Latest / I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth / I Hate Soccer | JAGS Show #2 - Mike Scobie, Girls Academy Director

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I Hate Soccer | JAGS Show #2 - Mike Scobie, Girls Academy Director · I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: This episode was uh episode two of the Jags Show.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh this time I had the pleasure of talking to Mike Scoby.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Scoby's been around or with the Jags for almost thirty years.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's a long time to be with one organization.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Never moved, never uh switched or anything.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and it's very impressive to be at that or be at one location for that long and be that loyal and not move and whatnot, and had a great time talking to him about all you know the growth.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: He's seen it all.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: He's he's seen the Jags go from 17 teams to 4,000 players statewide in Michigan.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: And uh he's had so many different roles, you know, from being a uh assistant coach and a staff coach, and you know, he was with the the boys in the MLS next, and now he is uh the girls' academy director.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they play in the GA.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um he gave me a deep dive on everything about the GA and uh about their different competitions that are that happened throughout the uh throughout the year and uh just how competitive the Jags are nationwide in that in that platform.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: So this is a great episode.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: I had I really enjoyed it uh to get to know him.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: I never, you know I always knew of him, I never knew him, and never really met him, and it was a pleasure to to speak with him, and uh I hope you enjoy this episode.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: I hate soccer.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean This is wild.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: I mean I mean, you're right.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: And nobody has to track you down to sign anything, you just come here and you know what I mean?
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's there's just certain things that I mean, like I said, it used to be able to like get a lot of stuff done at the house, and there's some value to like being there by yourself and nobody blocking.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Locking in, yeah, you can make a coffee, you know, and stuff.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, but uh yeah, coming in here, you know, certainly like just FaceTime with him.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm still like a big uh I'm not a huge social media guy, like that's why interviews like these, you know, or podcasts freak me out.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: So your your your world's a little bit different in that respect.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh I don't, I mean, we we do a lot of teams and Zoom meetings and stuff, but I don't prefer them.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like I could always prefer to meet in person, but the world's just changed so much now that a lot of our guys are a lot of our coaches are you know stay-home dads, you know, and the wife's working, you know, the 40 hours a week.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right and then they're coaching in the evenings, you know, handing off the kids.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so uh yeah, like uh some of the staff has you know work hours, you know, some of the people here you can rely on being here, you know, five days a week.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Michelle Snyder is a is a is a soldier, she's here all the time.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, probably more than she should be.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um but uh yeah, coming in and like I said, it's fun.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um you get to the the best part about it is just you know, if you're a people person, you get to come in and you know talk to real people, which seems like uh it's a shame nowadays, but in our culture it's that's could be a rarity.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: So like you come into the office and when Pete Pasaski's in here and Ray Yokoyama and Doug Steiner roll in, you know, like it can actually it can be a very productive work environment, and at other times it can be just uh chaos it's a it's a live podcast, you know, everybody giving their opinion on the EPL or US like I haven't seen anybody since the US played Belgium, but if everybody was in here, everybody I'm sure would have their opinions about everything that's wrong with that.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Portugal's tonight, right?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I wonder how many I wonder how many clubs there's a lot of when I got back to Michigan, that was one thing I sound weird.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um that was one thing that kind of stood out to me is that all you guys have your own offices like now.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas you back in the day, nobody did.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: When I was here ten years ago, 12 years ago, nobody did.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like I went out to Midwest to see Louis Robinson and hit their place is great, and then you guys, and who else has space now?
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think just about almost all of everybody's got something, yeah.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what's funny is um I I heard one of your pod I was looking at one of your podcasts before, I don't remember who you were talking about with it, but you were surprised how nobody had facilities.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like how rare it is for clubs to actually own their own facilities, but everybody owns their own office.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, knowing from the backside of things like the the cost of a facility makes it prohibitive in so many respects, whereas an office, you know, I think is much more doable for people and leaves kid at least gives you one place to get together now, you know.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, 20 years ago when me and Tinny were doing this for the first time, you know, your office was you know, Gatsby's off of Grand River.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you want to get everybody together.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: The the coach's meetings.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's where I first met.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: A lot more fun.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was Gatsby's.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think he probably does more of his meetings than he'd like to admit.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: It was me, it was me, him, and Morris, I think.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just after I was with Morris doing ECNL, and we scrimmaged one of his girls' teams, and then we just like went to Gatsby's after.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: So back in the day, I think the offices were restaurants and you know, bars and stuff like that to get together.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: But um, like I said, our first one was that storage office at what's now Toka.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's probably like what, like, you know, 120 square feet, if that.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, probably not even that, probably 50 square feet.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then we went to what is now that um enterprise rent a car?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: So we had that, we were renting that building from the the owners for a while, and that was cool because we actually had probably like a little turf area.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we had a little office up front, and then we had a turf area and back.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: We used to do like 3v3s.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: The coaching staff would actually held a we had a 3v3, I think uh, I don't know if I'm allowed to say that anymore.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think we called it like fat fat guy 3v3 or something like that.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was all the the staff members putting down some goals, usually ended up in some sort of argument or fight.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh God, those were good.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Those are good days.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: But that's how you guys like built this staff and built this family.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you guys do seem like family and loyal.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think family's uh I think family's thrown around a lot.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: A little too much?
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, maybe a little too much.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I mean, we're definitely a company, you know, we're a club.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I do think uh I've been coaching here for 30 years, I think.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, it started when I was 17.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Tinny Tinny was here with the club when I started coaching before he was a director.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: So we were just I was a really young coach that they that the previous director had brought on.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Tinny was coaching older high school boys teams with Scott Hall.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh yeah, I just started coaching because I was at Eastern Michigan, you know, not going to class.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And Nate Hunter, the director before Paul, asked me if I was interested in coaching.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, yeah, absolutely.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I remember thinking about it when I was a kid, like even when I was playing.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I remember thinking like, you know, just watching activities and stuff, thinking like, I think I could put this together, like I think I could make this make sense.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then so we got that opportunity and I jumped at it, and that was just volunteering for the Novi Jaguars back then with 16 teams, probably like a U-10 team.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: 16 teams.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: And now you're at God.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think Paul said the other day, close to 4,000 players in the club.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think 13 branches.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's statewide, right?
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: And what what's CW?
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: You were you're the you're still the director of CW, right?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, general manager's my title.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: So CW3 Soccer was uh um is uh the was a local club in commerce, um, and uh was through Wald Lake uh community education.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Was that George?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: George Janovich, yeah, was my predecessor there.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um and he decided to go different ways, and they were uh Brian Finerty, um, had two boys playing in the club.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Brian was the goose fit.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Brian Goose Finnerty played for the Rockers.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah uh was uh somebody who I played with played for when I was a kid and had lived in the area.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: So he was uh I don't know what the word is for it, like unofficially helping, you know, guide what then was a volunteer board, um, still is and helping those guys kind of navigate the soccer community.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um so when when George decided to go a different way, um, you know, Brian reached out to Paul and asked if he had anybody that was interested.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: They knew I lived in the area.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up in Wald Lake, you know, Wall Lake schools in uh Wixham.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: So played at like Wald Lake Central.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: So the opportunity to, you know, go like get involved there.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was a it was a very like uh you know old school.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, they had like 35 teams called CW3 Extreme at the time that were CW3 Extreme, yeah.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Some of them were they had a couple pretty competitive teams, like Finnerty's team lost in the state final to a very good nationals team.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh like God, I can't remember what year this was, probably 12, 13 years ago.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think Owen and Josh Finerty are probably uh Owen Finnerty plays is still playing pro as a goalkeeper.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember what club, but um, yeah, because I remember Brian stood up at the trophy ceremony and the Nationals team.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: They it was a good game.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Nationals team was better, had a couple special kids.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I remember Brian stood up for the trophy ceremony and he said, You don't see this anymore.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, one of the things like every I want everybody to know is like everybody on the CW3 Extreme team has the same zip code.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, every boy on this team is 48390.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: And like not to take anything away from the nationals group because they were a great team, but you know, that team was more of a Jaguars type group where they had kids from you know, kind of all over the place in a plane.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: So what what Finity put together with that group was pretty was pretty special.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: Do you do you guys still have that like rule where it has to be like 60%, 70% in the uh at CW?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, nothing.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: CW3 never actually had that rule, it was just kind of the way it was.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't do it on purpose.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um Brian was coaching the team and he had two sons on the team, and you know, because of that, he was able to collect friends, you know, that went to Wal Dick schools that the boys knew through various activities and stuff, and just put together a, you know, he had I mean he had two boys, they were twins.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one kid was a goalkeeper and the other kid was a center back, so like he had half the spine figured out, you know, just right out of right out of his front door.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: So you had to find a goal scorer and uh you know center middle back.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's all you need.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And some athletes.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: If you have that, that's all you need.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: You you're you probably grew up in that uh where your club team was represented by two high schools, three high schools.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: So was that your no?
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: I actually played for the Wolves.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: You did?
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, but who'd you play for Lars?
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um Gary Mexicott, um Pete Alexander Um was uh close to Derek uh Willough for a while.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: But um Where is Willie?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Is he still coaching?
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think he's coaching anymore.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think he's enjoying being a dad, and yeah, you know, I think he's still teaching.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I I saw him a while ago, but sounded like he was doing really good.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think he was excited to be just out of the youth soccer thing.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know where he's at right now.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: He was good.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's legit.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: So he started coaching right when Gary and Pete kind of were were coming out, he came in, and then I I left the Wolves probably like 16, 17.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I never um I honestly never I went straight from like Lakes Area Youth Soccer, which was you know just a recreational program that was playing in Kego Harbor, behind like the Mickey Shore back there off of Orchard Lake Road.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um got it the glory days, yeah.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh Scott Emmert's dad, uh Steve Emmert, was my gym teacher at Loon Lake Elementary School and knew of an opening on the 79 Wolves team and went to my mom and said, you know, knew I was teasing from gym class or something, and asked if I wanted a tryout.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I never I never did the local like travel stuff.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: I did the local raps.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I went right into Michigan Wolves.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: You were 79?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was a 79.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that and that team was pretty much a lot of Lavonia kids.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: It was much more Lavonia back then, right?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we had kids from Ann Arbor, you know, Commerce Township.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: So it was starting to, you were just starting to get into that, you know, environment they have now where you know you're just pulling kids from all over the you know southeast Detroit and across the state and stuff.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: Where is Scott Emmer?
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: Is he Hawks or is he Wolves?
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's at DCFC joined DCFC and is coaching at Wall Lake Northern, took the Northern girls' job.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I actually spoke to him the other day.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: He said, yeah, Northern will be be alright.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: He messaged me uh a couple months ago, and I always knew of him.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: I never really knew him, but he we just went back and forth about some topic and whatnot.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of like you.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like I never really knew you, but I knew you.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: And man, you've been here for an almost 30 years.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think so.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: I graduated in 97 and I started coaching my freshman year at Eastern.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it would have been fall of fall of 1997 was when I started coaching.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, 29, 29 years, I guess.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: You've seen it all.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: You've literally been around for a long time.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: You've seen the growth.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: You've seen the what this has become.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: Did you guys have the tournament back then?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: The Mother's Day tournament?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh not when I first started.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think Paul probably started that in.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'd get the dates wrong, but I would assume I would guess Paul took over as director like maybe two or three years after I started coaching.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe in like around 2000.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Would be when he became the director.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: I tell that story all the time.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was on, I could still picture it.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: I was on my back deck.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: I obviously knew who Paul was, he knew who I was.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Back then, the way the club was, you didn't interact with any other staff.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was just your team.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Your team.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you didn't see anybody out there.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: You're wearing the same jerseys, you know, at a tournament.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: But I knew Paul just from Eastern Michigan camp and him, him and his dad.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I remember he he called me up.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was on my back deck.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was like a Friday night or something.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, son was out, I was, you know, cracking a beer or something like that, you know, and uh he called me up and said, I just took the director's job, you know, at the Nova Jaguars.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember he tells this story all the time.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: I basically was like, Well, that was stupid, you know, because it was back then it was a it was a volunteer board, it was you know just a collection of teams, it wasn't a club, right?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't mean to disrespect anybody that was you know helped put it together, but um, but that's how it was very disconnected, yeah, you know in 1997, 99, 2000s, early 2000s.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I told him that he was an idiot uh for doing it, and he was nice enough after I said that to ask me if I wanted to continue on coaching.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Yeah, you know, why why not?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, at the time there was no uh I mean I was getting paid by managers, but there was no real money in it.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like I wasn't really doing it, I wasn't doing it for the money.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Right, it was like per player, yeah, like something.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: The manager would go around and collect checks.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, you collect eight out, you know, eighty percent of them.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like I'm pretty sure somebody still owes me money for coaching their 10-year-old, you know, like 120 bucks or something for 10 months.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, I was just doing it because I, like I said, I always it it always like occurred to me that I might enjoy it.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I always have.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's been ups and downs, things change.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the the role, the job description has changed quite a bit.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the kids have changed.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you hear about that stuff all the time, but right um, yeah, I mean, it was just it was it was fun to be coaching, it was fun to get a chance to compete in a different way within the sport, you know.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like I think that's one of the best things about coaching, is like you're still part of it, you know, you're not out there getting it done, but you're you get to compete.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then Paul came on and you know, turned it into, I mean, essentially not what it is today, but set it in motion to become you know what it is today.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Pulled in a lot of young coaches like uh Pete Pasaski, Brian Zwizlak, um, you know, uh Michelle Fatou, Kate Sherman, and uh trying to think it's it's endless, you know.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we had a really young crew coaching, you know, in the early 2000s, a lot of people straight out of college, Eastern Michigan players and stuff.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh that's that's when he turned it into that, like you did you had staff meetings, you know, there was like a collective culture and you know, an understanding of like loosely who we wanted to be and you know where we wanted to go and stuff.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: And um the timing was great.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Total sports had just been built, was built actually in '97, I think, was the year they broke ground.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: So like he took the job a year after, you know, we started renting space.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: So it was kind of like one of those, you know, you listen to a lot of those stories in different, you know, areas of business in the country about just how the timing is good.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, Paul did a good job and the timing was right, and we had a lot of good people, and the Nova area was exploding, you know.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, this area is ridiculous.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I mean, I was just with Trosper like last week.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: He was just talking about like it's Mecca.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it seriously is.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's insane just how big this area is in soccer.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean Yeah, Michigan's a good.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think that's the the nice thing is, you know, got to come up in a I don't know if Michigan's like a a tier, I would say like it's probably a tier two hotbed, yeah.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, relative to if you're talking about like Dallas, Texas, or you know, Southern Cal or the East Coast.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't I don't know that we're on that plane, but we're we're we're bigger than most.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think soccer's got a bigger route here than in most places in the country.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: So um it's cool to be a part of that, you know.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: How many different roles have you been in other than I mean, obviously you were a sta how long were you just a staff member?
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: Just you just did two, three teams.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think I I I wouldn't know the years.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my guess would be like three to five years.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was just coaching teams.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I remember Tinny started a sounds crazy, but started a U8 team out of our junior Jags program.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: Do you remember when that was crazy?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: I bet you it was um, yeah, I remember I remember him, I remember him saying like we're gonna start a U8 team, and it was only because we had a group of kids in the development program that were good enough to and wanted more, and the parents were chomping at the bit.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it wasn't really driven by us.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was we put a program together and it produced these players and families that wanted to do more.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I so I think Scott Hall, the story I heard is Paul was racking his brain trying to think of who's gonna take the U8 team.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah because there was no U8 league and whistle.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: You you were gonna we were gonna have to play U9.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh U8's only been around for 20 years, maybe twice five years.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now we got U7, you know, like it's it gets crazier.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: But I remember it sounded crazy at the time.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the story I heard, Scott Hall was like, you know, what about SCOBY?
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: And uh they came to me and was, you know, I I don't think I've ever said no.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Doug Steiner jokes about this all the time, like when we talk to the younger coaches and stuff, you know.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Gotta learn how to say no.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: No, your answer is yes.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think if you want to progress, the answer's yes.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, even if you're not crazy about it at the time, you know, yep, I'll do it.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and that that happened to me, I think, a number of times with that U8 team, and that team just happened to be outrageous.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like that team was finishing second to our U9 team in whistle, you know, after the fall.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: And there's like, I don't, I'm not sure.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like Zach Bach, I think, was on that team.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, ended up playing at Western.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: Had a little short little pro stint, you know, and then we had kids that went on to play like professional tennis and some lacrosse, like, not everybody ended up going the soccer pathway.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: You could tell based on where they landed, just the level of athleticism.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I'm talking about seven-year-olds, which is nuts, but still, they turned out to be incredible athletes in their own respective sports.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: But um, that was a lot of fun.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: We used to have two coaches back those days.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you had um what do you mean?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh each team.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Each team had two?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Every Jags team had two coaches.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul came in and said, I think because the staff was so young, you know, you had like Pete Pasaski was a 79, Brian Zwizlak, I think was a 78.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Kate Sherman was you know young, Michelle Fatut was young, Laura Federico was young.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I think his thought process was, and you'd have to ask him, but I can get these, you know, the young kids, you know, you obviously lose a little bit with that.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's positives and negatives, right?
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the thought process is we can get two on a team, pay him a little bit less, you know, but get two on a team, they can learn from me.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: That was the best part of it.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: As I mean, I got to coach with Pete Pasoski, you know, for for years in the Michigan Jaguars.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think we realized it at the time, you know, how special what we had was because you just like you run in, you run Tuesdays.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: I got Thursdays, you know, what are we doing this week?
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and you bounce off, and I'd watch Pete.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Run sessions and have like that activity's money, I'm stealing it.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that activity sucks.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Throw that out, you know, and feedback and stuff.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, we had two coaches on teams for probably the first five years.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: I like that.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: When did that go away?
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: Just because you guys grew too like big?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think probably this, yeah, it'd be a question for Tinny.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I never I've never asked him, I guess.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think because um the money started to come into it, you know, that we started to charge more, we started to do more.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I will say that two coaches on a youth team is too much.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like you don't need two full-time people.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one coach is probably not enough.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, in a perfect world, you know, like 1.25 is the number, you know, like you need that assistant coach has of amazing value from a director's standpoint, a club standpoint, paying two guys full price to be on one team is probably a bit much.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's probably why you don't see it as much anymore.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I went away after a while, and um, some people like Pete Pasoski took off to chase, you know, the college game.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um MLS game.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Brian Brian's Wizlack, you know, was teaching full time, started doing high school.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Junior high school.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so everybody kind of started going their own ways, and I think the staff matured.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, I did that U8 thing.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I remember at some point he offered me the junior Jags program.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: I did that for probably 10 years.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that was crazy.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of I don't I don't know how I found the energy, you know, to do that.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like Trisha Wellick and Amanda Britton, the people that do it now, like God bless them, because it's a lot.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um what ages is that?
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like three to eight, three to seven?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we do about like three to well, it probably goes up to in the winter it goes up to ten or twelve.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um changes a little bit over the course of the year.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um is that at every location too, right now?
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we've got a sister program in every location.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: Some are larger than others.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's a good way to uh for us, especially back in the day, it was just a great way to um, you know, bring kids in, try to put soccer people in front of them, you know, like uh like God bless all the recreational coaches out there that are doing their thing and and we need them.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um and some of them do all I think all of them do a pretty good job, some of them better than others, but you know, like I played for my dad, you know, and my dad will admit immediately that he doesn't have any idea what he's talking about, um, you know, in rack.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: I remember I'm I know now that he was actually just making stuff up at times, you know, like not only did he not know, but he was BSing us about how we were supposed to chest trap a ball or something.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um so uh but like with the junior Jags program, just trying to get the the youngest players in front of soccer people and soccer coaches with somebody like a Tricia, you know, or an Amanda, overlooking it and just trying to give them that like the correct technical information the at the younger the age is is so important.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm I'm positive that's why you see I mean, I don't think you talk to anybody at any level in our country that says like we're technically good enough, you know.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like even if you're watching the full men's team play in Belgium, you're like, we could be we could be technically better.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think maybe baseball is similar, I think, with that, from uh the younger you can get to them and just show them how their foot shapes.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: Proper mechanics, yeah.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, we never talk about mechanics in soccer, not enough.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: Not enough.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Not enough.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and when we were young with the junior Jags program, that was something we prided ourselves on, like, you know, just the mechanics of how you receive a ball with your good habits, but you know, striking a ball with your laces and just repeating that stuff over and over and trying to produce, you know, by U8 to U10, you know, like technically sound, you know, players.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like we had Peter Vermise in for our uh our summit.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Just in the last month, yeah.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I'm gonna mess it up and I apologize to Peter, but he repeated something like five times.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: I've brought it up a bunch of times the last two weeks.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: He kept going back to he was he did a great job.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: He just basically showed up and said, What do you guys want to know?
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, no script, no, I'm not gonna tell you a bunch of stories.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, let's go, who's got a question?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's almost just like talking, just like just a podcast.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was amazing.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, so people kept asking him some fairly complicated questions and stuff, and he he told a lot of great stories, he had a lot of great information.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was it was awesome.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: But the one thing he kept coming back to, and he he's he must have repeated it like over his career, he must use it because he said it the same exact way like six times to finish up with people.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he basically said, like, listen, if you can pass, receive, shoot, dribble, head, and defend, somebody will pay you to play soccer.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you do those things at the highest levels, you know.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I just and and that was it all came back to that every almost every time.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, people uh like Scott LeMay asked the question about you know, a foundational question, like I Scott's coaching U8s, U10s, U12s for us, and a lot of Peter's experience, you know, as of late is with professional clubs and you know, everybody knows his background.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, so Scott asked the question, like what, you know, with all you've seen, you know, in your career and at the highest levels, you know, what do you want from me at U9?
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, which is a great question.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like what do I need to be establishing?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't do everything, you know, we have limited resources, limited time, but what do you want?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, he would tell a great story, but everything kind of went back for Scott at those younger age.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: He was still like, listen, like can they dribble?
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like at a high proficient level, can they run away from pressure?
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Can they beat players?
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, can they receive the ball under pressure, you know, and take it into space?
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: Can they pass a ball for distance on the ground, you know, short, long, you know, can they shoot?
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, can they shoot with their laces, with both feet?
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, well, are they willing to head the ball?
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: Not only willing, but to head it with intention.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, can they defend another player?
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you can establish that foundation, then then it's up to them.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's up to their own individual desires and what they want, you know.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I think with the little ones, like that's always been the you know, like can you can you create that foundation for the kids?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if you do that, you feel like you've set them up to be successful, you know, it's their it's their life, it's their world, it's their journey, you know.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: But if you create that foundation, you feel like you've done your job as a coach, and then it's on them to you know take it wherever they want.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I think with with with the introduction of like well, PEP, PEP kind of like ruined development a little bit.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because, okay, since the 60s, since the 50s, those six things have always been the most important part of individual player development.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: Then we kind of steered away, and everything is about team tactics and group tactics and you know pattern play and style of play.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: But when we're talking about the individual, they kind of get left behind at times, especially once they're 13, 14, 15, and that's a hard balance for a lot of clubs to do because they have, you know, especially these big competitions, you have a you know, we're trying to win a league.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and some of that just gets, but at the end of the day, when you're talking about player development, can the the can they do those things?
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's still amazing.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's very simple.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: Even even in our own club, and I I hate to admit it, you know, you go watch older level players, you know, talking about like 16, 17, 19s, that are telling you that they want to play college soccer on the boys and girls side, and yet they either can't or won't head the soccer ball.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: And you, you know, and I I always apologize to them.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's the first thing I say, even if it's like a guest training, you know, like, hey Jason, I'm sorry.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because we let you down.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you if you've been here for more than a year, then we we've let you down.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so like trying to make sure those like that stuff doesn't go without, you know, like it's it's gotta be done.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like name a name a high-level college player, and you probably can, unfortunately, but um, you know, or a pro that is just you know, in like can't can't do one of those things, you know.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I think being able to make sure that we're covering all those bases, and I think that's what the junior jags program and some of that younger stuff, it's it's so important what Trisha and those guys do with the younger kids.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's the most I've we have we have meetings all the time, and the meetings cover you know various topics and stuff, but I've always probably haven't done it enough lately, but I've always been quick to you know point out to the rest of the staff, like if you if you want to help out, like if you really want to make a difference, you know, Trisha's out there on Friday nights, you know, with the staff.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Amanda's out there on Friday nights with the staff.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm leaving out a bunch of our junior directory directors, I apologize, but um, you know, like if anybody wants to help out, like it's a big area where we can make a I feel like you can make a ton of difference, you know, at those young, those young ages.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a great starting point too.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think every coach needs to uh be at that level just so they they know what goes in it, what goes into it.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, uh when I was at your the showcase for the girls at your guys' showcase, uh Nick was there, Nick Darren.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and he's working with the younger kids.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: He's a rock star.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: And how often does do you have an A-licensed coach or you know, that, or a Division I college coach, or a former D1 college coach working with eight, nine, and he was like adamant about like that's my favorite age group now.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's like that's what we need.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we needed, is because how many clubs and how many organizations out there they just throw the new coaches there.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and they don't know, all they want to do is get to the pep tactics, they want to t teach the 11v11 game, and they almost try to microwave their coaching process.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about microwaving development.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of coaches are microwaved because they want to get to the next level and they're or they're chasing and they're always like I was like that.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: I was at like a local, like just community club, and I just wanted to coach in the ECNL and the DA so bad, so I left and I went to VAR.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and and it's like, is the grass always greener over there?
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's not.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think I see it more, I see what you're talking about more often now than I used to.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's weird because I never I never felt that way.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: You've been here 30 years.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think you have.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: I've never I've never felt that way.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's always been, you know, like what do you need me to do?
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I will say it's harder.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like what Nick Darren's doing right now at uh Nick's older than I am.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Probably like Nick's like at probably 78 or 77.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: You think so?
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: Is he that young?
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think he's a little bit older.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe, but either way, the the his energy level with the kids, like that's his superpower right now.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um I've tried to go out and run technical trains with like the U7 U10s, and um, I gotta be honest, they they eat me alive sometimes because I just don't have the used to like Nick's energy level uh demands their attention, it demands their respect, you know, like with those kids that are just shaking because they're so excited to do stuff.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, no, we're super lucky to have them.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, I never like uh I never felt the need to like I said, I always just said yes.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the Tinny came and said, hey, whatever you want to do.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: I remember I remember sitting at a table and somebody, Barry Scott had to give up his 97s.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe Crawford had the 97s, Barry had the 98s.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I hadn't coached anything above U12 before that, so these girls that year would have been going like U 14.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um I remember sitting at a table and uh they were like, you know, who's gonna take the 97s?
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I was kind of like, you know, like I will.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so they I think the answer was always just like I'll I'll do it.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it's probably been more of my role as like uh you know, whatever's whatever's needed kind of thing, you know.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: Probably would have been a probably appropriate way to explain me as a player when I was younger too, because I wasn't great at anything.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um so where you guys where you guys needed me.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um but uh yeah, working with the the older ones, that's how that came about.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: And um went into MLS next when we got into that with Pete.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that was fun just because I got to Pete came back after a long stint in the college game and US scouting and with Philly.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I grew up with him, played on the Wolves 79s with him.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: He was the first guy.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: His ma him he invited me over for a sleepover when I joined the Wolves in Livonia.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: I remember we walked to some bowling alley and played Gold Nex for like four hours and then got in trouble for crossing the freeway or something like that.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so uh yeah, getting the opportunity to work with him again back in Michigan, MLS Next was was was awesome.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: MLS Next was a huge learning curve uh for me.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think for Pete as well.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, how so?
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you just don't know what you don't know.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like joining in the you know, it's going in from US youth and then moving into Girls Academy or US moving into ECNL or you know, you you join in MLS next.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like we we have some we've all we've had some pretty good boys' teams.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um we joined in MLS next, I had a good 08 team um that Brent Kempster had coached.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: And uh who had the Brent Kempster had the no buy team.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and Kirk Hodges coached the CW.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: It was actually a CW3 Jags team.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: We had two like really good pools of players, so I was lucky enough.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: I got that group, got to combine them, joined MLS Next.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember we uh we showed up for like game two, and Chicago Fire rolls into Lion Oaks to play us, and you know, I'm I'm carrying a VOCam, a stand, a bag of balls, you know, I look like a Sherpa, you know, walking across the field by myself, like nobody else is there.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and uh the Chicago Fire staff gets out and they've got two trainers, you know, two assistant coaches, a head coach.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: They the Chicago Fire team actually asked if I wanted help carrying stuff because they felt so bad for me.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: So there was like eight of them and one of me.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I just remember rolling out, and it's it's crazy to say this.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think we lost eight to nothing, and I felt like we played pretty well.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's that's what I mean by learning curve.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like I walked away like looking at Pete, just like, can anybody tell me what just happened?
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Yeah, you just got smoked, you know, and there you just you you don't know what you don't know.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: So um you just big learning curves in those respects, and so I think with anything you do, you know, MLS Nexon.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: I I think Pete would say the same thing, like coming from him coming from a Philly union, right?
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: A residential academy with tons of money and resources behind, and then moving into a Michigan Jaguars, which you know it's all relative.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like some people look at us and are envious of the resources and the you know some of the things we have, right?
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we're just another fish, you know, somebody else is bigger.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I think I think Pete would admit admit coming into the Michigan Jags for him was a learning curve, and you know, you can't do all the things, you know, you can't take a Philly union curriculum and culture and just drop it into you know Novi, Michigan, and have everything go the way you hope it goes.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's been a fun process with him, like you know, and the rest of the club and stuff, and he he he brought us so many things, like you know, awesome that we have him back and stuff, and the conversation with MLS Next and the the PDP that we have and stuff over the last five years has been extraordinary, but it hasn't always been you know great, and there's been some things that we've had to change and some things we got wrong, right?
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, so um and then uh MLS Next with him was great, and then Girls Academy I moved into like three years ago.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, so I kind of just wherever they need me to go, I suppose.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: Never think about it.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so you've coached like everything.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: I always talk to these coaches that have always been on the girl side or always been on the boys' side, and you've done it all.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean I haven't done it all.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, club coach, I know I haven't coached college, haven't coached college ball, um, not never pro.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: Any interest?
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, I do have, you know, the way like uh Andy Richards talks about you know college soccer, uh Scott Hall, you know, was a a bit of like a good friend and a mentor when I was younger.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he used to always talk about it.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think all the college coaches, did you coach college?
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh with Nick and Mike Lubinek at University of Detroit.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so you I think you might know what I'm talking about.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: I I've never experienced it, but they talk about the the way the season works and the you know, like the proximity of the team and like how tight it is, I guess.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: I might be saying using the wrong words, but there's something different than a club setting.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: The club thing feels more spread out, it feels more transactional, maybe at times.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas the you've you feel like a more of a family, I guess.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, because you're eating with these people, you're you're literally sleeping with these people, you're going all over, you're living in a hotel with that's how like the coach to player relationship has to be there, at least one of the staff members.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know what I mean, just to make sure that we're looking out for you and and whatnot, because that if you're think about if you're number 16 on the roster, number 15 on the roster, it's hard.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_01: Really hard.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's really hard, and you often feel alone.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to rely on the your teammates, and then you have to rely on you know some of the staff to be looking out for you.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I've I've I've heard those guys talk about it.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: So like that piece, you know, always interests me.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, the reality was just like where do you go, you know, and and at at some point you have to choose, right?
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, at some point, it's hard to do club and college ball at the same time.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um and yeah, it was always just kind of this is where this is where I was.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: And one always takes your focus more, you know what I mean?
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_01: You always lean, even if I'm a uh I could be a head coach and I could be uh an executive director.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_01: One is going to take, especially if you're in season, yeah.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: You might not be at the office at the club at all, you know?
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's why I admire like uh Lewis Robinson.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's like how the hell is he doing that?
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he's winning the Mac every year and then he's running Midwest.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's like he's a superhero.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: Jeez, yeah, yeah, he's done a good job.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's some people that do it and get it done.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, just never uh just never happened, you know.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_01: But how are you adapting to like the girls' academy and everything and liking that?
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_01: Were you guys part?
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_01: You guys weren't part of the girls' DA.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: We were you were, yeah, we were the last like two years, year and a half of it, I think.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um before it it it folded.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_01: Is the same people running the girls' academy that was running the girls DA?
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-oh.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um Leslie Gallimore was the um woman who took over when the it went from the girls' academy popped up.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um because that was Miriam, right?
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_01: Miriam Hickey?
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Miriam Hickey was helping to run the development academy for US C.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: Girls DA, okay, got it.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then when that folded, um, you know, ECNL gobbled up a bunch of the clubs, um, and then the you know, the girls' academy was was formed.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um Leslie Gallimore, as far as I know, was the first person to be the commissioner of that league and run it, and she was great.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, she left like six months after I came into the GA with the Jags.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: She wasn't there for very long.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then they hired Trisha Hughes, who's there now, who's the commissioner now, um, and since brought on Megan Fry, Tina Banham, uh, Cassidy Weiss, uh, too too many people to name.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and those guys are running it now.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think they're doing a fantastic job, to be honest.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's a hard uh it's been a it's been an uphill climb to you know pick up the remnants of the development academy while you know competing with ECNL, you know, like so to exist in that space and to continue to grow.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: And they've they've really kind of like I think in the last year they've they've stabilized it.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, for a time it was like you know, financially and competitively and organizationally people were a little worried, and right in the last two years I think we've really stabilized what we have, and it's a a good product that has been great for our players and stuff.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: The exposure and the competitive level has been awesome.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean I mean, I'm seeing that the GA Cup this year, the generation the Generation Adidas, uh, you know, yeah, uh the girls' side, and I was like, okay, that's awesome.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, and there's a lot of colleges down there.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of colleges down there.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh four international teams this year, four GA teams.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um last year Trisha Wellick coached one of the GA teams, the generation Adidas teams for the league from our club.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_01: So that wasn't she just win like with the U-13s teams?
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, she just won the just won the Champions Cup.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_01: The Champions Cup.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_01: That was like the last month in Florida, right?
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, yep.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: That was that was pretty awesome.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: That was our U-13s.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that was a special, special week for for us and for her and the girls.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_01: So how what how does uh what goes into that?
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_01: The Champions Cup?
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: So the Champions Cup is like an internal tournament within the GA.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: So kind of like a like a uh like a US Open or like the FA Cup or something like that.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's not an open tournament.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: You qualify um through so like uh you qualify through your conference play.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_00: So each conference in the GA has a certain amount of automatic bids.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um for clubs.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, like in our conference, the top two, it's really tricky.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: It took me two years to like finally figure out all the different events and tournaments the GA has, and I'm still I still got to call people once in a while.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: So you earn points for all six age groups for your club within conference play.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: So if you finish first in a division, you get five points, four points for second place.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: So every age group?
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's club paid club-based with wild cards.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: So right now we've qualified the last two years as a club.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: So all six of our teams are playing in the Champions Cup tournament.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you got to finish in the top two like points across all six age groups to get in that.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then they take another four clubs by national standings and let so you can qualify as a one-off team.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_00: So if you play for a club that's not a champions cup club, but you're you're good, your team's good.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: You can get you can still get in, you can qualify for the back end.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: But um, so I think there's like uh can't do the math.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so like like Top Hats, a Champions Cup Club, uh Indie Premier, um NEFC, Michigan Jaguars, like those clubs have all six teams going.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it's a good thing for us because it's an awesome event.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: So you go in when you go to the winner showcase, uh, which is mandatory for at least the 15s, 16s, and 17s.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, I think the ninth, I think it's mandatory for the 19s, too.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in December in Norco, um all of our teams go, and instead of playing in like a showcape case, you're playing in the first lag of Champions Cup.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you gotta finish basically in the top, you play in a group of four, you gotta finish in the top three, yeah, and you advance to the knockout stage, which is held in IMG.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's the one that was held last last month, um, right at the beginning of this beginning of March.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that one is like a um March Madness, you know, like single elimination event.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_00: You you win, you win, you go that way, you lose, you go that way, and you play four games, and obviously you win all four, like Trisha did, your your GA Cup champions at U13.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but they also do a club cup, like Indy Premier won it this year.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: So you earn points based on your finish for each age group, and then they tally up all those points across the age group.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: So like Indie Premier was kind of cool this year, didn't win a single age group, but but won the overall club cup because they amassed the most points across the tournament.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_00: So there's seven trophies handed out, one for all six age groups, and then one for the best club, you know, based on points.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just uh the the Florida event in the second leg of IMG is it's or second leg of Champions Cup is in at IMG in Florida.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like that place is outrageous, facilities are awesome, weather's great, and the college coach attendance there is phenomenal because you got the you know 20 of the top teams in the country actually playing in a single elimination tournament.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_01: And they're playing against each other, it's not like top hat versus I'm sorry, RNYFC, who doesn't really compete.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I mean they compete, but like it's not the same.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, there's levels to this.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: We played we NYSC took our 09s and played the final last year, took us to uh overtime.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, there's uh there's some good, there's good clubs, there's really good clubs in it.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we had we haven't played New York since I'd been in the GA, and we played them in like four age groups this year.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_00: And uh there's there's some there's some small clubs that have um you know are are really like coming on, like and really starting to put it together.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a testament to the the Girls Academy and like I said, the stabilization and now giving like a good place for players to land and clubs to just grow in and stuff.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, but yeah, so like every game there, and every game matters because you're trying to play for points.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, like even if you've lost the first three games, like you're playing in the last game to earn one more point for your club, right?
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: So it's cool because it's it's it's I think the format's outstanding.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're doing we're talking about doing some, you know, uh that format in some different settings and stuff like that, just because the um like the showcase stuff is good.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: You're always trying to balance winning and development, you know, you're always trying to balance playing time and winning, but like Fermiz said this the other day.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, you know, I hate the word recreational.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I don't know why they call it recreational.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, even a five-year-old can tell you what the score is, right?
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like everybody's keeping score.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I think there's some a balance to you know all of that, and that's what everybody's trying to find.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_00: But I think college coaches generally, when you talk to them, want to see um, you know, high-level games, you know, with with good teams, high-level players, but they also want to see them in settings where they're competing for something, and it's not just a it's not just a showcase.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're not just going out there.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_01: Where the games don't mean anything.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's the great thing at Champions Cup, like every game, every game matters.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_00: Penalty kicks, no, no game finishes in a tie.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: You got a overtime PKs, and it's just awesome in that IMG setting where all those fields are right there, you know.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: You like when you're walking down the row after your game, you know, there's a penalty shootout going on over there that everybody's watching, and there's a PK shootout going on over there that everybody's watching, and uh yeah, it's uh that's uh it's a super special event within the Girls' Academy, and I think it's one of the things that separate us from you know some of the other leagues.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_01: And is that the what the stabilization part of it is?
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_01: Is like just worried about the ECNL just coming up and just trying to take everybody, and I mean somebody told me that the ECNL director basically went at their AGM or at their coach's um meeting in Vegas or whatnot, and he says, We are not a soccer league, we are not, we are not a youth soccer league, we are a marketing company.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_01: And when I heard that, I'm like, oh, okay, at least you're honest.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, they're their marketing is uh Unbelievable.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's um it's unbelievable.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think try to be respectful.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you're willing to say, if you're willing to go outside of um maybe being genuine, you know, and you're willing to say things at times that are at best misleading, right?
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_00: Then yeah, it's it's unbelievable.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think if you had to operate within uh constraints and um like reason at times, I think it would be could be looked at differently.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to say that in a very nice way.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_00: So um I think they're I think ECNL is a very good league.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think they have a ton of awesome players and respect a lot of their clubs and stuff.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um I just don't uh like you said, the grass isn't always greener.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um for us, the Girls Academy provides just uh just about everything we need.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we play ECNL clubs, like we just went to Jeff Cup with the 09s and played Delco and played Pen Fusion.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um also played PA Classics, you know, which is a GA club.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and all three clubs were um, you know, all three teams were outstanding, you know, and we won two of three.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_00: So like we don't we don't hide, we don't shy away from, you know, we'll play whoever's willing to play us.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_00: We play the ECNL clubs within state.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_00: Granted, uh it's funny because somebody uh somebody said to me the other day, they're like, well, isn't that just a friendly?
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, tell me what's friendly about the Hawks against the Jags.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's a good point.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, even if it's even if there's not a plastic trophy up at the end of it or any points for a league.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_00: We all want to prove that we're better than them.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me what's friendly about that game.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we play nationals, and like I get on with David and Harks and those guys.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, congrats to Robertson, by the way.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_01: This guy engaged?
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um the uh yeah, like I mean, I go out and you know, see those guys at Jeff Cup, and I like those guys, and but I mean there's nothing friendly about me, me and Harkins are playing each other.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, friendly, but not you know what I'm saying.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, so uh I think uh I was talking to like Lewis Robinson the other day, Midwest United, because they've obviously gone from ECNL into Girls Academy, right?
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I called him to ask his perspective on some stuff because uh he has he sits in a chair that I've never sat in, you know, like he's uh like you were talking earlier, he coaches college soccer, yeah, he's a director, executive director similar to Paul, but a director similar to me and and coaches team.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I was asking him about the like the exposure piece, um, because we're always just trying to make it better.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh his he said, look, Scoby, he's like, I was he said I didn't know the answer to the exposure piece, you know, going from ECNL into Girls Academy.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, and I can tell you right now, without flinching, that our kids after this season have played in front of everybody they need to play in front of.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I I was worried, you know, that we were gonna be missing something.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, we're not, you know, we get good enough games and we're good enough conference, you know, to where we play in front of all the college coaches we need to play in front of.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um at the end of the day, you know, are there some people that value a name on a a jersey, you know, more you know, too much, or value a league that you play in too much.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, Yeah, but you're never gonna win with everybody.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, but I'm confident now that like our Midwest kids, our Jags kids, our players are playing in front of everybody they need to play in front of.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like they have all the opportunities, you know, that they that they would get anywhere else.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I think I'm I'm really happy with the platform and what it provides for our players.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the ECNL, I'm not saying the ECNL players don't get that stuff too, right?
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, two good platforms, but just saying uh I think the marketing at times is in order to do this, like you have to play here.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you see that on social media from certain clubs, yeah.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like we're the only pathway.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's the stuff that is tough to to look at sometimes because it's like well, you're not the only pathway.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're the only one, you might be a you might be a little bigger pathway, but you're not the only one.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and if you're the only pathway, that means that there's only that many players because there's a lot more players than you guys are even capable of handling.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so you can't say that this is the only way, especially in a state like ours.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's just so many players.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, so I have a lot of respect for everybody, you know, within the state, within the leagues.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think there's a lot of good opportunity, like you said earlier.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_00: Michigan is a good, you know, the good news for for families and young players is that you're in Michigan, you got a lot of good options.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_01: There's always options.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I think for our Jags kids, like I think the you know, the the possibilities are endless and you can go anywhere from here, you know, and you see that in the you know, we we spend a lot of time too talking about and you look at the marketing, you know, the social media stuff, like so much of it is like I saw one yesterday about like you know, power four, division one, and it it's um I think in insulting is probably a little bit dramatic, but it leaves out the vast majority of the kids that are gonna go on to play college soccer.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like D2, like the pretty good.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, don't go to Grand Valley, yeah.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_01: They're terrible historically.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_00: Don't go live in Grand Rapids and have a downtown right there and get an awesome education and compete for a national championship every year.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I I think it's uh yeah, it's just kind of like really um I can't find the word, um, like neglects, I think, you know, a good portion of the kids.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying everybody shouldn't, you know, have the aspirations to play, you know.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think I I think you talk to any of our girls at younger age groups, I think most of them want to go play at U of M or Michigan State, you know, or probably North Carolina, Stanford, and yeah, you know, Notre Dame.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, and I I did too.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um so uh, but yeah, there's just so many good opportunities out there, and I think some of that stuff is disingenuous because it you you do lose.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_00: Tinny used to call it the ESPN effect.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you talk to these kids and you're like, you know, well, give me your list of schools, and uh you look at it and you're like, ah, you know, um, you know, you don't want to you don't want to pigeonhole anybody, you don't want to take anything away from the players um and their hopes and dreams and stuff, but as as you close in, you gotta be realistic, you know, about what's gonna provide the best situation and the best experience for you.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh yeah, so I think, like I said, I think Lewis summed it up for me, made me feel better when I called him you know, in respects to some of that stuff, because I think you know, you watch you see who comes to watch us at Champions Cup, you see who comes to watch us um in the first leg of Champions Cup in Norco, you see who comes to watch us in the playoffs, you know, our Adidas showcase in Michigan, you know, I think the exposure piece is quality, yeah.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hundred uh over a hundred coaches, eighty programs.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's just a three-field event.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's great.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_01: And it's you know, and it I think it was Paul that was telling me it makes so much sense why so many colleges go, because they can see everybody.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas if you go out to Arizona or Florida or IMG, there's 20 fields, you can't see everybody.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's huge, yeah.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_00: The size piece is uh is a big deal.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think the other like we we talk to college coaches a lot, like we're playing 50-minute games.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um part of that is because indoor games cost, you know, 12 times as much as an outdoor game does.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the other piece of it is the feedback we've gotten from most colleges is like I I don't need to see a 90-minute match, you know, from a college recruiting respect.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, put two good teams on the field, you know, put Midwest United versus Indy Premier and give us 50 minutes, you know, to watch them play, and that that's what that's what we want, that's what we need, and then you get the next one on.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_00: So the you know, the the the exposure and the amount of players that they get to put eyes on, like three fields, same facility, you know, fifty to sixty minute matches, and the amount of kids that they get to watch come through in that day, I think, is uh dramatically more than like you said, where you get it like a big, a huge, huge event, you know, where they're walking around a lot more and stuff and you know, more more time between the next group of players and stuff like that.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_01: I like the uh how it's c how they have the club-based, you know, competition where every age group matters because but does that come back to by you like if you have a like a very weak like you 13 team, does that like hurt?
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_01: And like I mean, how do you go about your like your staff on that?
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because I've always believed that we're headed, we might be headed towards like promotion and relegation at the youth level, where the GA would have two tiers or the MOS next already does with homegrown and academy, and maybe an academy club that had their first team is in the academy.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe they have a certain standard that they have to hit to get into the homegrown or something like that.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I've always said that you can do it club based.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_01: And people are like, no, you can't do it club based because what if you have a weak age group?
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, well, be better.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think it's it's already happening.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like the GA has GA Spire, which was launched, you know, I was gonna ask about that a year and a half ago.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's a young league, so it's it's gonna need some time to like you know, shake out the the parody in it and stuff, but like that is the for lack of a better term, the proving ground now.
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like so our second team is playing it.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's a number of clubs that have first teams in it that are trying to get to Academy, and it's a great thing to have now because the when the league's unsure, you know, they have a place to say, hey, we'll we'll stick you in a spire, and if you go in there and you you crush it, then you know, Girls Academy is a possibility.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't think we're we're fortunate right now where we don't have any like we don't have any age groups that are bringing everybody down or anything.
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we we don't have it.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean we got depending on the year, certain groups do better than others, and depending on the you know the division and the other teams and stuff.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um so we're fortunate in that respect, you know, knock on wood.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um we got a lot of people doing a good job, I think.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of good players, a lot of good families.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think I I don't the Champions Cup is um I mean I the the message for us, I think, is always in in whether it's an individual instance with a player or a team setting or like even a club, I think is is next action.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like you lost.
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it was really tough.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like my 09s had the high expectations for Champions Cup.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_00: Trisha coached them last year, they were in the they lost the top hat in the final, you know, so the expectations were super high.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_00: We lost in game two um to uh to Galaxy, um, who's been I think our groups have played each other like five times in the last six years in some sort of competition, and either one of us has knocked the other one out of playoffs or champions cup, and um they were organized, and you know, I thought we were good enough to win on the day, but they broke our hearts and stuff.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, you gotta walk off that field and look at the girls and you know say, hey, listen, like for yourselves, for the team, and for the for the club, you know, your job is to pull yourself together, and you know, I'll I'm gonna cry with you for the rest of the night because I don't like losing either.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then tomorrow morning we show up and you dry your eyes and you get your your life back together and and we go again.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the object is to win the game tomorrow.
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, and I thought uh I was really proud of their response.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_00: We actually lost.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_00: We lost in the like with a minute left before uh going into overtime against HTX, um, who are a really good team.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_00: We had a ton of chances, we had a goal called back, but like you um, like we walked to the field next day and I said it to, or maybe Crawford said it to me, um, like we'll know in the first five minutes, like if they're buying what we're selling.
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we'll know, like they lost a tough one last night, they're out of the tournament, you know, they're still playing, there's you're still playing for something, but you're not playing for the trophy anymore.
• 1:02:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um like we'll know in the first 10 minutes if if they really believe and buy into what we're selling, which is like, let's go, like next action, next game.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_00: And they were they were phenomenal.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, we were we were outrageous, and we just the ball didn't go in the back of the net.
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it could have been right, could have been, you know, two, three, nothing right away, and maybe game's over, didn't happen.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then the message is the same.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_00: You lose to HTX and the message is the same.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I think in the I I think that places like I think that's the other reason why competition's good, like the Champions Cup allows us to like that that doesn't come up in a showcase setting.
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like you don't have You're not disappointed in that.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have that adversity, you know, you don't have kids crying after a game.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_01: And not everybody makes playoffs.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's good to be able to win something again.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so and I think that that's a big message for us.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like we're big, uh, big on the culture piece.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, Pete brought a lot of that back with him from Philly, um, just bit big on how we try to treat our kids, how we ask our kids to treat opponents and refs and you know, treat you know people.
• 1:03:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we talk about that a lot.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's a work in progress.
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_00: We're not perfect.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we're all competitive, so everybody, everybody's a little crazy.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh, but yeah, I think that champions cup just allows you to have, you know, where else can you have those conversations?
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like without adversity, without being uncomfortable, you know, how do you address?
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think what ends up being the bigger lessons in life is like, you know, at some point life is gonna kick you pretty hard into you know what, and you know, that's that's where you're gonna decide how you get to deal with things.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a lot of times where you separate, you know, how successful people are.
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_00: So um, so yeah, does you you smile, does it cause you problems?
• 1:04:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it causes us problems, but there are there are also opportunities, you know, to to work and try to teach young players how to deal with it.
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_00: So um you you probably it's uh it's it's I would rather win, like I wish we would have won it.
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_00: I wish I'll I'll regret that for the rest of my life.
• 1:04:17
  SPEAKER_00: I wish I had that galaxy game back.
• 1:04:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um but uh you probably from a coaching standpoint you learn more from your teams when things go wrong.
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely do when you're winning.
• 1:04:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's real in real life, too.
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's like how do you handle the situation?
• 1:04:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because you can't always like you said, you can't always control what happens to you, but you can uh you can control the reaction.
• 1:04:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can control control how you respond, you can control how you treat everybody else.
• 1:04:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, so um, yeah, so I think yeah, it it that that event's outrageous.
• 1:04:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like we look forward to that as as much as possible every year.
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_00: And um the goal eventually is to Trisha just got us, that was our first trophy in the GA.
• 1:04:57
  SPEAKER_00: Trisha Well, you 13 girls won the first uh GA trophy.
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_00: We've uh we lost in the playoffs last year to Syracuse at 09.
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we've had some teams make some good runs.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but so yeah, so the goal is to like let's go chase down another trophy.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um it'd be great.
• 1:05:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm jealous of Kenrick and Indy Premier for winning the club cup, like that'd be an awesome one to win.
• 1:05:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, so it's just there's so much to look forward to and so much good soccer to play.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_01: Are you on the field right now?
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_01: Are you how many teams are you coaching right now at Destroy?
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, nine girls right now, yeah, just one.
• 1:05:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:05:31
  SPEAKER_01: Because like, what is your day to day like as the as the director?
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_01: Are you like looking at helping with the college recruiting or just the overall uh maybe I don't know, periodization or everything within the girls?
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like what is your day to day outside the 09s?
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the answer is everything.
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think uh like I'm on the phone a lot.
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of it's talking to I've got some people that work directly underneath.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_00: Me that I rely on to you know cascade information.
• 1:06:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Doug Steinard uh works with like our aspire groups and a lot of our high school age groups.
• 1:06:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um he helps out with college recruiting as well.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Derek Smith is actually our college recruiting coordinator.
• 1:06:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so he does a lot of that stuff.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um Hayden Welsh works with our pre-academy at U11 and U12.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um and Trisha Wellett does like our seven through tens.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of time on the phone with those guys, you know, organizing and talking about stuff and making decisions about which way to go.
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um the curriculum piece, um, spend a lot of time just looking at curriculum, trying to.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's funny because like when you're you're coaching a team, it's very much uh not that there's no looking ahead, but it's much more now.
• 1:06:42
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:06:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what do we do?
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_00: Who are we playing Saturday?
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_00: Training tonight, you know, what are the events coming up next?
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_00: With you 17 girls, a lot of it's just managing their you know their lives and attendance.
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_00: Especially attendance at church.
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's like spring break right now.
• 1:06:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so um I've got a pretty good group of girls, but you know, like it's just they they have a lot of stuff you know popping in their lives, you know.
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_01: Proms coming up, spring break, graduation licenses for the 09s, but graduations are coming up.
• 1:07:13
  SPEAKER_00: Most of them committed to schools, you know, some of a few of them are still looking.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's always a huge stress at 17.
• 1:07:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you get that these kids start to commit and these kids don't, and you know, there's some uh some panic and some anxiety about that.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, everybody ends up fine for the most part, by the way.
• 1:07:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like say that out loud on a podcast.
• 1:07:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like I have a hard time thinking of kids that don't end up in a good spot.
• 1:07:34
  SPEAKER_00: So for not just Jags kids, for anybody else that's out there freaking out about college recruiting, like the market, the market will find itself.
• 1:07:41
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 1:07:42
  SPEAKER_00: Your daughter will find it.
• 1:07:43
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, good news about the transfer window now is if you miss, it's a lot easier to fix it, you know, than it used to be 10 years ago.
• 1:07:51
  SPEAKER_01: Did that okay, when you came over from the MOS next to the GA, did that take you a while to see the Jags players and what okay, this girl might be a power four, this girl might be Big Ten, this girl might just you know might go to the Mac, might be a Division II.
• 1:08:10
  SPEAKER_01: Did that take you a while to like see that whole picture?
• 1:08:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's um yeah, you it's what's like where does a player sit relative to her peers and the rest of the schools?
• 1:08:23
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:08:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, it does it did.
• 1:08:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um like Derek's a huge help.
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Doug Steinard was a huge help in that respect.
• 1:08:29
  SPEAKER_00: Daniel Zacchio is um still around and he's been around in the development academy forever.
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I think we have a pretty good idea.
• 1:08:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's um it's it's less about us knowing where we think they fit.
• 1:08:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many variables that we don't have control over and we don't know, you know.
• 1:08:47
  SPEAKER_00: So like what coaches are looking for position-wise and where they're at in the recruiting class.
• 1:08:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think you talked to Lewis Robinson on a podcast about how the just the overall number has changed for those guys.
• 1:09:00
  SPEAKER_01: Four people?
• 1:09:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, by probably by half, right?
• 1:09:02
  SPEAKER_00: At least by 50%.
• 1:09:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I I would honestly say it's been it's been more work to navigate the changes that have come about with like the rules with D1 and things like that than it has been to understand one of my players, like whether they're like a D1, you know, power four or a mid-major or something like that.
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's a lot easier to figure out than actually figuring out how to meld a school what a school's needs are with what my like we have a player right now that wants to go down south, you know, and she's she's a great soccer player, but you know, like right away you've cut you know like half the country out.
• 1:09:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you're also you're also interested in schools that are less likely to have eyes on you.
• 1:09:48
  SPEAKER_00: So right, like those are the those are the things that become tricky or a kid that wants to go to a military academy, you know, that and that's like you know, so you know, you're sitting down with them going like um, oh, so you've you've got four schools, you know, on your legs.
• 1:10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 1:10:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, four?
• 1:10:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean that's that's really like trying to hit the bullseye.
• 1:10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um she's an outstanding player too, and it's like um uh you know, like a lot of the people are um is my daughter good enough to play at wherever a kid asks me, Scoby, do you think I'm good enough to play?
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's one of the misconceptions and the the things that people don't understand is the the college guys aren't looking for good enough.
• 1:10:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like you know whoever it is, Jeff Hosler in Michigan State isn't recruiting good enough.
• 1:10:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he might end up with good enough enough, but he's recruiting somebody that's too good, right?
• 1:10:46
  SPEAKER_00: I I'm assuming to play at MSU or you know, Lewis Robinson in Western Michigan, like they're doing the same thing the kids are.
• 1:10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like a kid is recruiting a school, it at least in initially, I think that's probably too good for them, which is fair, right?
• 1:10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the schools are recruiting kids that are too initially maybe too good for them.
• 1:11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Too good for them, you know, and that's where it I think it eventually levels out, and you figure out your answers.
• 1:11:08
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, the answer to that question, like, do you think my daughter's good enough to play here?
• 1:11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer is like, yeah, but that doesn't mean she's getting recruited or that school's interested in her playing there.
• 1:11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because good enough doesn't win you like a Mac.
• 1:11:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, good enough doesn't win you the gliak.
• 1:11:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you need players that are that are not good enough, but too good.
• 1:11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if that makes any sense.
• 1:11:30
  SPEAKER_00: So um it's tricky to find the it's tricky to find the right fit.
• 1:11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I think us judging like where players fit, um, we're wrong once in a while, you know, too.
• 1:11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like kids go to schools and we're you know, as a staff are like a little bit of a reach, you know, and then sophomore, you the kids starting, and and good for them, you know, and that's why we try so hard to um like not it's not our job.
• 1:11:53
  SPEAKER_00: We don't feel like it's our job to place players, it's our job to support and help steer and you know just help them in their their journey to find the fit because at the end of the day it's gotta be it's gotta be their choice.
• 1:12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um and the schools have to, you know, want them there, and the schools also have to trust us, you know, like when they call, you know, you can't lie about a 2028 grad to a school.
• 1:12:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can, you can do it once because then when that coach calls you about the 2030 grad, you know, gone.
• 1:12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we don't that relationship, yeah.
• 1:12:25
  SPEAKER_00: The Jag staff isn't maybe genuine.
• 1:12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And um, not that you don't get it wrong once in a while, um, but yeah, so you gotta be honest and try to, and it's about figuring out most kids want to play, right?
• 1:12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, don't you think most kids want to play?
• 1:12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 1:12:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's very few players that I know of that have the psychology, the mental to like.
• 1:12:43
  SPEAKER_01: I can wait till junior year.
• 1:12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that doesn't happen.
• 1:12:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's tough to do.
• 1:12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's also a tough thing to explain to young players that yeah, you know, you might you probably go to this school, but you're gonna have to wait.
• 1:12:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the one thing, like, you know, talking to the division one coaches, that's I I feel like that's something that's kind of been pulled away from them largely because they don't have as many spots to take chances on.
• 1:13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:13:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's what like Lewis was talking about that podcast.
• 1:13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I used to take nine, and he goes, You knew three of them weren't gonna work out, three of them were for sure.
• 1:13:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's nice, you know, and then there's three in the middle that might go either way, but I think they've lost that, you know, he's margin of error.
• 1:13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's gotta find three or four for sure's now, right?
• 1:13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he's he was like, if I only get two right, we're in trouble.
• 1:13:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like yeah, holy cow.
• 1:13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so um, yeah, so the the boys' side's also different from a timing I I think, yeah.
• 1:13:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was it's more the logistics of you know, the boys get recruited much later.
• 1:13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um seems like it's very it's so much more laid back.
• 1:13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's it's just a it's a completely different animal.
• 1:13:52
  SPEAKER_00: We joke all the time in here.
• 1:13:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like uh people get might get mad at me for saying it, but it's they're almost they're almost different sports.
• 1:13:59
  SPEAKER_01: It is different sports, you know.
• 1:14:00
  SPEAKER_01: So it it's I mean, there's so much that we could talk about on the boys' side, but I mean, do you I mean, okay, this could get you in trouble.
• 1:14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Do you like coaching the girls more than boys?
• 1:14:15
  SPEAKER_01: I personally have always preferred coaching girls over boys.
• 1:14:19
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know why.
• 1:14:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think they listen better.
• 1:14:22
  SPEAKER_01: I think they there's less egos that you have to cut through or cut down, you know what I mean?
• 1:14:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean I get asked this question a lot, like especially if uh get asked it a lot by parents and stuff, you know, like the older parents when you're sitting around having a drink at the end of the day or something.
• 1:14:38
  SPEAKER_00: What do you prefer?
• 1:14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um and the answer is I I have no preference.
• 1:14:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think they're like you just said, there's goods and bads.
• 1:14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um the uh there's definitely like uh the girls listen better, I think, maybe more coachable.
• 1:14:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's also a downside.
• 1:14:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like the the girls sometimes are too coachable and too eager to do what you ask.
• 1:15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you there's times where you wish you'd just be like, hey, like just play outside of me, like trust your instincts.
• 1:15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, don't listen to me.
• 1:15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Trust your gut.
• 1:15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Don't listen to me so much.
• 1:15:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm just some old guy standing on the side, like I can't do it anymore.
• 1:15:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I had my chance, like you still got all your chances, so like don't let me, you know, pigeonhole you and hold you down.
• 1:15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Or I think the boys are much quicker to like uh you know not listen, or this guy doesn't know what he's talking about, you know.
• 1:15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like I don't and there's uh like I said, there's a good and a bad to both of those.
• 1:15:33
  SPEAKER_00: The boys can be more frustrating, but I and and what we're generalizing, right?
• 1:15:38
  SPEAKER_00: So um not to say that there's not girls that that don't do that, and there's not boys that are super coachable and listen, but yeah, overall.
• 1:15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um I got uh I won't dime out the coach that told me this, but when I was young, I asked a college coach, um, who's coaching women, um, you know, like what's I said the same thing, like, what's the difference?
• 1:15:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what do you like coaching better?
• 1:16:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I tell this story all the time.
• 1:16:03
  SPEAKER_00: He said, here's the like the generic difference in genders.
• 1:16:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you if you're coaching a boys' game and after the game, like your team doesn't perform very well, and you pull them all in after the game and you're upset, and you rip them, and you say something along the lines of you guys were bad today, and you guys really need to think about what you've done and what you're doing and make some changes, the boy gets in the car, and when his mom or dad asks him what Jason said today, the boy says um the coach looked at Scobie and said he needs to do a better job, and he wasn't good enough today.
• 1:16:41
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have the same conversation with the girls' team, like, hey, you guys, and without singling anybody out, like you guys weren't good enough today, you guys need to do a better job, you guys need to think about what you're doing.
• 1:16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Gets in the car, asks their parent, like, what did he say?
• 1:16:54
  SPEAKER_00: The girl goes, He told me that I wasn't good enough.
• 1:16:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 1:16:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I I love that.
• 1:17:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's the best, that's the best way I've ever heard it.
• 1:17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, me and you were standing as teammates together, and the coach said something, I'd be looking at you going, Jason, I told you you sucked.
• 1:17:09
  SPEAKER_00: I told you if we didn't get it together, man, we were gonna lose this game.
• 1:17:12
  SPEAKER_00: That is awesome.
• 1:17:14
  SPEAKER_00: A generalization, but I found that to be true because you get more, I feel like I feel you get more girls' parents like coming back at you going, like, I can't believe you'd say that to my daughter.
• 1:17:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I would say what?
• 1:17:25
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't say, you know, and I'm like, that's not what I said.
• 1:17:28
  SPEAKER_00: I was saying it too, yeah.
• 1:17:29
  SPEAKER_00: I was telling everyone, like, I was the message was everybody here, including myself.
• 1:17:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm always very quick to say, like, you know, we like we lose that game against Galaxy.
• 1:17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm there's nobody I'm more disappointed in than myself.
• 1:17:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like I've I've never coached a game or had something go wrong where I've ever been as disappointed in a player as I have been in myself.
• 1:17:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of the day, you know, coaches lose, you know.
• 1:17:52
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, but I always thought that's awesome.
• 1:17:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's not my story.
• 1:17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody else told me that, but I thought it was a really good way to put it.
• 1:17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if you want to explain it to somebody that doesn't believe it's gonna do it for a living.
• 1:18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because the boy, yeah, the boys are like, Yep, I was awesome, and that guy didn't do his job.
• 1:18:07
  SPEAKER_00: We lost.
• 1:18:08
  SPEAKER_00: The girls like, I let everybody down.
• 1:18:10
  SPEAKER_00: So God.
• 1:18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh your GA teams, are they playing high school?
• 1:18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Are they our U1 teens?
• 1:18:18
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously the U13s and U14s are full year because they're eighth graders, seventh graders.
• 1:18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the our 15s, 16s, and 17s do not play high school, they play all year long.
• 1:18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and then our 19s, this is the first year where our 19s, we basically um it wasn't go play high school, but we stopped the season after Champions Cup.
• 1:18:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and part of that was there was a few reasons.
• 1:18:43
  SPEAKER_00: One um just the spring season now, like the seniors' lives, like you said, with prom and grad parties and stuff was just really hard.
• 1:18:54
  SPEAKER_00: We've had a tough time the last two years just holding it together.
• 1:18:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:18:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then uh the I think a lot of the kids that that decision to not play high school is a tough one for a lot of players.
• 1:19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like some for some kids it's easy and they have no interest, some kids go to schools and they're not right interested in playing at.
• 1:19:11
  SPEAKER_00: But for a lot of our players, you know, it's it's a tough decision to make.
• 1:19:15
  SPEAKER_00: So um that was the other thing.
• 1:19:16
  SPEAKER_00: So like our 19s just were done after Champions Cup.
• 1:19:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um a good portion of them went to go play their senior year at their high schools, which I think is awesome.
• 1:19:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then a few just stay and train with our own ladies.
• 1:19:28
  SPEAKER_00: And um Haas Dao coaches our women's teams with Doug and Derek.
• 1:19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:19:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we have two UW, is it UWS?
• 1:19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:19:36
  SPEAKER_01: I would say the I get the I get the it's either it's either USL2 or USLW or it's UWS.
• 1:19:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's UWS.
• 1:19:43
  SPEAKER_01: I was looking at that last night.
• 1:19:44
  SPEAKER_00: We have we have two women's teams in that that uh Doug runs for us.
• 1:19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Haas coaches one, Derek coaches one.
• 1:19:50
  SPEAKER_00: So like our U17s will just kind of merge into those groups throughout the rest of the year, so it'll turn into like a combination of GA club soccer plus women's soccer.
• 1:20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so so the U19s have the ability if they want to to so they can go play high school if they want, they can stay with us and finish the spring and be melded into our women's teams with our U17 GA.
• 1:20:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's kind of the best of both worlds, right?
• 1:20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, easier for us to manage.
• 1:20:18
  SPEAKER_00: But our 15, 16, and 17s all four go high school soccer and play full year.
• 1:20:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, and we're one of two clubs in the state that that still do it.
• 1:20:27
  SPEAKER_01: So, what do you do to fill out your schedule?
• 1:20:30
  SPEAKER_01: So, what are you guys getting ready for now?
• 1:20:31
  SPEAKER_01: And how uh are you guys training three or four times right now?
• 1:20:34
  SPEAKER_00: We train three days a week.
• 1:20:35
  SPEAKER_00: We train three days all week, all year.
• 1:20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we don't do four just mostly because of the load.
• 1:20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and um, we found that most of our girls are doing stuff on their own, like most of our girls are doing NLT, even outside of our NLT piece of our curriculum.
• 1:20:53
  SPEAKER_00: Most of our girls are you know going to primal recovery or Mecca or Impact with Kilbasso and those guys.
• 1:21:00
  SPEAKER_00: So like a fourth, we felt like a fourth day actually like interfered with what they wanted to do individually, which I think is important because they're not all the same people and everybody needs different stuff.
• 1:21:10
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um so we train three days a week right now.
• 1:21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we just got back from Champions Cup.
• 1:21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we go to Greensboro the 9th of April, so that's the big like um uh showcase on the East Coast.
• 1:21:25
  SPEAKER_00: So it's called the Spring Showcase for GA, that's in Greensboro.
• 1:21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they just started a new cup tournament out there, so it'll be similar, same format as Champions Cup.
• 1:21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, um, but it's registration based, it's just the best eight clubs that signed up for the event.
• 1:21:40
  SPEAKER_01: Got it.
• 1:21:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then so we'll do Greensboro.
• 1:21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um we have friendlies against Indie Premier in April.
• 1:21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we will play the Hawks, we'll play Nationals.
• 1:21:52
  SPEAKER_00: We always play, uh we got a good relationship with uh Demir and Jen and Liverpool guys.
• 1:21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 1:21:57
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll play those guys, those guys are our like our pre-playoff um, you know, friendlies before we go to California for playoffs.
• 1:22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then uh yeah, um Derek will bring in college coaches over the next you know month or so to come run training or just watch training sessions.
• 1:22:16
  SPEAKER_00: So um the idea is you know keep them in an environment where we know they're getting high-level training um and we know they're getting competition against top-level teams, yeah.
• 1:22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and also keep keep them under the microscope from a college recruiting standpoint.
• 1:22:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and not to say that none of the high school is providing any of that, but I mean I think you you know and everybody knows, like it it's just kind of if you if you're playing high school, you feel like you're kind of pulling yourself out of that college recruiting piece for a little while.
• 1:22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, so that's that's what we do right now.
• 1:22:49
  SPEAKER_01: How's uh how are uh how is every team's uh playoff chases going?
• 1:22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the United's finished second in the conference and actually got invited because Galaxy turned it down.
• 1:23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um we turned it down too because United.
• 1:23:04
  SPEAKER_00: They're all committed, yeah.
• 1:23:06
  SPEAKER_00: Or most of you know, and United, yeah, United everything has to be uh reevaluated, I think.
• 1:23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Especially with the World Cup coming this summer.
• 1:23:15
  SPEAKER_00: So um they actually got invited, aren't going.
• 1:23:18
  SPEAKER_00: The 09s won their conference, they qualified for playoffs.
• 1:23:21
  SPEAKER_00: The tens have qualified for playoffs.
• 1:23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um the 11s did not qualify through conference, so they're hoping for like a wild card through national standings.
• 1:23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and that's where Greensboro um will help them from that standpoint because um Greensboro does affect the national standings.
• 1:23:36
  SPEAKER_00: So if the 11s go there and have a good showing in that respect, they could get in.
• 1:23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh right now the 12s are in a playoff spot, knock on wood, and the 13s are in a playoff spot, you know.
• 1:23:49
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see those guys got a whole the little ones have a whole spring conference schedule still to play.
• 1:23:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:23:54
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, so it's uh it's crazy because they uh they redid last year.
• 1:24:00
  SPEAKER_00: We our conference in the GA encompass, um included Ohio and um sorry, Ohio and Indiana.
• 1:24:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:24:09
  SPEAKER_00: So we had a full year league schedule, which was great for us.
• 1:24:13
  SPEAKER_00: So we play like the in the falls, we play your FC United's and your soccer, and then in the spring we got to play indie premiere and Columbus and um uh Club Ohio.
• 1:24:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then this year they reconferenced by high school, so Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
• 1:24:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 1:24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so and that was the big change for us.
• 1:24:33
  SPEAKER_00: So we're very much doing something similar to what you know the Nationals and Hawks do now and putting together a spring season based on showcase events, you know, high-level friendlies against teams and stuff like that.
• 1:24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Love it.
• 1:24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um so playoff spot right now is good.
• 1:24:48
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see.
• 1:24:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's funny now the uh joke with like a deal and Tricia that the you know playoff and champions cup spots for next year lie with our youngest two kids for the rest of the season.
• 1:24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so a lot of weight on their shoulders, but um got two good groups, and you know, we're excited about what those guys are doing.
• 1:25:05
  SPEAKER_00: So love it, man.
• 1:25:06
  SPEAKER_00: See if the U-13s can keep it rolling.
• 1:25:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, it's a good starting point or jump offs, you know.
• 1:25:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's exciting.
• 1:25:17
  SPEAKER_01: But dude, thanks.
• 1:25:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for doing this.
• 1:25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thanks for doing it.
• 1:25:20
  SPEAKER_00: I was really nervous.
• 1:25:22
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 1:25:22
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 1:25:23
  SPEAKER_00: I've never never done it before.
• 1:25:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's just a conversation, yeah.
• 1:25:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I literally just like really get to know you.
• 1:25:28
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I've known of you for 20 years, so yeah, you know what I mean?
• 1:25:32
  SPEAKER_01: But now it's like and then you know, Paul's bringing me in and trying to just get the Jags influence really out there, you know, and the the first couple, especially the one with Paul, it was like I I'm getting messages from people from all over the country, like, man, I really learned a lot because of how the Jags do it, and like never really thought of it like this, and it's like, dude, it's gonna happen for every single one that I do with one of you guys because there's just so much you just gave me a deep dive in the GA today, which I love.
• 1:26:09
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, good.
• 1:26:10
  SPEAKER_01: I also love the Peter Remise stuff.
• 1:26:12
  SPEAKER_00: God, that was awesome listening to him.
• 1:26:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was like really it's funny because you do the like Paul, we do more stuff now, like the summit, uh the expo.
• 1:26:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, he wants to do a summer thing.
• 1:26:23
  SPEAKER_01: And that's really your like coaching education?
• 1:26:26
  SPEAKER_00: It is, yeah.
• 1:26:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's hard because it's um if I'm being honest, like you coach so much, and uh like I have a I have a wife, you know, and a dog, everybody's got lives, you know.
• 1:26:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we set this stuff up, and you know, like it's all good, but at times I'm like, you know, like like another day, you know, like especially for like Pete's staff, MS next, like on the road constantly, GA staff like gone constantly, like these people are giving up, you know, tens of days and you know, weeks of their lives and weekends and stuff to to to work for us and coach kids and work for families and players and stuff.
• 1:27:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like another day, you know.
• 1:27:04
  SPEAKER_00: So if I'm being honest, like sometimes my attitude isn't, and all these guys would laugh because they know I have a bad attitude, but you know, you go in kind of with like uh, you know, I you know, I could have been golfing or something today, or I could have stayed home and whatever.
• 1:27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then you roll in and like it never fails to amaze me where I'm just like not even just with the Vermise stuff, but the stuff they sprocket came in and talked to the club, you know, and just kind of did this, they went through some stuff and then opened it up for questions, and all these coaches start firing questions.
• 1:27:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's great because it's it's real life like problems with the sprocket have solutions, you know.
• 1:27:40
  SPEAKER_00: And um, like when Vermese started talking, and again it was cool because he just like he walked in, he's like, I don't have anything planned, I didn't write anything down.
• 1:27:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um he's like, 'Cause I just I don't like that stuff.
• 1:27:53
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, I don't like it.
• 1:27:54
  SPEAKER_00: What did he say?
• 1:27:55
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, he goes, Me putting a script together would like presume to know who you guys.
• 1:28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Are as club and where you're at and what what you need from me.
• 1:28:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, and I have no idea.
• 1:28:05
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, short of like knowing Steve Clark, and you know, I've talked to Paul now a bunch of times.
• 1:28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um he goes, I don't know what you guys want.
• 1:28:13
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, So go.
• 1:28:14
  SPEAKER_00: What what do you want to know?
• 1:28:16
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it took a while, you know, it's like a you know, you know, eighth grade classroom where everybody kind of looked around and somebody fired the first shot, and then it kind of steamrolled from there, you know, and you end up with like just some of the some of the best stories.
• 1:28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, he he does a really good job of like answering questions in a way that helps you, right?
• 1:28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like gives you some information and and a new maybe a new way to look at something, but also tied into like everything was a story, you know, about him and like told a story about like him and Balboa, uh like playing soccer tennis.
• 1:28:51
  SPEAKER_01: Playing, yeah, yeah.
• 1:28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Playing soccer tennis after games is recovery and just beating the crap out of everybody.
• 1:28:57
  SPEAKER_00: And uh what did he call it?
• 1:28:59
  SPEAKER_00: He called it uh he called it like the is it the fifth ace?
• 1:29:05
  SPEAKER_00: He said yeah, he said you gotta you guys you ought to you always gotta have five aces.
• 1:29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Four isn't enough.
• 1:29:10
  SPEAKER_00: You wanna be a good coach?
• 1:29:11
  SPEAKER_00: And this probably pertains a lot to pros because you're working with adults who are very good, the highest of their craft, probably egos are you know through the roof at times.
• 1:29:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, You gotta have five aces, four isn't enough.
• 1:29:24
  SPEAKER_00: So he told this story about him and um Balboa playing soccer tennis.
• 1:29:28
  SPEAKER_00: The head coach was pissed.
• 1:29:29
  SPEAKER_00: I remember Clubett was at he was pissed because him and Balboa just kept destroying everybody.
• 1:29:34
  SPEAKER_00: They won.
• 1:29:35
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I don't know, I don't know.
• 1:29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm I'm you know, I'm I'm amazing at soccer tennis.
• 1:29:40
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 1:29:40
  SPEAKER_00: So is so is Balboa.
• 1:29:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like we're just and together we're unstoppable.
• 1:29:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, if we he goes, I would I'll play anybody in the world in soccer tennis and and we'll win.
• 1:29:48
  SPEAKER_00: I guarantee it.
• 1:29:49
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, and I'm not that arrogant about anything else in my life, but I'm and so it will happen.
• 1:29:54
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, so he said the coach, he said, I didn't know why it was bothering him.
• 1:29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I know what he said.
• 1:29:59
  SPEAKER_00: Peter Vermise said he goes, I like to I like to talk though.
• 1:30:03
  SPEAKER_00: So the next day in the locker room, I made sure everybody is aware that what we had just done again today.
• 1:30:09
  SPEAKER_00: So like it, I let everybody know that I was better than him.
• 1:30:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it started to bother the coach, he said.
• 1:30:14
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, so the coach comes out the next time at soccer tennis and he goes, We're drawing names out of a hat.
• 1:30:20
  SPEAKER_00: And uh what was Belbo's first name?
• 1:30:23
  SPEAKER_01: Marcella.
• 1:30:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Marcelo Balbo.
• 1:30:24
  SPEAKER_00: So um he goes, so he hand he comes up to me, you know, trying to be a smart ass and hands um Peter Vermiz the hat and goes, draw a number, you know, like grinning and stuff, and he goes, and I swear to God, I didn't do anything, I had nothing to do with this.
• 1:30:41
  SPEAKER_00: I pull out the name, Marcelo Balbo.
• 1:30:45
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, he goes, now in this where I don't like to blame coaches, but he effed up because if you got a fifth ace in your pocket, Marcelo Balboa's name isn't in that hat, it's in your pocket, and you let me pick first, there's no way you can drop Marcelo Balboa and I turn around and I drop his name in the hat, and that way we can't play together.
• 1:31:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, We played together, we murdered everybody, and he goes, I thought his head was gonna explode.
• 1:31:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was just like good stories like that.
• 1:31:11
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, You gotta have five aces.
• 1:31:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I might be butchering the story.
• 1:31:14
  SPEAKER_00: No, he was saying, like, you gotta have one up on those guys because they're gonna try to screw, you know, wiggle out and up yourself.
• 1:31:21
  SPEAKER_01: At my first coaching convention, I think it was uh in Baltimore, I saw Marcelo Balboa playing soccer tennis, and I think it was Winalda was there too.
• 1:31:32
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if Vermish was there, but dude, I saw him and he was like next.
• 1:31:37
  SPEAKER_01: He had next, and he's like shaking, like he's so competitive.
• 1:31:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, dude, this is they're at a coaching convention and they're about to play soccer tennis, and they're so like competitive.
• 1:31:47
  SPEAKER_01: When we talk about winning over development, if you want to make it to that level, you better be like an assassin when you when you want to win.
• 1:31:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think that is kind of different loss.
• 1:31:58
  SPEAKER_00: I feel that way, I feel that way at any age.
• 1:32:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think one of the first things we're looking for, you know, like talked about the technical ability and stuff like that.
• 1:32:06
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, I love I mean one of my favorite qualities is just competitive.
• 1:32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I love that kid that just refuses to lose.
• 1:32:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like, find we'll find a way, you know, we'll find a way to make sure that it doesn't happen.
• 1:32:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, and if you surround yourselves with people like that, you know, coaches, you know, business partners, whoever it is, you know, like you're in a pretty good spot because you know those guys are always gonna bail you out.
• 1:32:30
  SPEAKER_01: I just saw I just saw Gary Vanderschuk post something, or he was saying something.
• 1:32:34
  SPEAKER_01: He was like, show me a kid that uh cries every time he loses at five years old, he's gonna be a winner when he's an adult.
• 1:32:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:32:42
  SPEAKER_01: Because he's just competitive and he refuses to lose.
• 1:32:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's funny.
• 1:32:46
  SPEAKER_00: We still I'm still the same.
• 1:32:47
  SPEAKER_00: We just went to uh went out to Bee Lean for their showcase.
• 1:32:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Zach and Matt, uh Rob took us to a place to play pickleball.
• 1:32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:32:57
  SPEAKER_00: Me, Trisha, and Crawford.
• 1:32:58
  SPEAKER_00: And uh me and Crawford got our butts kicked.
• 1:33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, butts kicked, and uh, two of the most competitive babies on the planet.
• 1:33:07
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it's funny because even at like 46 years old, you know, I won't I won't age Crawford, but older than me, you know, like we walk away and just pissed.
• 1:33:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, just pissed off.
• 1:33:19
  SPEAKER_00: And uh but it's fun, like that's that's what makes it fun, you know.
• 1:33:22
  SPEAKER_00: So love it, man.
• 1:33:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks for doing this, man.
• 1:33:24
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
• 1:33:24
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 1:33:25
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 1:33:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you.
• 1:33:27
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, brother.
• 1:33:28
  SPEAKER_00: Have any time.
• 1:33:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:33:30
  SPEAKER_00: I hate soccer.