of really cool universities out there, um, athletic programs and institutions that uh I I think going back to my comment of road trips, if you go down to Louisville, go check out Bellerman's campus, go check out the University of Louisville, like just try to expose yourself to as many of these because you you don't realize just going to grab a cup of coffee on a campus, what that does to the dialogue between the parent and the child.
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think about that?
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's cool.
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, hey, dad, I kind of like that uh they had a big football stadium, right?
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, cool.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_00: You go to another one, and maybe it's uh, you know, man, I kind of like being in the city, you know.
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like, Chicago's cool.
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_00: I could see myself there.
• 1:07:25
  SPEAKER_00: And you it just it's table talk, and you start to learn as much as you possibly can.
• 1:07:31
  SPEAKER_00: Going through it as a dad with Charlie, I learned how important it was to go through the no's to get to our yes.
• 1:07:43
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning, not to say that he had all these offers, but taking the time out to go visit campuses.
• 1:07:53
  SPEAKER_00: And he's a little bit unique because he's lived on a campus essentially his whole life with my profession.
• 1:08:01
  SPEAKER_00: But nah, this is what I don't like.
• 1:08:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I don't really want to do this, or I didn't like that.
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_00: So by figuring out what he didn't want, we got closer to what he actually wanted in his experience.
• 1:08:17
  SPEAKER_00: So um it's a lengthy process, um it's uh it's time consuming, um, but I do think it's worth worthwhile.
• 1:08:30
  SPEAKER_00: And again, the amount of institutions that universities that we went and visited, and he didn't even have any dialogue with the coach.
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was just exposing them to hey, we're we're in Phoenix, go check out Arizona State.
• 1:08:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, walk around the game.
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_00: What did you like about it?
• 1:08:47
  SPEAKER_00: What did you oh I kind of like that they had a downtown close to campus and you can go.
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:08:53
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, okay, good to know.
• 1:08:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um I really want to know how many kids and parents or whatever email are emailing out to coaches and they've never even been in that state, let alone visit that school.
• 1:09:12
  SPEAKER_03: You have no idea if you're gonna like because I've had I've had some bad some player have some bad experiences because they didn't know that what the campus was like.
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:09:25
  SPEAKER_03: And so they're like, uh yeah, I'm transparent.
• 1:09:27
  SPEAKER_03: I just can't, I can't, I can't do it here anymore.
• 1:09:30
  SPEAKER_03: And then they find something because they were playing this team, and they're like, you know what, I'm gonna go over here because I like their campus, it's closer to the beach or whatever.
• 1:09:42
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:09:42
  SPEAKER_03: And so I think I think you're spot on.
• 1:09:46
  SPEAKER_03: Go and watch or go and visit as many campuses as possible.
• 1:09:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, just to see it.
• 1:09:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um to be the best version of yourself as a player on the field, you have to have a decent experience off the field.
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you're at an academic institution that's too big of a reach for you academically, and you're constantly stressed at night, or you're at a program where you don't really connect with any of the guys on the team, or there's no outlet, because every single player goes through a tough patch, if not four or five, six of them through their college career.
• 1:10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And you need to be able to walk off the field and and rebound from those moments.
• 1:10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Go grab lunch with the guys on the team.
• 1:10:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, these are my buddies, like we're I'll figure this out.
• 1:10:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you're constantly stressed out on off the field because you don't have outlets, whatever that looks like for each individual, it's gonna spill into your daily training environment, and you're not gonna be the player that you can be or the teammate you can be, um, because you're worried about everything else going on off the field.
• 1:11:01
  SPEAKER_03: When you were coaching, could you see that in when that is happening?
• 1:11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 1:11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 1:11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 1:11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and it w each institution was different.
• 1:11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, you can see it in their body language, you can see it um when practice ended, if there were guys that were just grabbing their stuff and out, you know, versus the guys that were just having a laugh on the bench or prior to training starting.
• 1:11:30
  SPEAKER_00: The guys that get there early and they're doing their rondos and having a laugh versus the guy that just he's on, you know, he's on time, he's not early, but he's on time, he goes about his business and then he leaves.
• 1:11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um maybe the kids that are constantly in your office because of academic issues.
• 1:11:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um but yeah, you can definitely would you guys, would you or Damon or were you there when Kale was there?
• 1:11:58
  SPEAKER_00: No, Kayle left.
• 1:11:59
  SPEAKER_03: I came in after Kayle.
• 1:12:00
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, you took over for Kay.
• 1:12:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like would you take it upon yourself to go and talk to him sometimes?
• 1:12:08
  SPEAKER_00: All the time.
• 1:12:09
  SPEAKER_00: I try to get ahead of it.
• 1:12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Me personally, um try to to build those relationships off the field.
• 1:12:17
  SPEAKER_00: There was one year too where Damon, uh, where each one of us staff divvied up the roster, and it was like, all right, you take these six guys out.
• 1:12:28
  SPEAKER_00: This was off season.
• 1:12:29
  SPEAKER_00: You you you connect with these five guys, try to go grab a coffee.
• 1:12:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it was less about soccer and trying to get to know them as, of course, as humans, and say, like, when it's just one-on-one, maybe they share things about their life that you know, and then um or share things about their life that uh you wouldn't otherwise have access to because they don't want to talk about it on the field, and maybe it's stuff that bothers them, or maybe that's stuff that they really enjoy.
• 1:12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they even talk about soccer.
• 1:13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that's something I do to this day.
• 1:13:04
  SPEAKER_00: I try not to go more than three weeks without having some sort of collision with my players, you know, some sort of uh non-soccer collision.
• 1:13:16
  SPEAKER_00: Non-soccer.
• 1:13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um hey, how's school going?
• 1:13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, even with my current players right now.
• 1:13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, did you watch the Michigan Ohio State football game last night?
• 1:13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Or just try to connect with each one of them?
• 1:13:32
  SPEAKER_00: I shouldn't go more than three weeks.
• 1:13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I'll get to my point, you know.
• 1:13:36
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't connected with so and so in the last couple weeks.
• 1:13:39
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta make sure I I grab them before or after training and he gets in his car.
• 1:13:44
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that that's a big piece.
• 1:13:46
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's so important at the club level, it's just so important because how often have you seen where you have the starting 11 and then everybody else?
• 1:13:59
  SPEAKER_03: And that's that that could be such a toxic environment.
• 1:14:03
  SPEAKER_03: It's our yeah, especially on the girl side.
• 1:14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we don't we don't operate like that in our group.
• 1:14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody and when I when I say that is we we typically rotate starters.
• 1:14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we we're we try to be as fair as we possibly can with playing.
• 1:14:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's not equal.
• 1:14:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is competitive, this is high-performing environment.
• 1:14:28
  SPEAKER_00: We want to win every game, right?
• 1:14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Every single game we want to win, but we're not gonna do that at the expense of the player development.
• 1:14:34
  SPEAKER_00: And some players need to grow as if I start a kid three games in a row, um, maybe he needs to come off the bench.
• 1:14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Can you still help the team in a different role?
• 1:14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because let's be honest, if he wants to play in college, that's what his freshman year is most likely gonna look like.
• 1:14:52
  SPEAKER_00: You're coming off the bench.
• 1:14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Can you still contribute?
• 1:14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Can you still be a success or uh a contributing team member when you're not in the starting lineup?
• 1:15:01
  SPEAKER_00: They need to learn that stuff.
• 1:15:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the other piece to the college director role is creating an environment and a game day experience that exposes them to the things that they're gonna see at the college level.
• 1:15:16
  SPEAKER_00: We do fitness tests in preseason.
• 1:15:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we do a fitness test when they come back from holiday because more than likely that's what they're gonna have to do in college.
• 1:15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't care about the result as much as it is be ready for this.
• 1:15:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is something that you're gonna have to do at the next level.
• 1:15:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you gotta live it now.
• 1:15:36
  SPEAKER_03: That's the biggest culture shock, I think, for college freshmen is wait a minute, I'm the best player on every single team I've ever played on, and I can't even get a minute.
• 1:15:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I, this is my personal opinion.
• 1:15:50
  SPEAKER_03: I got in trouble for this in Buffalo.
• 1:15:53
  SPEAKER_03: I would train, so I was like Aaron Bird in Buffalo.
• 1:15:57
  SPEAKER_03: After I was done with the Flash, I started my own training company, had my own facility, and I was able, I was fortunate enough to be able to work with a lot of top players in that area.
• 1:16:09
  SPEAKER_03: In my personal opinion, the RNY MLS Next slash DA boys were more prepared for a freshman year of college than the ECNL Western Europe Flash girls.
• 1:16:26
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm starting to realize that I love what you were talking about rotating.
• 1:16:31
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think RNY necessarily did that, but I do feel like they were more prepared for freshman year because of the subbing limits in MLS Next.
• 1:16:43
  SPEAKER_03: They know that there's some games that I'm not gonna get in, these boys.
• 1:16:47
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas ECNL, it's like, oh, we can go in and then you get one re-entry.
• 1:16:52
  SPEAKER_03: It's kind of like college rules.
• 1:16:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:16:54
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas MLS Next is more like I'm not traveling this weekend, or uh certainly not starting, or whatever.
• 1:17:03
  SPEAKER_03: And it also and then also is probably what RNY was doing in training and their like their method, and they were a lot of the boys that that I got to work with had to travel, so their time management was really good, and then that's another factor in.
• 1:17:18
  SPEAKER_03: But I do think that MLS Next and their and the subbing restrictions develop the players for that culture shock of that freshman year.
• 1:17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, where I think the adjustment the transition takes place, the college game is so fast because you can sub.
• 1:17:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so the boys leave managing a 90 the ebbs and flows of a 90-minute game to this is a sprint for 90 minutes.
• 1:17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um so that that would that's a tricky part, you know.
• 1:17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I remember we had a kid on campus at Michigan State visiting, he didn't even know he was in a he was in um MLS Academy, and somehow the sub rules came up and he didn't even know it.
• 1:18:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, wait, so if you get subbed out, you get to go back into the game?
• 1:18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how does that work?
• 1:18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Where at our level right now, and I've had to adjust as a coach, and that's what it's been really cool.
• 1:18:26
  SPEAKER_00: You you have to manage the game way differently.
• 1:18:30
  SPEAKER_00: Manage the game you and I I I do in many ways appreciate it because you allow your kids to grow through struggle a little bit.
• 1:18:39
  SPEAKER_00: It can't just be he's struggling, let's get him off, we'll get him back the second half.
• 1:18:43
  SPEAKER_00: He's gotta figure it out, you know, or you help him figure it's okay, get the next one.
• 1:18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um I do like that that piece.
• 1:18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Usually uh a player, if he starts the game, even if he's struggling, he's got to be able to do that.
• 1:19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Can we give him the tools to move on and grow out of the this the the the the the the the tough period of the game that he's dealing with?
• 1:19:10
  SPEAKER_03: So I asked Chris that.
• 1:19:12
  SPEAKER_03: He's the coach at Milwaukee, Chris Kellerman, and we this topic came up, and I was like, D do you wish, do you wish that college would adopt the MLS next uh subbing rules?
• 1:19:25
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, Yes.
• 1:19:27
  SPEAKER_03: Like immediately he I didn't even finish the sentence, and he said, and I don't know.
• 1:19:33
  SPEAKER_03: Do you think what do you think develops youth players more?
• 1:19:38
  SPEAKER_03: I have always believed that subbing restrictions should exist.
• 1:19:43
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe not no re-entry or something like that, but we have to learn how to manage bodies, our bodies, and manage the game.
• 1:19:52
  SPEAKER_03: If a 16-year-old or 17-year-old kid doesn't get subbed and he's playing 75 out of 90, he's going on a Saturday night, he's gonna do something different than if he gets, you know, and I'm winded, take me out, I'll come back in the second half, and one re-entry.
• 1:20:10
  SPEAKER_03: It's like that Saturday night might be completely different versus if you're an MLS next kid versus another platform or whatever, personally.
• 1:20:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:20:19
  SPEAKER_00: I I what I like about it protects the players a little bit from the emotional knee-jerking reaction of a coach to your point.
• 1:20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that was a bad pass, get him out, you know, versus just get the next one, you know.
• 1:20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um in that sense, I like it.
• 1:20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you there's strategy to it because if you only have so many moves a game, um we go to Toronto um to play an away game, it's a four-hour trip.
• 1:20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, if I use my last move with 25 minutes left in the game because I want that that player to play, if somebody gets hurt, I'm playing down a man because I've used all my moves.
• 1:21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so do you how how do you you know being a little strategic with your approach has been it's been a really cool thing that I've had to adjust and and grow from and and learn from.
• 1:21:21
  SPEAKER_00: And do you want to um you want to have a balanced group over 90 minutes?
• 1:21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Or do you want to maybe play your top group for the first 60?
• 1:21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever that looks like.
• 1:21:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not always top talent because you could have three really good center backs, but um maybe you're not playing all of them at the same time.
• 1:21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:21:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so um so yeah, it's been a it's it's been a challenge and fun and it's really cool.
• 1:21:53
  SPEAKER_00: I there's a lot the league doesn't there's a lot of rooms to grow with the league.
• 1:22:01
  SPEAKER_00: But I I do I do believe they're trying, and I do believe that they they want to keep getting better and they want what's best, and I have frustrations for sure at times, but ultimately I feel like when there's decisions being made, they they're trying to get yeah, and to get it right.
• 1:22:23
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:22:24
  SPEAKER_03: Zathy was saying that it's actually harder the internationals that had a previous like pro stint, it's very hard for them to like acclimate to the college game right away because of the subbing stuff.
• 1:22:40
  SPEAKER_03: It is, yeah.
• 1:22:40
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like, oh, I'm not gonna necessarily sprint that run because you know I need to I need to play 90 or I need to save myself for 80.
• 1:22:48
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like, no, you run yourself into the ground, we'll sub you out, you you recover, and we're gonna do it again in the second half.
• 1:22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we talk a lot about that stuff with our groups in terms of wasteful running.
• 1:23:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is that a moment that you need to be running right now?
• 1:23:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, because you we need you to go 60 minutes.
• 1:23:07
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're just sprint, sprint, sprint, sprint, and you're exhausted 30 minutes into the game because you just did if a ball's rolling out of bounds, do you really need to sprint?
• 1:23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you're if you're not gonna get there, just hold up, you know.
• 1:23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Let's be smart about it.
• 1:23:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, that that's part of the education piece for sure.
• 1:23:27
  SPEAKER_03: At one point, do you well, first of all, how did you learn when you got back into the MOS net?
• 1:23:35
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I guess okay, when you left state in 23.
• 1:23:40
  SPEAKER_03: 23.
• 1:23:40
  SPEAKER_03: Were you coaching club at that time?
• 1:23:42
  SPEAKER_03: You weren't no, you were just at state.
• 1:23:44
  SPEAKER_03: Just at state.
• 1:23:45
  SPEAKER_03: And then did you come here right after, or did you do have another stop?
• 1:23:50
  SPEAKER_00: No, I came right.
• 1:23:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the state was unbelievable, Damon, of course.
• 1:23:57
  SPEAKER_00: All good, all really good terms.
• 1:24:00
  SPEAKER_00: It just I came to a point where I had some opportunities for head coaching jobs, and ultimately, it's like I I just can't see moving the family right now.
• 1:24:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, okay, given that I've made the decision that we don't want to move, Katie and I.
• 1:24:20
  SPEAKER_00: So when this opportunity with the Jags was presented, I'm like, here's an opportunity to grow.
• 1:24:25
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to relocate.
• 1:24:27
  SPEAKER_00: I can lead my own teams.
• 1:24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Damon always knew and was very supportive of the fact that I want to be a head coach.
• 1:24:32
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's not at the college level, but um the opportunity to check the family box and professional development and growth as a player, or excuse me, as a coach, a leader, and as a person.
• 1:24:46
  SPEAKER_00: I thought the timing was just right.
• 1:24:48
  SPEAKER_00: And selfishly, I stay connected with everybody.
• 1:24:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm fortunate that I still maintain those relationships with the college guys, and I I got my you know, I got a grip on the top talent in Michigan still, um, and being able to work with these players is has been great, yeah.
• 1:25:07
  SPEAKER_03: So part of so the U17 national team roster just came out, yeah, and it's all guys from pro academies, and then I'm looking at like a some of the power four top ranked rosters, a lot of club kids, like MLSNAS and even Boys East and I was like Washington had a lot of crossfire kids.
• 1:25:35
  SPEAKER_03: How it seems to me that when I was like at FEST, all of those power four guys were all on the pro power pro player pathway fields for the most part.
• 1:25:48
  SPEAKER_03: Like that's where all of the power four, or I guess there is no power four now in men's soccer, but all the Big Ten teams, they were all on those front grass fields at FEST.
• 1:26:02
  SPEAKER_03: Does some of the college recruitment or maybe in an MLS next club like like Jags, like Midwest, like EBU or whatever, is part of that should you try to push kids into the MLS academies and then they'd get a college like that that Big Ten, like that Michigan State or that Michigan?
• 1:26:25
  SPEAKER_03: Because I feel like a lot of those big schools are doing what the U.S.
• 1:26:30
  SPEAKER_03: national team is doing.
• 1:26:31
  SPEAKER_03: They're going to the MLS academies and trying to recruit the kids that they're not going to sign a homegrown contract or whatnot.
• 1:26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I we don't I think it it's much simpler than that with our approach.
• 1:26:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's just do we have a player that's outgrown our current environment?
• 1:26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, are they in a situation where they need something more than we can provide?
• 1:26:55
  SPEAKER_00: And if that's the case, we're gonna help all of our boys, whatever that whether whether it's college, MLS academies, uh, we're gonna do whatever we can to help the family.
• 1:27:09
  SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna tell them what to do, we're not raising their kids, but we can share our opinion, um, and and we do, and then they take that information and do what's what's best for their kid.
• 1:27:20
  SPEAKER_00: So um I still think that even though the colleges are at some of these fields that you're speaking to with the MLS teams, but they're still at the academy ones, too.
• 1:27:32
  SPEAKER_00: They are, yeah.
• 1:27:33
  SPEAKER_00: And they they need to be in that that's um um and obviously the homegrown.
• 1:27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 1:27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what I what I would be interested in is so based on my experiences, um each school was unique um in itself in the sense of Northwestern, extremely high academic institution.
• 1:28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um Colgate, another extremely high academic institution in central New York, population size of the town when schools not in session, 2,000 people.
• 1:28:14
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
• 1:28:15
  SPEAKER_00: And at the time it was one of the most expensive schools in the country when I was there.
• 1:28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Where I'm going with this is the larger the sample size in evaluating a player, the better, the more educated the decision will be for the college coach.
• 1:28:35
  SPEAKER_00: So even when we're educating our players and families about what camps to go to, if you can't, there's the Ivy Leagues, you know, the Notre Dame's Stanfords, these high academic institutions that have really rigid standards, and either you're you fall into that bucket or you don't.
• 1:29:11
  SPEAKER_00: Unless they have some sort of, you know, if their grandparents live down there or something, be because you're gonna go to the camp, and even if you show very well, that when's the next time that coach is gonna see you play?
• 1:29:23
  SPEAKER_00: They're always gonna be like, we'd like to see you play again.
• 1:29:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when's the next time?
• 1:29:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's easier for the coaches that live within a 200, 300 mile radius because they may make a weekend of it or they may come out and see you play with all parties involved, whether it's the family visiting the program and the institution or the coach evaluating the kid, the larger the sample size, the more information you accumulate to make an educated decision.
• 1:29:53
  SPEAKER_00: So when you see Northwestern or Stanford or the Ivy's at an MLS Academy game, they might only be watching them all those schools, might be watching the same kid.
• 1:30:05
  SPEAKER_00: It was the kid with the 4.0, you know, and the 34 ACT that happens to be in an MLS Academy, where the other schools that are there sitting on the sideline might be watching another player.
• 1:30:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um but they we can't forget that all those kids that were in that MLS Academy game that you spoke of came from clubs like the Jags or the Tigers.
• 1:30:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we're still a part of it, and we should exactly and we should be proud of that.
• 1:30:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we've had a few boys that have gone on to MLS Academies and found themselves in top 25 Division I programs or MLS clubs or now that are playing pro, and not angry at anybody.
• 1:30:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's just if you could be a small part of that kid's development, then then great.
• 1:30:51
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 1:30:52
  SPEAKER_03: Dave Diani on here, he was like, I want to see him in the rain, in the snow, when it's minus 30 wind chill, when it's a hundred percent humidity.
• 1:31:03
  SPEAKER_03: I want to see them if obviously you can.
• 1:31:06
  SPEAKER_03: And when you're at let's just say Northwestern, you have so many clubs in that area, and then there's kids from out of town that you can come, and it's like because we are all, and this is more maybe a girl's issue than a boys' issue, but on the girls' side, it's well you play in that league.
• 1:31:26
  SPEAKER_03: All the coaches come uh if they don't go to the events, they're still going to a Jags versus Midwest game.
• 1:31:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they're still going to uh a Tigers versus EBU game or something like that, and it's it's a little just I'm getting sick of it, to be honest with you.
• 1:31:45
  SPEAKER_03: I'm really just tired of all the platform talk and everything, and but is that is that um what prompted the name of this podcast?
• 1:31:57
  SPEAKER_03: Some of it, it was really a uh a toxic environment uh that a lot of my players um played in.
• 1:32:07
  SPEAKER_03: And so in my role as a supplemental uh technical trainer, I would get all the bad and I'll get all the drama with my older players.
• 1:32:16
  SPEAKER_03: It almost became a therapy session.
• 1:32:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's like then this happened, and then that, and then that, and it's like, and it could be all things, it could be stuff off soccer too.
• 1:32:24
  SPEAKER_03: And so I built a really good relationship with my with my players, like you were talking about the off-the-field stuff, and I remember when I started this podcast, I'd get DMs and like you have a really good relationship with your players.
• 1:32:40
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, Yeah, don't you?
• 1:32:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and they're like, Ugh.
• 1:32:45
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like, you know what I mean?
• 1:32:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but yeah, that's it, that is because whenever I'd have hear horror stories, I I would just under my breath be like, I hate soccer.
• 1:32:56
  SPEAKER_03: Because it's a story that I've heard before.
• 1:32:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and it's a story that I've seen before and heard of a thousand times before, and it's just like over and over and over again, it's like, but I don't hate soccer.
• 1:33:08
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:33:08
  SPEAKER_03: I love soccer.
• 1:33:09
  SPEAKER_03: Soccer's giving me everything, yeah, you know, and it's it's given all of us a lot, you know?
• 1:33:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, and we built our lives around it.
• 1:33:20
  SPEAKER_03: It's crazy.
• 1:33:23
  SPEAKER_03: It I love it.
• 1:33:25
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not gonna change the name though, because I can't.
• 1:33:29
  SPEAKER_03: You know, do you I mean, your story's crazy.
• 1:33:34
  SPEAKER_03: From the 2002 World Cup to Novi, Michigan.
• 1:33:39
  SPEAKER_03: What made you guys fall in love with Michigan?
• 1:33:42
  SPEAKER_03: I don't because you're living like on a lake in Chicago.
• 1:33:46
  SPEAKER_03: You didn't fall in love with it there?
• 1:33:48
  SPEAKER_00: No, it was cool.
• 1:33:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, um what I can honestly say, all my moves up to Michigan when I talk about navigating what's good for the family and what's good for the profession, the profession was driving it a lot.
• 1:34:03
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, the decision.
• 1:34:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um even the move from you know, northwestern to Michigan State, you know, but now we're in a place where everybody was happy, and I'm like the profession's not gonna drive my decision for the next few years with the kids where they're at in school.
• 1:34:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I was able to experience some things with my family that I didn't wasn't able to experience in 20 years when I was in the and I chose it, my family supports me for it.
• 1:34:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not complaining, of course, but I would never give up the last three or four years, you know.
• 1:34:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I, you know, it's just been a like I said, it's been a blessing.
• 1:34:47
  SPEAKER_00: And um, but yeah, it's so that that decision was crystal clear and it's it's been fun.
• 1:34:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a cool, it's been a cool journey and a fun run.
• 1:35:03
  SPEAKER_00: And not normal for the kids.
• 1:35:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they've they've had a lot of different experiences, Katie.
• 1:35:10
  SPEAKER_00: They've been very supportive, and but the opportunity to support them, you know, in what they're doing at that time of their lives was something that was really important to me.
• 1:35:20
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:35:21
  SPEAKER_03: And the college the college coaching lifestyle can be crazy.
• 1:35:27
  SPEAKER_03: Because if you if you're at a smaller school and you do really well, you're probably gonna bump up.
• 1:35:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's so that's there's not a a program on every corner.
• 1:35:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like working at a bank where you can go move up.
• 1:35:40
  SPEAKER_00: You handle it.
• 1:35:41
  SPEAKER_03: Stay at the same exactly.
• 1:35:43
  SPEAKER_00: The only you know, the places like maybe a Chicago or in New York where you have uh eight to twelve soccer programs within an hour drive.
• 1:35:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it is what it is, and um yeah, I'm uh I'm extremely grateful for all my experiences and it's been a fun ride and it's keeping going.
• 1:36:05
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see where where it takes us, you know.
• 1:36:08
  SPEAKER_03: What's your day-to-day here uh off the field?
• 1:36:11
  SPEAKER_03: What is your day to day?
• 1:36:12
  SPEAKER_03: Are you calling like you you're not an agent?
• 1:36:15
  SPEAKER_03: All right, but are you uh uh talking to a lot of college coaches?
• 1:36:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right now I'm following them, I'm watching a ton of the games.
• 1:36:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I stay connected with them um for sure because that piece is in if I'm gonna ask these guys to come in January to an event, I want them to know that um I'm equally invested in their success, you know, um and in what they're doing in their projects.
• 1:36:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um so but yeah, I watch a ton of games, um, a lot of programming, uh, you know, the legwork before the showcase.
• 1:36:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, we do zooms with the families.
• 1:37:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:37:00
  SPEAKER_03: How many teams are coming this year?
• 1:37:02
  SPEAKER_03: Do you know?
• 1:37:03
  SPEAKER_00: We'll have um 12 clubs.
• 1:37:08
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 1:37:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um everybody gets two games.
• 1:37:10
  SPEAKER_00: Are you guys changing?
• 1:37:11
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody gets we've always done two 70-minute or excuse me, two 80-minute games.
• 1:37:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um it seems to be the right fit.
• 1:37:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we go all day Saturday, half a day Sunday, and the intent was for college coaches to to get home and hang out.
• 1:37:26
  SPEAKER_00: They don't get a ton of days off, and typically they have off on Martin Luther King, or at least they get that 24 or 36 hours with their family after they feel like they got a little work done, evaluating talent in in Michigan.
• 1:37:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we bring uh U17 and the U19 age group.
• 1:37:45
  SPEAKER_00: So typically the clubs will bring both ages.
• 1:37:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it's just good people.
• 1:37:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um we're all in it for the kids, that's what it's about in the families.
• 1:37:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um we want the games to be competitive, but we also implement like no re-entry in the f each half, but they can re-enter this the second half just to make sure the kids get exposure, but we keep the the the rhythm of the games and keep the make sure that it's not just becoming a subbing fest and the coaches aren't getting opportunities to evaluate.
• 1:38:25
  SPEAKER_03: You still try to do like the three moments or something like that?
• 1:38:28
  SPEAKER_00: We just do um typically what everybody does is sub halfway through each half.
• 1:38:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 1:38:34
  SPEAKER_00: Sub sub four or five guys out, put them back in at halftime, um and the games have some some some juice to them, and they're fairly competitive.
• 1:38:43
  SPEAKER_00: And we bring the coaches in, try to take care of them so they come back.
• 1:38:48
  SPEAKER_03: When do you think that college education for parents should start?
• 1:38:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um I got a DM from a parent.
• 1:38:58
  SPEAKER_03: Her son or his son is going into freshman year, and they were like, Do we need to start emailing coaches?
• 1:39:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, no.
• 1:39:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's more about learning about your child more than it is.
• 1:39:15
  SPEAKER_00: Learning about recruiting.
• 1:39:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's more like what speaks to your child.
• 1:39:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, do they like soccer?
• 1:39:20
  SPEAKER_00: Do they love soccer?
• 1:39:22
  SPEAKER_00: Do they live soccer?
• 1:39:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's a difference with all three of those, you know, and then you say, Well, yeah, I want to go play at Michigan State.
• 1:39:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the only time you pick up a soccer ball is when you put it in your bag to go to training.
• 1:39:36
  SPEAKER_03: Like the Tuesday and Thursday at seven o'clock.
• 1:39:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's not happening, you know.
• 1:39:41
  SPEAKER_00: Or, Dad, I want to play at Michigan.
• 1:39:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, you were complaining that you didn't get enough playing time.
• 1:39:49
  SPEAKER_00: You might not play at all your freshman year in Michigan.
• 1:39:52
  SPEAKER_00: So just try to learn as much as you can about.
• 1:39:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's always good to take them to college games if you can take them to um I had one parent reach out to me who was awesome.
• 1:40:05
  SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
• 1:40:05
  SPEAKER_00: I got a text and it's like, I'm taking my son to uh northern Michigan versus Saginaw.
• 1:40:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, that is awesome.
• 1:40:12
  SPEAKER_00: That is awesome.
• 1:40:13
  SPEAKER_00: Two local D2 schools, right?
• 1:40:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the kid's probably a freshman, and like, yeah, go check it out.
• 1:40:19
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, should we email the coaches?
• 1:40:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, why not?
• 1:40:22
  SPEAKER_00: Just tell them, hey, I play at the Jags.
• 1:40:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm going to your game.
• 1:40:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:40:27
  SPEAKER_00: Don't expect a response, but there's nothing wrong with just saying, like, hey, I can't wait to check you guys out, you know?
• 1:40:33
  SPEAKER_00: And cool.
• 1:40:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like, because that's the like, see what's out there.
• 1:40:37
  SPEAKER_00: Try to learn.
• 1:40:38
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're driving home from that game and you're talking to your kid and be like, do you see that left winger?
• 1:40:43
  SPEAKER_00: Man, they was legit.
• 1:40:44
  SPEAKER_00: That kid from Spain, that center midfielder, that that winger that was really fast, and they start to see like wow, there's stuff outside of Michigan and Michigan State.
• 1:40:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:40:56
  SPEAKER_03: How many, okay?
• 1:40:57
  SPEAKER_03: How many emails would you receive in a day when you were at Northwestern or Michigan State?
• 1:41:04
  SPEAKER_00: 30, 40, easily.
• 1:41:06
  SPEAKER_03: And then depending if it's like right before Fest or something like that.
• 1:41:11
  SPEAKER_00: Hundreds.
• 1:41:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thousands.
• 1:41:13
  SPEAKER_00: Hundreds.
• 1:41:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:41:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's yeah, yeah.
• 1:41:16
  SPEAKER_03: So that's Could you read a generic email versus a like a legit this is an email?
• 1:41:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think I could get it pretty close.
• 1:41:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think I could get pretty or one written by a parent versus one written by the I here's the deal though.
• 1:41:33
  SPEAKER_00: AI wasn't a thing when I was in a college game.
• 1:41:35
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's dangerous now.
• 1:41:37
  SPEAKER_03: So um I I don't know that I don't know that I could now, but do you think recruiting is easier or harder with all of like social media and every game being on television?
• 1:41:50
  SPEAKER_03: We didn't think about this.
• 1:41:52
  SPEAKER_03: 30 years ago, we didn't have EPL on TV.
• 1:41:56
  SPEAKER_03: We can watch every single college game if we want to.
• 1:41:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's really cool, isn't it?
• 1:42:00
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 1:42:01
  SPEAKER_00: So it's crazy.
• 1:42:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's awesome.
• 1:42:03
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 1:42:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know that it's easier or harder, it's just different.
• 1:42:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, with the transfer portal, most of these programs have access to Y Scouts so they could pull up somebody's highlights.
• 1:42:14
  SPEAKER_00: But the the biggest difference I've seen with the the recruiting in the portal is it's done.
• 1:42:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's seven to ten days, right?
• 1:42:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's real quick.
• 1:42:23
  SPEAKER_00: Where the when I was in, I mean, this was just three, four years ago, which is crazy.
• 1:42:28
  SPEAKER_00: But it was it could have been a 12 to 18 month process of just dialogue before you made a decision, you know, and now it's I don't even, it's weak.
• 1:42:42
  SPEAKER_03: Well I've I've been on this kick lately that the later you commit, the more likely you're gonna have you're gonna find a better fit because you know who you who you are.
• 1:42:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a that's that's not far fat.
• 1:42:57
  SPEAKER_03: Or or you've been to more schools and you've seen and you've been on more campuses and you've actually seen like, oh, I could go here.
• 1:43:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen coaches take that approach where they say, we're gonna delay our process because when I recruit a kid, I want to see, particularly seniors in high school, I want to see what he's gonna look like closer to his arrival.
• 1:43:16
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:43:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a junior around the holidays looks a lot different than a senior in January.
• 1:43:23
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:43:24
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, okay, I have a better idea what I'm gonna get in six months versus a year and a half.
• 1:43:30
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Luis, when he was here, Luis Robles, when he was here, we uh went out to lunch and he was talking about the reason why they want to expand playoffs this upcoming year, is because he's gotten a lot of feedback from colleges like, hey, we we love the showcase, we love Fest, but it's a showcase.
• 1:43:52
  SPEAKER_03: We want to see players in an environment where it's must-win.
• 1:43:57
  SPEAKER_03: We want to see those kids then.
• 1:43:59
  SPEAKER_03: Do you agree with that?
• 1:44:00
  SPEAKER_03: Uh as a put your college coach coach hat on.
• 1:44:03
  SPEAKER_00: So in in MLS, they have flex.
• 1:44:06
  SPEAKER_00: Flex is yeah, for sure.
• 1:44:09
  SPEAKER_03: That for me, you're the second person that said that.
• 1:44:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because the games have meaning.
• 1:44:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's group play, it's kind of like the World Cup.
• 1:44:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the other piece I like to that is about Flex is if you tire or lose your first game, you're not out of it.
• 1:44:29
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:44:30
  SPEAKER_00: So if you go to the playoffs and you lose one and done, and you're done, and then you go to the showcase, and then it's showcase.
• 1:44:37
  SPEAKER_00: Where flex, more times than not, at the very least, you're getting each team gets two meaningful games, but a lot of times that third game at flex is equal.
• 1:44:50
  SPEAKER_03: I mean Especially at the groups where it's like get win and get in.
• 1:44:54
  SPEAKER_03: Win and get in.
• 1:44:55
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:44:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:44:56
  SPEAKER_03: Huh.
• 1:44:57
  SPEAKER_03: I need to go to Flex next year.
• 1:44:59
  SPEAKER_00: It is fun.
• 1:45:00
  SPEAKER_03: Is that the is that where the most college coaches go, you think?
• 1:45:04
  SPEAKER_00: If I had to guess, yes.
• 1:45:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, fast in the winter for sure, because of the um the calendar.
• 1:45:10
  SPEAKER_00: Their seasons are over, the calendar, the college season's over, you're getting into the holidays.
• 1:45:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:45:16
  SPEAKER_00: Let's let's go have a look at the the players, the first two weeks of December.
• 1:45:21
  SPEAKER_00: The weather.
• 1:45:22
  SPEAKER_00: The weather, yeah, for sure.
• 1:45:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 1:45:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um But outside of that, Flex is because of the the the games.
• 1:45:34
  SPEAKER_00: They just have like it's it's it's a lot of fun.
• 1:45:38
  SPEAKER_00: Every game has.
• 1:45:39
  SPEAKER_03: Have you coached that flex yet?
• 1:45:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a couple times.
• 1:45:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we played uh last year.
• 1:45:44
  SPEAKER_00: The group was it was great.
• 1:45:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh last year we played um Colorado Rapids and Inner Miami were in our group, and the boys advanced out of that group.
• 1:45:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh it was group uh U-19s at the time.
• 1:46:01
  SPEAKER_00: So this was two years ago.
• 1:46:02
  SPEAKER_00: This was the um 07s.
• 1:46:06
  SPEAKER_03: 07s, okay.
• 1:46:07
  SPEAKER_00: And the year before um when Pete had them, they went to the the final four.
• 1:46:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's the group that went to the semis.
• 1:46:14
  SPEAKER_00: It might have been two years before when Pete had them, but anyway.
• 1:46:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, that group had a a good run, and and then we lost to RSL and in the playoffs down in Nashville when it was like crazy storms, and then the event got all murky.
• 1:46:29
  SPEAKER_03: But well the event this year got all crazy in Texas, right?
• 1:46:33
  SPEAKER_03: Didn't it?
• 1:46:35
  SPEAKER_03: I don't I forget.
• 1:46:37
  SPEAKER_00: The weather did come in one or two days.
• 1:46:39
  SPEAKER_00: You're spot on, yeah.
• 1:46:40
  SPEAKER_03: What is your on-the-field weeks like day to day?
• 1:46:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, four days a week.
• 1:46:46
  SPEAKER_00: I got two teams, U13s and U17s.
• 1:46:48
  SPEAKER_00: When Pete asked me to do the U13s, I thought he was nuts because I had I I I just I was like, I've been in college for 20 years.
• 1:47:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um 20 years.
• 1:47:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you, it's been a it's been cool, breath of fresh air.
• 1:47:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, the story I like to share is we went to my very first year, we're about six weeks in, and then it was at the time the 2011s, and we had a good we had a good first five weeks.
• 1:47:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think they were undefeated at the time.
• 1:47:21
  SPEAKER_00: We go to Chicago and they just ran all over us.
• 1:47:24
  SPEAKER_00: Chicago fire, we lost like six to one.
• 1:47:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm scratching my head, and I was like, oh man, Pete, I don't know how these guys are gonna rebound.
• 1:47:32
  SPEAKER_00: We got Milwaukee Bavarians tomorrow, like we gotta travel up there and play Bavarians.
• 1:47:39
  SPEAKER_00: I show up to Milwaukee the next day, and the kids start rolling out of the cars, and I'm like, How are we doing, boys?
• 1:47:47
  SPEAKER_00: We good, and they're like, Awesome.
• 1:47:49
  SPEAKER_00: We were at a hotel last night, and we went swimming in the pool, and we went out to eat.
• 1:47:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, We're gonna be just fine.
• 1:47:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I'm worried about how these guys are gonna rally after a 6-1 loss to Chicago Fire, and all they could tell me was the you know, the pool in the hotel, running around the hotel lobby with their buddies, and it it's just refreshing in that sense.
• 1:48:14
  SPEAKER_03: Your it puts all of our like career, our coaching into perspective too.
• 1:48:20
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, okay, Michigan State, Northwestern, we gotta win.
• 1:48:25
  SPEAKER_03: U.S.
• 1:48:25
  SPEAKER_03: soccer, we gotta win.
• 1:48:27
  SPEAKER_03: MOS next, U17s, U19s, okay.
• 1:48:31
  SPEAKER_03: That's a breath of fresh air because it's not so U13.
• 1:48:35
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my god.
• 1:48:37
  SPEAKER_03: And it just puts everything in perspective.
• 1:48:38
  SPEAKER_03: It's like they'll let's get really, really serious when they get there.
• 1:48:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:48:43
  SPEAKER_03: Let's remember that this is also a sport.
• 1:48:47
  SPEAKER_03: It's a game, it's supposed to be fun.
• 1:48:49
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, that don't get me wrong, I want to win every game.
• 1:48:52
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 1:48:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that that's but not at the expense of player development with this current role that I'm in, and you know, because we have a responsibility, like people, it's high performing, it's competitive sport.
• 1:49:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like it you gotta find a balance, you know, between the the enjoyment, but also um being a little bit uncomfortable so that that growth happens, and um yeah, it's uh but it's been really neat because you start to get to a point where you see some of the the boys that were U13 start to come.
• 1:49:32
  SPEAKER_00: I have a unique perspective because um this is my second year with the U17s, but prior to that I was with the U19s, so I had the bookends, and I so I go into my U13 training sessions, I'm like, okay, what do I want to see five years from now?
• 1:49:47
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 1:49:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I can instill those behaviors knowing that when I get these these boys five years from now, what sort of behaviors do we want to have in place?
• 1:49:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's what it what's it about, they're not gonna have the same coach.
• 1:50:00
  SPEAKER_00: They're not going to play in a system with the same tactics.
• 1:50:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about the behaviors that we can instill in them that are not only going to translate to their next team, their next coach, but whatever they do in life.
• 1:50:12
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 1:50:13
  SPEAKER_03: And to I find that a lot of people don't get to see it like that.
• 1:50:20
  SPEAKER_03: And they only coach for Saturday's game.
• 1:50:23
  SPEAKER_03: Or they're every training session is geared towards Saturday's game.
• 1:50:26
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, let's look big picture, especially when you get a couple weeks off when you don't have a game.
• 1:50:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:50:32
  SPEAKER_03: Those are always some of the best sessions, I feel, that sure they're locked in and and and they're ready for the game.
• 1:50:39
  SPEAKER_03: But then some of the where really a lot of work gets done, and you can fix some things, and you can really, really work on some things, or when you don't have a game for two weeks or three weeks.
• 1:50:51
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like we're looking at big picture, we're looking at five years ahead, two years ahead.
• 1:50:56
  SPEAKER_03: What is this club or what is this team gonna look look like next year?
• 1:51:01
  SPEAKER_03: It's like that type of stuff, and that type of philosophy.
• 1:51:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 1:51:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that's game days.
• 1:51:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um Pete and we were down in Florida and we were playing Baltimore Armor, and John Ellinger was on the the other sideline.
• 1:51:21
  SPEAKER_00: And after the game, John came up to us and it's like you guys don't say a whole lot.
• 1:51:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we yell at these kids all week.
• 1:51:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like today's their day.
• 1:51:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, today's their day.
• 1:51:34
  SPEAKER_00: And what I like about game day is you really, if you really think about it, it's a great moment to evaluate yourself as a coach and leader because what have you done all week?
• 1:51:49
  SPEAKER_00: What have you done for eight months?
• 1:51:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's my favorite time of year, is the last month of each season where you you just sit back and you'd be like, Okay, what's done is done.
• 1:52:01
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe not, maybe you say, We got I gotta get better at this, you know.
• 1:52:05
  SPEAKER_00: But the only way to truly know that, and this is what we communicate to our parents, is if I'm telling each individual every step to make or what to do on game day, then I have no idea what information they're retaining.
• 1:52:19
  SPEAKER_00: So give those boys an opportunity to make decisions on the field so we can figure out it's just like in the classroom on fifth grader, they got a test on Friday.
• 1:52:31
  SPEAKER_00: The teacher isn't telling Mark A, Mark B, all the above.
• 1:52:35
  SPEAKER_00: You just see what did they learn from the week or the last two weeks?
• 1:52:40
  SPEAKER_00: Do I need to revisit some topics?
• 1:52:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um When is the classroom the quietest?
• 1:52:45
  SPEAKER_03: It's during test day.
• 1:52:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:52:46
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have a parent barking in their ear, being like, Mark A, Mark A, or that's the wrong one.
• 1:52:53
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 1:52:54
  SPEAKER_00: Subtract, don't divide there.
• 1:52:55
  SPEAKER_03: What if a kid knows that the answer is B and you have your parents saying it's C, it's C S C, they're gonna believe you and go see.
• 1:53:03
  SPEAKER_03: But it's like it was B all along.
• 1:53:05
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:53:06
  SPEAKER_03: So why are we you wouldn't do that in math.
• 1:53:08
  SPEAKER_03: Why are you doing that in on the field?
• 1:53:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the the thing I know as being a player is it's amazing when you don't say a whole lot how much that's perceived as trust in your players.
• 1:53:27
  SPEAKER_00: But if I'm constantly telling the player on the ball what decision to make, that means I either don't trust my ability as a coach and a leader Monday through Friday, or I don't trust the kid in that moment.
• 1:53:41
  SPEAKER_00: So why would I I gotta believe in what I'm doing?
• 1:53:46
  SPEAKER_00: I have to believe in that that kid on game day.
• 1:53:50
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's not, then we address it during the week, next week, you know, or whenever, you know, that over the offseason.
• 1:53:57
  SPEAKER_03: And some parents, the more uneducated parents or the new to the sport parents, they want the coach that is like up and down the sidelines and screaming.
• 1:54:07
  SPEAKER_03: And then when you get a coach that did all the work throughout the week to get to prepare the team, say, that coach doesn't say anything.
• 1:54:16
  SPEAKER_03: That coach is awful.
• 1:54:17
  SPEAKER_03: That coach just sits there the whole time.
• 1:54:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's like well, and don't don't get me wrong, like there's moments and there's times and there's uh like especially early on in the game, yeah, and early on in the season, you know, the kids need reminders, you know, and that's that's okay, that's part of your job.
• 1:54:34
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that's the art, right?
• 1:54:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's the art as coaches and leaders is figuring out what does your team need right now.
• 1:54:42
  SPEAKER_00: If it's a chaotic game and things are crazy, maybe I need to be the calm in the storm.
• 1:54:49
  SPEAKER_00: Or if they seem flat and uh slow, maybe I need to be I might have to bring the energy on that day.
• 1:54:59
  SPEAKER_00: So it's all about reading the room.
• 1:55:02
  SPEAKER_00: What do the players need?
• 1:55:03
  SPEAKER_00: What does the team need?
• 1:55:05
  SPEAKER_00: I I've come into training sessions with a plan and seen it saw the kids walk in and I'm be like, I'm scratching that.
• 1:55:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because I could just tell maybe it's they're in midterms or they got finals, and I'm like, you know what?
• 1:55:19
  SPEAKER_00: I I can just tell by their body language that this probably is not a day to teach them a new exercise.
• 1:55:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let's roll something out that they enjoy and get something out of this training.
• 1:55:29
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 1:55:30
  SPEAKER_03: But thanks for doing this.
• 1:55:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I appreciate your time and having me.
• 1:55:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 1:55:36
  SPEAKER_03: Are you it's just a combo, you know?
• 1:55:38
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 1:55:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's just as I was saying to Barry yesterday, it's like, imagine we're just getting a beer or having a coffee and we're just talking.
• 1:55:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:55:47
  SPEAKER_03: Are you an NFL fan?
• 1:55:49
  SPEAKER_00: I am.
• 1:55:50
  SPEAKER_00: I like it.
• 1:55:51
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so when the Rams left, yeah.
• 1:55:54
  SPEAKER_03: Are you a Chiefs fan?
• 1:55:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um no.
• 1:56:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's great.
• 1:56:01
  SPEAKER_00: Dang it.
• 1:56:02
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't really a Rams fan.
• 1:56:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when I was in St.
• 1:56:04
  SPEAKER_00: Louis, it was the Cardinals who left to go to Arizona.
• 1:56:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm kind of like this NFL.
• 1:56:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a you know, I'm a Bears fan, you know, when we lived in Chicago.
• 1:56:16
  SPEAKER_02: And you just watch.
• 1:56:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I enjoy being a fan, but I can't.
• 1:56:19
  SPEAKER_00: I can't sit here and tell you that there's a Lions fan or anything.
• 1:56:23
  SPEAKER_00: I did the Lions have been great.
• 1:56:24
  SPEAKER_00: Campbell's awesome.
• 1:56:25
  SPEAKER_00: I love his energy, you know.
• 1:56:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, I'm a Lions fan.
• 1:56:31
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 1:56:32
  SPEAKER_03: I'm a diehard Cheese fan since I was born.
• 1:56:34
  SPEAKER_03: So that's cool.
• 1:56:35
  SPEAKER_03: Uh thanks so much.
• 1:56:36
  SPEAKER_00: You got it.
• 1:56:37
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate it.
• 1:56:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was a pleasure.
• 1:56:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a pleasure.
• 1:56:40
  SPEAKER_03: You got it.
• 1:56:41
  SPEAKER_03: I hate soccer.