Latest / I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth / I Hate Soccer #136 - Kirby Valle, Columbus Force club director

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I Hate Soccer #136 - Kirby Valle, Columbus Force club director · I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Krieg Vell is a club director for the Columbus Force.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_02: And in this episode, we discussed mostly about like women in coaching roles.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: She's also a mother of three, and one of her sons is part of the Columbus Crew Academy.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: And it's interesting to get her perspective of being in that realm as well as a club director herself.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: So I always bring up stats right before the show.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I just added up all of the followers and subscribers that I have over all of the platforms.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: We are sitting at 57,758.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: And you know me, I'm a goal setter in terms of metrics and everything.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: I want to get to 100,000 by this time next year.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's 50, and we're at 57,758.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: I want to basically double that over the next year.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: So if you're seeing this on uh YouTube, listening on Apple, listening on Spotify, if you see this on Instagram, please follow, subscribe, and share.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: Lastly, starting this week and going all throughout November, there will be a third episode released on every Tuesday.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: So make sure that you have your notifications on so that you don't miss a Tuesday episode.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: I hate soccer.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_04: Like everybody that was there when I was there when we built Indie Premiere, they're still in those roles, right?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_04: So um by my husband getting a job in in Columbus, I transitioned here and John Bush, um, former crew goalkeeper, got me connected with the the people that used to run uh what was Super Kick, where we're sitting in now, owned by Toka.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and they brought me over and made me a goalkeeping director and then um enjoyed that.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_04: It was Barca Academy Columbus at that time when I came over.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_04: Um Toka.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: Was it Barsa in like name only?
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_04: It was no, they brought over Spanish coaches.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_04: It was a really interesting thing.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_04: In full totality, the club used to be Classics Eagles, and there was a competitive uh franchise, very successful, won national championships on the women's side.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: I was wondering because I saw that at the bottom of your email.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_04: So, and then there was classics eagles parent coached, right?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_04: So it's a zero entry space where parents can start, bring their children over from rec, create their own teams and and and coach and play in local leagues here.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so the the ownership group here made a choice to go into a marketing agreement with Barsa um proper, and they brought over uh a director and and staff that were um educated through their systems.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, and then COVID hit.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so that travel aspect of those coaches being able to come back changed.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_04: But I think the biggest thing that has to be addressed about the club here is when it was classics uh competitive, it was a female dominant club.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_04: And they made the choice to bring Barsa in, there was no female players in the academy at that time.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_04: So they lost 70% of their female membership in in this club.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_04: And they went to OP and Club Ohio and all those places because you're a successful women's program winning national titles, you know, under whatever the platforms were at that time.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_04: And then all of a sudden you're bringing in a group that doesn't have a current female space for girls to develop.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_04: They went from um 35, 40 women's teams down to two or three in a year.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_04: And so I came over uh shortly after that and stepped into that space.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_04: There was one female coach on the entire staff of a thousand players, not including myself.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: So what is your role at Columbus Force?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_04: So my my role at Columbus Force is I'm the club director.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_04: And and recently I've taken on the club director of Classics Eagles as well.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_04: So we still have the entity of of Classics Eagles.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_04: I think it's a tremendous needed area of of uh again, zero entry space for people to get in and enjoy the game of soccer.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I also think it's a tremendous opportunity for generations of parents like myself who played the game and have young children and they want to start, you know, coaching or help their child fall in love with the game.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I have that piece too.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_04: And that's within the last uh four months I've taken taken on that role.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think so?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: I was at OP yesterday and they were like they they could have been like and I see this with a lot of clubs because I'm going all over the country, but sure they weren't set in their ways.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: If you if you look at if you look at a lot of clubs and you talk to their like leadership, yeah, they've only been there for like two years, sure, three years, four years, because they're trying to change something, yeah, because they realize that they're falling behind or not as good as what they used to be, or they're turning into something that they don't want to be.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I saw that in Utah, and I've seen that here, and I saw it in in Boise as well.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: So in uh Wisconsin.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: Do you feel like Indiana hearing about like the the lack of staff or female staff?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, that was here, lack of female staff here.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that was here.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_04: So in no Indiana, I was I was a director of goalkeeping there.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_04: I I was yeah, yeah, I was a director of goalkeeping, and but I was part of but you were worried about that you weren't gonna have this opportunity in.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_04: I don't think I ever would have.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_04: And I think I would have been fine with it.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that's the the the world as in life.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes you say yes to an opportunity and it opens 15 more doors, right?
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that is that's where I am today.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I would I love any premiere.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_04: I still go back at times when they need me to and help with goalkeeping clinics because they've never found someone to take on that role as we discussed, right?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_04: It's very hard to find sustainable goalkeeping coaches because it's hard to pay them, right?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_04: And they find another option and they move on.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_04: So they couldn't fill that role.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_04: So they asked me to come back and I'd come back willingly.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_04: And but they found a new gentleman that's now doing it, and and I I hope him nothing but the success in the world, right?
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_04: To grow that program.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but no, Andy Premier was tremendous.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_04: When I moved here, one female staff member in the Barsa space, and that was six years ago.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_04: Now we have a tremendous amount.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, like I what have you done?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_04: How in six years?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_04: So I came over, I was the goalkeeping coach here.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_04: Um, my son started playing, U8.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and I got the experience as a parent as well as a professional in this, right?
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_04: I've been doing, I've been in youth soccer as a as my job and sustainable since gosh, 15 years now, 16 years now.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so I came over and I got the experience.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_04: It was my my son's first youth club experience.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_04: He was six, came in and started playing U8.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_04: And I thought to myself, I don't like this in the parent's perspective.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't like the lack of communication.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't like the lack of feedback of what my child needed to do to be better.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Transparency.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_04: Right?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_04: All of those things.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't like sometimes when as a parent, again, even in a professional lens, knowing this world, if I asked a question that there was a lack of emotional regulation from the person giving me feedback as a parent, right?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so um COVID happened and things became less um to the standard of expectation of what Varsa could provide.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and some of that was out of their control and some of it was not, frankly.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_04: Uh and I put my hand up and said, I think I can do it better.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_04: Mike, I have a kid in this situation.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_04: I I've invested in these humans.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_04: I get the chance to be their goalkeeping coach.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_04: And so I put my hand up and said, Brian, Jim, Mike, let me take it on.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_04: I'd be happy to do it.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_04: I think I can do it better, and I'll lead with communication first and transparency first.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so they gave me that opportunity.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and I stepped up and and we uh shortly after that, Toka came in and purchased the club and the building, right?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and they came to me and said, um, do you want to remain in the marketing agreement with Barca?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_04: Because at that point in time, that's pretty much what it was.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_04: They'd stopped sending us coaches.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_04: So we didn't have that level of um of their their constraint, forced uh coaching and and uh system of play education of our coaches.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_04: We had coaches from Columbus trying to teach a forced curriculum that they didn't know.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_04: And it didn't work well, right?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then again, lack of communication, lack of transparency to parents, honestly, lack of a plan of action of how we're gonna develop these young humans, right?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so I said, no, I really would like to look at other options for the community because I care about the youngest player developing in this space and becoming the the best they can be, whatever that looks like, whether it's high school, whether it's getting to the crew academy, whether it's playing college soccer at.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_04: I don't care.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_04: We just want them to enjoy their journey and we want to build coaches here too.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_04: And so they connected me with Cleveland Force because Toka had purchased them five months before they purchased us.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_04: And so that's how I got connected with Marco and Everett first.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_04: And they came down.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_04: We had quite a few uh meetings at breweries around here, and they're like, we don't want to sway you to come brand with us.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_04: If you want to stay Barsa, fine.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_04: If you want to rebrand Kirby and do anything you want, fine.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_04: And my thought was I have always tried to lead and surround myself with people that don't have an ego so big that we can't find a solution for future growth, period.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_04: And so uh I I I they they earned my trust.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_04: Marco Everett and and the guys in Cleveland, they earned my trust.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_04: And um and we started talking about alignment of what are the things that matter to me as a human first and foremost.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_04: Who do I want to work with?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_04: What are, you know, um end-all be all things for my passion, because anybody that talks to me will very quickly learn, I believe, that there should be more females represented in coaching, period.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, I think there needs to be more opportunities for players at the youngest age that are female, the same way there are for men.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_04: In this city, my son is part of the crew academy.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_04: He has been given free, no-cost training.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_04: How old is he right now?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_04: He is 13 years old.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_04: He's he's been in the crew.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_04: He's fingers crossed get signed in a in a few months uh because they sign at U15.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: Got it.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but uh, but he's been there, right, since he was nine.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_04: He's been invited into this space with players from Michigan, players from Indiana, players from Ohio, Cleveland, all these places.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_04: The best that they say in his age group or around his age group, they get free training at a at a nice facility.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_04: We've got OP, who has been a women's dominant club in this city for a very long time.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_04: You have Ohio State women's soccer who's consistently doing well.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Or are they like four right now?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_04: And and that's not just a one-time, they've had successful years consistently.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_04: I'll tell you, Lori, Lori knocked us out when I was at Tennessee two years in a row in the Elite Aid and National Tournament, like at Ohio State did, right?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_04: And so there's so much success for women in this city.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_04: Why are we not supporting that for the girls of this city?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_04: And so those are the passion projects for me.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_04: So back to, you know, when I connected with Cleveland Force, it was because they made the decision to allow me to represent myself first and foremost and try to say, what kind of staff members do I want around me that that fill those same values or at least strengthen maybe my values, right?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um, yeah.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_04: So I hope that answers the question thoroughly.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_04: So now today, this is our third year as Columbus Force.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and year over year, um, tremendous growth, not just in player, you know, membership or whatever you want to say, but strengthening of staff, right?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_04: As I said, one female staff member, not including myself, when I came in.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_04: Now we have nine women that coach on the men's side only.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_04: Nine women coaching on the boys' sorry, boys' side only.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: I like that.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_04: I have less men coaching on the girls' side than I do women representing coaching on the boys' side.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I said by design?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: It just happened.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: It just happens.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_04: And I think I would never believe that I should be going out and seeking just women as coaches.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_04: You have to find the right person for the right team.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_04: For sure.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_04: But I do feel being a leader that is a woman, it allows there to be a safer space for someone that is a female to say, she's doing it, why can't I?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_04: Or she's gonna have empathy to me as a mother, right?
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_04: I have Danny Gunderson on my staff as a former Muskegon head coach uh for the women's program.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_04: Um, she's now coaching for us.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_04: She she stepped down from Muskegon, but she just had her first child.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_04: We have a plan in place to support her through her maternity spaces.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_04: We have an assistant coach that we're willing to pay to support her in making sure she can take care of her child.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: Let's get into that because because I just had somebody on that had no maternity leave or no paternity leave from a soccer club because we don't think of it.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: We don't think about it.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: I'll tell you.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: And they were like, Yeah, you just had a kid yesterday.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but are you gonna be on the field on Saturday?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_04: And I will tell you, I experienced that.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_04: I've had three child I'm I am so lucky to have had three healthy pregnancies, and I was on the field three weeks after every one of them.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_04: Three weeks.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: Was that by choice or was that by uh you had to?
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, let's be honest, everything's choice, right?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_04: I could make the decision to walk away from my job, right?
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_04: That's true, right?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and I and this the two of my pregnancies were with Indy Premier, and and one of my pregnancies were was here.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I I mean I have pictures of myself, you know, uh fully pushing a stroller or fully pregnant or fully pregnant.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_04: Fully pregnant doing diving activities, right?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_04: Well, because on my side body, not on my front, I wasn't doing smothering, but like a little collapse dive.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_04: They say whatever you do before pregnancy, you can do after, right?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_04: But but it's but it's the truth.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_04: And then after pregnancy, like I remember Caleb Porter at the time, he was the crew head coach.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_04: I was sitting working right here where we're sitting now, and he comes in and I've got an infant on a little uh little play pen on the side, and I'm training goalkeepers, right?
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's life, but and then you probably have parents that come and help you, and you have that environment.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't have that, but but that's okay.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_02: And no, I meant like like soccer parents.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I mean, like watch watch the kids or anything like that?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um maybe when they were a little older, right?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_04: Like toddler stage, right?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_04: But but um, but no, but I so long story short, I didn't have maternity leave because I think what you alluded to, they didn't think about it, right?
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_04: Um, most of the leadership in in in soccer and youth sports is male dominant.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_04: And so when their wives or partners have a child, they can go back to work.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_04: Their bodies are not the one impacted by it directly.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_04: Correct, right?
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_04: And so, and even if it's not the woman having the child, there should be paternity leave.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_04: So I've I have um uh a gentleman that's my sports performance director.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_04: He's now had two pregnancies, he and his wife, in in while being underneath our program, and he's had three weeks of minimum paternity leave.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm not impacting his pay, he's a full-time employee.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_04: Why would I not?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_04: So just because I didn't get it doesn't mean I can't give it to others, right?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_04: And so I think if we talk about by design, no, I not by design that I have more female coaches.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_04: I I genuinely think it's because the representation matters.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: How did you did you recruit them?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: Did you were they former players of yours?
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: Great question.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: Because I ended up hiring mostly uh my former players that were female to come and work for my training company.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: One of them played at Ohio State, actually.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um but go into how you did it.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's a great question.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_04: A lot of it is other coaches connecting me with coaches in the community that um me that maybe have stepped away because of the fact that they couldn't manage having children and being a coach.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um some of it is young women that are this is their first time ever coaching.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_04: I have three women on my staff that are in their very early 20s um that have never coached anywhere but here because they integrated in from a college connection.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um, Mario, our sports performance director, does a um uh unpaid and paid internships for colleges around here to get in.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_04: And so it's a great way for us to have that again, zero entry way.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_04: And then of course, there's the the the visibility of of having a female leader in the community that draws people in.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_04: But I don't see it's not me recruiting, that's for sure.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I think it's word of mouth of comfortability of the staff that I currently have.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then starting opportunities for women to get in and coach early.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so then you can make them comfortable and and and help them understand what it should feel like to be a coach.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um, because I do have a lot of moms on my staff that have kids in this space.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um and we make sure that their schedules don't mean that they miss everything for their kids when they're coaching.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_04: So it's thoughtful, not just uh uh inclusive, it's thoughtful in how we're handling our coaching staff.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think so the reason why those those females wanted to come work for me is because they didn't have to travel to Ohio on the weekend and you made it attainable for them, and it was just local, it was mostly just uh Monday through Friday, sometimes Saturdays, sometimes Sundays, but for the most part it's just Monday through Friday, it was local, yeah, and you didn't have to travel because you're not coaching teams.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_02: I do think that played a role in why they wanted to work for me and not a club.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: Also, how many how many men and I've heard this before, but this is probably like 20 years ago.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: I've heard a coach say, I don't want to hire women because eventually they're gonna want to have a baby, or they're gonna wanna get married, or maybe they move, or something.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: We don't want to lose them.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, who cares?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_02: Who cares if they leave?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: Develop coaches, and maybe maybe I have this play or this coach in Indiana, and maybe she one day moves to Ohio, and she is taking what she learned in Indiana and placing it in Ohio, and then all of a sudden, your coaching tree.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: I've been talking a lot lately about coaching trees.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's like who is underneath you that is learning from you?
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: Because that's how you that's the real impact in this country.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's not like I developed her and I developed him, and they played here, and then they just stopped and they retired and never touched the ball again.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_04: Right, right.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_04: Well, we have to like it's the same thing with with clubs in in the youth space.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_04: If you're not able to develop the player year over year and you have to constantly go out and seek new players, at some point you're gonna have deficit in your in your teams, right?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_04: Because if you're not able to fill and and and take players from one stage to the next, and you're always reliant on external players coming in, it's the same thing with coaching, right?
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_04: If we are not investing in our coaches, making it a joyful place for them to work for the most part, right?
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_04: Making them feel valued, um, comfortable in being a human, because having a child is a human aspect.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_04: It's not something that anyone can control, right?
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_04: Like, why are we why would that be a limitation for a woman, right?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_04: And I think a lot of us, and I will tell you, I was in medical sales before I started working full time for Jamie at Indie Premier.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: What were you selling?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_04: I was selling uh medical devices.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_04: Um and and and I was my territory was like within five hours of itself from Indiana to into to um Kentucky.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_04: Um and so I was coaching uh part-time, giving back to the game and and working for Jamie at Indie Premier.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_04: And I found out I was pregnant and I thought, man, I don't want to be five hours away from my kid in the middle of the day and and then be sick.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_04: And so I went to Jamie and said, What can I do to become a full-time employee?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_04: Because I could work from home all day long and have my child with me as a as a youth soccer coach.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right, of course.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_04: And then I could come, my husband comes home and I have an incredibly valuable partner in in this, and that's incredibly important, right?
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_04: He comes home and he wants to be a dad.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_04: He's willing to take care of the kids.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_04: So I go off and and do the thing I love at night and still make money.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_04: I think if if more people talked about what youth soccer professional aspects are, it can really fit a young mom.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_04: It can.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_04: You could be home with your kid and then you get a little release for three, four hours at night.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_04: Sounds great.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_04: And you can move your body, right?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_04: You can you can be out in in you know fresh air instead of between four walls.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_04: And right.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_04: So there's a lot of pieces that if it's but it, but it's not represented enough, right?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_04: It's not talked about enough of what that that day to day truly looks like.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_04: Is it easy?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_04: No, but raising kids isn't easy no matter what.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_04: Coaching isn't easy no matter what, right?
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_04: But if you can find the balance and if you truly love it, and if you have people that's Support you, it's a it's a great place to be.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_04: And then you throw in the fact that being a parent, no matter if you're, you know, a father or a mother, it it makes you more naturally empathetic, which makes you a better coach.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_04: It makes you a better communicator.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_04: All of those things are in line with what makes a great coach.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_04: I have to be able to understand the parent perspective right now more than ever.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_04: If I'm resistant to parents, my club's gonna fail.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_04: Hands down.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_04: I have to be able to stand in front of people and talk and see it from their lens, right?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_04: What is their experience and how can I support them through my coaches, right?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_04: And I need the ability to communicate that through empathetic lenses, right?
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_04: And to me, that's apparent, right?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_04: If you talk about leadership, if you talk about coaching, if you talk about education, you look at, and I'm kind of talking in circles here, but you look at the the prominent educators in our country, specifically in in um early education, it's women.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_04: Coaching is educating.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think I have one male elementary school teacher.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_04: And you think about why is that?
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_04: Well, because that is interesting.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_04: They have the ability to communicate to children and they can teach them.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_04: They also have patience, most of them.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_04: Again, this is this is an overgeneralization, but you look at the data, coaching is simply just an educational role in the form of a sport.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: You're teaching.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_04: You're teaching.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_04: And and some of the best soccer minds can't communicate through an educational lens.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_04: They can talk to you and me, but getting on the field and have the patience with an eight-year-old, right?
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_04: We're talking about there's a certain profile that fits coaching.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_04: And to me, it leans heavy female, at least based upon you know data of educators and what gender traditionally falls in that space.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: When you you said that when you became a mom, yeah, that changed you a little bit.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: I think another reason why a lot of women don't get into coaching, they're scared of parents.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_02: They don't want to deal with parents.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of fear as a female coach.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_04: I'll be very honest.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_04: Um being in a male-dominated male-dominated environment, 100%.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_04: I I have had passes made at me on the sidelines.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_04: I've had uh it happened to me in a in a coaching course?
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_04: Uh coaching courses.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I've also had it in the middle of a game.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I've had a referee put their hand on my lower back to talk to me about a questionable call that I was asking for.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um I've had a uh in an MLS academy space, I'll leave it there.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_04: I've had an opposing coach tell me I'm beautiful and hold my hand uh after a game.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_04: I've had these things happen, right?
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_04: And so I think parents are one of the least fearful things for co for female coaches.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_04: A lot of times it's it's the calls coming from within.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_04: Their own their own coaching staff, right?
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_04: And remember their counterparts make statements that are inappropriate to them.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I think the the the more concerning thing, I think, on consistent basis that that young female coaches experience when it comes to parents is they parents feel like they can access women easier.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_04: So they have access to me.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_04: They feel as though they can approach me.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_04: I'm easier to approach, maybe, right?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so that might be more of a tricky thing for our young female coaches.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'm more intimidated by female coaches, to be honest with them.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_04: But parents sometimes don't.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_04: And I and I see that a lot in my younger, like the coaches that work with the youngest players, because they have to be, you know, in a way, again, um accessible to these young humans and talk to the parents about their child's behavior and have those conversations.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_04: Once that door's open, it's it's just making sure that the boundaries are respected.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_04: But I have not had a single complaint, I'll tell you this, not a single complaint about communication styles from any of my female coaches.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_02: From a parent.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_02: Because sometimes they over-communicate.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: They do.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_04: And they make themselves too accessible, right?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that's the piece of fear down the road is are we making ourselves too accessible?
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_04: But then it's a walking a fine line, right?
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_04: Because we should never be in a space of not being transparent with parents.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_04: So if a parent reaches out to you and has a question about their child, it is your responsibility.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: That's the part of this that I find the most rewarding for my guests.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: Is that all of a sudden you're talking on camera and you're more transparent in getting to know who the coach is.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: Because we came up in a day when we didn't know who, like when I started coaching at like the a big time level, yeah, every coach tried to just be the most intimidating person in the world and not approachable.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like parents do not talk to me after a game.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: Or I'm just I'm gonna pick up my bug and I'm just going out that door.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not talking to a soul.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: And that was intimidating parents, and that's kind of like how we were brought up.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, absolutely.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_02: You can't get away with that in 2026.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: No, you can't.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_04: And I and I think let's be honest, there's too much money in it.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_04: There's too much, there's too much money, but then again, like we're better now, right?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_04: And like, and just as as most of us, right, as humans, we can see both sides, right?
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_04: You're working with the most important human in that person's life, right?
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_04: And and I try to keep it perspective with some of parents that when I have parent conversations about their frustrations, I'm like, you know, your your child is the most important thing to you, and I I understand that.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_04: But please remember that I have 700 and however many kids that we're talking about.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_04: And so while your situation feels, you know, tremendous, and I'm not taking away from that, we have to, for my shoes, I have to think about how does this decision impact the whole?
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_04: But you do have to address the fact that the most important thing to them is their child, and it shouldn't be nothing, and it should be nothing else but their child, right?
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_04: The club means nothing to them, right?
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_04: It's a space.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_04: If we build the relationships with them, then it becomes a home, right?
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_04: But until we do that, the only thing that matters to them is their child, right?
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's and I've been saying that a lot lately.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's like you are focusing on one, I have to focus on 20.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_02: And respectfully and think about everybody in that space.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like that coaching is not the easiest thing.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's easy from the other side of the side of the field to think, you know, like Monday morning quarterbacking, stuff like that, you know.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's the human aspect.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_04: And I think it it I think what you're referring to is in our generation, there was a lot of um that powerful position of a coach, right?
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_04: And the position of power is still there, right?
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_04: But now I think because of the landscape of the world and for better, we have to see the human side from both lenses, right?
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_04: The coach has to be able to see, or the director or whoever it is, has to be able to see the parents' human side.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_04: And we ask the parents to try to see the coach's human side as well.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_04: And sometimes, sometimes the the the mud is too thick and you can't see it from either side, and that's okay.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_04: And and you find those moments and you hopefully work through them, but then you identify, okay, is this the right fit for you?
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_04: Or or do we make the decision to say, you know, we just part ways, right?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_04: And that's okay.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_04: That's okay too.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_04: Everybody doesn't have to fit.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that's another piece of the ego aspect.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_04: Not everyone's gonna fit Columbus Force, right?
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_04: And I don't think we're the right place for everyone.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_02: And you can't be everything for everyone as well and be successful, correct.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_04: Or in my opinion, be authentic.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: That's a better way to put it.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: Because how many let's be real, like how many people are their authentic selves?
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_02: Because people want to put on these personas and these guards because maybe they're keeping it close to the vest or they're protecting themselves.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_04: I think it's self-protection mode.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_04: It's hard to be a coach.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_02: It can be ego too.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_04: It can be, and I think you know, we talked a lot about the female gender, but I think that's also something that is bestowed upon male coaches without their knowledge, right?
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_04: Like that you have to carry yourself in some sort of way, right?
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and that's that's a study in and gender science no matter what, right?
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_04: But but I I do think it's gotten better.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_04: You know, you mentioned Travis uh and him being one of the driving forces of a conversation.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_04: Travis is probably he's one of the men that that coaches on the women's side solely.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_04: So we talked about that number earlier of the fact that I have more women coaching on the boys' side than men coaching on the girl side.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_04: Travis is someone that represents um a male coach in a way of uh female focus.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_04: Everything for him.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_04: He watches um, you know, women's EPL, not men's, right?
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_04: Like he watches the women's national team, not the men's national team.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_04: He cares more about where the women are being forced in this, and he does it in a safe and respectful and authentic way.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: I think I'm the same way.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've always about probably three or four years into coaching, yeah, I always just geared towards the female side.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_02: And there's many reasons.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_02: And one is that obviously they listen better.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: They are they want to please the coach a little bit more so that they are easier.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_02: If I want to play a certain style, it's way easier to get that across to girls than boys.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: Because boys want to be the alpha and do all the fantasy does.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas women, they already think of team.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_02: And they and but I also think, and maybe this is changing a little bit with like the MLS Academies, like your son.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: I feel that I have been able to make more of an impact on the female side, sure, that can directly affect our national team.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_04: I completely agree.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_02: Versus the boys.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: I totally agree.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_02: Because like Christian Pelisic was uh in Michigan for a little time, but I didn't have like uh maybe I maybe how I started looking at it is like if I had a player in the DA, yeah, and they're playing against Columbus crew, sure, you might be playing against a future national team player.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's how I kind of looked at it, but there's more of that on the girl side for me.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_02: I I feel I completely agree.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_02: I have a a few players in the Big Ten, I have a few players in the ACC and the SEC, and it's like, well, she's on the national team now, so I feel like I it's easier to make an impact.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if that's ego or selfish, but I just feel like and I think it's also an observation.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_02: And we can win the freaking World Cup.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry, right, we can't on the men's side, not for full 50 more years.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_04: Right, right.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_04: And and again, I think that's I don't think that's an ego piece.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_04: I think that's an observation.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_04: I also think it's it's I genuinely believe there is a personality that fits better in certain genders.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_04: And and because of what you're referring to, the young men's game, and for a very, very, very long time, it's an individualized sport.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_04: And you have to have a thick skin, right?
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_04: And not not just the coach, but the players to be able to be successful in that space.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_04: When you move into the to the girls' space, um, just natural gender norms.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_04: Women are taught to please people, women are taught to work together, women are taught that it's okay to, you know, look for other, right?
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_04: And I I'd like that to change, to see more bravery at a younger age for young women.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_04: And that's something that Nehemiah, my eights and nines director, and I are uh heavily focused on right now, is I don't I don't want us to be telling young women to pass the ball all the time.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_04: They have to be brave, and it starts with our youngest player.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's also like, and what I would always try to get across, especially to the higher level players, yeah, it's okay to be the bitch.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's okay to demand the ball or demand more out of your teammates, or demand like because how many times I've been in in a female environment, it's like, hey, this is practice.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_02: Will you calm down?
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_02: You're you're trying too hard.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, and and that's a that's a red flag.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and you want those leaders, those top end players to be like, no, this is how we do this.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_04: Well, and that's what when we were talking earlier about, like, we talk about the crew academy set up, and these young boys get a chance to be in an elite environment-minded space with others that are are at least dreaming of being a professional player at nine, eight, nine, ten years old, right?
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_04: Where they're taught to compete and they're safe in that competition space.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_04: But yet we're keeping that that same equivalent is not provided here in Columbus.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_04: There is not a space that's free, low cost or no cost to young women at eight and nine, where they're taught, you know what?
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_04: As the word you used is being a bitch, I don't see that as a negative thing.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_02: I don't either.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_04: I've never thought of as you want to call me fantastic.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_04: That means I'm speaking, right?
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_04: That means I have a point of view.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_04: You might not like it, obviously, but I'll take that as a positive, right?
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_04: And I think it's the sooner we can get our girls in a space with other young girls that feel that way, yeah, and that are centered with people that allow them to thrive and have a disagreement at training.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_04: It's okay to have a disagreement.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_02: And then walk across the lines and still be best friends.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_04: Respectfully walk across the line to say, hey, great, you made me better today.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_04: Or hey, I got a little too heated in that moment because I wanted to win.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, great.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_02: I would also tell my players, I'm like, I want you to be the player that they're come that the other team is complaining about at halftime.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: When you're walking off and they're like, oh my God, that number 13 is just ridiculous.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_02: I can't stand her.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: Well, what happens to the case?
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I want.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_04: What's that happens to the best young male player in a club space when they're on the field?
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_04: They get fouled terribly.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_04: They're trying to break that guy's leg.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_04: Because he they just how that works, right?
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_04: When you when you transition into the women's side, that's how I identify it.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_04: If they're fouling you and you are successful, that means you're doing something right.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_02: And also, oh my god, I lost my training of thought because no, because just this conversation is you just want, I don't know, you want that personality to come out.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_02: And so many girls are scared to have that personality.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_02: But when I first started coaching, when so I was a goalkeeper.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_02: You were a goalkeeper.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_02: When me and my center back would get into it because I made a mistake or he made a mistake, yeah, we'd yell at each other, but then we were best friends off the field.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_04: Well, it's the Oliver Kahn effect, right?
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_04: You grab him by the scruff, right?
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_04: Pardon me.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_04: Grab him by the scruff and correct the situation.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_04: But then afterwards, my favorite goal.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_04: You have a beer, right?
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_04: Right?
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_04: Like it is what the World Cup.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_04: That's right.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_04: But but I I the the the thing But then on girls' side.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_04: But and I we can talk about it, but I think when you go deeper into it, that is a societal gender forced thing.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_04: That's something they're hearing at home.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_04: That's something like what's the first thing you you you tell a little girl, right?
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_04: Be kind, be sweet.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_04: Nice, right?
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_04: Don't give don't right.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_04: All those little things, right?
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_04: Are you smiling?
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_04: Why aren't you smiling?
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_04: And so it's bigger than just soccer.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's a gender constraint for our culture and many cultures, right?
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_04: Because we can both sit here and say the women in our country have had way more opportunity than many other countries, right?
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_04: And that's another, another day, another dollar, right?
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_04: But but when you talk about the personality of a female athlete and a successful female athlete, that starts at a young age, right?
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_04: And it's and it becomes easier for them to be successful in their sport, whatever that sport is, if they're around other young players that allow them to express that, that bring that out of them, and coaching staff that allow them to do that in a safe environment, encourage it, right?
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_04: And so to me, that's that's a big thing because we're fighting it every day as coaches with these young girls.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_04: Because when as soon as they walk out of our space, everyone wants them to be nice, be agreeable.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_04: Don't take that, don't take that from me.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_04: Don't, don't, you have to share, right?
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_04: So then therefore you go watch a U8 game, they don't want to take the ball from the other girl.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_02: Is Columbus getting the NWSL team or is it Cleveland?
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_04: Columbus is getting the NWSL team.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_02: So you've brought it up a few times that there's not that opportunity on the girls' side that there is on the boys' side.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_02: And Caitlin brought it up, or then I was out in Utah, that eventually NWSL is gonna get into the youth space.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_02: I hope so.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_02: Is there going to be also are they gonna start their own thing or are they just gonna join the ECNL?
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_02: Are they just gonna join the Girls' Academy?
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think that's gonna the world will know.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_04: Well, the world will know soon.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_04: But I the NWCL, I I think powers it be with the amount of of uh uh resources and funding they're putting in currently uh to women's soccer, which is tremendous.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_02: Especially the valuation of these clubs, right?
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_02: When I was at the Flash, yeah, we were like 500,000 in a hole every year.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_02: Part of that is because uh right before I got there, Marta was there.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like, well, you're paying her 250 to$500,000.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: No one and it's a tax write-off for them because they own Salem's hot dogs, right?
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's just like a loss anyway.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: But but now you see like the Kansas City current is worth like$125 million valuation.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_02: Correct.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_04: So now there's like real money involved, and they're building it with an infrastructure that can last, right?
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_04: On the business side, which I think is the what you're referring to.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_04: There's a drastic difference in how some of the expansion teams are are taking on that, right?
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_04: And so I I we started a Go program, girls only program, uh last year, free, open to the community.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_04: Come on in, only girls, only girls coaches.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and it was tremendous.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_04: We we sold out every week.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I think we ended up getting 250 players through in six weeks.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_02: What ages?
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_04: Uh eight through twelve.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_02: Do you do anything for youngers?
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_04: Uh oh, and I'm so sorry.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_04: It was six through twelve.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_04: Pardon me, six through twelve.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but uh, but yeah, I mean it it but as you know, that cost that cost me$180 an hour on the field rental.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_04: We rented three hours a week, and it's a low-cost, no cost program.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_04: That's a high evaluation for the club when you talk about you know taking away.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_02: One of these is 180 an hour.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_04: So so but like that being said, when you think about starting programs like that, and again, that was open to anybody that was not currently in a club.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_04: It was trying to get young girls to play the game of soccer, right?
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_04: And and I have no statistical data on this, but this is just an observation.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_04: Traditionally speaking, if you're a lower income family, your daughter's not gonna be who you you invest in in sports if you have a son, right?
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_04: If you don't have, if you have money to spend, right?
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_04: More than likely, again, gender norms and and and again assumptions and observations, totally no statistical data to support my claim.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_04: But you're gonna you're gonna ask your daughter to stay home and help mom, right, with chores around the house or with younger siblings.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_04: You're not gonna invest the small amount of money you have as a low-income family in your daughter to go, right?
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_04: You're gonna invest in your son if you have a son.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_04: And so starting programs like that in communities that need it, I think is is a tremendous opportunity for here in Columbus.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_04: And on top of that, having a select female space similar to what the crew is doing, and we can start that now.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_04: It's just funding.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_04: We have space, we have plenty of people, we have plenty of clubs, right?
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_04: OP is tremendous.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_04: Club Ohio has amazing players.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_04: Sporting Columbus United, the new merger, fantastic young players.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_04: We have incredible young female players.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_04: There's a lot of talent here.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_04: So why are we not doing that?
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_04: And we both know why, right?
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_04: Like there's the ego aspect of it.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_04: We don't want to pull all our players together because somebody will do something nefarious, right?
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_04: But if it's done through the NWCL aspect of it, right, then it becomes equitable in how we're treating our young female players in Columbus in comparison to how we're treating our young male players in Columbus.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_04: That are that identified best player.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_02: Here's my thought.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_02: I'm worried.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_02: If the US women go on and win the World Cup next year, yeah, it's not gonna happen.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_04: I I don't disagree.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_02: Because because we always US soccer has always believed like we have the best women, we don't need to touch it.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's why the DA only focused on the boys and not the girls, and then that spawned the ECNL because they're pissed off.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, hey, what about the girls?
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_02: The girls play soccer too.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_02: And then we almost want to root against them.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_02: And it sucks to say that.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_02: We almost want to root against them so that we revamp the women's side.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_02: Revamp the girls, fix what's going on with this war, this invisible war between the GA and the ECNL.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_02: And And then everybody just thinks that like oh my god, I had this parent, I had this parent on X go after me after it was after the Caitlin episode.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_02: And she's like the the G A sucks.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_02: E CNL is a king, a queen.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_02: And and he basically just went after me and after me.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, you're a soccer parent and you're talking like this.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_02: One, obviously he has a girl in the ECNL.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_02: Correct.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_02: Two you guys gotta be careful as parents talking smack about another league when eventually that girl is gonna go into college and have teammates from the GA that are better than her.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_02: And then they're gonna be like, Dad, I thought I I thought you said the GA sucks.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_02: Why is she so much better than me?
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_02: Also, this guy is like, my wife went to Western Michigan and that's my daughter's that's my daughter's dream school.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like one, you know that the head coach of Western Michigan is the executive director of a GA club that willingly left the ECNL.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_02: Two, he's a partner of mine.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_02: We I'm partners with his club.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_04: Soccer community.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_02: Three, three.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_02: I went golfing with him last Thursday.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I go, you know what?
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_02: You better be careful what you're putting out on the internet.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_02: Because I am one screenshot away making sure that your daughter never gets a sniff by Western Michigan.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_04: And again, I think we talked about it earlier, right?
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_04: Like leagues are are dominant depending upon where you are in our country, right?
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_04: And like you cannot say that, you know, ECNL or GA are better than the other.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_04: It's totally about where you are, right?
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_04: And and who is superior.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_04: And let's be even deeper than that.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_04: One age group of a GA club can be superior than the ECNL, but then it's what swaps the next age group, right?
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_04: It's all about the players and the coaches within that space.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_04: But back to your statement about the US women, I think, you know, even Emma Hayes has made this statement.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_04: We're not winning the youth world cups.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_04: We haven't.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_04: So we've won one since a long-standing problem, guys, right?
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_02: We have we have only won one since the start of the ECNL in 2009.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's the U-20s in 2012.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_04: So the complacency's already caught up to us, right?
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_04: And so it was it was um eye-opening to watch the US, you know, lose to Spain a few weeks or a few days ago, excuse me, 3-0.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_04: And then it was nice to see them respond back and go 2-2.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but then but then you look at the the field of play for Spain and you're like, oh, their starters are not.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_02: Their best players aren't in the streets.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_02: No, they didn't even make the trip.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_02: They didn't travel, right?
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was wasn't an international window for them.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_04: And so so it's this false sense of entitlement when it comes to US women's soccer.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and and it's been a false sense for quite some time.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and I think, you know, I think there's a lot of things that are that have been uh better recently, especially with the with Emma stepping into the space, she's at least willing to say truthfully what's happening and and bring light to um world football on the women's stage instead of putting just our blinders on about the United States of America, but actually educating what's happening in world football.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um so we'll see.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_04: I I don't disagree with you.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_04: I think if the women win the World Cup, wonderful, right?
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_04: That's wonderful, great.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_04: But it does not move the needle forward for youth women's soccer in the United States.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_04: It's complacency building.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_04: And we know in athletics and life, complacency is one of the worst things to be, right?
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_04: Because it breeds, it breeds ordinary, and that's not what we want to be.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_02: If the NWSL does come here, and 2028 is one that's 2028.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_02: Are they just gonna play at the Cruise Stadium?
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_04: They haven't made all of the I they haven't made any of the brand um alignments yet.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_04: They haven't named the team.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_04: Um, there's a lot of unknowns currently.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_04: I do believe they're building an additional facility, at least for training.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's good.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um, uh, which is needed.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so again, hopefully that opens the pathway for there to be a youth adjacent academy, right?
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I think that's the right thing to do.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_02: I think I think we have to.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_02: I think we have to get, but uh, I mean, we are still so young of having our own professional acad youth academies on the boys' side.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_02: Agreed.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_02: So 2004, Chicago Fire was the first MLS club right to have an an academy, and now thankfully, every MLS club has the academy now, and it's free for those players, which is a huge.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know what c what crew invests, but I know what Riel Salt Lake uh invests to be heavy.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's eighty thousand dollars, but they're that's only like sixteens through nineteens or what.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and crew crew starts with the free training at the youngest ages.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, like they have their futures program and stuff like that at uh and ID'd players uh at U8, U9.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then they have of course their their paid programs that you can get into, but but they start their free, free no cost at U10, U11.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_02: What is that like as a parent of a kid at a U at an MLS Academy?
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_02: Because obviously, how many teams are you coaching right now?
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_04: I don't have any teams.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_04: This is my first year.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_04: My first year not coaching teams.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um so my question is basically like, yeah.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_02: As a coach, you're getting so many emails about parents and stuff like that.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_02: How many times do you get to email the Columbus crew coaches?
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I don't.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think anybody can.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um no, that I think some do, but but holy moly, I would be mortified, right, to to make that decision for me, right?
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_04: Just because of the the professional aspect of knowing.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but no, I mean it's it's a different world, right?
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_04: And I will say, um They all travel together.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_02: You don't do the traveling if you don't want to.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_04: Like they they will have a uh two overnight travels uh coming up very soon, going to Chicago Fire, um, and then they're headed down to Nashville to play as well.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um so too in the next four weeks, five weeks.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, yeah, we can go watch the game, but we are not traveling with them.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_04: We're not, you know, anything like that.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um staying in separate hotel.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_04: All that, all those things.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_04: And and I will say, I think the the hardest part for Rafe, uh, my son and and my husband and I through his process, because he's been fortunate enough to have earned his space there from you U8, U9.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so he's been in for a long time.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_04: He's never been rotated out.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_01: What position?
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um center left left back and center back.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_01: He was food?
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_04: Um, which is is nice.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_04: But uh, but that being said, um, he's been fortunate in that he's earned his space.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but we didn't get the evaluation process that I thought we would.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, and that was always something that I was left wanting more of.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_04: What what does my son need to do?
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_04: Like an IDP?
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_04: Correct.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, we got uh we got an evaluation right before we um got the acceptance back in for the next phase type stuff, right?
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_04: But it was always color-coded very, and again, being in this world professionally, my coaches do evaluations um two to three times a year, depending upon if they're a 10-month player or or they're a six-month player, a high school player, right?
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_04: High school players get two and uh the the 10-month players get three.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um, the evaluations that my eight-year-old just got, uh he's U8, he's six, but um uh last week from the coach that is coaching him here at Columbus Force was way more in depth than any of the evaluations that my son has ever gotten from the crew until this year.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and and that makes sense in some ways based upon how the crew does it, because he's now within the window of signing, right?
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_04: So and that's the piece for me as a parent of of how what my experience has been.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_04: It's been kind of just um hope he continues to play, but very little feedback from the crew of where is he when we talk about pro potential player pathway metrics?
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_04: I know they have them, right?
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_04: They have those.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_04: Could that have been better shared with a player uh like my child who's been in the pathway for a very long time, right?
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_04: Who is identified as a homegrown player if they choose to sign him, right?
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um I think they can do better at that.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_04: However, the U14 experience he's getting is very, very professional now.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_04: But it's we've been we've had to trust the process.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_04: And I think when you talk about how that helps me in the conversations maybe with parents in my club being in those shoes, I I can understand how important an evaluation is for parents.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_04: I can I can understand how important it is for them to have the ability to come ask a coach, what does my child need to do better?
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_04: And we need to be able to answer those questions.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_04: But in the same breath, it keeps humility in in mind to say accessibility to coaches.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_04: We talked about earlier, right?
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_04: The crew academy space, I would never walk across the field and ask a question of the of the crew, let alone send an email.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_04: On a regular basis, coaches are are treated that way constantly by parents in the youth club space.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_02: And is that because of your at like force or OP or Hawks or whatever?
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're paying for the service.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_02: Correct.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_02: So you're kind of owed that.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas the Columbus guys, you're not paying anything.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_04: I think it's also fear, right?
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_04: Could I my actions as a parent negatively impact my child's opportunity?
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, fear from parents.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, a hundred percent.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to screw this over.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_04: So, yeah, of course, it I think there is the natural aspect of there's an exchange of of customer service on the youth club space, right?
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_04: Like it is owed of them as the parent.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_04: They are paying us for a service, right?
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_04: That is, of course, an underlying piece.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_04: And usually one that's thrown at us annually multiple times when somebody's upset, right?
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_04: I'm paying for this service.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, it's a nice sticking point that parents like to throw at us, and that's okay, right?
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_04: It's true.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_04: Uh but when we talk about the crew space, they're not paying for it.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_04: You're invited into this space.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_04: It is a pro pathway.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and you better not mess it up for your kid.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_02: Are you going to FEST?
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_04: They I they believe they're going to invite the 14s this year, but that the the crew does not sign until 14.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_04: So they don't have team spaces.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_04: They do, they've never gone to FEST before, but I they they did take, I think, the 14s last year, but I know the 15s and above do go for the crew.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_00: What did they win?
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_04: They were the you, the yeah, the the boys' eighteen.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_02: Well, they won um playoffs.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I was there.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_04: So 15 and above for the crew is is where they compete as teams.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_02: They're yeah.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_04: No, they're great.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_02: How what has the impact of your kids being around an MLS just franchise been in in terms of their development?
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_02: I'm from Michigan.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I but never I don't we don't have an MLS team.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_02: We have Detroit City FC, but I don't really relate.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_02: And they really came on when I left and I went to Buffalo, and then they don't have a professional team.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so there's so many pockets of the country that don't have access, a an access to go and watch pro soccer like last night and like go and see it.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_02: And and I asked the same question in Utah.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's like how important is having the Royals on the NWSL side and then having you know real salt lake.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_02: How has that helped like your kids just be fans of the game, really?
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_04: That's a great question.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_04: And I will I will answer this in in in a way that's twofold.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_04: So um when I first came over to Columbus, I was asked to start working for the crew, Brian Rod Rodriguez.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_04: I worked for him as this goalkeeping director for the 13s and 14s while I was still here.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_04: So I have the experiences from their side and the experience as a parent and the experience as a club.
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_04: Did you do it?
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_04: I was with him for so um some of the young men that just won the the uh playoff title that we were referring to were in were in that space.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_04: 2010s, 2011s were the groups that I had the chance of coaching and working with, the goalkeepers in those spaces.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_04: I loved it.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I had some issues with um being a woman in that space, if I'm honest.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_04: For sure.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_04: As I alluded to there before.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_04: Some of the little things, uh, like they didn't give me women's cut gear.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_04: I had to wear men's cut gear.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_04: Good luck kicking a ball with a female body with straight leg shorts, right?
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_04: Like that, you know, things like that.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_04: But that that's that's me asking for, you know, uh, you know, asking for equality, and that's okay, right?
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I have the experience there.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_04: I I um I also have the experience through the parent lens with my son.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_04: And then I have the experience with being a club director who's trying to build young men's programs with the eater-be-eaten belief system of the parents in this city because they want their boys to be in the crew academy.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_04: So, which club is gonna get me in the crew academy?
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_04: So there's a big question there, Jason.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_04: So, is there benefit of being in a city where you have access to a pro pathway for your son and even for your daughters to fall in love with the game?
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_04: 100%.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_04: But as a but as a club director, it is created, and this is a lot of what Travis might have been alluding to on the on the girl side, very drastically different, the boy's side, but um it is it is really cutthroat in those U13 and below age groups because every parent thinks their child can make the crew academy.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_04: Every club tries to to lean on that and and brand it that way.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_04: You know, we got five guys signed to the to the U10 crew academy team.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_04: They're not signing guys, right?
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like especially that it you're in their territory.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're like their actual like territory where they control your players.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's created a really and and it's not on the crew, right?
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like no, it's on the system, it's on the system, it's on the territorial system because it is actually better in Michigan because it's a free state where any MLS Academy can come in and take those kids.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_04: That's right.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_04: So I I say it is it is an incredible asset to the young men in the city because the the gentlemen from from Michigan that are identified strong enough, right?
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and there's some incredible players in Michigan that are coming down and playing for, and I get to see them twice a week with my son.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_04: They're great.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_04: But they have to commit to traveling down here until U15, right when they're signed.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_04: They have to commit to travel down twice a week, three times a week in the winter time.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_04: That's a huge burden on those families, right?
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_02: Or do they have host families at the old age, right?
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_04: They do at U15, but until then, right?
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_04: And we know, like these young men want to be signed, so you got to get in front of them as much as you can.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_04: So is there a benefit of the crew?
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_04: A hundred percent, especially if you're in, you know, this area, right?
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but on the club side, and and I came into it after the crew academy itself kind of folded, right?
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_04: I came into Columbus after that because there was the crew academy, right?
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_04: And that created this explosion.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm not the right person to speak to that because I wasn't here during that time.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_04: I came in in the aftermath of a lot of clubs not being willing to send their kids into the academy because they're trying to hold on to them.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_04: Because they're trying to hold on to them, which is uh despicable, despicable in its own space, but also because the crew would then send players back to specific clubs.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_04: So let's say a smaller club in this market um that doesn't have a national platform would develop an incredible player or two.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_04: They get into the crew and the crew would say, Hey, you're not good enough yet.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_04: You're not good enough yet.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_04: But the only way you're gonna come back is if you go to OP or sporting, right?
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_04: And and then you have coaches on the the crew academy staff that work for those clubs.
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_04: So there's a tremendous conflict of interest in that space.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_02: But they used to work for them because that OPE has two guys that used to work for them.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_04: Right?
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_04: Club Ohio has some that were huge.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_04: Sporting still has staff that are uh Will Havanis works for sporting for the 13s and 14s boys and then runs the younger uh academy.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_04: So we now have a coach in our space, our eights and nines director Nehemiah, that that goes and works for Daniel Suarez, the uh the crew.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_04: So it's like I'm not gonna fight the system.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna put somebody that I trust in that space so they can see the younger player, they can talk about the player profile, and then they can come back and educate our parents to say, you know what, you're not good enough yet, right?
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_04: You're not good enough yet.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_04: So calm down on the sidelines because that's the big thing is as soon as one or two children in your space or on a team gets invited into that space, everybody wants to be, right?
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_04: Of course.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_04: And then it impacts the parents, and then it becomes this ego aspect for the adults and the environment.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_04: An eight and nine-year-old little boy does not know anything.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_04: Do they want to play for the crew one day?
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, of course, right?
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_03: I want to wear that badge, but they have no idea.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_04: But mom or dad leaving an incredibly talented team with a great coach who's invested in them because they've heard that sporting or Club Ohio or OP at eight and nine are going to get their kid into the crew, is is sometimes the culture that it creates here.
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_04: And you usually see it on the elite teams on the boys side in this city, it implodes teams, full teams implode from almost every club around U11 through U12.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_02: Did he play for Force at all?
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_04: My son.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_04: He's only ever played for Barca and then Force.
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_04: So when this this we we took him over to um Hoosier Premier last fall.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and it was a tremendous.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_02: Where did they come from?
• 1:02:13
  SPEAKER_04: So Hoosier Premier is a a mix of indie premiere and Hoosier FC in Indiana.
• 1:02:17
  SPEAKER_04: And they put their their boys' programs together to get an MLS Academy bid and they got it.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_04: Well, MLS homegrown bid.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's right.
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_04: So it's it's a merger of both.
• 1:02:27
  SPEAKER_02: Brian was talking about that.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_04: And it in again, um, so we we took Rafe over there uh for U13 and realized U13 soccer is U13 soccer, no matter if it's MLS uh homegrown or if it's ECNL or RL.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_04: You can have great players, but it's still U13 soccer, right?
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so we made the decision to connect with with Cleveland and and Everett had had offered for Rafe to come up there anyways and begin playing in their USL space, uh as well as their ECNL boys teams.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um and so we pitted him back here.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_04: So he's now he's he's only ever played for Force with one one season at a different club.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, so he's he's he's been developed through this this program.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_02: How many, how many, um, how many training sessions per week uh is Columbus providing?
• 1:03:16
  SPEAKER_02: Crew.
• 1:03:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_04: Uh in the fall, they provide two training sessions a week um for the 14s and 13s and the 11s and the 12s.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_02: And then are they allowed to play at another club?
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_04: I'm expected to.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_04: So like the Michigan guys only come down on Thursdays because the crew has made it.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_04: And and I will say Mike Lentz is the new um director over there of the academy pre-academy space.
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_04: Mike is who hired me here.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_01: Got it.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_04: Mike has been in Columbus youth soccer for decades.
• 1:03:47
  SPEAKER_04: He's an incredible human.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_04: Um, he understands youth soccer and club soccer.
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_04: So when I talk about the experience that I'm now experiencing as Rafe's mom for U14, a lot of that is because of Mike is making the communication better for families.
• 1:04:02
  SPEAKER_04: And he's he's taking the thought process of we are not a pro academy yet.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_04: They're still youth players, and he's able to bridge that gap.
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_04: So uh huge uh kudos to Mike and the fact that he's been able to make the experience from again the player and the the parent side, but also the club side.
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_04: He communicates to me, lets me know when my players are gonna be needed there so I can communicate to my coaches, hey, you're gonna be missing your goalkeeper this weekend.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_02: How many, how many players from Columbus Force?
• 1:04:32
  SPEAKER_04: Columbus Force currently we have in the U 13-14, we have two.
• 1:04:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then in the younger spaces that are a little bit less uh in like the futures and stuff, there's there's quite a few of our younger boys.
• 1:04:43
  SPEAKER_04: But I will say when I look at the U15 and U16 uh crew team, um there's at least 12 that came through Barca Classics Eagles in that space now signed.
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_04: But then they went to sporting or something like that at U15 or sorry, U14 or something like that.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_02: Have you seen that girl that plays for New York City FC?
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_02: She's like U15, maybe she's U16 now.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_02: She plays MS Academy.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_02: She should.
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_02: And she is unbelievable.
• 1:05:13
  SPEAKER_02: She's she got a call up with the women's national team.
• 1:05:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's and she is unbelievable.
• 1:05:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:05:19
  SPEAKER_02: Is that an avenue that crew do you do you think crew would do that?
• 1:05:23
  SPEAKER_04: I've seen the them bring in uh female players into the future space for games against the academy.
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 1:05:30
  SPEAKER_04: I have never seen them, you know, actually bring actually bring a rostered player into it.
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_04: But what an untapped resource.
• 1:05:36
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_04: Right?
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_04: What an untapped resource.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_04: Because especially in the younger spaces, right?
• 1:05:43
  SPEAKER_04: Before you 15, right, where there's a body dynamic change, there's plenty of young women in the city that are capable of competing and making those boys better.
• 1:05:51
  SPEAKER_02: That girl, that girl's gonna be one of our best players that we've ever developed, probably.
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yep, absolutely.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_04: And and you again, both of us.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_04: Being um coaches on the girls and women's side, it is the best way to improve a young woman at an early age.
• 1:06:07
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 1:06:08
  SPEAKER_04: Get her in that space.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_04: Because again, the environment you're in impacts how you play.
• 1:06:13
  SPEAKER_04: You never know how you will handle an environment until you're in it.
• 1:06:17
  SPEAKER_04: So when we talk about bravery of young female players, put them in a men's space.
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_04: You have nothing, you have your boys' space.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_04: You have no option but to be brave in those situations.
• 1:06:27
  SPEAKER_04: It's sink or swim.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_04: And so providing that environment to a young woman, yeah, untapped resource.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_02: How many, how many teams do you guys have?
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_04: And at Columbus Force, we are at 78.
• 1:06:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:06:40
  SPEAKER_04: And then with our uh affiliate with Classic Seagulls, they're 62.
• 1:06:47
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's a lot of players.
• 1:06:50
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, Columbus is a lot bigger than I thought.
• 1:06:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's huge.
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_04: It's a lot bigger than I thought, too.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_04: I'm a transplant here, too.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but but but again, you know, so we talk about like so many clubs in a small area and it it disparity of talent, right?
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_04: Shifting and and pulling away.
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_04: But there's a lot of kids, right?
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_04: There's a lot of kids in the city.
• 1:07:13
  SPEAKER_02: Do you wish that it was more consolidated?
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_02: Or because in Buffalo everybody's like, oh, they're we need to consolidate all the talent.
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's like it already is, and we only have like one ECNL club.
• 1:07:27
  SPEAKER_02: We have one well former MLS next club, now it's ECNL boys, and it's an hour away, and then there's nothing else, and it's all more like community clubs, and they do okay, but they're not they're not great.
• 1:07:45
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like we need to have my my opinion in Buffalo, and I got like ridiculed for this, is saying we need more clubs that are doing it right than then let's consolidate all the talent.
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, no, how about we develop more talent?
• 1:08:03
  SPEAKER_04: I I am in line with your belief system.
• 1:08:06
  SPEAKER_04: I used to think when I first moved here, outside in, I was like, oh my god, there's too many clubs here, right?
• 1:08:11
  SPEAKER_04: Like I came from uh the indie area, right?
• 1:08:13
  SPEAKER_04: So there's indie premiere, there's um um Indy 11.
• 1:08:17
  SPEAKER_04: Indy 11 or Indie Fire, right?
• 1:08:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, uh who uh FC Pride has been around in the community for a long time.
• 1:08:25
  SPEAKER_04: Jamie.
• 1:08:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so there's those like bigger clubs, right?
• 1:08:28
  SPEAKER_04: And then there's a lot of little neighborhood clubs.
• 1:08:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but so when I came over here and I'm like, oh my God, right?
• 1:08:33
  SPEAKER_04: There's so many big clubs.
• 1:08:37
  SPEAKER_04: I thought, yeah, we got to consolidate talent, right?
• 1:08:40
  SPEAKER_04: I thought that.
• 1:08:41
  SPEAKER_04: I am in complete alignment with you when it comes to the fact that we actually just need to improve the system a bit better and actually put people and have clubs uh run the environment uh at a more integrity and space and in a in a more development focus.
• 1:08:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I think that's key.
• 1:09:00
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not a believer in taking opportunity away from anyone.
• 1:09:03
  SPEAKER_04: And so if you eliminate clubs, most people want to join a soccer club that's geographically respectful to their home.
• 1:09:11
  SPEAKER_04: So you take away more clubs and you eliminate opportunity, right?
• 1:09:15
  SPEAKER_04: Especially a young or grassroots space.
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_04: They want to start somewhere close to their house with people they know.
• 1:09:21
  SPEAKER_04: That's why I love the classic seagulls model, right?
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I do believe, and this is where I still have the belief system that the identification of high-level talent in this city, they're doing it for the boys.
• 1:09:36
  SPEAKER_01: And who's doing it for the girls?
• 1:09:38
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody.
• 1:09:39
  SPEAKER_04: The parents.
• 1:09:40
  SPEAKER_04: The parents are doing it, right?
• 1:09:42
  SPEAKER_02: Parents are right.
• 1:09:43
  SPEAKER_02: Parents get to choose where they go, right?
• 1:09:46
  SPEAKER_02: They're not being selected.
• 1:09:47
  SPEAKER_02: No, and that's what everybody like thinks is wrong.
• 1:09:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like, oh, you're just recruiting.
• 1:09:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, we can't really recruit kids.
• 1:09:54
  SPEAKER_02: Parents are recruiting us.
• 1:09:55
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 1:09:56
  SPEAKER_04: Or they're recruiting other players because parents can, I know for a fact that the the parents are on this island for both the boys and the girls.
• 1:10:03
  SPEAKER_04: That player's really good on the opposing team.
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_04: We're gonna go talk to them and we want them with us, right?
• 1:10:07
  SPEAKER_04: That happens every day, right?
• 1:10:08
  SPEAKER_04: No problem, fine, great.
• 1:10:10
  SPEAKER_04: So to me, it's player identification is is the problem more than reducing club opportunities because not everyone is a is a is a college soccer player.
• 1:10:21
  SPEAKER_04: And why are we only ever talking about that player?
• 1:10:23
  SPEAKER_04: The majority of players in, and again, I understand I'm an elite mindset human.
• 1:10:28
  SPEAKER_04: I want to win everything, I want to work with the best players, I want to be the best player.
• 1:10:32
  SPEAKER_04: But as I've gotten into my job and learned the community, the majority of players that come through my club and every club in this city, the highest level of soccer they're ever going to play is high school.
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_04: So if we're in this space, right?
• 1:10:46
  SPEAKER_04: If we're in this space of only thinking about national team players or players getting into the crew academy or division one, division two, or division three players, we are eliminating the majority of the population.
• 1:10:58
  SPEAKER_04: And I think eliminating the population down the road that are gonna support the professionals, that are gonna go watch the crew, right?
• 1:11:06
  SPEAKER_04: That are gonna go support this NWSL team, that are gonna buy tickets to watch the US One's national team when they come to Columbus.
• 1:11:12
  SPEAKER_04: So if we're so short-sighted and only thinking about the 1%, maybe that's the reason why the system's so fucking broken.
• 1:11:18
  SPEAKER_02: We were talking about that before.
• 1:11:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's like the the dropout rate at U14.
• 1:11:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's like, well, I think it's obviously it's partly okay, yeah, they're eighth grade, ninth grade, and they realize that they're not that good or that they don't like it and stuff like that.
• 1:11:34
  SPEAKER_02: But a lot of a lot of what I think happens is that when you don't make the ECNO or the GA or an MLS next club, they're like, Well, I'm not good enough.
• 1:11:42
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just not gonna play.
• 1:11:44
  SPEAKER_04: I do believe that that there is a piece to that.
• 1:11:46
  SPEAKER_04: I also truly believe, and we didn't dive into this too much before, what happens to a female body in that age range, puberty.
• 1:11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:11:54
  SPEAKER_04: A lot of women begin and young girls begin to be uncomfortable with their body and movements at that time.
• 1:12:00
  SPEAKER_04: That to me is why there is incredible importance to having more female coaches visible to them.
• 1:12:06
  SPEAKER_04: To teach them through that.
• 1:12:07
  SPEAKER_04: I also think it's the eater-beaten aspect, right?
• 1:12:10
  SPEAKER_04: I think there's a lot of layers to why that age range specifically we see such a percentage drop of girls continuing to play, but it has to be aligned back to feeling as though they're not good enough.
• 1:12:23
  SPEAKER_02: Do you remember in like 2010 when US Soccer came out with their best practices, like uh spiral thing?
• 1:12:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 1:12:32
  SPEAKER_02: And it said that, and it talked about the onset of puberty.
• 1:12:35
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:12:35
  SPEAKER_02: And they were talking about how all that matters before they hit puberty is their technical ability.
• 1:12:41
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 1:12:42
  SPEAKER_02: Because once you go into puberty, you're going to go through an awkward stage.
• 1:12:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:12:47
  SPEAKER_02: The better you are on the ball before you hit puberty.
• 1:12:52
  SPEAKER_02: I feel the smaller your awkward phase is going to be.
• 1:12:58
  SPEAKER_02: I completely agree.
• 1:12:59
  SPEAKER_02: If you aren't good on the ball and do not have a technical foundation, and then you go through puberty, you're screwed.
• 1:13:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:13:08
  SPEAKER_04: Well, we didn't go through this, Jason, but I'm an Arsenal fan um and have been for a very long time.
• 1:13:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm leaving.
• 1:13:14
  SPEAKER_04: I know, right?
• 1:13:15
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but uh, but I do believe that not people can complain about being uh about how insufferable Arsenal fans are and all that jazz, but not too many people disagree with the with Arson and and and him as a human and understanding.
• 1:13:29
  SPEAKER_04: Agreed?
• 1:13:30
  SPEAKER_04: His belief system and what he constantly preaches is if you don't have the foundational technique by 13, whether you're a boy or a girl, then you're then your road is limited.
• 1:13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:13:40
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:13:40
  SPEAKER_04: And by limited means you're you're not hitting the pro pathway, right?
• 1:13:43
  SPEAKER_04: You're not making in this country, you know, a division one female program or even a two or three program at this time, right?
• 1:13:50
  SPEAKER_04: So I am complete agreement with you that there is a a there should be a foundational push for younger development focus of technical ability.
• 1:14:00
  SPEAKER_04: And then allow the the the girl or boy, right?
• 1:14:04
  SPEAKER_04: Because puberty affects men as well, right?
• 1:14:06
  SPEAKER_04: It's just sometimes a little later, right?
• 1:14:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so allow them to then work through that change of their body that's inevitable and good.
• 1:14:14
  SPEAKER_04: It's good, right?
• 1:14:16
  SPEAKER_04: Especially for a young woman, she's gonna fill out and have stronger muscles and and a more you know solid foundation to be physical on the ball, right?
• 1:14:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and teach her to be confident in that.
• 1:14:26
  SPEAKER_04: But if she doesn't understand ball mastery before that, and then you throw an awkward and discomfort within her body, of course she's gonna walk away from sports.
• 1:14:37
  SPEAKER_04: She's she doesn't feel good about herself.
• 1:14:39
  SPEAKER_04: And she doesn't want, she doesn't want to be made fun of or be othered in some way, right?
• 1:14:44
  SPEAKER_04: Nobody does.
• 1:14:46
  SPEAKER_04: So I think, yeah, we can look at the league platforms, we can look at pressure to be great, we can deal with um inevitabilities of learning that yeah, I'm not as good as I thought I was.
• 1:14:56
  SPEAKER_04: So I can't make an ECNL team.
• 1:14:58
  SPEAKER_04: So right.
• 1:14:59
  SPEAKER_04: But I think it's deeper than that.
• 1:15:01
  SPEAKER_04: I really do.
• 1:15:02
  SPEAKER_04: I think it's that's that's a contributing factor, right?
• 1:15:05
  SPEAKER_04: To why why girls stop playing at that age.
• 1:15:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um, is identifying, well, I'm I'm probably not gonna make it at the college level, so why do I keep playing?
• 1:15:13
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:15:13
  SPEAKER_04: But I also think it's a lot to do with the lack of education of of one, what puberty does.
• 1:15:20
  SPEAKER_04: And I think a lot of it is we forget as adults what we went through.
• 1:15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:15:24
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:15:24
  SPEAKER_04: And how bad it felt for us.
• 1:15:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um so yeah, I I think it's deeper.
• 1:15:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:15:32
  SPEAKER_02: Think about so your son's like development, right?
• 1:15:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:15:36
  SPEAKER_02: And we're talking about, you know, the onset of puberty and his technical foundation.
• 1:15:40
  SPEAKER_02: How much did he just spend time in here kicking a ball around?
• 1:15:43
  SPEAKER_04: I have videos of of Rafe and I, again, on when I'm on the field coaching between two training sessions, or I have a private training coming in and a small group training after that.
• 1:15:52
  SPEAKER_04: And we're out there doing technical, what would I identify as as Brazilians, right?
• 1:15:57
  SPEAKER_04: So volleys out of the air, left foot, right foot, half volleys receive from your chest, thigh, ball back, all that type of stuff.
• 1:16:02
  SPEAKER_04: He's two and able to manage those things.
• 1:16:05
  SPEAKER_04: So it's for me specifically, soccer is is osmosis for my children.
• 1:16:10
  SPEAKER_04: It's what I do for a living.
• 1:16:11
  SPEAKER_04: And I have a spouse that watches the game more than I do.
• 1:16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um did he play?
• 1:16:16
  SPEAKER_04: Uh he uh not competitively at a high level, but he played through the use system in in Perrysburg.
• 1:16:22
  SPEAKER_04: Um uh and so yeah, I mean, so my my son has had a ball at his feet every day.
• 1:16:27
  SPEAKER_04: He's going through his first ever injury right now.
• 1:16:30
  SPEAKER_04: He broke his fifth metatarsal on his left foot.
• 1:16:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so he's is that a growth in uh injury?
• 1:16:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so pinky toe where it connects to the growth plate on the foot.
• 1:16:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um, never had an uh an injury and and he's got one right now.
• 1:16:43
  SPEAKER_04: So he's he's on week three of a boot uh of four weeks in it.
• 1:16:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um so he's going a little crazy.
• 1:16:48
  SPEAKER_04: Uh but at home, you know, standing in his little walking boot, he's doing right foot uh, you know, ball off wall, ball off wall, right?
• 1:16:56
  SPEAKER_04: There's not a moment of his life uh when he wasn't in school that he didn't have a ball at his feet.
• 1:17:00
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, he used here.
• 1:17:02
  SPEAKER_04: Of course, he is his mother as a as a trainer, and I pay people to train him as well because it can't just be my voice.
• 1:17:07
  SPEAKER_04: Right, right.
• 1:17:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and I I have accessibility to things, right?
• 1:17:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so yeah, uh he's had a leg up in in many ways because of what I do for a living.
• 1:17:18
  SPEAKER_02: One of the best players to come out of Michigan, yeah, uh Justin Miram, yeah, who actually played for the crew, he his dad or his parents owned a soccer facility and they had a small boarded field like this, but it was the high boards.
• 1:17:33
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 1:17:33
  SPEAKER_02: And that kid would go uh at school or go there right after school, and he would just be there for six hours, just knocking a ball against the wall.
• 1:17:44
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 1:17:45
  SPEAKER_04: And that that's my children, that's their life, right?
• 1:17:47
  SPEAKER_04: I have two sons and a daughter.
• 1:17:49
  SPEAKER_04: My daughter wants nothing to do with soccer, nothing to do with sports, right?
• 1:17:52
  SPEAKER_04: She's okay, and it's great, right?
• 1:17:54
  SPEAKER_04: But my two sons are fanatical about it, right?
• 1:17:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but my daughter knows every rule of the game, right?
• 1:18:01
  SPEAKER_04: How old is she?
• 1:18:01
  SPEAKER_04: She's 11.
• 1:18:02
  SPEAKER_02: And then the youngest is six.
• 1:18:04
  SPEAKER_02: Six, yeah.
• 1:18:04
  SPEAKER_04: So, so, but it's the same thing.
• 1:18:06
  SPEAKER_04: You think about like if if uh if I was a doctor, right, or something like that, and my child got sick, I'd have higher expectations for accessibility to care.
• 1:18:17
  SPEAKER_04: My children are are are so I've I I run a soccer club, I'm a soccer coach.
• 1:18:21
  SPEAKER_04: Of course, my children are gonna have more access to soccer.
• 1:18:23
  SPEAKER_04: Greg Berholter's son, right?
• 1:18:25
  SPEAKER_04: Sebastian Berholter had more access to the game and higher level, right?
• 1:18:30
  SPEAKER_04: Because of what his father does.
• 1:18:31
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why.
• 1:18:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:18:32
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why there's Polisic.
• 1:18:35
  SPEAKER_02: His dad was a pro coach.
• 1:18:37
  SPEAKER_04: You look at Alyssa Thompson, right?
• 1:18:39
  SPEAKER_04: And and and uh Giselle, right?
• 1:18:41
  SPEAKER_04: Like these are these are people whose parents have invested in their child's development, right?
• 1:18:47
  SPEAKER_04: And in because they love the game or have access to the game.
• 1:18:51
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:18:52
  SPEAKER_04: Naturally.
• 1:18:53
  SPEAKER_02: How are you guys in the ECNL RL?
• 1:18:56
  SPEAKER_04: We're in the RL, both girls and boys.
• 1:18:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:18:58
  SPEAKER_04: Good.
• 1:18:58
  SPEAKER_04: And we've won a couple RL championships for the boy side.
• 1:19:01
  SPEAKER_04: So fingers crossed, one day we'll we'll we'll advance there.
• 1:19:04
  SPEAKER_04: But again, I'm not we talked about it briefly.
• 1:19:07
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not um totally wrapped up in the whole world of it is it is part of it, right?
• 1:19:13
  SPEAKER_04: Like we having a national platform makes things a lot easier.
• 1:19:16
  SPEAKER_02: Because you're not bleeding players.
• 1:19:18
  SPEAKER_04: And retention the player retention.
• 1:19:19
  SPEAKER_02: Player retention.
• 1:19:20
  SPEAKER_04: Because because we can develop them.
• 1:19:22
  SPEAKER_04: We do very well in developing them.
• 1:19:24
  SPEAKER_04: But by the we we lose players on the boys' side um consistently at U14, U15.
• 1:19:30
  SPEAKER_02: Where do they go?
• 1:19:31
  SPEAKER_04: OP or Club Ohio.
• 1:19:34
  SPEAKER_04: We lose a couple to sporting, but again, that's more of the connection to um the crew with with some of their staff that have been longstanding with the crew.
• 1:19:43
  SPEAKER_04: So there's that belief system.
• 1:19:44
  SPEAKER_02: Does Ohio have their own RL conference like those?
• 1:19:49
  SPEAKER_02: We have the GLA, yeah.
• 1:19:51
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah.
• 1:19:51
  SPEAKER_04: So we're with uh Cincinnati-based groups.
• 1:19:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um Cleveland's uh in our RL space uh right now.
• 1:19:59
  SPEAKER_04: T3 up there.
• 1:20:01
  SPEAKER_04: Um T3 has it?
• 1:20:03
  SPEAKER_04: Mm-hmm.
• 1:20:03
  SPEAKER_04: What was Challenger, but now T3, right?
• 1:20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah.
• 1:20:07
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know that.
• 1:20:08
  SPEAKER_04: But T3 also owns sporting here now, too.
• 1:20:11
  SPEAKER_04: Sporting Columbus United merged together.
• 1:20:13
  SPEAKER_04: Are they trying to do what Toka does?
• 1:20:16
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I don't know what they're trying to do.
• 1:20:19
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
• 1:20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 1:20:21
  SPEAKER_04: But uh, but I think they're trying to do from from the inside information I have from some of the people at T3, I think they're trying to build a facility, but uh turf, like a what we need here, more turf outdoor fields.
• 1:20:33
  SPEAKER_02: What's their facility up there?
• 1:20:35
  SPEAKER_04: Is it turf or is it just I think they just have access to some turf spaces that they I don't think they have pure ownership there?
• 1:20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because I drive by a T3 on my way to Cleveland every time.
• 1:20:46
  SPEAKER_04: I don't have enough uh factual information to know, but I knew they they're dipping down here into Columbus and they were trying to build another facility.
• 1:20:54
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think Columbus is more of a boys' soccer hotbed or do you think it's a girls?
• 1:21:00
  SPEAKER_04: That's a great question.
• 1:21:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um I think it's way more girls than anybody talks about.
• 1:21:07
  SPEAKER_04: I think naturally because of the crew, most people affiliate boys.
• 1:21:12
  SPEAKER_04: But gosh, I mean, I'm not I don't I don't work for OP, I don't work for, but they have it's inevitable, and everyone needs to be respectful of the fact that they have incredible tenure in women's soccer, right?
• 1:21:26
  SPEAKER_04: Of course, and so the fact that there isn't more respect in that aspect for what the young women in in Columbus, driven a lot by OP, but now other clubs like sporting, uh Columbus United, which was Columbus United, they've won multiple national titles on the women's side.
• 1:21:44
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:21:45
  SPEAKER_04: So Columbus is way more of a women's soccer city than anyone has ever given it credit for, in my opinion.
• 1:21:51
  SPEAKER_04: I don't think I answered your question fully, but I hope I did.
• 1:21:54
  SPEAKER_02: Uh no.
• 1:21:54
  SPEAKER_02: I I just I'm fascinated by everywhere that I go is like, okay, are we a because I believe that Buffalo is a girls' soccer agreed uh area.
• 1:22:04
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 1:22:05
  SPEAKER_02: Michigan, Michigan's kind of even, but we've had way more, especially recently, we've had a lot more pros on the women's side.
• 1:22:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:22:18
  SPEAKER_02: So for me, Michelle Cooper, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:22:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:22:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, I think in order to call yourself a women's predominance space, right?
• 1:22:29
  SPEAKER_04: You have to have more women in coaching and women as a leadership spaces.
• 1:22:34
  SPEAKER_04: Because if you're not representing the gender that you're trying to push forward, then you can't say that, right?
• 1:22:39
  SPEAKER_04: Honestly.
• 1:22:40
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:22:41
  SPEAKER_04: You can say that you're you're developing women, but what does that mean?
• 1:22:44
  SPEAKER_04: At some point they stop playing.
• 1:22:46
  SPEAKER_04: Are you are you are you uh developing them as you refer to, some of your old players coming back into the coaching space?
• 1:22:51
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:22:52
  SPEAKER_04: Are we are we bolstering the women's soccer side thoroughly, whether it's on the executive side, whether it's on the coaching side, or the player side, right?
• 1:23:02
  SPEAKER_04: So I still think it's probably identified as a dominant men's space, but it shouldn't be.
• 1:23:08
  SPEAKER_04: And hopefully the NWSL space and and more people like myself and others that are willing to work with other clubs instead of having that ego in the way of you have something I want and I'm not willing to work, you know, with you, um, belief system, or I'm better than you.
• 1:23:25
  SPEAKER_04: No, I mean, I think that's something that has to improve in order for that to be identified as a woman's specific space, if I'm honest.
• 1:23:32
  SPEAKER_04: But you can't say you're you're a girls dominant space unless you're promoting women and coaching and women in executive spaces.
• 1:23:39
  SPEAKER_02: How long have you had RL?
• 1:23:41
  SPEAKER_04: On the boys side, we've had it since, oh goodness, this has had got to be our fourth or fifth year.
• 1:23:47
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:23:47
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it was given to Barsa um on the boys side.
• 1:23:50
  SPEAKER_04: And then the girls, this is just our second year.
• 1:23:52
  SPEAKER_04: I was so proud of myself to and the the staff like Travis, if I'm honest.
• 1:23:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um, because we we, as I told you earlier on, when when Barsa, when we took on Barsa, it bled the women's program out.
• 1:24:06
  SPEAKER_04: It it bled it out.
• 1:24:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and in a very short period of time, we were able to rebuild it back and and earn an RL platform, which is not something to turn your nose up in this country.
• 1:24:16
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:24:17
  SPEAKER_04: Um, there's more for us to grow in for sure.
• 1:24:20
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but in our first year, one of our our age groups won their division.
• 1:24:24
  SPEAKER_04: So it's like, yeah, I'm I'm proud to be a in the RL on our girls' side.
• 1:24:29
  SPEAKER_04: There's a lot more to do.
• 1:24:30
  SPEAKER_04: A lot more to do.
• 1:24:31
  SPEAKER_04: But what we've done in a short period of time with getting more women in the coaching role, whether they're coaching women or whether they're coaching boys, girls or boys, excuse me.
• 1:24:39
  SPEAKER_04: I keep mixing those up, but um uh but also platform, it's inevitable.
• 1:24:44
  SPEAKER_04: We have to have a platform or else we can't keep players.
• 1:24:46
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm I'm proud of that.
• 1:24:47
  SPEAKER_04: I am.
• 1:24:48
  SPEAKER_02: Do you guys play up?
• 1:24:49
  SPEAKER_02: Do you guys go to Flash?
• 1:24:50
  SPEAKER_02: Or are they not in your conference?
• 1:24:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:24:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:24:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and RL, that's one of the reasons why this podcast like really blew up on Instagram, is that I had one of my RL girls who committed to D1.
• 1:25:06
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, and it's like, hey, RL is not a death sentence.
• 1:25:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's not like don't treat it like that.
• 1:25:12
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, because there are D1 players, yeah, and D2 and D3, and there's a call a lot of college players from RL.
• 1:25:20
  SPEAKER_02: And in Buffalo, it was really the second best option.
• 1:25:23
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 1:25:24
  SPEAKER_02: If you didn't meet the ECNL, just play on the RL because the other platform or the other clubs just wouldn't provide you.
• 1:25:30
  SPEAKER_02: If you want to play college soccer, visibility, you gotta competitive space and visibility.
• 1:25:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:25:35
  SPEAKER_04: So so yeah, we're in the RL and and we're new on the girls' side.
• 1:25:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but you know, I think we're we're trending in the right direction.
• 1:25:44
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think that there's gonna be a time, or has there already been a time where like you're like, you gotta go to OP or go somewhere or international or something like that?
• 1:25:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, that's such a great question.
• 1:25:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so um Astrid Ryan is uh a young girl who developed with us, has is uh played for us at U8 through Barsa, stayed with us through the change of from Barca to Columbus Force, um, and uh was beginning to be looked at by the US Women's National Youth Platform um and and asked to come in.
• 1:26:19
  SPEAKER_04: Um and so I spoke with her father and said, these are the options.
• 1:26:24
  SPEAKER_04: It's time for you to either go um to OP, uh, or I can connect you with Cleveland and you can play for their national program.
• 1:26:32
  SPEAKER_04: And Will said, I want to stay with you.
• 1:26:35
  SPEAKER_04: I don't want to go to OP.
• 1:26:36
  SPEAKER_04: We trust you.
• 1:26:37
  SPEAKER_04: This is the only place our daughters have ever been.
• 1:26:39
  SPEAKER_04: We want to stay.
• 1:26:40
  SPEAKER_04: So she went up and played for Cleveland for the last two years.
• 1:26:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um flourished in the the US youth national pool.
• 1:26:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then this year there they made the decision.
• 1:26:51
  SPEAKER_04: She's a U17 now, U16 or 17 now.
• 1:26:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um, they made the decision to go to uh a team in um Cincinnati.
• 1:26:59
  SPEAKER_04: So uh she's playing in Cincinnati now instead of playing for OP.
• 1:27:03
  SPEAKER_04: Um uh I have a goalkeeper that I worked with forever.
• 1:27:06
  SPEAKER_04: First couple goalkeepers I started working with when I came here, Pivitra, she now plays for Ohio State.
• 1:27:12
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, she's a freshman there.
• 1:27:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um she was exceptional at a very young age.
• 1:27:18
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and her counterpart on the team made a choice to leave and go to OP.
• 1:27:21
  SPEAKER_04: And I I sat down with her father and her and said, What do you want to do?
• 1:27:25
  SPEAKER_04: Right?
• 1:27:25
  SPEAKER_04: Like before before we talk about what club you should be in, what are your goals?
• 1:27:29
  SPEAKER_04: Because I can help you reach goals, right?
• 1:27:31
  SPEAKER_04: But if it's just to play in the ECNL, then you can go do that anywhere, right?
• 1:27:36
  SPEAKER_04: And her goals were I want an opportunity in the the US youth national pool and I want to play for Ohio State.
• 1:27:43
  SPEAKER_04: And I said, All right, we can do those things.
• 1:27:45
  SPEAKER_04: Let's do it.
• 1:27:45
  SPEAKER_04: And so I got her connected with Kenrick uh at Indie Premier.
• 1:27:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 1:27:50
  SPEAKER_04: And um, she played for Indy Premier's GA team, trained here with us with boys, and would travel with them.
• 1:27:56
  SPEAKER_04: So I've had lots of players that we've talked to like.
• 1:28:00
  SPEAKER_04: Do you want to go?
• 1:28:01
  SPEAKER_04: What do you want?
• 1:28:02
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:28:02
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that's the first conversation.
• 1:28:04
  SPEAKER_04: It's not, I got to go to another club to play for a certain platform.
• 1:28:07
  SPEAKER_04: It's let's talk about the individual player and what do you want to do?
• 1:28:11
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:28:11
  SPEAKER_04: I will be the first one to say, I can't I can't provide the opportunity that every other club can or an op OP can on the women's side or uh even a club Ohio can on the men's side because they now have homegrown MLS, right?
• 1:28:26
  SPEAKER_04: Um and and when that time comes, I just like the opportunity for the conversation.
• 1:28:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:28:33
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:28:34
  SPEAKER_04: To be able to talk through it and say, Oh, you're right.
• 1:28:36
  SPEAKER_04: I I can't provide you that.
• 1:28:37
  SPEAKER_04: So good luck.
• 1:28:38
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:28:38
  SPEAKER_04: And and the doors always open for you to come back.
• 1:28:41
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so yeah, it's happened for sure for sure.
• 1:28:44
  SPEAKER_04: And some players have had to go, and some players we found a pathway that has taken them to reach the goals that they want.
• 1:28:50
  SPEAKER_02: The one Hestrid, the one that wanted to stay.
• 1:28:56
  SPEAKER_02: When she stayed, did you just like say, hey, let's go play on the boys?
• 1:29:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:29:00
  SPEAKER_04: So she she played with uh trained with the boys and then also trained in her own age group.
• 1:29:05
  SPEAKER_04: Astrid has a twin, Adele, who's also incredible.
• 1:29:09
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and they wanted to train together sometimes, easier for parents, right?
• 1:29:12
  SPEAKER_04: Of course.
• 1:29:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and and Astrid is an exceptional player and someone who demands mentality out of everyone around her.
• 1:29:22
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so there was a piece where she needed to be challenged in ways of the physicality of a boy's space.
• 1:29:29
  SPEAKER_04: And then there was also moments where she just wanted to be with her sister, but could make the entire training session better, right?
• 1:29:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so we adapted a program that fit for her and made sure that she was comfortable with it and her parents were comfortable with the travel requirements.
• 1:29:45
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:29:46
  SPEAKER_04: And it worked out well.
• 1:29:47
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then she got to a space where she outgrew us and that's okay.
• 1:29:51
  SPEAKER_04: Or she found an opportunity that might have fit her better.
• 1:29:53
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and that's okay too.
• 1:29:56
  SPEAKER_04: But the beautiful thing about Astrid and and her family is it was always done in an ethical and respectful way.
• 1:30:03
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:30:03
  SPEAKER_04: And it's because we started with her at seven years old and constantly were honest through the whole process, right?
• 1:30:11
  SPEAKER_04: Of, you know, what do we need to do for Astrid instead of what do we need to do for Barso slash Columbus Force now?
• 1:30:18
  SPEAKER_02: What went into the decision making of you not on the field this year?
• 1:30:24
  SPEAKER_04: That's a great question.
• 1:30:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, I mean, I think it's a privilege to be able to be in a club space where um you can afford to not have your executive leadership on the field.
• 1:30:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um, not enough clubs have that.
• 1:30:41
  SPEAKER_04: Um 100%.
• 1:30:43
  SPEAKER_04: And but in the same breath, I got into this because I want to coach and because I love coaching.
• 1:30:48
  SPEAKER_04: And I I'm I've been successful at that, right?
• 1:30:51
  SPEAKER_04: And and I I do have talent in working with players, right?
• 1:30:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so it's a double-edged sword.
• 1:30:57
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, but Marco and Everett were big proponents of you need to be able to have uh a large scope view of your club.
• 1:31:05
  SPEAKER_04: And you can't do that if you're designated into one space three nights a week on the training pitch and multiple weekends of travel, right?
• 1:31:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um and so because of that, it has allowed me to have the accessibility to check in on our eights and nines program and our juniors program and go see the boys' RL space and what that looks like and uh check in in our our pre-ECNL environments, right?
• 1:31:27
  SPEAKER_04: Whereas before I was I was driving the to get the girls ECNL RL.
• 1:31:31
  SPEAKER_04: That's what I was doing.
• 1:31:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:31:32
  SPEAKER_04: And now we have attained that.
• 1:31:34
  SPEAKER_04: And I've been able to get coaches into that space that I feel comfortable relinquishing my control of, but I can still go in and do sessions.
• 1:31:43
  SPEAKER_04: Tonight I'll be out coaching on a field to help out.
• 1:31:46
  SPEAKER_04: We've got coaching education tonight.
• 1:31:47
  SPEAKER_04: I'll go out and help out there.
• 1:31:49
  SPEAKER_04: Tuesday night I was out watching.
• 1:31:51
  SPEAKER_04: Um, a big, big thing I'm I'm focused on right now is the transition of players from U12 to U13.
• 1:31:56
  SPEAKER_04: There's not enough care taken in that transition and preparation of players, at least for our club and and uh Cleveland is is feeling similar.
• 1:32:06
  SPEAKER_04: Uh there's some turnover there, and then there's also lack of preparation and and feeling comfortable to step into the ECNL and the RL space right now.
• 1:32:13
  SPEAKER_04: So we've identified this as a consistency.
• 1:32:16
  SPEAKER_04: So I was able to go out on Tuesday night and and our Travis, our U13, 14 director, went in and started coaching those U12 pre-ECNL players.
• 1:32:25
  SPEAKER_04: And I was there with them to support.
• 1:32:26
  SPEAKER_04: And and Braden, our tens through 12 girls director, went up and coached in the ECNL RL space.
• 1:32:31
  SPEAKER_02: Is that because it's just a jump in level?
• 1:32:32
  SPEAKER_04: It's a jump in level.
• 1:32:34
  SPEAKER_04: It's platform.
• 1:32:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:32:35
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:32:36
  SPEAKER_04: So parents at our pre-ECNL girls 2015s are exceptional.
• 1:32:40
  SPEAKER_04: They they made it to Utah Pre-E CNL Cup last year.
• 1:32:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um, they made it to USL Nationals.
• 1:32:45
  SPEAKER_04: They're going in December.
• 1:32:47
  SPEAKER_04: They're exceptional.
• 1:32:48
  SPEAKER_04: So a major thing for us right now is they're the parents are already coming to us about when when do you think you're gonna get a uh ECNL national program?
• 1:32:55
  SPEAKER_02: I was just gonna ask that.
• 1:32:56
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:32:56
  SPEAKER_04: And because they're like, we want to stay with you, Kirby.
• 1:32:58
  SPEAKER_04: We really do.
• 1:32:59
  SPEAKER_04: We love your coaching staff, we love the players.
• 1:33:02
  SPEAKER_04: But platform matters at 11 and 12, right?
• 1:33:05
  SPEAKER_04: And so it is the education of to the parents to say, it does matter, but not yet, right?
• 1:33:11
  SPEAKER_04: Like it matters to an extent, right?
• 1:33:13
  SPEAKER_04: And I will never deny that.
• 1:33:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but but not yet, right?
• 1:33:19
  SPEAKER_04: So let's stay where we are, let's let's stay connected, let's do what's working right now.
• 1:33:23
  SPEAKER_04: And and when it doesn't work anymore, we can have that conversation, right?
• 1:33:27
  SPEAKER_04: But that starts with me being visible in that space.
• 1:33:30
  SPEAKER_02: I think I think the not yet thing is very important, especially in smaller markets where there's only maybe one option.
• 1:33:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's like, do you really want to go at 11 when especially in Buffalo?
• 1:33:45
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 1:33:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's like the Canada kids aren't here yet, the Erie Pennsylvania kids aren't here yet, the Binghamton kids aren't here yet, the Syracuse kids aren't here yet.
• 1:33:55
  SPEAKER_02: They're coming.
• 1:33:56
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:33:57
  SPEAKER_02: Do you really want to go?
• 1:33:58
  SPEAKER_02: And they're going to find out, and this is how I'd always word it the longer you're at a club, the more that they're gonna find out what's wrong with you.
• 1:34:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:34:07
  SPEAKER_02: And then it's it's always new is always better.
• 1:34:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:34:12
  SPEAKER_02: New is always better.
• 1:34:13
  SPEAKER_04: It is, right?
• 1:34:14
  SPEAKER_04: Because it's human nature to have a first impression, and it's hard to break a first impression, right?
• 1:34:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:34:20
  SPEAKER_04: And if you think about every year you have a new coach coming into spaces and and right, or every two years or whatever the cycle is, right?
• 1:34:27
  SPEAKER_04: Of of transition of coaches.
• 1:34:28
  SPEAKER_04: So every two years, your player gets a new first impression of a coach coming in.
• 1:34:32
  SPEAKER_04: While we can talk about what we think, and these are superior to deficiencies of players as we we transition from me being the coach to you, right?
• 1:34:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, within the same club, you're still going to make your own first impression.
• 1:34:43
  SPEAKER_04: And you have aspects of players that you deem to be priority.
• 1:34:48
  SPEAKER_04: Everyone does.
• 1:34:49
  SPEAKER_04: There's certain aspects of player that I value more than you do.
• 1:34:53
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:34:53
  SPEAKER_04: We all do, right?
• 1:34:55
  SPEAKER_04: And so I think it's it's a really important thing to say, not yet, right?
• 1:34:59
  SPEAKER_04: Especially if it's working, right?
• 1:35:01
  SPEAKER_04: If there was a failure, if there's a breakdown with the players around you, right, or the coach that you're working with or the club you're working with, then please seek elsewhere, right?
• 1:35:10
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but if it's working, why would we mess that up?
• 1:35:14
  SPEAKER_02: And especially in your environment where you get to go and play international, you get to go play Cleveland Force, you get to go and play OP, you get to play Flash, like you're getting seen by all these clubs.
• 1:35:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:35:26
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna know who you are, sure, and you're gonna be identified and you don't need to go yet.
• 1:35:31
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:35:32
  SPEAKER_04: And I think it's it is the care putting into educating the families of that, but building the trust that when you give information, they can receive it.
• 1:35:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 1:35:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so like with this 2015 group, we're taking them, we're merging um that top group of players with the top groups in Cleveland, and we're inviting them to go to Brazil during the Women's World Cup and play there for the with the Iber Cup.
• 1:35:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 1:35:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:35:54
  SPEAKER_04: So it's like it at the end of the day, it's a not yet for them, but it's also what are we doing to continue to push them forward?
• 1:36:02
  SPEAKER_04: And I talk with some of the parents um of this team that the and the players that were identifying to go to Brazil, and it's like my job now is is to prepare you for that experience, not just to give it to you, but to put you in tournaments against boys, to put you in a space where the speed of play is far superior to where you are.
• 1:36:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:36:20
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:36:20
  SPEAKER_04: And and making sure that that level of trust and commitment is shown to the player and to the parent.
• 1:36:28
  SPEAKER_04: And then if we keep doing those things, the platform will come.
• 1:36:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 1:36:33
  SPEAKER_04: It will come, it'll be inevitable at some point, right?
• 1:36:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um, yeah.
• 1:36:38
  SPEAKER_04: So I I think at the end of the day, sure, we we we absolutely I would let go of a player if it wasn't the right space.
• 1:36:43
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 1:36:44
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for doing this.
• 1:36:45
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so glad that I was able I'm I'm so glad I was able to work it out and that it worked out.
• 1:36:51
  SPEAKER_00: Me too.
• 1:36:52
  SPEAKER_02: Because people just it's really, I mean the transparency, what you go through as a club, sure, what you we all go through as coaches, sure, female coaches.
• 1:37:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there needs to be more discussions.
• 1:37:05
  SPEAKER_02: I agree.
• 1:37:06
  SPEAKER_02: I don't understand.
• 1:37:07
  SPEAKER_02: I was texting one of my friends last night.
• 1:37:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, this is so much fun because I'm like, like, I'm in I'm I live in Michigan, but I'm like, I'm in Ohio right now.
• 1:37:16
  SPEAKER_02: I'm planning a trip into Oregon next month and to Chicago, and then I'll be at Fest in Arizona in December.
• 1:37:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I'm gonna try to work with clubs there.
• 1:37:27
  SPEAKER_02: And then I had Real Colorado reach out to me yesterday, and it's like, this is unbelievable, and I don't understand why anybody hasn't done this before.
• 1:37:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I think it's important that I come and see versus I can't stand Zoom, I can't stand vir uh virtual, I don't want to do that.
• 1:37:45
  SPEAKER_02: I want to come and see you in your environment.
• 1:37:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and somebody was like, it makes the guests more comfortable.
• 1:37:51
  SPEAKER_02: Imagine if I had a studio and you had to come to me.
• 1:37:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like that's how it was in Buffalo for me.
• 1:37:57
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of times I would get no's.
• 1:37:59
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 1:38:00
  SPEAKER_02: Because people wouldn't want to come and drive a half an hour or an hour to come see me.
• 1:38:04
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like, okay, I'm just gonna be a nomad and just travel all over the country and share stories because again, everybody thinks that like it's a one-size fix-all or one size fits all fix.
• 1:38:17
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 1:38:18
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, no, by far it's not.
• 1:38:20
  SPEAKER_02: What happens in Ohio is not what's happening in Oregon, which is not happening in Utah.
• 1:38:24
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:38:25
  SPEAKER_02: We can't just say this is gonna fix the country.
• 1:38:28
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:38:28
  SPEAKER_02: Good luck.
• 1:38:29
  SPEAKER_02: Good luck with that.
• 1:38:30
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I will say it's been a privilege for me to be here.
• 1:38:33
  SPEAKER_04: I I follow you, and and uh I've seen, you know, and there's polarizing conversations, and that's what makes it great, right?
• 1:38:39
  SPEAKER_04: And especially discussion.
• 1:38:40
  SPEAKER_04: That's right.
• 1:38:41
  SPEAKER_04: And and I I appreciate your willingness to allow me to share my experience as a female in this because there's not enough uh women in coaching, let alone women in executive leadership or or spaces to to make change.
• 1:38:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:38:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and and a lot of that comes from the opportunity for representation to be visible.
• 1:39:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so I appreciate it.
• 1:39:03
  SPEAKER_04: And I've genuinely enjoyed the conversation.
• 1:39:05
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 1:39:06
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you so much.
• 1:39:07
  SPEAKER_04: My privilege.
• 1:39:09
  SPEAKER_02: I hate soccer.