Latest / I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth / I Hate Soccer #117 - Dean Muckle, Midwest United Girls Pre-Academy Director | Midwest United Series

Transcript

I Hate Soccer #117 - Dean Muckle, Midwest United Girls Pre-Academy Director | Midwest United Series · I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth

0:00
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0:25
SPEAKER_02: Dean Muckle is in his first year at Midwest United in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
0:31
SPEAKER_02: This is part of my club partnership with Midwest United, and this is the fourth episode.
0:37
SPEAKER_02: And he is coming from Rangers in Grand Rapids, where he's spent the last several years.
0:47
SPEAKER_02: He's originally from Newcastle, and he's been in the United States since 2013, and he came over to coach.
0:57
SPEAKER_02: Most English coaches they come over to play and then they end up coaching.
1:01
SPEAKER_02: He came over to coach.
1:03
SPEAKER_02: This was recorded a bit ago.
1:05
SPEAKER_02: So we actually talked a little bit about an England and World Cup, but we also just talk about coaching development, coaching development in the United States versus in England.
1:14
SPEAKER_02: Is England really developing young coaches?
1:18
SPEAKER_02: Do they care?
1:19
SPEAKER_02: We talk about how hard it was for him to make the switch or make the jump.
1:25
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we have similarities in our histories or in our careers where we had to make that tough choice.
1:32
SPEAKER_02: And we discussed that, and you might be going through that as well, where you think you want to make the jump to another club, and we we share our thoughts on that.
1:44
SPEAKER_02: Enjoy this episode and enjoy getting to know Dean.
1:49
SPEAKER_02: I hate soccer.
1:51
SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm so glad that we started talking about that, and that was off air.
1:54
SPEAKER_02: That was after we were done.
1:56
SPEAKER_02: Is like it doesn't the platform doesn't really matter.
2:00
SPEAKER_02: Right.
2:01
SPEAKER_02: It's about like, are we building a club or are we building an MLS next club?
2:06
SPEAKER_02: Are we building an ECNL club?
2:08
SPEAKER_02: It's like, no, we're building a club, and it doesn't matter what we're in because like look at this out here, look at this in here, yeah, look at all of you guys, all kind of like in the same direction and like together.
2:20
SPEAKER_04: At least at least that's what I see.
2:23
SPEAKER_04: It's always a narrative as well, right?
2:24
SPEAKER_04: Like, you know, I think parents are they're bought into the the the MLS next, the ECNL, the G, right?
2:32
SPEAKER_04: I think it's just about telling them that it doesn't really matter.
2:35
SPEAKER_04: It doesn't it doesn't really matter what level you're at in within context or within reason.
2:42
SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, I came from a lot of a s a lot smaller club, um, fire um rangers down the road.
2:49
SPEAKER_04: Yeah in Hudsonville.
2:50
SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah so it was I had a group that went from I took them all the way from like nine to nineteen.
2:57
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
2:58
SPEAKER_04: Uh girls group.
2:59
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
2:59
SPEAKER_04: And it was as long as we stayed together, it won't matter what level we're at.
3:06
SPEAKER_04: You know, the highest level we got to was Elite 64, right?
3:09
SPEAKER_04: Before that folded last year, or whenever however long it was, or a change of names, or you know, um it it and that changed, and then um, but we got like there's a there's a there's one player at MSU, um Ava Lucky, she plays on our USL.
3:26
SPEAKER_04: I coached her for 10 years, so it but it didn't really matter what where they went, you know.
3:32
SPEAKER_04: I got a kid at um Missouri State, um one at um one at Southern uh Southern University of Southern Indiana.
3:40
SPEAKER_04: Yeah um I think I get that name, butcher that all the time, but um yeah, and then another couple of kids at Grand Valley, won a ball state.
3:49
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
3:49
SPEAKER_04: So it I think that was our best group, and we got six, five or six division one.
3:55
SPEAKER_02: How long have you been uh how long have you been in Midwest since Rangers?
3:59
SPEAKER_04: Since February.
4:00
SPEAKER_04: Oh really?
4:01
SPEAKER_04: So I was at I was at Rangers, well it was Fire Juniors before that.
4:04
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
4:08
SPEAKER_04: 2013 to February.
4:12
SPEAKER_04: So I was there for 13 years.
4:15
SPEAKER_04: Um did a did a load of different roles.
4:18
SPEAKER_02: And it's still there, still there.
4:22
SPEAKER_04: And they uh they don't uh do they have a USLW or a uh uh uh U uh WPSL.
4:30
SPEAKER_02: WP S L.
4:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
4:32
SPEAKER_02: Did you do anything with them?
4:33
SPEAKER_04: No, because it was the year we the year we went out.
4:36
SPEAKER_04: So I was like heavily on the men's side.
4:38
SPEAKER_04: Oh okay with uh MPSL.
4:40
SPEAKER_04: Got it.
4:41
SPEAKER_04: So I was originally the last year GRFC was here before it became Midwest.
4:49
SPEAKER_04: So it was one one year of GRFC, USL, which myself and Stuart Collins coached.
4:57
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
4:57
SPEAKER_04: Um and then we tr then it it kind of folded into Midwest, um and GRFC was no longer a thing.
5:06
SPEAKER_04: Right.
5:07
SPEAKER_04: And then we went to Risers, Muskegon Risers, because they were NPSL for a year.
5:13
SPEAKER_04: We made it to the national semi-finals, then they stopped doing Alumby Lem Men's, and then Rangers took on the the MPSL bid.
5:24
SPEAKER_04: Got it.
5:24
SPEAKER_04: So it kind of like and then we did two years, and then that brings us to this season.
5:30
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
5:31
SPEAKER_04: So it was like the first year in like five, it would have been four, four or five years that I didn't do like a men's summer team.
5:39
SPEAKER_04: Right.
5:40
SPEAKER_02: So what what uh teams do you have now?
5:43
SPEAKER_04: None none right now.
5:44
SPEAKER_04: So I would like transition.
5:46
SPEAKER_04: I've just been around the girls program, really, yeah.
5:50
SPEAKER_04: Um just waiting for July, yeah.
5:55
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
5:55
SPEAKER_04: So I'll take on the U11 and U12 like pre-GA groups.
6:00
SPEAKER_04: Got it.
6:00
SPEAKER_02: So So Rudy, I mean, when I had Rudy on, he was talking about how like the girl side it's these uh uh one coach will have these two, and then another coach will have 13, 14, yeah, 15, 16, 17, 18.
6:17
SPEAKER_02: How like did Rudy tell you that's where you're going, or did you go like that's where I want to be?
6:24
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I've got to be.
6:25
SPEAKER_04: Well, it I think it's we had some like changes, like it some developments with like coach and stuff over the past like month.
6:31
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
6:31
SPEAKER_04: So I was never I was always taking the U12s.
6:34
SPEAKER_04: Got it.
6:35
SPEAKER_04: So they actually they're playing 11v11 next year, so part of the and I don't know if Rudy spoke about it, but part of like the GA Inspire, which is like the pre-GA.
6:45
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
6:46
SPEAKER_04: There's uh the U11s are playing 9v9, and then the U12s would play 11v11.
6:51
SPEAKER_04: So I was always gonna take the 12, the U12s, yeah, but the U11s, they were s they were gonna be coached by Emerson and Dino.
6:58
SPEAKER_04: Okay, but because of our because Steve left, Steve Herdsman, yeah, um, Emerson's full-time facilities.
7:07
SPEAKER_04: Got it.
7:08
SPEAKER_04: Um, and I took over the the U11s.
7:11
SPEAKER_04: So and it helps because the schedule's all the same, you know.
7:13
SPEAKER_04: Like if you go to Michigan Stars, yeah, then both teams will go.
7:18
SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean, instead of taking an extra coach.
7:21
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
7:22
SPEAKER_02: Because it's spy why are the 12s 11v11 and not 9v9?
7:27
SPEAKER_04: Not sure.
7:28
SPEAKER_04: I think it was just what was decided.
7:31
SPEAKER_04: Maybe, maybe.
7:32
SPEAKER_04: I think Rudy was on the like the I'm not saying the committee.
7:38
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, the call that um that decided whether it was 9v9 or 11v11.
7:42
SPEAKER_04: I think they decided to go 11v11.
7:44
SPEAKER_04: I don't know if it's just to kind of stay ahead of the the fold.
7:47
SPEAKER_04: I don't know if U12 pre-CNL are doing a LMV11.
7:51
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, they could be, they might not be.
7:54
SPEAKER_04: Um, but I think it's just the way that these organizations, right or wrong, right, you know, um, want to stay ahead.
8:03
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
8:04
SPEAKER_04: I I played 11v11 since I was eight.
8:07
SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
8:08
SPEAKER_02: We also play with like a size five bar.
8:11
SPEAKER_02: Like, what is the size four thing?
8:13
SPEAKER_02: Size three.
8:14
SPEAKER_02: Well, they play it, they'll play U12 or size four, which is smart, which is which is I think it's I I I think it's smart.
8:20
SPEAKER_02: I think at the MLS next level, I think U13s or U14s, not U14s, but U13s.
8:27
SPEAKER_02: They play four well, they play with a size four, and it makes sense.
8:30
SPEAKER_02: It does.
8:31
SPEAKER_02: I mean, but yeah, when I was nine years old, we were playing with a size five.
8:35
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
8:35
SPEAKER_02: And we were playing 11v11, pretty much.
8:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
8:37
SPEAKER_04: And like if you if you were to uh they obviously shorten the field, right?
8:40
SPEAKER_04: They make it shorter.
8:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they'll put like the 18 on top of the or the the goal on top of the 18 or a six or whatever.
8:47
SPEAKER_04: If you're ever playing on a field like our south field, which is huge, yeah, like it's max dimensions that you can be.
8:54
SPEAKER_04: Like if a kid's like 12 or 11 years old and they're playing on that field, like, and there's no adjustments to the size, yeah, then that would be you just be in an island.
9:04
SPEAKER_04: Like kids can't kick the ball more than 15 yards at that.
9:08
SPEAKER_02: Where are you originally from?
9:10
SPEAKER_04: Newcastle.
9:11
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
9:12
SPEAKER_02: Is it coming home?
9:13
SPEAKER_04: Uh we're not well we can we can talk about that later.
9:16
SPEAKER_04: We'll find out after we'll find out after the next game.
9:20
SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean okay, so uh growing up, when did you come over here?
9:26
SPEAKER_04: 2013.
9:27
SPEAKER_02: Oh, two things thirteen.
9:29
SPEAKER_02: Did you did you come over to play?
9:31
SPEAKER_04: No coach?
9:32
SPEAKER_04: No, I I I came over to coach.
9:33
SPEAKER_04: I graduated uh university back home.
9:36
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
9:37
SPEAKER_04: So I was 21.
9:38
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
9:38
SPEAKER_04: You know, I know it's typically the reverse, right?
9:41
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so we we're three years.
9:43
SPEAKER_04: Really?
9:44
SPEAKER_04: Three years in university at home.
9:46
SPEAKER_04: Is it more like classes at work?
9:47
SPEAKER_04: No, no, no, no.
9:48
SPEAKER_04: I would say the same.
9:49
SPEAKER_04: I don't know why it's three instead of four.
9:51
SPEAKER_04: So anyway, graduated that in 2013.
9:56
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
9:56
SPEAKER_04: Then came over because my my my brother lives in New Jersey, he's got a wife and a and a kid he coaches as well over at uh STA.
10:03
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
10:04
SPEAKER_04: Um so he um he was like, don't come over until you're 21.
10:08
SPEAKER_04: I was like, all right, fair.
10:11
SPEAKER_02: So because of the drinking age or what?
10:13
SPEAKER_04: I don't know, maybe, yeah.
10:16
SPEAKER_04: Wasn't a huge drinker anyway.
10:17
SPEAKER_04: I just I think he just said it would be a better experience.
10:21
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
10:21
SPEAKER_04: So I waited until after college, and I know a lot of guys come out here.
10:26
SPEAKER_04: We've got a couple on staff that are playing, you know, Aquinas, or you know, and they're in school playing, you know, or graduate assistant.
10:35
SPEAKER_04: I did the gra I did the graduate assistant gig as well.
10:37
SPEAKER_04: You know, I got my masters in um 17 through like 19.
10:43
SPEAKER_04: So I did that gig as well, coached at Davenport um on the women's side.
10:48
SPEAKER_02: Is that N A and I A?
10:50
SPEAKER_04: No, were D2 they were division two.
10:52
SPEAKER_04: D two?
10:53
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Legal.
10:54
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
10:54
SPEAKER_04: So they they were division two until 2016.
11:00
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
11:00
SPEAKER_04: I think it was the year after I came in.
11:03
SPEAKER_04: Um and then they they transitioned.
11:05
SPEAKER_04: What was your first job when you came over?
11:07
SPEAKER_04: So I was at I was at Fire.
11:09
SPEAKER_04: So I came over through a um Yeah, how?
11:12
SPEAKER_04: I came over through a coaching organization.
11:15
SPEAKER_04: They were called Youth Elite Soccer.
11:17
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
11:18
SPEAKER_04: Um, and they they brought European coaches to America to run their camps.
11:23
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
11:23
SPEAKER_04: And then also kind of work with clubs.
11:27
SPEAKER_04: So I stayed, I actually was was placed at Fire Juniors because they had a connection with Chicago Fire at the time.
11:35
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
11:35
SPEAKER_04: In Chicago Fire had a connection with youth elite soccer.
11:39
SPEAKER_04: So obviously the landscape's changed a little bit with immigration, and those camps are a little bit less, or those organizations are less.
11:48
SPEAKER_04: So I think 10 years ago, like even before that, 15 years, 16 years was the prime time for that.
11:54
SPEAKER_02: Well, a lot of it was like the GPS like scandal or whatever that happened.
11:59
SPEAKER_02: And we were in New York.
12:01
SPEAKER_02: I've spent the last 11 years in Buffalo, yeah, and that was kind of like a big thing because some of the people in Buffalo were behind the whole thing, or not behind the whole thing, but a large part of it.
12:14
SPEAKER_02: And it's just like it kind of stirred up some crazy stuff, and they were good people, they were good people, they're great coaches, and it just sucked because it it is so hard to get a visa or whatever.
12:26
SPEAKER_02: You guys, the paperwork.
12:27
SPEAKER_02: So it's like, yeah, and they were just trying to well yeah, it started it started out as let's just get these guys over here so that they can coach, and then it just turned into well, we can make money off of this.
12:43
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, because we're just charge people and blah blah blah blah blah.
12:47
SPEAKER_04: That was like even before that, so even before like the company that I said it was it was MLS Camps.
12:52
SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah.
12:53
SPEAKER_04: It was a huge organization that exactly the same thing.
12:56
SPEAKER_04: Um, and then like as soon as you were in it, so I was in it, I worked with Euthalite for like six years.
13:04
SPEAKER_04: So like went back and forth, got the same visa, and then all of a sudden it became like a problem.
13:11
SPEAKER_04: You know, like it just became like more difficult to get into the country.
13:15
SPEAKER_04: Really?
13:15
SPEAKER_04: You know, through whatever whether it was like on the US's end with immigration, you know, uh or something like that.
13:22
SPEAKER_04: Like I remember GPS kind of blown up.
13:24
SPEAKER_04: Um, there was another club in Lanson, like where national capital is.
13:29
SPEAKER_04: You know, when national capital areas at the used to be called Chill.
13:33
SPEAKER_04: Oh Chill SBC.
13:35
SPEAKER_04: So they had they were almost like 90%.
13:39
SPEAKER_04: They were part of that kind of thing too.
13:41
SPEAKER_04: 90% like foreign coaches.
13:43
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
13:44
SPEAKER_04: And there's actually a couple, there's actually a couple, there's there's a few that are there's a quite a few that are still in the country, but obviously different, different jobs, different clubs, you know, got married, had kids.
13:55
SPEAKER_04: Right, you know, um, and yeah, that that was another one that kind of went sour quick, um, and kind of disappeared.
14:05
SPEAKER_04: Like Chill's not a club anymore because Nationals is there.
14:08
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
14:08
SPEAKER_04: Um, I don't know if I think it actually transitioned to GPS, so went Chill GPS.
14:13
SPEAKER_04: There was a GPS in bitch, yeah.
14:15
SPEAKER_04: I didn't know that chill chill GPS, and then um, because they were like GPS buying Munich or whatever.
14:21
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
14:22
SPEAKER_02: And then um that was the big selling point.
14:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
14:24
SPEAKER_02: We'll get you over to Bayern, yeah, yeah.
14:26
SPEAKER_04: And then Nationals kind of came in and kind of cleaned everything up, yeah.
14:31
SPEAKER_04: And that guy that has a lot of money, I'd hope.
14:34
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, that owns that.
14:35
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and they're building now, they're building the dome down the down the road there, right?
14:40
SPEAKER_02: In Lansing, Lansing, yeah, just crazy.
14:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so okay, so you get here and you get hooked up with fire juniors.
14:51
SPEAKER_02: Was the junior was the fire juniors ever Grand Rapids crew?
14:55
SPEAKER_02: No.
14:55
SPEAKER_02: That that was pretty much what Midwest is now today.
14:57
SPEAKER_04: Correct, yeah.
14:58
SPEAKER_02: Okay, but when you got here, were you shocked about the level?
15:06
SPEAKER_02: Or did you were surprised by the level?
15:08
SPEAKER_02: Or like this they suck.
15:10
SPEAKER_04: This is no no, it was it was more.
15:13
SPEAKER_04: I think what I was surprised about was obviously was very young, kind of got thrown at the deep end, you know, four teams.
15:19
SPEAKER_04: You know, and back then it was like you nine boys, two teams, then you ten, second team, and then it was like you twelve, third team, or whatever.
15:29
SPEAKER_04: So it was um it was a lot of traveling, you know.
15:32
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
15:33
SPEAKER_04: It was cool with my comp the the company that I work for.
15:35
SPEAKER_04: They got you like a rental car, you kind of like just did your own thing, you're in a host family.
15:39
SPEAKER_04: But like the organization of the club was something that like I think at the time Fire had about 70 teams with no facilities.
15:48
SPEAKER_04: You know, they had like they released, they leased a bit of land in in Hudsonville, which they still do, and they had another field down the road, and then maybe another two like fields, but never owned anything, you know, and but had 70 teams that they had to like facilitate.
16:04
SPEAKER_04: So, and they managed to do it, you know.
16:06
SPEAKER_04: Boys DOC was English, girls DOC was American, uh technical director, um Dan McAllister, he he's not there anymore, but he was kind of the first person that I sp ever spoke to.
16:18
SPEAKER_04: Um, and he was American, you know, and it was just like it was crazy how they managed to fit like 70 teams, games, you know, events.
16:27
SPEAKER_02: Without having fields of your own.
16:28
SPEAKER_02: Without without yeah, without without being part of a community, uh township team or whatever.
16:35
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
16:36
SPEAKER_04: 100%.
16:36
SPEAKER_04: And then you obviously had ASO down the road, you know, crew was over here.
16:40
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
16:41
SPEAKER_04: Uh River City, like MFA slash River City Rascals, like slash AGR, whatever.
16:46
SPEAKER_04: They weren't like a thing back then.
16:48
SPEAKER_04: I think.
16:49
SPEAKER_04: Maybe they were very small, um, but like there wasn't much there wasn't much competing, you know.
16:56
SPEAKER_04: Right.
16:56
SPEAKER_04: Georgetown, like I think uh Georgetown.
16:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think are they still around?
17:01
SPEAKER_04: No, so that that's what Rangers are.
17:03
SPEAKER_02: That's what oh yeah, they turned into Rangers.
17:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's right.
17:07
SPEAKER_04: So the business name for Rain Michigan Rangers is Georgetown Rangers.
17:10
SPEAKER_04: They just like changed the DBA, don't they?
17:12
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
17:13
SPEAKER_04: So and that was a wild, I was part of the transition.
17:16
SPEAKER_04: I wasn't part of the transition for fi to fire, but I was part of the transition from fire to like rangers.
17:24
SPEAKER_04: So that was interesting trying to like figure out what makes sense to the to the people in this, and to the surrounding area, right?
17:34
SPEAKER_04: Because like we're not just like George, they weren't they well then they weren't just Georgetown Rangers, they were they had kids coming from like Travis City and Holland and I never really thought about that.
17:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so their geo de their geography wasn't just like don't just be called Lake Orion Soccer Club, be like Southeast Michigan, whatever.
18:00
SPEAKER_04: And I remember when I remember when I remember when Midwest turned Midwest and it was like the guys did a great job at like explaining why, you know, like why is it blue, you know?
18:14
SPEAKER_03: Why is it blue?
18:15
SPEAKER_04: I think it's blue because of the river.
18:17
SPEAKER_04: The water grand rapids oh really, yeah.
18:20
SPEAKER_04: And the water.
18:21
SPEAKER_02: I mean Lake Michigan is right right there.
18:23
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and then why it's called Midwest, because they represent the represent um Grand Rapids, you know, because it was Grand Rapids crew, right?
18:31
SPEAKER_04: That's smart.
18:32
SPEAKER_04: You don't just represent Grand Rapids crew and you or Grand Rapids people, it's everyone, you know.
18:37
SPEAKER_02: I have I I had my own like training company out in Buffalo, and I was always against the Jason Collinsworth Soccer Academy.
18:46
SPEAKER_02: Like I don't I hate that.
18:48
SPEAKER_02: I can't stand when people use like their own name.
18:50
SPEAKER_02: Get a name, yeah.
18:52
SPEAKER_02: Name it, name it something.
18:53
SPEAKER_02: So I named the playmaker training, you know, and but it's kind of like the same lines.
18:59
SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't want to make it about just me because I wanted something, I want to build something bigger than myself or whatever.
19:05
SPEAKER_02: But um, so when you got here, what did you think of like the level of the player?
19:10
SPEAKER_04: It was it was good.
19:11
SPEAKER_04: I think I had at the time when I went, like I was 20, I would have been just turned 21.
19:18
SPEAKER_04: Because I came out in July, birthday in June.
19:21
SPEAKER_02: 2013, you said 2013, yeah.
19:23
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
19:23
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so that makes me hold on, 21 or 20.
19:25
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, 13, 20.
19:26
SPEAKER_04: So I'm 34.
19:27
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
19:28
SPEAKER_04: Um now it was the top teams were good, you know, and I think especially like I had the Unine Boys Red, like some of those boys ended up playing in college or staying the whole way through, or ended up coming here or you know, going to other clubs and play college, which was cool, because like in England, college isn't the same, right?
19:47
SPEAKER_04: You know, you don't play.
19:50
SPEAKER_04: You don't play youth soccer in England to go to college.
19:54
SPEAKER_04: College.
19:54
SPEAKER_04: There are teams that colleges play for, and if you're a part of the the university, you have an opportunity to try like try out for them.
20:00
SPEAKER_04: Right.
20:01
SPEAKER_04: But like it's not the same NCAA beast, you know what I mean?
20:05
SPEAKER_04: You're not, it's not a it's not a money thing, it's not a conglomerate that NCAA is, right?
20:11
SPEAKER_04: They just the school puts on games and you play in a league and there's no draft, you know, stuff like that.
20:18
SPEAKER_04: Like, very rarely do you go from playing, you know, university to then going prof to professional academies.
20:27
SPEAKER_04: Right.
20:27
SPEAKER_04: You know, you're in there, you know, yeah, you're either in the professional academies or you're not.
20:32
SPEAKER_04: You might go play for like black spartans or like lower level, like it's professional because you get paid, but it's still like you're not it's not a livable wage, right?
20:42
SPEAKER_04: Or North Shields or Whitley Bay off off the black or like Blythe Town or things like that, which is are good levels, but like it's not the same as over here, you know.
20:51
SPEAKER_04: Um but um it was it it was eye-opening, you know, because I didn't I had a third girls team and they were I actually one of the host families that I stayed with was like a daughter played on that team, so it was like interesting to see how they were like all connected and how it would be like a blue team, the blue team level was like this, and the white team level was like this, but some kids could play on the white team, yeah, and stuff like that.
21:23
SPEAKER_04: So the level comparison girls' soccer in England at the time, like fifth not well, like 13 years ago, wasn't really huge, you know.
21:32
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
21:32
SPEAKER_04: Um now it's took off, you know.
21:34
SPEAKER_04: It was big over here when I came over here, but it's getting bigger in England.
21:38
SPEAKER_04: Like it's bigger than what it was.
21:41
SPEAKER_04: Um because I think at the time, thirteen years ago, there wasn't even like a women's professional league.
21:46
SPEAKER_02: I don't think so.
21:47
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I could be wrong.
21:48
SPEAKER_04: Um, but anyway, um level was good respective to like I think the level that you were coaching.
21:54
SPEAKER_04: Um again it was you nine, so like I s I was kind of thrown in at the deep end, you know.
22:00
SPEAKER_04: Didn't really haven't didn't earn my coaching stripes.
22:03
SPEAKER_04: But that at that time I was been coaching since I was 17 at that point, you know, very loosely, you know.
22:09
SPEAKER_04: Right.
22:10
SPEAKER_04: Um, but um obviously the business side of things was much bigger.
22:15
SPEAKER_02: It's crazy, and it's kind of like it's ran by the youth.
22:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like soccer in this country is ran by the youth because that's where all the money is for the most part.
22:25
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
22:25
SPEAKER_02: And then where everything else is more like top-down, and it's we yeah, well, you tried to develop players to sell them, but that's to sell them for like the top leagues, and you're trying to develop players where we it's kind of like we focused more like on the youth system, and it's a bottom-up system, yeah.
22:46
SPEAKER_02: Where we don't have like an a pyramid, we have like an inverted pyramid.
22:50
SPEAKER_04: So that makes sense, yeah.
22:52
SPEAKER_02: You know, and it's just I mean, did how much coaching over there did you did you do?
22:59
SPEAKER_04: Not not not a lot, probably a lot.
23:00
SPEAKER_04: Not a lot, probably one session a week.
23:03
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
23:04
SPEAKER_04: For that, like that through that three-year period.
23:07
SPEAKER_02: Somebody who told me that in in Europe, there's not like these tournaments and with or these complexes with a hundred fields or twenty fields like you will see at uh MLS next or uh GA event or an ECNL event.
23:24
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
23:24
SPEAKER_04: Is that true?
23:25
SPEAKER_04: There was actually there was a one of the clubs I worked for was like Killin', it was called Killingworth.
23:29
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
23:30
SPEAKER_04: And um they had a decent sized complex.
23:33
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
23:33
SPEAKER_04: Right?
23:33
SPEAKER_04: It was just like it wasn't Bermuda Grass or anything like that, and it was never maintained, you know, very well.
23:41
SPEAKER_04: Right.
23:41
SPEAKER_04: Didn't drain really well.
23:43
SPEAKER_04: Um, they had a men's team, but it was that was the place where like Saturday, Sunday games were hosted.
23:51
SPEAKER_04: So like everyone would come to that facility, every club, and just watch the games and play and play those games.
23:58
SPEAKER_04: Right.
23:58
SPEAKER_04: So you would be a part of the league.
24:00
SPEAKER_04: It was actually like the KY, PC, Killer Matthew People's Club, league.
24:04
SPEAKER_04: So they would like then people would enter the league and they would play at that facility, but there was there wasn't that many facilities like that, you know.
24:16
SPEAKER_04: Um I think they it ended up being what ended up changing was they did like younger ages just before I left, so it was like eight through twelve at that location, and this was before like we played like four v4 in 7v7, 9v9, like so it was just it was like 11v11 for all the kids.
24:37
SPEAKER_04: Um and then um it would be after that they kind of then it became a home away fixture.
24:46
SPEAKER_04: So like when you got to a certain age, you would then go play, you would still be a part of like Kill and West League, but then you would play like wide open and play Blythe.
24:55
SPEAKER_04: So you would go like away to wide open or away to Blythe to play games.
25:00
SPEAKER_02: When did when did England like adopt the 4v4 and the small side and and that's that's relatively new, yeah, yeah, yeah.
25:09
SPEAKER_02: In the last 20 years.
25:10
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well I think I think 4v4 for for Grand Rapids came in I want to say five years ago.
25:18
SPEAKER_04: Really?
25:19
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
25:19
SPEAKER_04: When I got to when I when I was to America, it was in 13, it was six v six six v6, eight v eight, eleven v eleven, yeah.
25:29
SPEAKER_04: So it was strange because I you know because everything's seven v seven.
25:33
SPEAKER_02: Well, even us, it was eleven v11.
25:35
SPEAKER_04: Everything's yeah, it was like even numbers and that didn't make sense to me.
25:38
SPEAKER_04: But like I think in England it changed in I wanna say it changed in like 2015, I think.
25:49
SPEAKER_04: Really?
25:50
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
25:51
SPEAKER_04: Um so again, not not like the small-sided aspect, you know.
25:57
SPEAKER_04: Did people fight it?
25:58
SPEAKER_04: I I think so, yeah.
25:59
SPEAKER_04: I think because they see as like well, I think let me think back, because I got a backtrack here.
26:05
SPEAKER_04: Cause I I played I played 11v11 pretty much all the way up.
26:10
SPEAKER_04: I think in first school and first school elementary, I was like, they played a smaller version of the game, I just can't remember what it was.
26:18
SPEAKER_04: I I can't map it out in my brain anymore.
26:21
SPEAKER_04: But then, like I said, it it ch I I was there like part kind of like the last year where they played like a Lem didn't play a small-sided format, so I just can't remember what that was, but I don't think 4v4 was implemented anywhere until maybe like the middle of 2000 and uh like the middle of 2015.
26:43
SPEAKER_02: Do you see what the FA is doing now?
26:45
SPEAKER_02: No, where like they're gonna play, is it 9v9?
26:50
SPEAKER_02: They're playing, they're not gonna do 11v11 until like 15, U15?
26:55
SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's supposedly what they're trying to do.
26:58
SPEAKER_02: And then part of me was like, wait a minute, if England, so since United States likes to copy everybody, like the flavor of the day, if England goes on and wins the whole thing, maybe we adopt that too, and we won't go to 11v11 until U15.
27:13
SPEAKER_02: But I mean, it's I love I don't know.
27:18
SPEAKER_02: I prefer smaller sided.
27:21
SPEAKER_02: I think we rush teams through.
27:22
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever going back to like the 11s and then the 12s?
27:26
SPEAKER_02: It's like I remember having a really good 12 girls team, and I'm like, we should go just play 11v11 just to get ready.
27:32
SPEAKER_02: And then like looking back, I'm like, we could have played at that time 8v8 again.
27:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, like what is the rush?
27:40
SPEAKER_02: It's like every all of us coaches want to rush so that we can coach 11v11 and then we want to coach the game, yeah, because you're finally coaching the game.
27:49
SPEAKER_02: Whereas some of us don't feel like 9v9, 7v7 is the game.
27:53
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
27:54
SPEAKER_04: Do you think that's like I think it's all dependent on like field size as well, because obviously you've got your minimum, your maximums, right?
28:01
SPEAKER_04: You know, even at north and southfield here, like the north's the north field is slightly bigger.
28:07
SPEAKER_04: We have one, so the south of M V11 field's as big as it can get, right?
28:12
SPEAKER_04: Right.
28:12
SPEAKER_04: The north of M V11 is smaller, so you can only fit one 9v9 on that field, whereas you can fit two on two on um on the south field.
28:21
SPEAKER_04: Right.
28:22
SPEAKER_04: And the southfield 9v9, I think, are like lengthwise, same size, widthwards, a little narrower.
28:27
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
28:28
SPEAKER_04: So I I just think it all depends because then you go to you go away to Detroit and you're playing on a narrow field, and yeah, two weeks, you know, you're in the middle of May, and all the girls have like sprouted up, and it just feels like everyone's on top of each other, you know.
28:43
SPEAKER_04: I think that's what I always thought about, you know, like if you're not if you don't based on your team, it it should be based on your team how you advance.
28:52
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
28:52
SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
28:53
SPEAKER_04: Um, but I think leagues kind of force players, force players who aren't ready, and they have to either adapt or not to to play in at the level that they might not be ready to play at, if that makes sense.
29:10
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
29:10
SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, you could have out of a team of 16, you could have 10 players ready and six players who aren't.
29:18
SPEAKER_04: And then it's just about how clubs, you know, how clubs improve the six players who might not be ready yet to be eventually ready, you know.
29:29
SPEAKER_04: And I don't think it's like it might be a physical kind of thing, you know.
29:33
SPEAKER_04: Big players are seen to cover more space earlier, but I think it's just the coach.
29:40
SPEAKER_04: It's it's the coach and the club's ideas around things.
29:45
SPEAKER_02: Why did you come over here and think like, oh, I'm gonna be boys, or I'm gonna go over here and I wanna be girls, or like what didn't didn't really know.
29:55
SPEAKER_04: Like it was my first I had I had a couple I just want to go to Midwest.
29:58
SPEAKER_04: I had to see what happens.
29:59
SPEAKER_04: I had a couple of part-time jobs, worked with my dad.
30:04
SPEAKER_04: My dad was owned his own like building company.
30:06
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so I worked with him kind of full-time, but um I was just coming over to work and coach.
30:14
SPEAKER_04: I didn't really know what I was gonna do after my undergrad, I did like a sports science degree, yeah, which could have gone anywhere.
30:21
SPEAKER_04: Um I think at one point I was gonna be a nutritionist or a physiotherapist, or like a PT.
30:27
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
30:28
SPEAKER_04: And that changed very quickly.
30:31
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then it um And this is back uh university uh back home.
30:36
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, back home, yeah.
30:38
SPEAKER_04: Back home.
30:39
SPEAKER_04: So I was like, I just want to come out and see what it's like.
30:42
SPEAKER_04: It kind of against my mum's wishes because my brother had already left us.
30:46
SPEAKER_04: Sure, you know.
30:47
SPEAKER_04: My brother's nine years older than than me, so she was like, you're not gonna do it, not gonna lose another one, you know, but we're still here.
30:56
SPEAKER_02: So how often do you get to go back home?
30:58
SPEAKER_04: Haven't been back home in a bit.
31:00
SPEAKER_04: Because of um got married in got married, what would be five years this October?
31:06
SPEAKER_04: So got married in October 22.
31:09
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
31:10
SPEAKER_04: COVID.
31:10
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know, well it was still COVID.
31:12
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know.
31:13
SPEAKER_01: That was, yeah.
31:14
SPEAKER_04: So it was um it's just been, and especially with like immigration rules, like if you get married, you have to, it's a two-year.
31:21
SPEAKER_04: I'm always fear I I fear that if I I'm on a I'm a permanent resident right now, right?
31:26
SPEAKER_04: But like I still always have in the back of my mind, I'm like, if I leave, are they gonna stop me from coming in?
31:31
SPEAKER_04: You know, that'd be ridiculous.
31:34
SPEAKER_04: Which is what you hear you hear some.
31:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but you hear some horror stories for sure.
31:40
SPEAKER_04: But like, so anyway, having been back.
31:41
SPEAKER_04: Uh my family's been out obviously this way.
31:44
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
31:45
SPEAKER_04: Um, but um, yeah, just haven't been back in ages, probably like seven years.
31:52
SPEAKER_02: Really?
31:52
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
31:53
SPEAKER_02: See, that's what I think that's an underrated thing about all you guys that are over here.
31:57
SPEAKER_02: It's like I get homesick when I lived in Buffalo four hours away.
32:04
SPEAKER_02: What do you guys do?
32:06
SPEAKER_02: Like, you know what I mean?
32:07
SPEAKER_02: And then I always like I'll send like a Mother's Day message like, guys, don't forget, all of your coaches are away from their moms, and some of them are uh really away from their moms, you know what I mean, and and stuff like that.
32:20
SPEAKER_02: And it's like, how but you gotta still get homesick, right?
32:25
SPEAKER_04: Or not really, or is it sometimes I think like, yeah, my mom, my dad, and my sister are back home, uh-huh, but like I have two kids, I have two kids here and a wife, yeah.
32:37
SPEAKER_04: So like I think it's not just one home now, it's like two, which is crazy.
32:44
SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, but it it definitely changes.
32:47
SPEAKER_04: There's definitely times, and and I'm only a phone call away, you know, FaceTime.
32:50
SPEAKER_04: That's true.
32:51
SPEAKER_04: So like only a phone call away to to chat, but yeah, I think the last time the last time my parents came out and my sister, so everyone, and my brother from New Jersey, but that's a bit easier, was like I have a three-year-old, and she was like one and a half.
33:09
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
33:10
SPEAKER_04: So it's been one like one and a half years, just over like two years.
33:13
SPEAKER_04: Good.
33:14
SPEAKER_04: So and it it's like I said, I'm terrified to fly with children.
33:18
SPEAKER_04: So because I when I get on, like I come on a flight with California, and the first thing you look for is like, where's the children?
33:25
SPEAKER_04: You know.
33:28
SPEAKER_04: Cause I'm just like, yeah, that kid's gonna cry.
33:30
SPEAKER_04: Put the headphones in.
33:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and then you're so shocked when a baby's quiet.
33:34
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you just want to talk to the mom and be like, he was so good.
33:40
SPEAKER_02: I actually did that on my last flight uh from Utah.
33:43
SPEAKER_02: I was at MLS next um playoffs, and I flew back and I'm like, kind of like that.
33:49
SPEAKER_02: I was like, oh god, I'm right behind a baby that's gonna just probably ballistic cold the whole flight.
33:56
SPEAKER_02: And I didn't even know he was there.
33:58
SPEAKER_02: That's wild.
34:00
SPEAKER_02: But uh do you how many okay?
34:04
SPEAKER_02: First of all, why did you never go to New Jersey?
34:07
SPEAKER_04: That was just I just got placed here.
34:09
SPEAKER_02: You got placed here and you stayed here.
34:11
SPEAKER_04: You fell in love with it.
34:12
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
34:13
SPEAKER_04: Well, it reminds me a bit of back home, you know what I mean?
34:15
SPEAKER_04: Like it's not like they could have shipped me anywhere, you know, they could have put me in Chicago, New York City, yeah.
34:21
SPEAKER_04: Some they could have put me anywhere across the country.
34:24
SPEAKER_04: And LA.
34:27
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
34:27
SPEAKER_04: I think it yeah.
34:28
SPEAKER_04: I just had my first experience of northern, like California, like last week, yeah, with the Girls' Academy event.
34:35
SPEAKER_04: So that was wild.
34:36
SPEAKER_04: Like I've never seen mountains before, and I just kept done like the huge like couldn't believe how big they were.
34:43
SPEAKER_04: But anyway, um, yeah, just fell in love with it, just fell in love with the people and the culture, yeah, you know, and I think it was great because it's like everything it was soccer was trying to grow, or it still is, you know.
34:57
SPEAKER_04: Um and then I think I got invested in like a club, you know, like ever since I was young playing for a certain club, you would have like your derby days, you know.
35:09
SPEAKER_04: I think that it was always it was for for for 13 years, it was always me with Rangers against Midwest.
35:18
SPEAKER_04: So it was always who we're fighting, you know, how we're gonna fight, how we're gonna combat them.
35:23
SPEAKER_04: And I wasn't just like a coach, I was like one of the directors.
35:27
SPEAKER_04: So ran a lot of things like in the back, the back side of things.
35:32
SPEAKER_04: Um but now I just yeah, changed.
35:36
SPEAKER_04: And now it's now it's us, you know, Midwest against Was that hard?
35:42
SPEAKER_04: Against everyone.
35:42
SPEAKER_02: Was that hard going from the dark side go to the dark side?
35:47
SPEAKER_04: Go to the light.
35:48
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was um it it wasn't.
35:51
SPEAKER_02: I think it was for the people Did you think it was like a like a it was written on the wall?
35:56
SPEAKER_02: It was like uh eventually.
35:58
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I I think it was it was just a it was just I think it was the right time for my me and my family.
36:05
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and I think that's what I told everyone, you know.
36:08
SPEAKER_04: I could was really good friends with people back at ranges, you know, and it was um it was tough to make the decision, um, but it was it was the right choice.
36:20
SPEAKER_02: Did they still good?
36:23
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, uh we'll find out, you know what I mean?
36:26
SPEAKER_04: I think time, time, you know, and it's not just it's not just that side, it's it's me as well.
36:31
SPEAKER_04: Like I've gotta be a bit more of course, yeah.
36:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean I was in your shoes 2011.
36:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I left my small club, it's not even around anymore, it's called Lobos.
36:50
SPEAKER_02: Okay, Lake Orient, well, it used to be called like Lake Orient Brandon Oxford Select.
36:54
SPEAKER_02: Remember like the town name or whatever.
36:57
SPEAKER_02: But uh, and then in it well, I was part of Lake Orion Soccer Club, and we merged or kind of took over Lobos, and then I it was right around the time that that the DEA started and the ECNL started, and I was like, I kind of want to go and coach at that level because I've had a taste of that level through back when ODP really mattered, yeah, and I was around a lot of high-level players, and I'm like, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go.
37:25
SPEAKER_02: And I left that small club to go to Vardar, and and it was tough.
37:34
SPEAKER_02: That's a tough thing for coaches to do because you don't know how you're gonna be perceived when you go back and have to play against them or coach against them or just see them around.
37:44
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
37:45
SPEAKER_02: And it's a lot of a lot of coaches are scared to make the jump or make that leap.
37:52
SPEAKER_02: And it's like, guys, this is like my career.
37:55
SPEAKER_02: This isn't a hobby.
37:57
SPEAKER_02: No, this isn't my like I'm not a engineer in the day, and then I do this at night for fun.
38:04
SPEAKER_02: I'm trying to do this professionally, yeah.
38:08
SPEAKER_02: And uh this is the only way that I can climb.
38:10
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
38:11
SPEAKER_04: And I think for for me it was it was a natural kind of end to my j journey at Rangers, because I'd like I had graduate I had had the kids, I had a team, so I had a team at U9, so this was this would have been like 15.
38:27
SPEAKER_04: This would have been like 2015, I think.
38:29
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
38:29
SPEAKER_04: And then the birth year switch 15-16.
38:32
SPEAKER_04: So they like split up into two.
38:33
SPEAKER_04: So I ended up coaching, it would have been it was U10 and U11s, and I took them all the way through.
38:40
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
38:40
SPEAKER_04: And last year was like the last group.
38:44
SPEAKER_04: All albeit I last, yeah, albeit I left them like a month before the end of the season, they still like they're in the ECNLRL uh right playoffs right now.
38:52
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
38:53
SPEAKER_04: But it was just a case of it was just a case of right moment, you know, kids had graduated out, some had went division one, some went division two, division three, and it was just the right time to say, you know what, I think I I think I have to do something else, you know, because you're right, it is it is our career, um, you know, and I think there's a lot of like I don't know if stigma is the right word, like with people leaving in towns, right?
39:20
SPEAKER_04: So I live in Wyoming.
39:21
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
39:22
SPEAKER_04: So I drove that way to Hudsonville, or we actually trained at Davenport, but like 20 minutes to Davenport, 18 minutes to here.
39:31
SPEAKER_04: So like I think there's a lot of stigma around people who leave and trying to take players away.
39:36
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
39:37
SPEAKER_04: And especially the change with MSYSA, right?
39:39
SPEAKER_04: They kind of abolished the poaching, they abolished the poaching rules because they never enforced them, right?
39:45
SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
39:45
SPEAKER_02: So like like when you would leave, yeah.
39:48
SPEAKER_04: So there was rules back then where if you left, so say I was the U11 coach and I think we'd coach the same age group, but then they kind of abolished that because there was ways around it.
39:58
SPEAKER_02: There's ways around it, and like if you were under US club soccer, you can do whatever the hell you want.
40:03
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
40:03
SPEAKER_04: And it was only like I think that was I I don't even think in my time that was like once it was enforced, but anyway, so I think the the stigma is that if a coach who lives in the area leaves to a a competitive a competitor, then players will follow, right?
40:19
SPEAKER_04: Or they like they leave.
40:22
SPEAKER_04: But I think in that sense, if a coach is doing a really good job with his players and a club doesn't have like a sus a succession plan, right, then it's not the failure of the coach that's leaving.
40:37
SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
40:39
SPEAKER_04: Um so and I don't think it's I don't think I've even I don't know of all the coaches that have left in the Rangers days, I don't know if any player or any coach has been like you lot are coming with me to X Club.
40:52
SPEAKER_04: Right, you know, um I think especially in this area because then you just you have a you get a bad name for yourself, you know.
41:01
SPEAKER_04: Um unless people rather reach out, you know what I mean?
41:04
SPEAKER_04: Like like I said, if a coach is doing a great job and people connect like after they've left, I think it's fake, you know.
41:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I mean that's tough too, because I was sick of losing kids to Vardar.
41:20
SPEAKER_02: That was part of it too.
41:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, I was I I I constantly lost kids.
41:26
SPEAKER_02: Part of it was my own my own undoing because I coached with some guys um through the ODP that coached in the DA, and they just taught me everything about the DA.
41:37
SPEAKER_02: And so I had this like young boys team, and then I would tell their parents, and like, and I would hang out with their parents, like, DA, DA, this is unbelievable.
41:45
SPEAKER_02: This is where it's at, this is where it's at.
41:47
SPEAKER_02: And so when those boys got to like 11, they're like, bye, we're going to the DA club because you tour is.
41:52
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, damn it.
41:53
SPEAKER_02: It's like, why did I have to do that?
41:55
SPEAKER_02: So I kind of like I did it myself, yeah, and that's what ended up happening, and and I was like, guys, you guys, this is a really good boys team.
42:04
SPEAKER_02: It beat one of like Remco's like Grand Rapids crew teams, and then they all just went to Vardar, and it was like, okay, I get it.
42:12
SPEAKER_02: And then and then I had another girls team that was kind of similar.
42:17
SPEAKER_02: It's like ECNL, ECNO, ECNL.
42:20
SPEAKER_02: And it's like, wait a minute, this time when you guys all go to the ECNL, I'm coming with you.
42:26
SPEAKER_02: Right.
42:26
SPEAKER_02: And now I didn't coach them at Vardar, but I'm like, this time I'm going because if I'm good enough to help develop players get to that level, I know that I can coach at that level.
42:37
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
42:38
SPEAKER_02: That's that was my thought process.
42:40
SPEAKER_02: And so, but yeah, and it's hard.
42:44
SPEAKER_02: It's hard making that decision.
42:45
SPEAKER_02: And it's it's it's not easy.
42:49
SPEAKER_02: It's not easy making that phone call, especially when when that phone call is going to one of your mentors that taught you almost every single thing you know.
42:57
SPEAKER_02: That was what my situation was like.
43:00
SPEAKER_02: It's like, um, man, I am leaving.
43:02
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to where you just came from.
43:06
SPEAKER_04: But I think I think if I can attest to that, it was just there's always a especially in soccer, right?
43:14
SPEAKER_04: Or at soccer clubs, like there's always like professional personal, right?
43:19
SPEAKER_04: Um, or like um business friend, you know, kind of lines.
43:24
SPEAKER_04: So I'd my the boss at Rangers was um he was in my wedding.
43:29
SPEAKER_04: So like back in 22, he was in my he was at my wedding.
43:34
SPEAKER_04: Um you know, and it was just there was never anything personal, you know what I mean.
43:38
SPEAKER_04: I think I think that's where you've got to draw the line.
43:40
SPEAKER_04: And I was very like when I made the call, I was like, this is what I'm gonna say, this is what I'm gonna stick to, you know, because at the end of the day, there's no like I don't wanna hurt anyone's feelings by a decision that I have to make for myself and and my family, you know.
43:59
SPEAKER_02: And and And I think that takes some time too, is like realizing the kids left.
44:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
44:05
SPEAKER_02: And that wasn't personal either.
44:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
44:07
SPEAKER_02: No.
44:08
SPEAKER_02: It's just like our club, you're going to a massive club, and I know that like at the time, you're going to a massive club, and I know that they have the level that you want to try to compete at.
44:21
SPEAKER_02: And we just cannot provide that where we currently are.
44:25
SPEAKER_02: When I was 25, 26, I did not look at it like that.
44:30
SPEAKER_02: I was, I took it personally.
44:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
44:33
SPEAKER_02: And I thought, uh, I'm not good enough.
44:37
SPEAKER_02: I'm not like, is this really what I want to do?
44:40
SPEAKER_02: Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
44:41
SPEAKER_02: And it just, you know, it sucks.
44:45
SPEAKER_04: When did you um how long were you at Voldo for?
44:48
SPEAKER_02: Uh, two years.
44:49
SPEAKER_02: And then I went to the Western New York Flash.
44:55
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
44:55
SPEAKER_02: Uh, Western New York Flash in Buffalo.
44:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
44:58
SPEAKER_02: Uh, they were in a part of the NWSL.
45:00
SPEAKER_02: And I went to go do their goalkeeping, and I was only with them for one year.
45:05
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
45:06
SPEAKER_02: Uh, got to coach, let's see, uh Lynn Williams, who's a national team player.
45:11
SPEAKER_02: Sam Mewis, who's now retired, um, played at UCLA.
45:15
SPEAKER_02: Uh, Abby Dahlkemper also played at UCLA.
45:18
SPEAKER_02: And who else?
45:21
SPEAKER_02: And then a couple other pros, like Sidney LaRue was there for like two weeks because it was a World Cup year.
45:27
SPEAKER_02: It was 2015.
45:29
SPEAKER_02: And uh, and then when I got to Buffalo, I just realized how far behind they are compared to where Southeast Michigan was at the time.
45:37
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, I I I could stay here and I can make it, I thought I can make an impact.
45:43
SPEAKER_02: So I started doing my own technical training company, and then I eventually got my own facility and everything, and and all the top players, it's really good girls uh area.
45:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
45:56
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we put a lot of girls in the power for college and whatnot, and a lot of them would train with me and uh train them for 10, 11 years, but then this podcast started because the players that I started coaching at like nine were going into college, I wanted to have those kids on to talk about their college recruiting process, and that's where the podcast started, and then it kind of like blew up within the the first when once I got consistent, it it got it blew up, and then I was like, you know what?
46:34
SPEAKER_02: If I can do this in Buffalo and it's blowing up, what if I went home?
46:39
SPEAKER_02: What if I went back to Michigan where it's actually a hotbed?
46:42
SPEAKER_02: We really have two hotbeds, if you think about it.
46:44
SPEAKER_02: We have a southeast Michigan, and now we have a gr and we have a Grand Rapids hot hotbed.
46:49
SPEAKER_02: It's like, wait a minute, why don't I just go there and just see what happens?
46:52
SPEAKER_02: And then now it's just I'm doing this full time basically right now and just growing.
47:00
SPEAKER_02: I want to I'm trying to grow into like the Chicago area.
47:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I'm actually planning a trip to uh New Jersey, actually.
47:09
SPEAKER_02: And because I have some good contacts in New Jersey, and I want to go and kind of do like a tour.
47:15
SPEAKER_02: Like I want to go talk to the Cedar Stars guys, I want to go talk to Red Bulls guys, I want to talk to there's a lot of personal trainers there, and New Jersey is a hotbed.
47:24
SPEAKER_02: Like your brother, I'm sure, can tell you like I mean, I'm amazed you never went out there, but uh, you like to hear.
47:33
SPEAKER_02: So, like in the World Cup right now, what's the biggest news?
47:37
SPEAKER_02: It's all the Europeans coming over here and like falling in love with the United States, right?
47:43
SPEAKER_02: Was that your experience?
47:44
SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, or your brothers when you got here?
47:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, a little bit.
47:47
SPEAKER_02: What is this big gulp?
47:49
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I was like I was kind of astounded by like the freedom you had.
47:56
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
47:56
SPEAKER_04: Like drive anywhere, yeah, you know, go anywhere, like didn't wasn't a huge fast food guy back home, but like that changed when I got here.
48:08
SPEAKER_04: Um, and then it was like because everything's a walking distance back home, you know.
48:13
SPEAKER_04: You leave your house, you walk up, like they have like cycle paths where people just walk to the shops, get groceries, walk back.
48:21
SPEAKER_04: Very rarely do you drive.
48:23
SPEAKER_04: Right.
48:23
SPEAKER_04: You know, if if you ever go anywhere, you like if you're going in like in Newcastle, because I lived slightly north of Newcastle, yeah.
48:30
SPEAKER_04: So if you if you went anywhere, you just jumped on a bus, you know, and I know buses aren't the thing you jump on over here, right?
48:38
SPEAKER_04: Unless you really need to.
48:39
SPEAKER_04: But like over there it was like, well, you everyone would get on the bus.
48:44
SPEAKER_04: Like everyone you if you were going to watch Newcastle, you would get on a bus.
48:49
SPEAKER_04: You know, if you if you were close to a train, you would jump on a train, you know, but like everything over here you just jump in your car and go.
48:56
SPEAKER_04: You know, and like my mum's always like like perplexed how we can like drive eight hours to St.
49:03
SPEAKER_04: Louis in one day, because that's like the length of England.
49:08
SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
49:09
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and I'm just like, yeah, you just do it, you know, you just get in and you go and it's easy.
49:15
SPEAKER_04: You know, roads are straight, in England they're not, you know, but because you've got to traverse mountains and stuff, but like it um yeah, it was wild the freedom that you had over here.
49:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
49:29
SPEAKER_02: Do any of your friends back home coach?
49:32
SPEAKER_02: How hard is it to like coach over there?
49:36
SPEAKER_02: And you can't like make a living, right?
49:38
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, to be honest, didn't really have a huge friend group back home, just like age and stage and stuff.
49:44
SPEAKER_04: Okay, but like I know a lot of guys now that are like coaches over there and they yeah, they make like 30 grand.
49:52
SPEAKER_04: We have to coach four nights a week and they have to work nine to five as well.
49:56
SPEAKER_04: So it's like I know one guy's in Sunderland, the Sunland Academy, like the youth setup, and he um yeah, he he does that full time, but like nothing like what's out here.
50:11
SPEAKER_04: You know, like I in in my wildest dreams I couldn't imagine doing this like 16 years, like 13 years ago, doing what I want to do, um, supporting my family, you know, and and and it being albeit there's times where it's very, very busy, it's a super flexible job, you know.
50:31
SPEAKER_04: Obviously you're trying you're coaching at the night times, you know, you might have to you might have to reschedule, you know, day night or whatever once in a while, but like it um it's definitely um something I couldn't imagine.
50:46
SPEAKER_04: Right, you know.
50:48
SPEAKER_02: I mean, how did you obviously you came over here in the first place to coach?
50:56
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
50:57
SPEAKER_02: I mean, because of the you know the Midwest or the uh the MLS camps and everything.
51:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
51:01
SPEAKER_02: And how like when did you know that you wanted to coach?
51:06
SPEAKER_02: Because you were originally gonna be a PT.
51:09
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, or nutritionist PT or a nutritionist, yeah.
51:11
SPEAKER_04: Uh huh.
51:12
SPEAKER_02: Which is what your wife does.
51:14
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, pretty much, yeah.
51:15
SPEAKER_02: Is that how you guys met?
51:16
SPEAKER_04: No, no.
51:17
SPEAKER_04: She um she was um she uh was actually a coach at Rangers when I was there.
51:26
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
51:27
SPEAKER_04: Awesome.
51:27
SPEAKER_04: We kind of hit it off.
51:28
SPEAKER_04: Did she play?
51:29
SPEAKER_04: She did, she was Division I uh played at Central.
51:33
SPEAKER_02: Oh nice.
51:33
SPEAKER_04: She played at Central for a little bit.
51:35
SPEAKER_04: She's from Allendale area, so like around close to Grand Valley.
51:39
SPEAKER_02: What's her name?
51:40
SPEAKER_04: Aubrey DeRue.
51:42
unknown: Aubrey DeRue.
51:43
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
51:44
SPEAKER_04: What years was she at Central?
51:45
SPEAKER_04: She would have been at Central.
51:47
SPEAKER_04: Um let me do a math here.
51:51
SPEAKER_04: She graduated 2022.
51:55
SPEAKER_04: But she had a fit she was like sixth year with the COVID.
51:59
SPEAKER_04: Okay, got it.
52:00
SPEAKER_04: It was like COVID year.
52:01
SPEAKER_04: I think she was at she must have been at Central like 2017.
52:05
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
52:06
SPEAKER_04: So 17, 18.
52:07
SPEAKER_04: Then she went 19 to Traveka Nazarene.
52:11
SPEAKER_04: Got it.
52:11
SPEAKER_04: Uh COVID-20.
52:14
SPEAKER_04: And then went to went to Grand Valley just to play club after that.
52:19
SPEAKER_04: So does she still coach?
52:21
SPEAKER_04: No, not a couple of things.
52:22
SPEAKER_04: Just as the PG?
52:23
SPEAKER_04: No, not not since we had kids.
52:25
SPEAKER_02: And just private or physical is she a private trainer?
52:28
SPEAKER_04: Person, yeah, personal trainer.
52:29
SPEAKER_02: Personal trainer.
52:30
SPEAKER_02: Uh d does she work out of a gym or does she do a home?
52:33
SPEAKER_04: Gym, gym at Bell House.
52:34
SPEAKER_04: It's in Barracksummer.
52:36
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
52:36
SPEAKER_04: So yeah.
52:37
SPEAKER_02: Um did you have any uh interest in getting back into that?
52:41
SPEAKER_04: Heavens no.
52:43
SPEAKER_04: Why is that?
52:44
SPEAKER_04: Well, I just I think ever since ever since I graduated, it was like pick a path.
52:49
SPEAKER_04: Pick a path and stay.
52:52
SPEAKER_04: You know?
52:52
SPEAKER_04: And like I've had a few sales jobs like on the side over the past like years.
52:59
SPEAKER_04: But like it just It never really like I'm always type A anyway, so like tell tell me something to do and I'll do it.
53:07
SPEAKER_04: And I'll do it like I'll do it until you tell me to stop, right?
53:11
SPEAKER_04: But um the sales jobs were just a bit they were monotonous, you know, and like committing to like committing to it a hundred percent was so difficult, you know, whereas coaching you can do that um easily, you know, because I've been around the game and I've coached a lot and I've been at the various levels and played it when I was younger, so and now I'm gonna I'm getting older and my legs are starting to I know I'm only 34, but like my legs are starting to get worse and the the disconnect between brain and feet is it's like I used to be able to do this all the time and I can't do it anymore.
53:51
SPEAKER_02: It sucks.
53:51
SPEAKER_04: Like I think so we got back from we got back from California there, and there was days where you would like and I've done them before, but like you would leave at eight, and then you would get back at eight, and you would have all like give coach four games, right?
54:05
SPEAKER_04: And that albeit that's you know eight hours, but like you're just like wiped.
54:11
SPEAKER_04: Like I remember getting back, getting getting back, shower, lie down out.
54:16
SPEAKER_02: Do you remember like the first time you ever had like a tournament or a c like a day of coaching?
54:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and how exhausted you used to be.
54:25
SPEAKER_04: But one of the things that I couldn't prepare myself for was the heat over here.
54:28
SPEAKER_04: So I came out in the middle of July.
54:30
SPEAKER_04: So that is real.
54:30
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
54:31
SPEAKER_04: Middle of July nights.
54:32
SPEAKER_04: Talking about that, too.
54:33
SPEAKER_04: Middle of July, 90 odd degrees.
54:35
SPEAKER_04: I think I had a camp, I had a camp up near like where did we have it?
54:41
SPEAKER_04: It was like Ravenna.
54:43
SPEAKER_05: Mm-hmm.
54:43
SPEAKER_04: First time.
54:44
SPEAKER_04: And one at Ravenna and one at Allendale.
54:46
SPEAKER_04: So we do Allendale in the morning and then drive to Ravenna.
54:50
SPEAKER_04: And it was roast, like roasting hot.
54:52
SPEAKER_04: Like so hot.
54:53
SPEAKER_04: Couldn't, like, couldn't like the temperature, what it's a heat, it's a record heat wave in England right now, going on right now.
55:00
SPEAKER_04: It's like 90.
55:02
SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, well, next week's gonna be 104 degrees over here, you know what I mean?
55:05
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
55:06
SPEAKER_04: With the humidity and everything, and like, yeah, England doesn't have AC.
55:10
SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
55:11
SPEAKER_04: Like very So that's true.
55:12
SPEAKER_04: Like houses.
55:13
SPEAKER_04: There is no AC houses don't have unless you're like what about restaurants, bars?
55:18
SPEAKER_04: I think restaurants do.
55:19
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
55:20
SPEAKER_04: Certain ones, but like big, like put public ones for sure.
55:23
SPEAKER_04: But like but like houses, like my my sister has a a one-year-old, and like there would be it would be like 70 at night or something like that, or 60 to 60 degrees or whatever, and the room would be like 75, and they would just have like a fan blowing warm air, just warm air around the room.
55:42
SPEAKER_04: And I was like, buy one of these units that you can like slide in your window.
55:48
SPEAKER_04: You know, and Steve was like, no, we don't do that.
55:51
SPEAKER_04: I was like, crazy, couldn't imagine.
55:53
SPEAKER_00: Guys, that's why we don't come home.
55:56
SPEAKER_04: That's why we don't come home in the months of June and July.
55:58
SPEAKER_04: That's why you come here for the AC units in the house.
56:02
SPEAKER_02: What was worse?
56:03
SPEAKER_02: Your first summer here or your first winter in Grand Rapids?
56:07
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was I remember, yeah, it was freezing.
56:10
SPEAKER_02: Snow.
56:11
SPEAKER_02: The lake.
56:12
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, one winter, I think it was um, I can't remember what winter was.
56:16
SPEAKER_04: It was like I think it was like fifth, it must have been like the first winter I stayed was like 1516.
56:22
SPEAKER_04: And then it was like 120 inches of snow.
56:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, 15 was really bad.
56:28
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, 1516.
56:29
SPEAKER_04: I was like, I couldn't believe it.
56:31
SPEAKER_04: And I was driving around in like a VW Beal.
56:35
SPEAKER_04: Isn't that the best attraction for the snow?
56:38
SPEAKER_04: That's great.
56:41
SPEAKER_04: But yeah, that was that was a that was another major difference, you know, to coming out here.
56:47
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I bet.
56:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
56:49
SPEAKER_02: And yeah, and the World Cup is like this is like opening up just everybody's eyes to like, one, this place is massive.
57:00
SPEAKER_02: You can be in you can be in Boston.
57:04
SPEAKER_02: Like, think about the Scots, right?
57:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they had games in Boston, yeah, and then they had to go to Miami.
57:10
SPEAKER_02: You couldn't get two separate, more separate like worlds.
57:14
SPEAKER_02: Right.
57:14
SPEAKER_02: That's like going from I don't know, London to Abiza, Abiza or whatever.
57:21
SPEAKER_02: Searsa.
57:22
SPEAKER_02: And it's like, it's like the exact same.
57:24
SPEAKER_02: It's like, wait a minute, this is different countries, and this is the exact same country, and it's freaking nuts.
57:31
SPEAKER_04: I couldn't believe I I I had I don't know many times when when the World Cup has like been delayed in games, like the France game when it got to half time in Philly and then it got delayed.
57:43
SPEAKER_04: Well, like 45 games.
57:44
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
57:45
SPEAKER_04: I've never seen that before.
57:46
SPEAKER_04: I can't remember it.
57:48
SPEAKER_04: I don't know if that was in Qatar or I don't I don't know.
57:51
SPEAKER_04: I wonder what the stats are of how many games have been delayed.
57:54
SPEAKER_02: But you guys have storms.
57:56
SPEAKER_02: Do you guys have lightning and thunder?
57:58
SPEAKER_04: Uh we there's never been I d other than like maybe there's been rain, which has stopped like people translate because the only time it would happen in England is where like maybe rain or like if if you get an inch of snow in England, it's devastating, right?
58:14
SPEAKER_04: It's terrible.
58:14
SPEAKER_04: And we get feet, yeah, yeah.
58:16
SPEAKER_04: And you could you could planes are still on time over here when it's like snowstorm, you know, but in England it's t it's devastating.
58:23
SPEAKER_04: Two inches of snow and like everywhere's locked down.
58:26
SPEAKER_02: Well, we got places like that too.
58:28
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, for sure.
58:28
SPEAKER_02: Like if you go to Nashville, if you go to Nashville and they get like a like a ice storm, they're done.
58:35
SPEAKER_02: They're done for the week.
58:36
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
58:37
SPEAKER_04: And that's the same like in England, but I've never seen like other than games being rescheduled in the Premier League.
58:43
SPEAKER_04: I don't know if there's ever been like a shelter in place.
58:47
SPEAKER_02: Well, think about the England team.
58:49
SPEAKER_02: The like the first day that they got here, they had a tornado warning in Kansas City.
58:53
SPEAKER_02: That's where I'm originally from.
58:54
SPEAKER_02: I was born in Kansas City.
58:55
SPEAKER_02: I remember in kindergarten, I we had to go into the bathrooms.
59:00
SPEAKER_02: Our our classrooms, it was like classroom, classroom, and then we shared a bathroom.
59:05
SPEAKER_02: Both classrooms had to go into the bathroom for an hour.
59:10
SPEAKER_02: For the smelly bathroom.
59:11
SPEAKER_02: It was ridiculous.
59:13
SPEAKER_02: And because we because there was a tornado warning, and it happened like all the time.
59:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
59:17
SPEAKER_02: Because we're live in what's called tornado alley.
59:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
59:20
SPEAKER_01: It's freaking wild.
59:24
SPEAKER_02: And Michigan, at least we don't get we don't get a lot of tornadoes.
59:28
SPEAKER_02: We don't get hurricanes.
59:30
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
59:30
SPEAKER_02: We don't get earthquakes for the most part.
59:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
59:33
SPEAKER_02: We get some, but the sun.
59:34
SPEAKER_02: Trema.
59:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
59:36
SPEAKER_02: You can't even feel it, you know.
59:38
SPEAKER_02: But I mean, it's not bad.
59:40
SPEAKER_02: No.
59:41
SPEAKER_02: But when are you uh when do you start with your teams?
59:45
SPEAKER_02: Have you like met like how hard is it?
59:47
SPEAKER_02: Because tryouts are obviously done now, right?
59:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, pretty much.
59:51
SPEAKER_02: How hard was that transition?
59:52
SPEAKER_02: Going from like, okay, new coach to the club, meeting all like the girls of the entire age group, really, right?
59:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:00:00
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was it it was an interesting one because obviously with our with how we dealt with team formations this year with the the grade change, it was like it was more than it was more that it was more than just like a a one-week thing.
1:00:13
SPEAKER_04: It was like we've been we've been locking at rosters since January.
1:00:17
SPEAKER_04: And on when I came in, February, right?
1:00:19
SPEAKER_04: So some teams, especially like elite level teams, there were certain like we decided upon rosters earlier, just so we could like confirm, you know, and and not have that like air of like instability.
1:00:36
SPEAKER_04: That air of instability and all that comes with tryouts, right?
1:00:40
SPEAKER_02: Um and that's why uh for anybody listening, that's why you offer early and you want responses early.
1:00:48
SPEAKER_02: Because now we gotta if you if you're gonna take if you're gonna leave, let's say you leave and you go to Hawks, yeah.
1:00:55
SPEAKER_02: Well now we gotta contact the kid from nationals, yeah, that hey, we want you so that they don't go back to nationals.
1:01:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:01:05
SPEAKER_02: And it's like it's not just about your kid, no offense.
1:01:09
SPEAKER_02: But yeah.
1:01:10
SPEAKER_04: No, but it was like, so we we we we have like that that team formation phase lasted that duration, and then obviously we came in with tryouts where we're kind of like, you know, if there's kids that are there that are good enough, where can we put them, you know, and I think the goal was of tryouts for us is just to was to find the right spot for for the kids that showed up, you know, like trying to give us trying to give a spot to everyone's always the goal, but it's not always possible, you know, and I think we we ended up getting to a really good position just based on the work that was put in for the past like four months to get us to here.
1:01:50
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, because I know a lot of clubs did the old-fashioned way, you know, like tryouts are June.
1:01:55
SPEAKER_04: June 15th, June 15th day weekend, yeah, yeah.
1:01:58
SPEAKER_04: Tryouts are June 12th, and come here, sign your forms, and I just think that world it's gone, it's gone.
1:02:06
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's gone.
1:02:07
SPEAKER_04: It needs to be gone.
1:02:08
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's gone.
1:02:09
SPEAKER_04: Because like back when I where I'm from, it was like you you finished with your team in like the last weekend in May, and then there was six weeks of tryouts.
1:02:19
SPEAKER_04: Six weeks.
1:02:20
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so six weeks, so you would do like you would go you could go to any any club just set their own days for when you want to try out, and this was before social media, right?
1:02:29
SPEAKER_02: And there'd be like kids from and there'd be like new kids, yeah.
1:02:33
SPEAKER_04: And the the tryout times were in the newspaper, really, yeah.
1:02:38
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, back to when I was like seven, eight, nine, ten, you know, like in the newspaper, you would go, there would be like you're good enough to come back next week, and then you would go to another one, and yeah, it was wild.
1:02:51
SPEAKER_04: I remember that.
1:02:52
SPEAKER_02: But that that but at least when when would you be offered a spot?
1:02:57
SPEAKER_02: Would it be at the end of the the six weeks or would it be?
1:03:00
SPEAKER_04: Pretty much, pretty much, yeah.
1:03:02
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:03:02
SPEAKER_04: So yeah, they would kind of like you would have a pool, like say, let's pool a 50, it would work down to like 40 the next week and 30 until we got to 18.
1:03:13
SPEAKER_04: Really?
1:03:14
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:03:16
SPEAKER_04: And I I don't remember much more after that.
1:03:18
SPEAKER_04: I remember one time I had like gel in my hair and it rained and I couldn't see.
1:03:25
SPEAKER_04: And that was and then another one was nosebleed.
1:03:27
SPEAKER_04: I had a nosebleed.
1:03:29
SPEAKER_04: So, but yeah, it was it was wild.
1:03:31
SPEAKER_04: But I think like I said, the traditional times of like I think IDs, recruitment, whatever you want to phrase it, should go on all year anyway.
1:03:41
SPEAKER_04: You know, you should always be assessing your players and your pool of players.
1:03:46
SPEAKER_04: And I'm not saying the system should be open, you know, like you should be able to move players from second team if they're saying you made a mistake, right?
1:03:53
SPEAKER_04: And you put Carolyn on the white team, the second team, and you made a mistake and you see her in the first two weeks, and you're like, right, move up here, but then someone's gotta come now, you know what I mean?
1:04:04
SPEAKER_04: So like I don't think it should be like that, but there should always be an evaluation of like, did we do it right?
1:04:10
SPEAKER_04: Did we do it right by this player this year?
1:04:13
SPEAKER_04: And if the answer is yes, great, and if it's no, you should be like, Well, what can we do not that for not for that to happen again?
1:04:21
SPEAKER_04: Or how can we put them on a development plan so that they will be where they need to be next year, you know?
1:04:27
SPEAKER_02: I mean, what is it do you know what Newcastle does?
1:04:30
SPEAKER_02: Like, what do they do?
1:04:31
SPEAKER_02: Uh, because I'm so I get very annoyed when everybody talks about European academies and how great they are at developing.
1:04:39
SPEAKER_02: It's like, wait a minute.
1:04:40
SPEAKER_02: New let's say Newcastle has a world-class academy, they're releasing kids all the time, and they're bringing in new kids all the time that are better.
1:04:49
SPEAKER_02: They're actively trying to replace their bottom five.
1:04:53
SPEAKER_04: Well, it's like I I don't know how much you know about like E T.
1:04:57
SPEAKER_04: No.
1:04:57
SPEAKER_04: And the elite, like uh is it called the Elite Plair Performance Plan?
1:05:01
SPEAKER_04: Could be wrong.
1:05:02
SPEAKER_04: But anyway, it was the Premier League brought in.
1:05:05
SPEAKER_04: And it classifies um Premier League academies and academies across England.
1:05:11
SPEAKER_04: Um, as Category One, Category Two, Category Three.
1:05:15
SPEAKER_04: So like in each club has their own like catchment area.
1:05:20
SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
1:05:20
SPEAKER_04: You know, where if you're from that area, they Oh, it's kind of like a territory.
1:05:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
1:05:25
SPEAKER_02: Hmm.
1:05:25
SPEAKER_02: So they have territories over there.
1:05:28
SPEAKER_04: And then it's like based on, say, based on how many the A triple P I don't know if it's based on the categories, but like if a category one club goes after say I was a U twelve and wants me to come into their academy, they got first dibs, then they would pay the youth club X amount even at twelve.
1:05:51
SPEAKER_04: Based on how many years you had that said club, because it's like you know, development rights.
1:05:58
SPEAKER_02: Even at twelve.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_04: I don't know the age.
1:06:01
SPEAKER_04: Right.
1:06:02
SPEAKER_02: And especially like my or is it just not or is it it doesn't happen until you sign a pro contract?
1:06:08
SPEAKER_02: Um is that solidarity payments and that's training compensation.
1:06:12
SPEAKER_04: But I think the the compensation is is based on yes.
1:06:18
SPEAKER_02: Because I again on that kick about you know uh foreign academies just being great at development, it's like I I would look like a great academy too if I got these kids at uh 11, 12, 13.
1:06:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, like there was somebody at La Messi uh talking about my role as the U14 coach is just not to ruin these kids, right?
1:06:42
SPEAKER_02: Because a lot of them are on the pathway to be pros or we're gonna sell them or they're gonna play for our first team.
1:06:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, my job is isn't only just to develop them, but it's also not to screw them up because they're already like world class, because they are world people gotta realize that there are world-class U-14s right now.
1:07:01
SPEAKER_02: Like if we just compare all the four teens in the world, there are already four U14 world-class U14 players.
1:07:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's a world-class U11 player somewhere that's just better than all the rest of the U11s.
1:07:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and people don't really realize that they think that everybody starts at the same and then they just develop them.
1:07:19
SPEAKER_02: It's like, no, there's levels to this.
1:07:22
SPEAKER_04: No, and let's look at um if you if you look at Elliot Anderson, who's in the England squad, right, right, was that Forrest, was originating Newcastle.
1:07:30
SPEAKER_04: Um, he's just been he's gonna be sold for 160 million to City.
1:07:35
SPEAKER_04: Which is wild, because that's like transfer transfer record fee type of deal, you know.
1:07:42
SPEAKER_04: And he obviously was very good when he was young, right?
1:07:46
SPEAKER_04: You know, and he played in Newcastle before we sold him because we had to because of financial fair play.
1:07:52
SPEAKER_02: Who do you have next?
1:07:54
SPEAKER_02: Is that today?
1:07:55
SPEAKER_02: Is that no, that's tomorrow.
1:07:56
SPEAKER_02: That's tomorrow.
1:07:57
SPEAKER_02: Who do you got?
1:07:58
SPEAKER_04: Uh Panama.
1:07:59
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, Panama Ghana beat Panama, and then Croatia.
1:08:04
SPEAKER_02: Croatia beat Panama.
1:08:07
SPEAKER_02: And then if you win, top the group.
1:08:09
SPEAKER_02: Top the group.
1:08:10
SPEAKER_02: I don't know who we play after that.
1:08:11
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:08:12
SPEAKER_02: It could be anyone.
1:08:12
SPEAKER_02: It's kinda yeah, it's kind of wild with all the third place finishers.
1:08:16
SPEAKER_04: How do you feel?
1:08:17
SPEAKER_04: How about that?
1:08:18
SPEAKER_04: What about England?
1:08:19
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
1:08:21
SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
1:08:22
SPEAKER_02: Their first performance, I'm like, this is a performance I can get behind.
1:08:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
1:08:27
SPEAKER_02: Because like what uh what Tuchel said uh at halftime, Tuchel, Tuchel, whatever what he said at halftime, he was like, hey, if we're gonna lose, we're gonna lose our way and we're gonna play and we're gonna put you open.
1:08:39
SPEAKER_02: And it's like we're going to go get goals, and we're not just gonna hold on for dear life one-nothing like we did in years past.
1:08:46
SPEAKER_02: And even like Rio Fernandin was talking about that, yeah, and he was talking about how we played games not to lose, or like and then this team is playing to win, and then Ghana, Ghana's tactics was just like 4-5-1.
1:09:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, just park the bus.
1:09:02
SPEAKER_04: But like, but then it it's like like Anthony Gordon, you know, after Barcelona.
1:09:08
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, like what does he expect when he goes and plays in the liga?
1:09:11
SPEAKER_02: Like, it's gotta be able to break teams down like that.
1:09:15
SPEAKER_02: Every team does that against Barcelona, yeah, for sure.
1:09:18
SPEAKER_04: And then like Midway gays, like, I'm not a huge Mudway gay fan.
1:09:23
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I just feel like there's better options, you know.
1:09:26
SPEAKER_02: Would you rather have like Saka on?
1:09:28
SPEAKER_04: I I see I don't I don't even know if Saka is the right choice either.
1:09:31
SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
1:09:32
SPEAKER_02: I think Rashford has he's always been one of my favourites, but then I don't know what happened with him at United.
1:09:38
SPEAKER_02: I don't know that whole story.
1:09:39
SPEAKER_04: But I guess to everyone when when like we we bring up player profiles and Medwake bad, Gordon bad, you know, and I can be a bit salty about Gordon because he's left us to go to Barcelona, left Lake Castle to go to Barcelona, but um we don't know the whole story.
1:09:55
SPEAKER_04: Like we'll never we'll never know we'll never know what Tuckle sees in his day-to-day, like and I think as much as I want to be like, you know, fly on the wall thinking that I am, I'm just not.
1:10:08
SPEAKER_04: So like as long as as long as Tuckle gets us to the qu the semi-finals, like do I think we're better than Argentina?
1:10:17
SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
1:10:18
SPEAKER_04: Do I think we're better than I don't even know the pathway, like are we better than Spain?
1:10:22
SPEAKER_04: Like, I would love to think so.
1:10:24
SPEAKER_04: I would love to think we're better than Germany.
1:10:27
SPEAKER_04: And in I'd agree with Delta in Holland, but like how do you how do you know?
1:10:31
SPEAKER_04: Like it's it's such a playing.
1:10:34
SPEAKER_04: The differences between like the teams are not big, you know, they're just not they're not the percentages aren't that massive between Holland and England, and I think that's where the World Cup is like no other, you know.
1:10:48
SPEAKER_04: Like I think when you go and watch America football and you get to the conference championship or whatever it is, like there's a heavy favourite.
1:10:56
SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
1:10:57
SPEAKER_04: There is, and unless something were to happen, that typically heavy favourite wins.
1:11:04
SPEAKER_02: How hard is it?
1:11:06
SPEAKER_02: Okay, you're a new castle and you're a Newcastle fan, obviously.
1:11:10
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
1:11:10
SPEAKER_02: How hard is it?
1:11:12
SPEAKER_02: Or it might not be hard at all.
1:11:14
SPEAKER_02: You go from the English Premier League and you hate who's your biggest rival?
1:11:21
SPEAKER_02: Sunderland.
1:11:22
SPEAKER_02: You hate Sunderland, but then you're all England in terms of the World Cup.
1:11:29
SPEAKER_02: Is that hard?
1:11:29
SPEAKER_02: Is that a hard dynamic?
1:11:31
SPEAKER_04: Well, not so much, because like especially not when you're there, when you're over here.
1:11:36
SPEAKER_02: 100%, yeah.
1:11:38
SPEAKER_04: Like I think it's I always wondered that like the only Newcastle player on the roster is Dan Byrne.
1:11:44
SPEAKER_04: I don't think they can.
1:11:44
SPEAKER_02: Is there a Sunderland?
1:11:46
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, no, he's he's Newcastle.
1:11:47
SPEAKER_02: No, but no, is there there's no Sunderland player?
1:11:50
SPEAKER_04: Andy Gordon's, yeah, Barcelona, but like yeah, like I think you've just got to get behind the country.
1:11:57
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you have to, yeah.
1:11:58
SPEAKER_04: Because like what was it in in here?
1:12:00
SPEAKER_04: And then I'll hate you.
1:12:02
SPEAKER_04: I'll hate you in August.
1:12:03
SPEAKER_04: So Germany got beat, and one of the coaches is like big Germany guy.
1:12:07
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know what I mean?
1:12:08
SPEAKER_04: So I've on the coach's group side just throwing the flag of whoever's beating Germany.
1:12:13
SPEAKER_04: In the past two times they've been losing, right?
1:12:16
SPEAKER_04: Well, it was it, Ecuador, right?
1:12:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I I cried when Ecuador beat them.
1:12:19
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
1:12:20
SPEAKER_04: That was awesome.
1:12:21
SPEAKER_04: But like, what was it?
1:12:22
SPEAKER_04: The other the first time, who did who did they play first game?
1:12:24
SPEAKER_04: It was like uh Oh, seven Curacao.
1:12:27
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, seven-one.
1:12:28
SPEAKER_04: And Curacao brought it to one-one.
1:12:30
SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah.
1:12:31
SPEAKER_04: So I threw the that was nuts through the Curaçao flag in the group chat.
1:12:36
SPEAKER_04: And um, but yeah, it's um I think everyone gets bind England, you know, especially like I think if you look at Tuchel, like he's the first world-class manager we've had in decades.
1:12:49
SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
1:12:50
SPEAKER_02: I mean, if you want to say Fabio Capello was world class, yeah, but he wasn't, was he?
1:12:55
SPEAKER_04: I think even like looking at Sven.
1:12:57
SPEAKER_04: Sven?
1:12:57
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Sven what it was, Southgate, Sven, Capello.
1:13:01
SPEAKER_02: I liked Southgate.
1:13:02
SPEAKER_02: I thought he got a bad rap.
1:13:03
SPEAKER_02: Like, as soon as you guys would have a bad result, I'd be like, fire him.
1:13:06
SPEAKER_02: It's like you guys can still make the semifinals, and you guys made the finals of the Euros, and I was like, see?
1:13:11
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, do you still hate him?
1:13:12
SPEAKER_02: It's like, yeah, we do.
1:13:14
SPEAKER_02: We still have them gone.
1:13:15
SPEAKER_04: The problem with Fabio was like he was the golden, like he was in the golden generation, you know what I mean?
1:13:19
SPEAKER_04: It was like back on Rooney, back um oh, and I don't know if Shira was still around then.
1:13:24
SPEAKER_04: I I think so.
1:13:25
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
1:13:26
SPEAKER_04: But like I think he's been our best man, he's been our best option for manager who we've been able to get.
1:13:32
SPEAKER_04: Because like, in fairness, too good.
1:13:34
SPEAKER_02: Which is weird, but even the EPL, yeah, it's not a lot of English managers.
1:13:39
SPEAKER_04: No, um, what is it?
1:13:41
SPEAKER_04: Um how anyhow, um Why is that?
1:13:46
SPEAKER_04: Who's the Brighton manager now?
1:13:48
SPEAKER_04: That's another English there's another English coach.
1:13:50
SPEAKER_04: I don't I don't know.
1:13:52
SPEAKER_04: I don't know who um I don't know why.
1:13:56
SPEAKER_02: Because you guys are all in the United States.
1:13:58
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, what is it?
1:13:59
SPEAKER_04: No, well, if oh like we don't want it like for my I will I Is it that hard to like climb the ranks over there that you get they're not developing English coaches?
1:14:13
SPEAKER_04: I think there's a lot of risk, right?
1:14:15
SPEAKER_04: You know, there's a lot of risk in the game.
1:14:18
SPEAKER_04: You gotta be very lucky.
1:14:19
SPEAKER_02: Especially like is it more like who you know?
1:14:23
SPEAKER_02: Maybe like how hard or um even uh Cam was saying this like to coach at the highest level, even here, your playing background matters a lot.
1:14:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for and so it's gonna be a lot easier for let's say Brian uh Giggs is well Welsh, isn't he?
1:14:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he is, yeah.
1:14:43
SPEAKER_02: That's a bad example.
1:14:44
SPEAKER_02: Maybe um let's say Rio Fernandin wanted to get into coaching.
1:14:48
SPEAKER_02: It'd be a lot easier for him to climb the ranks than somebody that's starting with the U9s and climbing away up.
1:14:55
SPEAKER_04: Look at Michael Carrick, right?
1:14:57
SPEAKER_04: Bingo.
1:14:57
SPEAKER_04: Look at Michael Carrick now.
1:14:58
SPEAKER_04: Where was he before sorry, I'm just gonna check.
1:15:01
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, where was Michael Carrick?
1:15:04
SPEAKER_04: I can't remember where he was before United, right?
1:15:10
SPEAKER_04: Right.
1:15:10
SPEAKER_04: He was at Borough.
1:15:12
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
1:15:12
SPEAKER_04: So and then he was um he was actually the caretaker manager at United in 21.
1:15:18
SPEAKER_04: Oh, i in between Yeah, so he he went, so Carrick went from retiring, he coached in the manu setup.
1:15:26
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
1:15:27
SPEAKER_04: He was in the rim.
1:15:28
SPEAKER_04: I don't know when.
1:15:30
SPEAKER_04: It must have been what it was 21.
1:15:32
SPEAKER_02: I'm trying to think about who was that Mourinho?
1:15:38
SPEAKER_02: That it was between Mourinho and then Old Gunner came back.
1:15:42
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
1:15:42
SPEAKER_02: I think that's what it was.
1:15:44
SPEAKER_04: So I think he took over the last of the season and then he went to Borough for three years, and then he's now reunited.
1:15:51
SPEAKER_04: So like that's cra it, I assume.
1:15:54
SPEAKER_04: So that's the that's one of the only I assume he's good at what he does.
1:15:58
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
1:16:00
SPEAKER_02: But I always just wonder that.
1:16:01
SPEAKER_02: It's like how hard is it for uh to get in over there to cut your teeth?
1:16:06
SPEAKER_02: Have you done the UEFA stuff at all?
1:16:09
SPEAKER_02: Because some uh that goes by country, I guess, right?
1:16:12
SPEAKER_02: I think yeah, based on like yeah, so methodologies based on so when I got to New York, um I was with a UEFA A guy from Spain, and he was like, if you want to go do your UEFA, he's like, go to Spain, it's easier.
1:16:28
SPEAKER_02: And I go, like, what do you mean?
1:16:29
SPEAKER_02: Because you think, I think UEFA is straight down the pipe.
1:16:34
SPEAKER_02: If you take it in Germany, it's the same course that you take in England or whatever.
1:16:38
SPEAKER_02: And I guess it's not.
1:16:39
SPEAKER_02: And they said, dude, go through Spain, it's the easiest pathway.
1:16:43
SPEAKER_02: It's like okay, I never did it, but but you know I mean, I just I was just wondering because it's just so wild, it's so foreign to me.
1:16:53
SPEAKER_02: And like again, the United States is more like Europe than it is one country, yeah.
1:16:58
SPEAKER_02: Because again, Ibiza and England, you know, like it's I don't like I don't like the phrase melting pot in terms of like how many people are here, but if you think about it, there's 48 nations in this World Cup.
1:17:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, how many nations could say that they have a family from one of those nations living in their country?
1:17:22
SPEAKER_02: United States is one of the only.
1:17:23
SPEAKER_03: Right.
1:17:24
SPEAKER_02: I I I I mean maybe England?
1:17:27
SPEAKER_02: Do they have some Curaçao people living in there?
1:17:30
SPEAKER_02: No, no, no.
1:17:31
SPEAKER_04: More Eastern European, isn't it?
1:17:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's just I don't know.
1:17:36
SPEAKER_02: And I don't know, like I don't know if do you think that the United States could ever actually win?
1:17:45
SPEAKER_04: I think the only like it depends it's it's really dependent on how it goes this like how it goes this year.
1:17:53
SPEAKER_04: It has to be.
1:17:55
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so when you say that, do you mean that what this leads to in terms of the future of the United States soccer?
1:18:04
SPEAKER_02: Or are you talking about this crop of players?
1:18:07
SPEAKER_04: Uh both.
1:18:08
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:18:08
SPEAKER_04: Both.
1:18:09
SPEAKER_04: I think it's gonna be based on like you're fairly young, right?
1:18:12
SPEAKER_04: I think it was England as well, like England's fairly young.
1:18:15
SPEAKER_04: I think there was like I can't remember the stat, but there's so many players that it's the first ever World Cup for them, you know.
1:18:23
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, um, especially like Elliott Anderson, you know.
1:18:26
SPEAKER_04: Um uh Jed Spence, you know, uh Nico Williams.
1:18:33
SPEAKER_04: Nico Williams?
1:18:34
SPEAKER_04: That's fuck.
1:18:34
SPEAKER_04: It's Nico Williams.
1:18:35
SPEAKER_04: Um that's there, there's various Nico Williams, but anyway.
1:18:38
SPEAKER_04: Um and then Gordon and Medwake, like they've never been a world coach before.
1:18:43
SPEAKER_04: But I I think it's definitely gonna be dependent on how far you go and how you scan these of already US men's national teams already inspired a hopefully another generation, yeah.
1:18:56
SPEAKER_02: Because 94.
1:18:57
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you probably remember your first World Cup that really stood out.
1:19:00
SPEAKER_02: 94 was mine.
1:19:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I was nine years old, and that kind of changed my life.
1:19:05
SPEAKER_02: That made me fall in love with it.
1:19:06
SPEAKER_02: Hopefully, there's a nine-year-old kid in Grand Rapids that is just falling in love with soccer just because of the World Cup, hopefully.
1:19:13
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think mine was oh two, I think.
1:19:15
SPEAKER_04: Oh two?
1:19:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, South Korea, Japan.
1:19:18
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
1:19:20
SPEAKER_02: That was like, oh, that was the uh David Beckham Argentina game where he was clocked at 90 miles per hour.
1:19:26
SPEAKER_03: Oh really?
1:19:27
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, his PK was clocked at 90 miles per hour.
1:19:30
SPEAKER_02: I was like, oh my god.
1:19:32
SPEAKER_02: Because that was four years after he got a red card against Argentina in '98.
1:19:38
SPEAKER_02: And it was like a the big thing.
1:19:41
SPEAKER_04: See, I can't, I was six then, so I can't I know what it I know what you're talking about because of the video split like right.
1:19:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I was six in ninety, nineteen ninety, and I uh I didn't know what soccer was.
1:19:54
SPEAKER_02: Seriously, I didn't know what soccer was.
1:19:55
SPEAKER_02: I didn't know what basketball was yet.
1:19:57
SPEAKER_02: I only knew football and baseball.
1:19:59
SPEAKER_03: Really?
1:20:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, until I moved up to Michigan because I was born in Kansas City, so it was a big Chiefs area and big Royals.
1:20:07
SPEAKER_02: I didn't know what the pit Detroit Pistons were.
1:20:10
SPEAKER_02: No, somebody so the Pistons had just won um the titles, the back-to-back titles, and the movers were like, gonna go be a Pistons fan.
1:20:19
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, what are the Pistons?
1:20:21
SPEAKER_02: I have no idea.
1:20:22
SPEAKER_02: Like I didn't, I had no idea.
1:20:24
SPEAKER_02: It's dumb.
1:20:26
SPEAKER_02: But man, yeah.
1:20:29
SPEAKER_02: I mean, what are your what's your thoughts on Midwest so far?
1:20:33
SPEAKER_02: Since February.
1:20:34
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
1:20:34
SPEAKER_02: But you've played against them for the last yeah, and I know, and I've grown.
1:20:37
SPEAKER_02: You've known everybody.
1:20:40
SPEAKER_04: I was actually, we were here, I was here last year as well.
1:20:44
SPEAKER_04: So Rangers did a partnership with Midwest.
1:20:47
SPEAKER_04: They did, albeit a very short one.
1:20:50
SPEAKER_04: Short-lived.
1:20:52
SPEAKER_04: Um, where it was like it was gonna be myself and another coach coaching in the platforms, but it just never it never worked out.
1:21:01
SPEAKER_04: You know, I actually formed not all of it, because I had some players came in late, but I I pulled together the the 2010 group, the girls, because I was gonna be the head coach of that group, and then it ended up kind of fracturing after that in me going back to like I was still coaching the Rangers at the time, right?
1:21:22
SPEAKER_04: But it just was never gonna work, like doing both, like training here and then training down the road and stuff like that.
1:21:29
SPEAKER_04: So anyway, um, but it's it's been really good, you know.
1:21:32
SPEAKER_04: I think like I said, we did a podcast with Kyle does a podcast here and um all the good all the Rangers guys were on it.
1:21:41
SPEAKER_04: So myself, because it wasn't just me that left, it was um Oh really?
1:21:46
SPEAKER_04: There was three others.
1:21:48
SPEAKER_04: So myself and Chris Denham had been there for 13, 14 years each.
1:21:54
SPEAKER_04: Wow, and then um Cold and Mario were there for just like over two, so we all decided to leave.
1:22:02
SPEAKER_04: Colton was you know, I'll be honest, and Colton was the first one, otherwise he would never let me live at them.
1:22:08
SPEAKER_04: And then but no, it's um so it was us four did that make it easier a little bit.
1:22:15
SPEAKER_04: So Chris was another Chris was a guy in my in my wedding, and Myrra's a good friend, and so is Colton.
1:22:21
SPEAKER_04: Um but like I said in that podcast, I was like, if you would ask if you'd asked me to do it to change jobs ten times, I would do it ten times, you know, just because of how well psycho we've always it's always been a well well machine here, you know.
1:22:38
SPEAKER_02: And ooh, and uh and I think so.
1:22:44
SPEAKER_02: In Buffalo, there are some stable clubs and there are some unstable clubs.
1:22:48
SPEAKER_02: And some parents always ask me, is like they they want my honest opinion about should they should we we got offered from here and here and I go go to the more stabled club, right?
1:23:00
SPEAKER_02: Even though maybe I don't get along with them, maybe I don't agree with everything that they do, go to the more stabled club.
1:23:06
SPEAKER_02: And we as coaches have to do that for our careers as well, to just to be honest with you, you know, and it's like oh wow, this coach has no loyalty.
1:23:17
SPEAKER_02: It's like dude, uh stability, not stable, right?
1:23:23
SPEAKER_02: What would you what would you do in your profession of whatever it is you do as a parent?
1:23:28
SPEAKER_04: If you're an engineer and stuff like that, and I think I think the word loyalty is kind of like misinterpreted a lot.
1:23:34
SPEAKER_04: Buzzword.
1:23:34
SPEAKER_04: Because like, what was I supposed to be loyal to the same club for 60 years?
1:23:40
SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
1:23:41
SPEAKER_04: Like, and that that's how when does when does loyalty end?
1:23:45
SPEAKER_04: You know, when does it start and when does it end?
1:23:47
SPEAKER_02: Well, when my daughter graduates.
1:23:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but like wait, wait, and wait until my daughter graduates, then you can leave.
1:23:53
SPEAKER_02: I think but then but then like you never then you coach another set of kids.
1:23:56
SPEAKER_02: And then there's another set of kids that is just gonna just yeah.
1:23:59
SPEAKER_04: So I think that's what to be honest, that's what I battled with, because like I've you know, I've grown as a coach at rain I I grew with a as a coach at Rangers, and it got me to a point like 2024 we won we won USYS nationals with with the 19s.
1:24:17
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
1:24:18
SPEAKER_04: So like that that was that was the group of kids that was there the whole way through and it was Did you get there through league play or was that through State Cup?
1:24:25
SPEAKER_04: So we um so inevitably we ended up getting two USYS national spots, but we'd only facilitate one.
1:24:34
SPEAKER_04: Because of leak and well because because kids um so we got the 19s bid through PRO at the time.
1:24:43
SPEAKER_04: Um then some of the 19s decided not to go because of like college, like start date, end date, or like whatever.
1:24:52
SPEAKER_04: So we ended up the U17s went to regionals, won that.
1:24:57
SPEAKER_04: Um, and then we just kind of merged the two rosters into like the 19s while staying within like the stupid 60% rule that USYS have.
1:25:08
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:25:08
SPEAKER_04: So anyway, we ended up going with like 15 players.
1:25:11
SPEAKER_04: We club pass carded 209s, and then we had like 13 players plus those two, and it was a it was uh to be honest, going into it, didn't think anything was gonna happen.
1:25:21
SPEAKER_04: Then we ended up going the whole way, we played Fort Wayne.
1:25:25
SPEAKER_04: Did you just get hot?
1:25:26
SPEAKER_04: Was that or it was roasting hot?
1:25:28
SPEAKER_04: No, I'm yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:25:29
SPEAKER_04: Like the team just got like hot.
1:25:31
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, essentially, since regionals in June, we had we won five games, and then we won so we were like undefeated in ten ten games, so that was wild.
1:25:45
SPEAKER_04: So, but they all pulled in the same direction, and that was that was great.
1:25:48
SPEAKER_04: But like I was saying, I think that's that's where I realized like it was gonna be especially in this landscape, right?
1:25:56
SPEAKER_04: You've got ACGR, you've got Midwest, like with albeit it, you know, we've we've got both sets of team both sets of clubs are really good facilities.
1:26:09
SPEAKER_04: Um you know, obviously they've got the divorce back in, you know, and we have the levels on the girls' side, and both have MLS next, right?
1:26:18
SPEAKER_04: I just don't see a world in which like Rangers would would have one any t any level anytime soon.
1:26:26
SPEAKER_04: Right, you know, and it's very fields are so expensive as it is, you know.
1:26:32
SPEAKER_02: Um if you don't all of your parent fees go right to the field rentals, right?
1:26:38
SPEAKER_02: Seriously, yeah, a lot of it.
1:26:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it goes to the coach and the field rentals, yeah, 100%.
1:26:44
SPEAKER_04: You know, so it's like I think as as a business uh for for sorry, for a business perspective, I was looking for uh the next jump.
1:26:56
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know what I mean?
1:26:57
SPEAKER_04: And it was not it was nothing about loyalty, I think I think it was I played my part for 13 years and did it to the best of my ability, you know, and if you helped build 100%, yeah.
1:27:12
SPEAKER_04: And if in in we've won in we won and we won things together, like in we had like I think I well I I was the first like State Cup winner, like like the group of the 06ers at the time was the first team that win State Cup like five years ago, and then we ended up going and winning like five State Cups in the next like six years with the with the two groups.
1:27:38
SPEAKER_04: Um so I know I played my part, you know, and I and I know the boys who also left played their part too, you know.
1:27:45
SPEAKER_04: So I can't like loyalty is something that like you're right, it's a buzzword.
1:27:50
SPEAKER_04: It's something that people use who are emotional.
1:27:53
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I get so annoyed when like college coaches talk about loyalty.
1:27:59
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:27:59
SPEAKER_02: It's like Wait a minute, like Gene Oriema on the girls' basketball side or Nick Saban on football side.
1:28:10
SPEAKER_02: It's like, wait a minute.
1:28:12
SPEAKER_02: Like, look at Dusty May, who just left Michigan with the national title.
1:28:17
SPEAKER_02: It's like you're in an you're in a room with a parent with in a recruit, and you're like, loyalty, we want you here four years, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
1:28:26
SPEAKER_02: If the Dallas Mavericks come calling, I'm out of here.
1:28:29
SPEAKER_02: It's like, and you were preaching to me about loyalty.
1:28:32
SPEAKER_02: It's like, what the hell are we talking about?
1:28:34
SPEAKER_02: It's like if if you're a like a software developer and you're in like in the middle of the road, like you, you know, you're barely scraping by, you have 10 employees, and then Microsoft calls you or Apple calls you, it's like, I am out of here.
1:28:50
SPEAKER_02: And you would take it in a heartbeat or Google, it's like, dude, like, stop yelling at kids for the transfer portal and stuff like that.
1:28:57
SPEAKER_02: It's like maybe finally kids have a little bit of power, right?
1:29:02
SPEAKER_02: And it's not all the power is by the coach or the administrators or whatever.
1:29:07
SPEAKER_02: So it's like, you're right.
1:29:09
SPEAKER_02: Loyalty is kind of overrated and it's just thrown around to make people feel bad.
1:29:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:29:14
SPEAKER_04: And I think they're not loyal.
1:29:15
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
1:29:17
SPEAKER_04: And I think Midwest has been they've been really good and you know, good to me um so far.
1:29:24
SPEAKER_04: Um, and I know work's gonna start up here like soon with teams.
1:29:28
SPEAKER_04: And I think that's one of the things that's like down, yeah, exactly.
1:29:32
SPEAKER_04: One of the things that I've kind of missed is like owning like your own coaching, you know what I mean?
1:29:38
SPEAKER_04: Like I've coached, I've been around teams, I've been around the GA groups, but like having your own team and beginning to see the growth, yeah.
1:29:46
SPEAKER_02: 100% from session one to session whatever, how many sessions you have.
1:29:53
SPEAKER_04: So and I think um I think it's just it's it's gonna be a fun fall season.
1:29:59
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's gonna be fun.
1:30:00
SPEAKER_02: And do you record all your sessions?
1:30:02
SPEAKER_02: No.
1:30:03
SPEAKER_02: Do you do like via or anything on huddle?
1:30:05
SPEAKER_04: We do we got huddle bush.
1:30:06
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, huddle.
1:30:07
SPEAKER_04: We don't record the sessions.
1:30:08
SPEAKER_02: I always like regretted that.
1:30:10
SPEAKER_02: It's like, you know, I would love to have because obviously there's growth between uh August 1st, let's say August 1st and July 31st of the following year.
1:30:21
SPEAKER_02: There's obviously growth.
1:30:22
SPEAKER_02: It's like, man, if you guys could go back and see what you guys were in September and now where you are in May, it's like you guys are completely different.
1:30:33
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:30:34
SPEAKER_02: It's like I wish I filmed more of my sessions when I did teen stuff.
1:30:37
SPEAKER_02: Then I got in when I ran my own training company, I was trying to record a lot of first sessions with kids so that we could be like, and a if you stay with me and for a year, we can just run that run that same session back and be like, look how much better you are in just one year.
1:30:58
SPEAKER_02: Okay, now give you three years and see where we are, and then but yeah, if I was a young coach, I would I would probably do that again.
1:31:08
SPEAKER_02: But I'm not I'm out of that game though.
1:31:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm kind of like off the field right now for the for the time.
1:31:14
SPEAKER_02: I might, I don't know.
1:31:16
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what I'm gonna do.
1:31:18
SPEAKER_02: I'm supposed to do some college coaching with Wayne State.
1:31:21
SPEAKER_02: Okay, um women's?
1:31:23
SPEAKER_03: Yep, okay, yeah, with Doug.
1:31:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, and uh gonna do their goalkeeping.
1:31:29
SPEAKER_02: Okay, and that's a way to stay connected and stay on the field, and then I don't know.
1:31:34
SPEAKER_02: I don't I don't know if I'm ever gonna get back in the club game.
1:31:36
SPEAKER_02: I've been out of it for 10 years.
1:31:39
SPEAKER_02: Huh.
1:31:39
SPEAKER_04: You know, stuff to get back in.
1:31:41
SPEAKER_02: And I really just want to do this, uh I'll just partner with Midwest, I'll partner with Jags, people that I like align with in terms of organizationally and the people.
1:31:52
SPEAKER_02: Like I love how like you guys just seem like you're all on the same page.
1:31:58
SPEAKER_02: You might not all agree, but you guys are on the same page, you guys are all in this together.
1:32:03
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, and it's building, trying to build something.
1:32:07
SPEAKER_02: And whereas other clubs, and you might have been part of one where it's just as a collection of coaches, there's no real leadership, there's no real direction, and it's just like you guys kind of like just do whatever you want.
1:32:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and they're all just wearing the same team.
1:32:21
SPEAKER_04: And I think there's leader, I think there's leadership at the I think there's leadership, but just not often enough, you know.
1:32:29
SPEAKER_04: I think would be said.
1:32:30
SPEAKER_04: There's people in leadership positions, but it uh you know, you sometimes the inmates run the asylum, you know what I mean?
1:32:38
SPEAKER_04: And like I don't know if that is really a successful business model.
1:32:43
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, business model.
1:32:44
SPEAKER_02: It's not yeah, thanks for doing this, man.
1:32:47
SPEAKER_04: Nor as well, I appreciate it.
1:32:48
SPEAKER_04: Great meeting you.
1:32:49
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, great meeting you.
1:32:50
SPEAKER_01: All right, man.
1:32:51
SPEAKER_05: I hate soccer.