Latest / I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth / I Hate Soccer #132 - Matt Lannon and Garrett Ramage from Wasatch Soccer Club in Utah!

Transcript

I Hate Soccer #132 - Matt Lannon and Garrett Ramage from Wasatch Soccer Club in Utah! · I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth

0:00
SPEAKER_02: Met Lemon and Garrett Ramage are staff members of Walker Soccer Club.
0:06
SPEAKER_02: And they were a partner of my Desert and Mountain tour when I was up in Utah.
0:11
SPEAKER_02: And uh Mem is the director of coaching for U13 through U19.
0:18
SPEAKER_02: He's also the GA director, and he's also the recruiting coordinator for college placement.
0:25
SPEAKER_02: And Gary is the director of coaching of the U9s through U12.
0:30
SPEAKER_02: In this episode, we really take a deep dive in the Utah soccer.
0:34
SPEAKER_02: Matt has a background actually from Rochester, New York, as well as in Florida.
0:40
SPEAKER_02: And when we talk about the differences of you know Florida and Mennon, craziness versus what happens in Utah.
0:49
SPEAKER_02: We talk about obviously the GA, the MS M, we talk about the entire country's landscape, we talk about the future of what's another speaker club that are about to break around in a facility and an outdoor turf facility.
1:04
SPEAKER_02: This episode might put us over 100,000 downloads on audio.
1:12
SPEAKER_02: So if you're listening on Spotify or Apple or whatever else you might listen to your podcast, it's gonna break, it's gonna break 100,000 downloads at some point this week.
1:24
SPEAKER_02: So again, I just can't thank you enough.
1:26
SPEAKER_02: Make sure that you like, subscribe, leave a review, uh, even the negative ones like how I'm MLS next or uh MLS profiteer.
1:37
SPEAKER_02: Go ahead, please leave a review.
1:39
SPEAKER_02: Uh subscribe on YouTube, and thank you guys so much.
1:44
SPEAKER_02: I hate soccer.
1:46
SPEAKER_02: When I left, it was really just two clubs.
1:49
SPEAKER_02: It was Vardar and it was Wolves and Wolves Hawks.
1:53
SPEAKER_02: And then now it's like it's insane.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: That that area of the country is just insane when it comes to it.
2:00
SPEAKER_02: And I'm guilty of this that I thought the whole country was like that, you know what I mean?
2:08
SPEAKER_02: And then I started this podcast, and it's like there are the country is so massive and so different everywhere.
2:16
SPEAKER_02: It's like I now want to expose that or sp or showcase it.
2:21
SPEAKER_02: I guess expose is the wrong word.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting how the pockets go because I'm I'm originally from western New York, moved down to Florida.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm from Rochester.
2:30
SPEAKER_03: Oh, you are?
2:32
SPEAKER_00: So I ended up in Florida, and then the the end all the be-all at that time was Florida, Texas, California.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: That's where you found players.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: And I was on the boys' side in Florida, and then coming out here in Utah, nobody knows about the girls.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're a girl state for the most part when you look at it all.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: And the the the talent from the girl side over here is unbelievable.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: But you don't see it.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: You don't, and there's so many little pockets they've had all over the country that you just there's a lot of it you don't see.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: And Michigan, what there's in that Detroit area, has been huge.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: New York's starting to come up in terms of the New York City area, which is obvious, but Jersey, and then you get up into the uh New England area where Massachusetts and Maine, and they're starting to grow with some good players as well.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: So Seacoast has got a good, yeah, good program up there.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's just interesting to see everything that's going on.
3:18
SPEAKER_01: So one it leads to a different style of soccer that we don't get to see.
3:25
SPEAKER_01: Like at least for our membership, it was kind of tough getting into the national platforms.
3:31
SPEAKER_01: People were very skeptical uh to start to get into that.
3:35
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think one of the best things that's come out of it has been we get to play these different areas that breed different styles of soccer that we have to adjust to and learn how to play against.
3:46
SPEAKER_01: Um what you're saying, like where you thought it was the same way all over the country, or I think we thought it was probably at least so I'm I'm from Utah, have always coached here.
3:57
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then you go and you play these other places and you go, Oh, the way they run things actually creates a different style that we have to adjust to, which is I I think has been beneficial to the development of our players.
4:08
SPEAKER_02: Do you do you think Utah has a style?
4:14
SPEAKER_00: It it's it's interesting because it's we have a very adaptable style where our players uh have a wider range on how they can play.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: I think when you start to look at the national platforms um in terms of the four big clubs in the area, each one has a separate style.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: I don't think Utah itself has its own type of style, okay, but each one has a different style where you have the the South American influence with La Rocca, you have more of a, you know, I would say Celtics almost more of a possession-based, uh, where they're attacking minded but very keep the ball and go two goal.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then avalanche.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't really say I don't have to play avalanche.
4:55
SPEAKER_01: More European pattern play, things like that.
4:58
SPEAKER_01: Um, I mean that I would say that's true at the the national platform level at a youth level, like or the the state level, more state level.
5:06
SPEAKER_01: I would say we are very physical and direct and big with expansive with our style of play, but I think that comes probably down to coach education.
5:14
SPEAKER_01: Once you get higher up, I think the clubs do have established styles of play.
5:20
SPEAKER_02: Right.
5:20
SPEAKER_02: What are your guys' rules at the club?
5:24
SPEAKER_01: So I am in charge of what's called the X League here in the state of Utah.
5:28
SPEAKER_01: So I'm in charge of everyone from U9 to U12 uh in our club.
5:33
SPEAKER_01: So my job is to pre prepare the players from 7v7, 9v9, and then prepare them for his program for 11v11.
5:41
SPEAKER_01: Got it.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: So then I run the U13 to U19 or comp at the state level.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I'll have the Girls Academy.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm the director of the Girls Academy and then the college recruitment advisor.
5:52
SPEAKER_02: Got it.
5:53
SPEAKER_02: What were you doing?
5:54
SPEAKER_02: Okay, start uh start from Rochester.
5:57
SPEAKER_02: When when and where and why?
5:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so so Rochester, uh born and raised in Rochester, and then ended up going to school, uh, tiny little school in Vermont.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: Um didn't work out, went home to Rochester, then found a school down in Savannah, Georgia.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: Um graduated in December, thought it was either go to Florida where it was nice and warm or go back to the snow.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: So I went down to Florida and then Smart.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, started coaching down, started coaching down in Central Florida.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: So it was um very interesting.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: It was a very South American-style type of football down in Florida.
6:30
SPEAKER_02: Who'd you play for in Rochester?
6:32
SPEAKER_02: Empire?
6:33
SPEAKER_00: No, in Rochester it was Pittsford Hawks.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: Um and at the time, uh Junior Rhinos.
6:39
SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: Junior Rhinos, yeah.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so rest in peace.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: I mean that whole thing.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: That debacle, yeah.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: That was yeah, and then they switched out uh and then they well, and I thought and I'd heard R and Y FC took over, and then Jamie Vardy was gonna come in.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: Jamie Vardy came in and then he bailed, dipped, and now apparently is having some tax problems at home as well.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: Oh god, yeah.
7:03
SPEAKER_02: I uh it is so you want to talk about different, yeah.
7:08
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you guys are isolated.
7:11
SPEAKER_02: Buffalo might even be worse because there's only one club, it's Western New York Flash, and that's Buffalo, and that's Easy Now, and they do really good.
7:19
SPEAKER_02: But do they do really good because it's at the club, or do they do really good because they have like a two and a half hour radius of every kid coming in and it makes your job kind of easy?
7:32
SPEAKER_00: I was I was shocked when I started hearing because talking to family members back home and everybody, because I'd left I left the state in 2004.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I left Rochester.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: So since 2004 to now, I was amazed to hear what had happened to the just football in Western New York.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: Right.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: Um heard that Empire had taken over, yep, RNYFC had started to grow, um, and now they're they're getting bigger, they're doing well, right?
8:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, and really that's and then West uh W N Y with Western New York Flash, those are really the three biggest clubs, and then outside of that, everybody else is almost wreck from what I can kind of see.
8:11
SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah, right.
8:12
SPEAKER_02: Yep, that's that's exactly it.
8:14
SPEAKER_02: And it's to the point, and I say this all the time, that uh if you don't make their top teams at Flash, the second best option in the entire area is just play on their B team.
8:28
SPEAKER_02: You know, their RLs or whatever on the girls' side.
8:32
SPEAKER_02: So I mean how much player movement do you guys like see here?
8:39
SPEAKER_01: Like between the clubs?
8:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't say a ton.
8:43
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I think when it happens, it's usually like I would say this last year with the age change, there were pla influx, outflux all over the place.
8:52
SPEAKER_01: But for the most part, it's not it's not crazy.
8:55
SPEAKER_01: Usually it's one, two players in age group.
8:58
SPEAKER_01: I don't think it's a ton.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: Every now and then you get um where a club will change some things up.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think like I just picked up a couple of La Roka players because the age change, yeah, and then just them changing up some things they were gonna do.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: I believe they move some of their national platforms north and so on and so forth.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: So, but for the most part, if if your team for the national platform side, I would say is if you're a national platform player, you're gonna stay with that team as long as you can.
9:23
SPEAKER_02: Right.
9:24
SPEAKER_02: How about coaches moving?
9:26
SPEAKER_01: Or is it pretty pretty similar?
9:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, I mean it definitely happens, but it's not something that is every year you have players jumping ship.
9:36
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I think there are coaches that the grass is always greener somewhere else, and those coaches go from club to club to club.
9:43
SPEAKER_01: But but I think that happens everywhere.
9:45
SPEAKER_01: Um, but for the most part, people find a club that they at least are willing to deal with and will stay there for quite a long time.
9:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
9:54
SPEAKER_02: How long have you been with with Wasatch?
9:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh five years.
9:59
SPEAKER_01: This is my fifth year here at Wasatch.
10:01
SPEAKER_01: Pat and I actually got here the same time the same time.
10:04
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
10:05
SPEAKER_01: Where were you before?
10:06
SPEAKER_01: I was at a club called Forza, which doesn't exist anymore.
10:09
SPEAKER_01: They they merged with Utah Avalanche.
10:11
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
10:12
SPEAKER_01: Um, I got into coaching because of a guy named Josh Mountain, who was my club coach at the time.
10:16
SPEAKER_01: Basically, uh I I had a bunch of college offers on the table, and I was talking to him as a mentor going, I think I'm gonna turn them all down.
10:24
SPEAKER_01: I I hate you soccer.
10:26
SPEAKER_01: I you know, and name of the podcast.
10:29
SPEAKER_01: We don't hate soccer, but I do, and he he he challenged me of like, I I can see the passion in your eyes, and like if you really are that frustrated with what soccer has become, like I coach, change it, get into it and change it.
10:44
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I got into it at Forza and I I refell in love with the game coach and you know, you sevens at the time, yeah.
10:50
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I I came from there, been here for five years with Pat and loving it.
10:56
SPEAKER_01: How old are you?
10:56
SPEAKER_01: 27.
10:58
SPEAKER_02: And you enjoy the the young ones, the the I do, I do, that's good, yeah, because there's so many coaches that when they start coaching, they want to jump right to the 11v11 level.
11:12
SPEAKER_02: They want I I was guilty of this.
11:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
11:15
SPEAKER_02: I wor I was at a uh community club in Michigan, and I was I I was doing a pretty good job of helping develop some really good players, and then I would lose them to the DA, which I also weirdly was like the goalkeeper trainer of the D local DA club, and I it was kind of like my own fault.
11:36
SPEAKER_02: I would go to those parents or those players, I'm like, you guys gotta come watch the DA.
11:40
SPEAKER_02: You guys gotta come watch a game because these guys are unbelievable.
11:43
SPEAKER_02: This is where you want to be, and then the next year they're like, see ya, we're going now.
11:47
SPEAKER_02: It's like, wait, you guys are 10 years old, why are you going right now?
11:51
SPEAKER_02: And I was, and then it kind of happened again.
11:54
SPEAKER_02: I got a really good girls' team, and it happened with the ECNL.
11:57
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, Okay, I'm just gonna go, I'm just gonna go.
12:02
SPEAKER_02: But then when I got there, I was like, I'm I want an ECNL team.
12:05
SPEAKER_02: Like, who the hell is this guy?
12:08
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
12:09
SPEAKER_02: And it's just and I uh look back at that now, and it's like that's how a lot of young coaches are.
12:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you saying that the you love like the youth and you sevens, and yeah, and I mean I think it comes from like you're you're playing at a high level, you're you feel all this pressure, you gotta go play college, gotta get recruited, like you're putting in all this work, and uh I think a lot of that kind of burnt me out.
12:31
SPEAKER_01: And then to go back to what soccer is at its foundation of just kids playing a game, I I I fell in love with that and I I love doing it and developing players where I'd find a kid and I teach him how to love the game the same way that I had done as a kid, where they were practicing at home without me having to push them, or um, that was something I I felt a lot of pride in.
12:55
SPEAKER_01: So when I was pushing a player on to the next level, even though I'd lose them, like obviously it's frustrating because now my team's gonna suffer a little bit in the results, but I I felt a lot of pride in that.
13:06
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and I I think it it developed slowly.
13:09
SPEAKER_01: I was a college kid just trying to make ends meet, you know.
13:12
SPEAKER_01: Coaching was the perfect college gig.
13:14
SPEAKER_01: I got to uh go to class all day and then coach at night, and then I could go back to my dorm room and get back to studying for sure.
13:21
SPEAKER_01: But I I don't know, I I never felt that like I wanted like obviously I felt like I had the tactical knowledge and from being a higher level player that I wanted to go coach 11v11, but I just when when you see the joy on the kids' faces, that's what brought me back to to doing it.
13:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
13:40
SPEAKER_02: Do you do you remember your team that made you like fall in love with the game?
13:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, I mean, I had I had a coach, um actually a coach up in Rochester.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: He was uh he's not there anymore, but um first European coach I'd ever had.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: Um, and the guy was phenomenal, absolutely amazing.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: And then um, you know, that love still kept growing.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: Got down, uh, finished with school.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: And then when I was in Florida, I had a uh a friend from work who we started talking about football.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: And he was like, Have you ever played?
14:12
SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, we kept going through there, and he's like, Well, I work at this club.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: And at that time it was greater Ossiola United, and we were a small glob in uh Kissimmee, Florida, and he was like, Well, why don't you come out and go?
14:24
SPEAKER_00: And uh, I think I started with a U9 team and had a U9 boys team.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely loved it because it was it didn't matter what happened, as long as the boys were kicking the ball, that's all that mattered to them, right?
14:34
SPEAKER_00: And they loved it, and it was just it's all of a sudden you start to see that again, and you start to see how you can create that and grow that love for them.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: And it's just it's so much fun.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: So much fun.
14:45
SPEAKER_02: Did you ever get burnt out of as a player?
14:48
SPEAKER_02: And then you started coaching, and that kind of like rekindled your your love because that's what happened to me.
14:53
SPEAKER_02: I was the I was a goalkeeper and I was in college, and I was burnt out of just diving and curing my body.
15:01
SPEAKER_02: And I uh I started coaching that in my old high school, and I'm like, Oh, that that passion is back, or that like real focus.
15:10
SPEAKER_02: And then, so for the last 11 years, I've run my own training company because I coached for 10 years in Michigan, then I went to Buffalo to coach with The Flash, and then I started my own training company because of how far behind I thought Buffalo was.
15:25
SPEAKER_02: Uh, there was some it was like a time warp.
15:27
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, where am I?
15:28
SPEAKER_02: Because there's state rules that are weird, and there's coaches and what they're doing, and it's and I just stayed there and I started my own or I had my own facility, and then I kind of got burned out of that because owning your own owning and running and operating your own training company and facility is exhausting.
15:49
SPEAKER_02: And and then I started this stupid thing, and then I was like, oh, and then that rekindled being able to talk to guys like you guys, and just it that is rekindling like my the love of the game.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I got I when I got done playing at college, I had a terrible college coach.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: The guy was grade A, just jerk.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I I stepped away.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: I think I I didn't even watch footy for about seven years, wouldn't go anywhere near it, didn't want to hear about it, didn't want to talk about it, just stepped away from the game completely.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't until I got back down to Florida that all of a sudden started talking about it, played in a couple men's leagues that were a little goofy, um, was having fun again, and then had a buddy who was like, come coach with me over here.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: Um, within two years, we were a now-for-profit club.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think we had maybe 700 at our highest, maybe, maybe 800 at our highest members.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, and at one point I remember I got onto the board because um I had had a parent on my team who was upset about something.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: So I went to a board, and it was upset because we had two GOU teams playing each other.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it was more of a rivalry than it should have been.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: So I went to the board meeting, sat there for a minute, kind of talking to everybody, and uh they were like, Well, what are you doing here?
17:08
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Well, you know, I have this issue, I have this issue, and I want to talk to you guys about this.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Have you ever thought about being an academy director?
17:14
SPEAKER_00: I was like, Well, what's that?
17:16
SPEAKER_00: And we started talking about that, and they wrote me into that.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: I did that for a year and a half, and then within a year after that, I was the president of the club.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sitting there at the board meeting, and our board meetings will go until about 2 a.m.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: So I'm sitting there at about 1 30 going, what am I doing?
17:32
SPEAKER_00: Like, why did I do this?
17:33
SPEAKER_00: But that was when everything kind of took off.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: And that's once I moved from there, I moved to Nona Soccer Academy, a big Brazilian club right in there.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, got a full-time offer from the president Fabio, and he was like, Do you want to work full-time in in soccer?
17:47
SPEAKER_00: I was like, Yeah, let's do it.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: And that was that was 14 years ago.
17:52
SPEAKER_02: 2012.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, about that, yeah.
17:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I mean, uh isn't it how old are you?
17:59
SPEAKER_00: I'm 42.
18:00
SPEAKER_02: I'm 41.
18:01
SPEAKER_02: I'm 41.
18:01
SPEAKER_02: So like when we were coming up, we never had full-time coaches.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: No.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: Well, I was I it's funny because it you know, I have conversations with these guys, and Pat'll give me shtick all the time where I don't know every single player in the Premier League the way he does.
18:15
SPEAKER_02: Right.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: But coming up, we didn't have Premier League.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: You couldn't watch professional soccer.
18:19
SPEAKER_02: Certainly couldn't watch it.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, the the closest thing to professional soccer I got was going to watch the Rhinos at at the stadium.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: And it's funny because Doug Miller, I ended up co I ended up coaching with him at Florida Rush because he moved down there.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: I think he sold, or was it Lancers?
18:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh yes, he sold Lancers to Flash.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he sold Lancers to fight.
18:37
SPEAKER_02: But he still has his facility, right?
18:39
SPEAKER_00: He did, as far as I knew.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: When I left, when I left Rush, he was he still had the facility, but um he was coaching down there and he was loving life.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: And it was funny how we met because it was on a Zoom call.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: The T D was introducing us and kind of talking about our roles and all that.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: I said, Hey, are you the same Doug Miller that played for the Rochester Rhinos?
18:57
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Yeah, how do you know?
18:58
SPEAKER_00: I was like, buddy, you were my hero when I was growing up.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: And it was it was fun talking to him.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: But uh yeah, I mean, we just didn't have we couldn't watch footy on foot on on TV.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't until really the 94 World Cup that you got to see it on TV.
19:11
SPEAKER_02: That's what changed my life.
19:12
SPEAKER_02: That's what that's what where I fell in love with soccer like the first time was watching the 94 World Cup.
19:18
SPEAKER_02: I went to the game USA versus Switzerland when we tied him one-one, and then the game that I watched on TV over and over and over again was the Columbia game when we beat him, and it was just that that uh ignited the passion.
19:36
SPEAKER_02: Then I kind of got burnt out as a player, started coaching, ignited the passion, burn out.
19:43
SPEAKER_02: Oh passion about her.
19:45
SPEAKER_02: So I mean so did you have like growing up, did you have professional, like full-time coaches?
19:53
SPEAKER_01: No, no, uh, I mean, I I think it was the beginning of having people do it full-time.
20:00
SPEAKER_01: I grew up playing for LaRoka.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: So, like we had Adolfo who was, you know, obviously full-time ex-pro, things like that.
20:07
SPEAKER_01: But like my coach himself was not a full-time coach, you know, he was somebody that worked a construction job all day, then would come coach us.
20:16
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I I don't know how we did it, but probably had two, three teams after a construction job, and he just kind of pushed through.
20:25
SPEAKER_01: Um, but no, we we never had that.
20:27
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we did have I grew up in the era of we we had real salt lake was was here when I moved here as a kid, so I always got to watch them on local channels and and things like that.
20:40
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, the Premier League, at least into teenage years, was being broadcast on, you know, NBC, USA, things like that.
20:49
SPEAKER_01: So I was able to watch these things, but also then being a a soccer player that played Saturday mornings and Sunday morning, like not often did I get to watch those, but at least the real Salt Lake games we gotta watch it, you know, starting at Rice Eccles, then moving to Rio Tinto.
21:04
SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, we we didn't have full full-time coaches.
21:10
SPEAKER_01: Right.
21:11
SPEAKER_01: And I would I would say even here in Utah, we still don't have many full-time coaches unless that coach is also director at the club.
21:18
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
21:19
SPEAKER_02: So so outside the directors here, like most of them still have like day jobs, teachers or or something.
21:28
SPEAKER_01: I I would say all of them.
21:29
SPEAKER_01: I can't think of any of them that are just coaches, not directors.
21:35
SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
21:36
SPEAKER_02: Do you think we'll you you well do you think you'll get there with growth?
21:41
SPEAKER_02: Like how much can the clubs grow without just eating other clubs?
21:48
SPEAKER_01: In here.
21:49
SPEAKER_01: It's tough.
21:50
SPEAKER_01: It goes in cycles in Utah.
21:52
SPEAKER_01: Like you'll you'll have big clubs that eat up the smaller clubs around it, and then they almost get too big, but people start to get upset that it's not.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: As personal as they want, and then people break off and start independent clubs or teams.
22:04
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
22:05
SPEAKER_01: And then it'll kind of be like that for a little bit.
22:07
SPEAKER_01: And then the big clubs start to offer more, eat up the smaller clubs.
22:11
SPEAKER_01: Like right now, I think we're in the part of the cycle where the bigger clubs are eating up the smaller clubs around them.
22:16
SPEAKER_02: And is it because of the platform?
22:18
SPEAKER_02: Like how I said, you know, we're losing players and whatnot.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: I think when you look at it, probably three, four years ago, if you weren't playing in ECNL national platform, was the big bad wolf.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's changed a lot.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: Even because I've only been here three years, and even in the three years I've been here, it's it's changed a lot.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: And now everybody starts to see the the pathway into college that it's become.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, so you start to see people start to gravitate towards that.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, and but to Garrett's point, it's it's still very much a this is what I'm comfortable with, so this is what I'm staying, because I do get that personal.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: Because it in in Utah, there's what's called the L30, and those are the independent clubs.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, and you can have a team and still get into the still get into the UISA.
23:03
SPEAKER_02: Oh, wait, what really?
23:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: So you have coaches who just have one team that didn't want to be a part of a big club, that didn't want to be, you know, told what to do and can break off and do their do their own.
23:15
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's it's a bit of a loophole.
23:17
SPEAKER_01: The the L30 is basically they've registered themselves as a big club and they'll let you register yourself within them as a team within their club, but then they let you do whatever you want, kind of a thing.
23:30
SPEAKER_01: So you get to operate as an independent team while still having the benefit of saying we're in a club, right?
23:38
SPEAKER_02: Because I don't remember just the longest time there were so many US YSA rules that you had to hit all these parameters to have be um registered as a club, and then uh we were like, okay, we'll just register the US club, and then and then that's how this whole turf war uh began.
23:59
SPEAKER_02: When you got here, was it like the time was it like my my experience in Buffalo is like, where am I?
24:07
SPEAKER_02: Or well, I guess no, uh the academies weren't here.
24:12
SPEAKER_02: MLS Next Academy wasn't here yet.
24:15
SPEAKER_02: So, and then the GA or yeah, the Girls Academy just took off.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the GA was a couple years old.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, ECNL had been here for a long time.
24:24
SPEAKER_02: Right, Avalanche is one of the originals, aren't they?
24:26
SPEAKER_02: Like 09, uh 2011, maybe something like that.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they've been around for a long time.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: Um, it was still um when I came here, it was a it was a bit of a shock, but that was coming from Florida, right?
24:37
SPEAKER_00: And Florida's got, I mean, there's there's an academy every 10 feet.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, it's it's it was a culture shift for sure, in terms of just the the style of footy and and how everything is kind of treated.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: But then, you know, you came here and in in Florida you got to you got to designate your team for which division you wanted to play in.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: Here we have promotion relegation.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: Love it.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: Which is massive.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: It's massive.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: And I think that that controls a lot of a lot of what people do and a lot of how people play and what they what their thought processes are going into games.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: Right.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: And now we even have some of our state level coaches uh preparing for games almost as they are national platform.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: We're our national platform coaches.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: We we demand video analysis and and all sorts of high-level you know things like that.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: Where now with UISA and they've had promotion relegation for a long time.
25:30
SPEAKER_01: Since I was a kid, I mean, we've had promotion relegation since I was a kid.
25:33
SPEAKER_01: They've just restructured how it is.
25:35
SPEAKER_01: Um, like at least in this the state of Utah, we have what are called the interregional leagues.
25:40
SPEAKER_01: So when you're playing at the lower end of comp soccer, um you only play within a certain region.
25:46
SPEAKER_01: So you're only having to travel 30, 45 minutes.
25:49
SPEAKER_01: And then once you get to a certain level, now it's statewide and you can travel anywhere.
25:54
SPEAKER_01: But they've had that since even I was a player.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: But it's starting to affect even what the coaches do at that level, which I think is fantastic because it just pushes them to another level.
26:02
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's goods and bads, right?
26:03
SPEAKER_01: Because you have now you have parents losing their minds on sidelines because a a 12-year-old's game matters for their promotion battle or their relegation battle, right?
26:13
SPEAKER_01: Like, so it's good in the sense that coaches are preparing, but it's also led to a style of soccer of sometimes like we don't care what style we play or what we have to do as long as we get the win.
26:24
SPEAKER_01: How many tiers is there?
26:26
SPEAKER_02: How many c outside of Salt Lake?
26:29
SPEAKER_02: Well, what is this called exactly?
26:31
SPEAKER_02: I mean, just this we're in Ogden right now.
26:34
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're in Ogden right now on staying with Draper, and you know, like but but I consider this all Salt Lake City, yeah.
26:42
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
26:43
SPEAKER_02: Like the whole thing, even though a prova or wherever BYU is in Utah and like is there soccer outside these mountains?
26:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, you get up to I mean you get up to Logan in Cash Valley.
26:56
SPEAKER_01: Well, I I would even say Logan's got a good soccer culture.
26:59
SPEAKER_01: I think like we're talking vernal Towilla.
27:03
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Towilla at this point's established as well, but yes, there are some really small towns in Utah where it takes two hours to drive to your game.
27:13
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, you're waking up at 4 30 to drive to Vernal for an 8 a.m.
27:17
SPEAKER_01: kickoff, and you know, it's it's it's you know, for uh a D3 game, you know.
27:25
SPEAKER_01: Uh to answer your question, so the way it's structured, we now have N1 at the top.
27:29
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
27:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh Premier is just underneath it.
27:32
SPEAKER_01: Then you have D1, D2, D3, and then underneath that you have your interregional league.
27:38
SPEAKER_01: So if you get relegated out of D3, you go to, if you're up where we are, North A, uh Metro A, uh South A, and then under that is North B, North C, North D.
27:53
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
27:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
27:54
SPEAKER_02: And then how many get or how many are in each tier usually?
27:58
SPEAKER_01: Teams?
27:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, somewhere between six and ten, I would say.
28:05
SPEAKER_01: Oh, really?
28:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
28:06
SPEAKER_02: So only like one or two get promoted or relegated.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: Correct?
28:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: By each by each division, they have either one or two teams.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: And the divisionals with D1, D2, D3, two teams will get promoted, two teams will get relegated.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: You get into North A, B, C, D, one goes up, one goes down.
28:20
SPEAKER_02: Do you think that could happen nationwide?
28:25
SPEAKER_02: At the youth level.
28:26
SPEAKER_02: I don't I don't want to get into promotion relegation, talk about the pro level.
28:30
SPEAKER_02: I'm so sick of it.
28:31
SPEAKER_02: I'm so sick of it.
28:32
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if someone but I do want it at the youth level, I think it would be experience.
28:36
SPEAKER_01: Is Utah?
28:36
SPEAKER_01: I have no idea.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I I it's it's tough to say because you have, you know, from my experiences where EDP came up on the East Coast, yeah, right.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: EDP was mostly up in the Northeast and they started to spread and they came into Florida.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: Um, it destroyed a lot of the leagues in Florida, the local leagues.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: Because even um one that I worked with closely was GCF, which was the greater Central Florida League.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: And then you had out on the West Coast, you had a West Coast League, in the North, you had a North League.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: And then, but each one of those had their own brackets, but it was self-alignment.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: So you would see some teams kind of self-align themselves in the wrong brackets and the wrong divisions.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, but when EDP started to come down, that broke a lot of them up and started taking teams out of there because you saw a almost national, but even EDP hadn't become promotion relegation.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: I think we could do it.
29:23
SPEAKER_01: I think it would take a lot of pull, but there's so many hands in the honey jar that it's it's I mean, I I will say though, like it it takes a lot of time, especially with the age change.
29:33
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna take another five years to sort this out, but we don't start promotion relegation until U12 here.
29:41
SPEAKER_01: So up and so up until U12 is self-alignment.
29:46
SPEAKER_01: You get to choose.
29:47
SPEAKER_01: Starting at U12, it's self-alignment, but now from where you've aligned, promotion relegation.
29:56
SPEAKER_01: And it's no score, no standings in the younger season.
29:58
SPEAKER_01: And then from U15 up is high school, so you really only have one season one season to get promoted or relegated, and then at tryouts things change all over again, and you have teams that kill and be killed.
30:12
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
30:14
SPEAKER_02: Do you see a lot of player movement at the younger ages when promotion and relegation hits?
30:20
SPEAKER_02: Because they because it's all clubs, it's not like it's only the GA and MLS next clubs, it's it's La Roka and Avalanche are in there too, and they compete.
30:32
SPEAKER_02: So do you oh we lost the Avalanche, we gotta go to Avalanche because we want to be on that team when they go to ECNL or whatever.
30:41
SPEAKER_01: You see some of it again, it's not a ton, it's not like an entire team will leave.
30:46
SPEAKER_01: Very often, entire teams can go, but usually it's one or two families, you know, and it really depends on what that family wants out of their uh youth experience here in at least in Davis County.
31:00
SPEAKER_01: We have a lot of people who are doing lots of things.
31:03
SPEAKER_01: You know, they're not just playing youth soccer, they're playing basketball, they're playing football, they're playing baseball, they're learning piano, they're, you know, a part of a a lot of church activities.
31:14
SPEAKER_01: And so a lot of people don't necessarily go, well, we lost to Avalanche, so we have to go there, or whatever.
31:21
SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, we beat Avalanche, so their players are coming to us, unless it's one or two players and it's not usually a massive migration.
31:30
SPEAKER_02: Does the does the religion really affect your schedule?
31:36
SPEAKER_02: Like with set uh, you know, the seventh days and uh in the mornings and everything, does that affect your scheduling?
31:44
SPEAKER_02: Like on Sundays, obviously.
31:46
SPEAKER_00: So our local leagues don't play on Sunday.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: At all.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: At all.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: At all.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: No.
31:51
SPEAKER_01: In fact, even even like tournaments over the winter, a lot of tournaments happen in St.
31:56
SPEAKER_01: George, which is like a six-hour drive away where it's a little bit warmer weather.
32:00
SPEAKER_01: Um, those tournaments specify on their websites no Sunday play.
32:05
SPEAKER_02: Really?
32:06
SPEAKER_01: So getting to the national platform, like earlier we were talking about like it's a bit of an adjustment for clubs to, or at least it was for us, to get into national platform where they do play on Sundays.
32:17
SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, Sunday play is is a point of contention, and some people simply won't do it.
32:24
SPEAKER_01: They'll play national platform but only play on the Saturday games.
32:27
SPEAKER_01: Um people are, you know, we'll go, okay, we'll play, you know, things like that.
32:34
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, on my U19s right now, I have the U19 MLS next group here.
32:40
SPEAKER_01: Uh when I first took the group, I it took convincing of probably five or six families to play on Sundays so that we'd have a full roster going into games.
32:49
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
32:50
SPEAKER_01: We we even have players that will travel when we travel out of state, they'll travel and only play on the Saturday game.
32:59
SPEAKER_02: That's fascinating.
33:01
SPEAKER_02: That's fascinating.
33:03
SPEAKER_02: I never I mean, this is another thing of why I wanted to come out here because you know, like people just don't know these things.
33:11
SPEAKER_02: I don't.
33:12
SPEAKER_02: And it's just an uphill.
33:15
SPEAKER_02: Well, I guess I I don't want to say it's an uphill battle, but it's just just something you have to deal with.
33:20
SPEAKER_02: It's different.
33:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's different.
33:22
SPEAKER_02: And we had one of my buddies had a uh he coaches ECNL uh in Michigan, and he had a player that you know, and he's like, I'm losing him on Sunday.
33:33
SPEAKER_02: I can't uh it sucks, you know, because he's so upset.
33:37
SPEAKER_02: But and you guys probably deal with that all the time.
33:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, boy.
33:42
SPEAKER_02: How important so I've been in Michigan and then Buffalo and no pro soccer.
33:49
SPEAKER_02: I mean NWSL, but NWSL left right when I they sold to North Carolina.
33:56
SPEAKER_02: I did DCFC is relatively new, and I haven't been in Michigan to really get to enjoy it and experience it.
34:05
SPEAKER_02: How important is it that you have an MLS club right there that you guys can go and watch legit soccer, messy?
34:13
SPEAKER_02: You can go get see him whenever he's in town, and then the women for yeah, what would that be?
34:20
SPEAKER_02: How how are tickets normally versus I've actually never been to an MLS game ever tickets?
34:26
SPEAKER_01: I I mean it depends how RSL's doing.
34:29
SPEAKER_01: Usually you can get them pretty cheap, especially since the Miller family took over.
34:32
SPEAKER_01: You can usually find$25 to$35 tickets uh when Messi was here.
34:37
SPEAKER_01: I don't I didn't even look to be honest with you.
34:42
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I wouldn't be surprised if it was more than that.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they were getting ridiculous.
34:46
SPEAKER_02: I I have a uh like a podcast review from some jerk.
34:52
SPEAKER_02: It's like this is an MLS profiteer.
34:55
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I haven't even been to an MLS game, and it's like you're such an idiot.
35:01
SPEAKER_02: But for some reason, a lot of the clubs that partner with me are MLS next clubs.
35:05
SPEAKER_02: It's like I need some east, you know.
35:07
SPEAKER_02: Well, that that's why uh it was good to have the boisey teams in there because they don't have any MLS next uh teams.
35:13
SPEAKER_02: But also you have the Royals relatively new, you know.
35:16
SPEAKER_02: But how important is that do you think for your players to get to experience?
35:21
SPEAKER_01: Um, I mean, I won't speak for the older players, but uh at least for the younger players, it's been really cool to see the women's side, the girl side, because girl soccer here is massive.
35:32
SPEAKER_01: Why almost why why is that?
35:34
SPEAKER_01: It I don't know.
35:36
SPEAKER_01: I it's just what kids do when they're young.
35:39
SPEAKER_01: You play soccer, you do dance, and you learn piano, you know.
35:42
SPEAKER_01: It's what's the biggest boys' sport here?
35:45
SPEAKER_02: Is it soccer or is it like like because in in Buffalo and Western New York, it's it's baseball is is still probably king there of football obviously too.
35:55
SPEAKER_01: I don't know numbers, but I would say soccer's gotta be up there.
35:59
SPEAKER_01: Soccer and football, yeah.
36:00
SPEAKER_02: It's gotta be pretty close until middle school football hits and everybody leaves.
36:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's what happened in my age group, pretty much.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, it's been it's very much a if you start in the sports, that's really the trajectory.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: There's not much change of that.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: Uh you see you see kids who play football, they're gonna stay in football.
36:16
SPEAKER_00: We have one or two players in our in our comp right now that do play football and do both, but typically if they're playing football, they're staying with football.
36:26
SPEAKER_00: If they're playing soccer, they're gonna stay with soccer.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: You usually don't see them leave.
36:29
SPEAKER_02: Where are the royals games?
36:31
SPEAKER_01: Uh are they at Salt Lake or Real Salt Lake?
36:34
SPEAKER_01: Yep, same stadium.
36:35
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
36:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm running.
36:37
SPEAKER_02: I was I was trying to get one of them, uh, one of the somebody from the Royals on because they're trying to do a youth movement thing, right?
36:44
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to do yeah, so they're doing they're starting with EP right now.
36:47
SPEAKER_00: Um, so they're starting with the youngest ages.
36:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, they just did their U-12s and U13s, I believe.
36:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, and they they have brought the kids out, had some training sessions, invited some back.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, and they've been doing well with it.
37:01
SPEAKER_00: RSL's been doing it for a little while, and and now the Royals are starting to jump into that.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: And uh it's been great.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: It's been great.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: We actually had uh Poe, Maddie Poker, who was um helping with uh one of our teams.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and she was doing an assistant coach while she was getting her B license playing for the Royals.
37:17
SPEAKER_00: She was actually coaching with our 09s.
37:20
SPEAKER_02: Got it.
37:21
SPEAKER_02: How how is the relationship because I I have to imagine that they're having a hard time trying to start a youth without pissing someone off, right?
37:35
SPEAKER_02: And when I was up in Boise, they're talking about you know AC Boise, who's moving up to championship or whatever, and they're talking about like they're very careful about getting into youth because if you merge with the Boise uh Thorns Timbers or whatever, you're gonna cut off half of the your fans, potentially, and you know what I mean.
37:58
SPEAKER_02: So um do you think that real salt lake and oils kind of like tiptoe about that or not at all?
38:07
SPEAKER_01: No, I don't think they tiptoe.
38:09
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, they well didn't RSL just start uh like a pay-to-play uh portion.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: They've got DDP as well, and that's pay-to-play.
38:18
SPEAKER_00: Their their academy's pay to play as well, right?
38:20
SPEAKER_02: But their uh but their MLS uh full team is still just free, right?
38:27
SPEAKER_00: For the players.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: From what I understand, I don't believe it is.
38:30
SPEAKER_00: Really?
38:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't believe it is.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: I think their players, their their academy players have to pay.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: They have to pay.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: They purchase their own kitters, they purchase their own kits.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: Really?
38:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, from the last you're talking about the full uh guys that come in from all over the country for the MLS Academy.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if they're paying.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: That's the thing.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know too, I don't know enough about it.
38:50
SPEAKER_02: They're talking about their academy division team.
38:52
SPEAKER_02: Do they have an academy division team?
38:54
SPEAKER_00: No, they don't in Arizona, right?
38:57
SPEAKER_00: Most of their academies down, so they've got four academies down in Arizona, right?
39:04
SPEAKER_00: But they don't have any academies up here except for the Pro Academy, right?
39:07
SPEAKER_02: Correct, yeah.
39:07
SPEAKER_02: And the Pro Academy is free.
39:09
SPEAKER_00: That'd be a better question for Pat, to be honest with you.
39:12
SPEAKER_02: Because that because when I had I had Jordan Allen on, who's with Monarchs right now, and uh this was at Fest, and the GM was talking and it was like, we spend eighty thousand dollars per player per year, and it's like you do the math in your head, you're like, what in the world?
39:28
SPEAKER_02: How what is the ROI?
39:31
SPEAKER_00: I I was I was shocked at how much they don't work with local clubs on itself.
39:36
SPEAKER_02: That's that's kind of like what we were talking about before we started was uh uh about getting like the colleges, getting Utah kids.
39:47
SPEAKER_02: And it sounds like Riel Salt Lake doesn't do any Utah kids.
39:51
SPEAKER_02: I heard there's like two or three maybe per age route.
39:55
SPEAKER_01: No, I mean so I I used to work at Real Salt Lake when I first got into coaching.
40:00
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this was you know almost 10 years ago, but you know, they had I think it was called the Discovery Program where people could pay 150 bucks to come have me run a six-week program for them, and my job was if I found anybody to send them up to to whatever, but being a bought-in program, it was like it it was a camp, you know, anybody could sign up.
40:21
SPEAKER_01: Um but I I would say that in the summer camps we did were probably the extent of the the community outreach that they really did with us.
40:31
SPEAKER_02: And how fair is that?
40:35
SPEAKER_02: Because of um what's it called?
40:39
SPEAKER_02: Um territories.
40:41
SPEAKER_02: Aren't you guys under them?
40:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
40:45
SPEAKER_02: See, that's why that's why territories need to go away.
40:50
SPEAKER_02: And the state.
40:52
SPEAKER_02: Everybody needs to be a free state.
40:53
SPEAKER_02: Michigan's a free state, so that you can go anywhere, you can go to crew, you can uh go to FC Cincinnati, you can go to Chicago Chicago fire or whatever.
41:02
SPEAKER_02: But here, because you have one in your backyard, the kids are locked.
41:07
SPEAKER_02: The kids are locked.
41:09
SPEAKER_02: But a lot of times they have a stigma against your kids, so they don't want them, so then they become a free player, basically.
41:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they've done they've done a better job in the last couple years of starting to look at kids, like uh the or you or merger with Utah United.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: They had a uh number of kids get selected into their academy.
41:30
SPEAKER_00: Right.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think the U 15s took eight.
41:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
41:34
SPEAKER_01: Well, I I'll even say one of them it almost felt like RSL wasn't interested until other clubs were interested in.
41:47
SPEAKER_00: Got a couple couple looks from RSL, but then Austin FC came in and started taking a hard look, and that's when RSL was like, oh, on second thought, we'll bring you back in.
41:56
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, I could see yeah, I can definitely see that happening a lot.
42:03
SPEAKER_02: But I mean also why is there no homegrown in Utah?
42:12
SPEAKER_02: Is it because the boys are that bad?
42:16
SPEAKER_00: I don't think so.
42:17
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: They had a couple.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: Was he homegrown?
42:22
SPEAKER_00: Bodhi.
42:23
SPEAKER_01: Uh Bodhi Dollar, Bodia, yeah, Bodhi and Dogger or uh yeah, he was technically homegrown, but again, like we we're almost talking about strikers, how when they have someone commit, they say how long they've been there.
42:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
42:36
SPEAKER_01: Like I I don't know how long Bodhi was at.
42:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, RSL.
42:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
42:40
SPEAKER_01: I know he started with LaRoca, but I'm not sure how.
42:43
SPEAKER_01: But then I mean, I also think this leads to a conversation of like MLS, when they sell an academy product off to Europe, yep, they're getting royalties every time that player is sold based on FIFA bylaws, right?
42:57
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
42:57
SPEAKER_01: But then like we can talk about how the the local clubs don't see a dime of who did the majority of that development.
43:05
SPEAKER_02: It's starting to change Weston FC.
43:07
SPEAKER_02: I forget the player.
43:08
SPEAKER_02: Uh he went to uh he went to Philly and then he just signed with somebody over there.
43:13
SPEAKER_02: Weston FC.
43:14
SPEAKER_00: Started with my started with Inter Miami.
43:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
43:17
SPEAKER_00: Started with Inter Weston Weston ended up making quite a bit of royalties off.
43:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Weston FC just got like$200,000.
43:24
SPEAKER_02: So it's coming.
43:24
SPEAKER_02: That's fantastic.
43:26
SPEAKER_00: Starting to come.
43:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was the last four years, five years they started that initiative.
43:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
43:30
SPEAKER_00: Because I remember he was one of the first players, and Weston was starting to make, but there was a good tie between Weston and Inter Miami.
43:37
SPEAKER_00: They were they were working well together.
43:38
SPEAKER_02: Luis Robles was telling me that uh they're starting to do payments too.
43:43
SPEAKER_02: So like if they if RSL signs a yeah, a guy to a pro contract, then they're gonna kick back to the to like it ends up being like a thousand dollars, two thousand dollars, but it's something.
43:57
SPEAKER_02: It's a step in the right direction, it's a step in the right direction.
44:00
SPEAKER_02: Direction.
44:00
SPEAKER_02: But I'm like, at least talk about this.
44:05
SPEAKER_02: Promote this.
44:07
SPEAKER_02: Because people don't know that this is going on.
44:10
SPEAKER_02: And he's like, Well, you just do it.
44:13
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, Well, here we are.
44:15
SPEAKER_02: We're doing it.
44:16
SPEAKER_02: This is the promotion.
44:17
SPEAKER_00: But it was a it was a massive thing for us at Rush because we had Orlando City in our backyard and we were sending a lot of kids towards Orlando City because they were Orlando City did a great job of working with all the MLS clubs around them, uh, the next clubs.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: Um, but they would send scouts out.
44:31
SPEAKER_00: But it wasn't until Weston had their player going inner Miami that all of a sudden the youth clubs in Florida were like, hey, we could start really making a pro player pathway here and start making some things happen.
44:42
SPEAKER_00: And now it's actually instead of you just taking my best player, now I'm gonna give you my best player, not complain about it because there might be some kickbacks in there.
44:50
SPEAKER_02: How is Florida di debied up?
44:53
SPEAKER_02: Because how many MLS clubs are in Florida?
44:56
SPEAKER_00: Orlando and Interf.
44:57
SPEAKER_00: Right.
44:57
SPEAKER_00: And then you've got USL championship of the Rowdies.
45:00
SPEAKER_00: So JFC just started one as well.
45:02
SPEAKER_00: I think Armada's back.
45:04
SPEAKER_00: So who gets is it like southern?
45:07
SPEAKER_02: Is it like cut in half basically?
45:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I can't remember.
45:10
SPEAKER_00: The line was either just above the Everglades or just above that for Orlando, but then Orlando's went up into Georgia, but then you'd have a uh United uh Atlanta United starting to come into that as well.
45:23
SPEAKER_00: Because we'd send players up north to I say I think they sent one or two players up to Atlanta United as well.
45:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
45:29
SPEAKER_00: Um, so it was it was always interesting.
45:31
SPEAKER_00: That the exact map, I'm not sure.
45:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I know when we went down to inner Miami to play their MLS next clubs, we'd always have their scouts looking looking at players.
45:40
SPEAKER_00: Um Orlando City always had players on the touch or uh scouts on the touchline uh watching.
45:46
SPEAKER_02: Do you do you think any whether it's you or Celtics or that's it, that's it for the MLS next academies, right?
45:56
SPEAKER_02: No, you gotta get you get Sparta and City S.
46:00
SPEAKER_02: And are they are any of them gonna be able to get into homegrown?
46:07
SPEAKER_02: Is there a is there a clear-cut path of like what you guys need to do at all?
46:12
SPEAKER_03: No.
46:14
SPEAKER_02: That's what needs to happen.
46:15
SPEAKER_02: I I really want there to be a clear-cut kind of like promotion relegation type standards.
46:22
SPEAKER_02: No, it's kind of hard because it's five, it's five teams, it's not one team.
46:28
SPEAKER_02: And I don't I don't know how you solve that because you could have, and you guys might be in this boat, you could have three really good teams and then two poor age groups or whatever.
46:41
SPEAKER_00: Well, and the biggest problem we have with the national platform on ours is that we're isolated out here.
46:46
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you are.
46:47
SPEAKER_00: We're very isolated.
46:48
SPEAKER_00: So travel is incredibly difficult.
46:51
SPEAKER_00: So when you start to look at homegrown, you know, you you'd have RSL, you'd have even if you had like, let's say, one or two other clubs in there, you can't make a conference out of it.
47:00
SPEAKER_00: So you're still gonna have to bring in Arizona, you're still gonna have to bring in Colorado, California, possibly.
47:05
SPEAKER_00: I mean, California's its own its own division.
47:07
SPEAKER_00: It is, but even in the national platform, because we in the GA, we're in the Mountain West.
47:12
SPEAKER_00: We go to Colorado, who has a different high school schedule than we do.
47:15
SPEAKER_00: We go down to New Mexico and Albuquerque.
47:17
SPEAKER_00: Well, we did, we don't have to this year, but then we go to Vegas as well, and it's great, but each of us have a different high school schedule.
47:26
SPEAKER_02: Right.
47:26
SPEAKER_02: And in the state of Utah, oh, don't even get me started, you guys here on the boys' side.
47:34
SPEAKER_00: That's so dull beast.
47:36
SPEAKER_00: But because we're so isolated out here, and there's nothing in Idaho, nothing in Montana, nothing in Wyoming.
47:42
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you have Nevada, who's got a couple uh national platforms, but outside of that, it's so isolated out here that it's incredibly difficult for travel.
47:51
SPEAKER_00: So even the even the big leagues, I mean, I can remember when I was with MLS Next in in Florida, the conversation was, well, we don't know what to do out there because they're so isolated.
48:01
SPEAKER_00: So we're kind of even the leagues are like, we're not quite sure how to handle this.
48:07
SPEAKER_02: And that's one of my biggest frustrations of like, well, we could just have promotion and relegation at the highest level, and we're gonna have a thousand pro teams.
48:16
SPEAKER_02: It's like, do you know how much it costs to travel to like Salt Lake City or Boise or wherever?
48:23
SPEAKER_00: It's like and what was it in the premiership?
48:25
SPEAKER_00: They just had uh the longest travel trip for one of the teams, and they were going from south to north, and I think it was six and a half hours.
48:34
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I had a conversation with with uh somebody from Germany before I moved out here, yeah, and I was telling him it's a 36 hour or 34-hour drive from Florida to Utah, and as I'm telling him why I'm doing all this, he's kind of looking up the math and he's like, you know, if I left my home in Germany, I could be in Iraq.
48:50
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
48:51
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I travel through the entire continent.
48:53
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
48:54
SPEAKER_02: If you put the map, if you put Washington over, if you put Washington state where England is, Florida is Yemen.
49:06
SPEAKER_02: It's like, what are we doing?
49:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, oh yeah, but we could have Pro Rail here, and then I and then I push back and be like, okay, who's gonna pay for it?
49:14
SPEAKER_02: Oh, investors.
49:16
SPEAKER_02: What uh aware?
49:18
SPEAKER_00: Who do you know the investors send them our way, please?
49:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just run a fun, just run run a fundraiser actually.
49:24
SPEAKER_02: Run a fundraiser, yeah.
49:26
SPEAKER_02: Sell mattresses, it's like so dumb.
49:29
SPEAKER_01: You can drive six and a half hours in Utah and still be in Utah.
49:32
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
49:33
SPEAKER_01: You can fly six and a half hours from Utah and still be in the US.
49:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's so oh god, it's so dumb.
49:43
SPEAKER_02: But then every and then okay, and then the GA or the ECNL, the or the MLS Next Academy are letting a lot of teams in, and everybody's like, Well, you're depleting the product.
49:54
SPEAKER_02: It's like, no, we're not.
49:56
SPEAKER_02: We're one, we're allowing more kids to get into these platforms, also, we're cutting out a lot of travel in the states that have them like there's nine RL teams in Michigan right now, and there's nine MLS next academy teams, and it's like they just play each other, yeah, and that's how it used to be, and that's how it should be.
50:19
SPEAKER_02: But uh, but and what sucks.
50:23
SPEAKER_02: And I think I was thinking about you guys the other day.
50:25
SPEAKER_02: It's like, wait a minute, you guys are getting in a flight and going over La Rocca or going, you know what I mean?
50:33
SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, that's how silly this is.
50:35
SPEAKER_00: And that's even the funnier thing because the ECNL, they go to the Pacific Northwest, right?
50:40
SPEAKER_02: They have to go play like crossfire.
50:42
SPEAKER_00: What the hell are they doing?
50:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
50:44
SPEAKER_00: So so they they even travel in up.
50:46
SPEAKER_00: We even travel in opposite directions because we go south, so we go right over Avalanche, right over La Roka, wherever we do, and they're doing the same as us.
50:53
SPEAKER_00: We'll even cross paths in our travel as well.
50:56
SPEAKER_00: It's so crazy.
50:58
SPEAKER_02: Western Euroflash in Buffalo, New York has a team from Nashville in their conference, it's an 11-hour drive.
51:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's insane.
51:07
SPEAKER_01: It's it's bonkers.
51:09
SPEAKER_01: I mean, what's us to to Phoenix 12, 14?
51:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, about that, yeah.
51:13
SPEAKER_01: You know, we uh our MLS program a few weeks ago was in Tucson.
51:17
SPEAKER_01: That's even farther.
51:18
SPEAKER_01: That's another two and a half hour drive.
51:19
SPEAKER_01: We have some families that will drive those kind of take those kind of trips.
51:23
SPEAKER_02: How big is like high school soccer here?
51:25
SPEAKER_02: Like specific.
51:26
SPEAKER_02: It's it's massive, and you can't take that away from the girls or the boys.
51:30
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I think it depends the program and obviously the family that you'd have to ask, but it's it's got enough of a hold on players that even if they don't like it, they will participate every year, all four years.
51:44
SPEAKER_01: Really?
51:45
SPEAKER_01: 100%.
51:46
SPEAKER_01: Even if they come back to club at the end of it going, thank God we're back at club.
51:50
SPEAKER_01: We hated high school soccer.
51:51
SPEAKER_01: Usually that's a high school soccer, a lot of times, yeah.
51:54
SPEAKER_01: Just the social aspect, the course, you know, it's the heritage.
51:59
SPEAKER_00: A lot of families stay in the same same general area.
52:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
52:02
SPEAKER_00: So it's mom and dad graduated.
52:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, grandma and grandpa.
52:05
SPEAKER_02: I played here, yeah.
52:06
SPEAKER_00: You played here, they played here, they played here.
52:08
SPEAKER_00: Sounds a pride.
52:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
52:10
SPEAKER_02: Is that is Florida like that too, or not really?
52:13
SPEAKER_02: No, no.
52:13
SPEAKER_02: They the kids they they there's kids homeschool.
52:16
SPEAKER_02: Most kids in Florida, like the elite kids, they just homeschool, train all day, and then well, and then MLS Next wouldn't let them play high school at the time.
52:23
SPEAKER_00: So we we actually had my last year, we had three kids that we had to boot out of the program because they were sneaking.
52:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they were leaving training to go play in a high school game.
52:33
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't until one of them got his face on the uh on the paper and our TD opened it up and said, Okay, well, there's one, and then looked over some rosters and found two more.
52:43
SPEAKER_02: And and that and that is one of the reasons why it's a good thing that you guys don't have homegrown, right?
52:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's and that's another path, that's another aspect of it too, because they'll start to MLS will do their research in the area and start to look at, you know, okay, how big is that high school in there?
53:01
SPEAKER_00: Because you couldn't possibly come into Utah and say, can't play high school.
53:05
SPEAKER_02: What's happening in Michigan right now, and it's happening, I think, in New Jersey too.
53:10
SPEAKER_02: The Hawks on the East CNL side are offering full year, 10 years to well, 10 months, no high school on their first teams, and that's what and now the nationals are like, we gotta do that too, because we're trying to keep up with the Joneses.
53:28
SPEAKER_02: And it's like, is anybody doing anything out here that you're like, hey, if they're doing that, we probably should too.
53:36
SPEAKER_01: No, I mean, the problem is you you could pitch to your team, hey, we're we're not gonna do high school.
53:43
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and you'll have you know 80% of your players go, Yeah, that's great.
53:47
SPEAKER_01: We don't even like our high school, let's do it.
53:50
SPEAKER_01: And then you have the ones that can state championship, and then like I'm I'm gonna go back to high school, and then you go, well, if they're going, I'm going.
53:58
SPEAKER_01: And then suddenly you go from 80% into to zero.
54:02
SPEAKER_01: Right.
54:03
SPEAKER_01: And the other problem is like, what do you play?
54:06
SPEAKER_01: Because even if I can convince my entire team to to stay and not do high school, who else is able to do that?
54:14
SPEAKER_01: Like, we'd have to travel out of the state to to be able to have competitive matches.
54:19
SPEAKER_01: Right.
54:19
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I'd even looked into like, well, why don't we just play the high school teams?
54:24
SPEAKER_01: And the high schools just we're not interested.
54:26
SPEAKER_02: Right.
54:28
SPEAKER_02: How well okay.
54:31
SPEAKER_02: What is your youngest age groups?
54:33
SPEAKER_02: Seven?
54:35
SPEAKER_02: Uh U six?
54:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
54:37
SPEAKER_02: U sixes?
54:38
SPEAKER_02: U6.
54:38
SPEAKER_02: So do you guys so how do the clubs work here?
54:44
SPEAKER_02: Like, does everybody have like their a good youth academy set up here?
54:48
SPEAKER_02: Or is it they rely on feeders or they'll they'll eventually come at 14?
54:54
SPEAKER_01: We have both.
54:55
SPEAKER_01: We have both.
54:56
SPEAKER_01: We have we have teams that are definitely stronger at younger age groups that kind of fade out into the older age groups.
55:01
SPEAKER_01: We have the clubs that are strong throughout.
55:03
SPEAKER_01: We have uh clubs that are um, you know, kind of like we'll just wait for you guys to come to us because we know we'll get you eventually.
55:12
SPEAKER_01: It depends the program.
55:14
SPEAKER_01: Some people have rec programs into what's called the academy, into what's called the X-League, into comp.
55:20
SPEAKER_01: Some people only do comp, some people uh only do X League and Comp.
55:25
SPEAKER_01: So it it really is club by club here.
55:28
SPEAKER_01: Like we we have clubs that offer something that you're looking for cheap, expensive, everything, nothing, yeah, dedicated, non-dedicated, whatever you want.
55:41
SPEAKER_01: Got it.
55:42
SPEAKER_02: How I mean what I'm getting really sick of is one platform is just attacking the other platforms, and it's like, wait a minute, you say how bad another platform is, and then you'll go and do showcases together that are merged, and you play them, and you're like, wait a minute, if they're just so bad, why are you playing uh them uh as your tune-up to get in ready for playoffs?
56:20
SPEAKER_02: Why are you doing that?
56:22
SPEAKER_02: I also thought about this, and you could probably touch on this because you're the college uh um director.
56:30
SPEAKER_02: These girls are hearing how shitty GA is, right?
56:37
SPEAKER_02: And then they go to college and their teammates played in the GA.
56:43
SPEAKER_02: And then they realize, oh, you played in the GA?
56:46
SPEAKER_02: You're better than me right now.
56:49
SPEAKER_02: It's like you guys gotta be freaking careful.
56:52
SPEAKER_02: And I'm not talking about you guys, I'm talking about you guys.
56:55
SPEAKER_02: You guys gotta be careful about what you say about other clubs and other platforms.
56:59
SPEAKER_02: I am so fed up with it.
57:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's pissing me off.
57:03
SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's it's always interesting to see because you still have those college programs that will are heavily into one program.
57:12
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
57:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, but you start to see that the membership that is a part, like our membership understands the quality that they're getting at the GA.
57:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, and they're excited about it.
57:24
SPEAKER_00: And they, you know, they don't feed into all of the stuff that's kind of wrapped around it, uh, which is interesting to me.
57:31
SPEAKER_00: So when they get to school, they're they're more looking because we teach them to look at what's most important for them.
57:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, what's the program like, what's the facility like?
57:41
SPEAKER_00: Is it an area you're gonna want to live in for four years?
57:43
SPEAKER_00: Because as a D1 footballer, you're not, you're most likely not gonna leave that area.
57:47
SPEAKER_00: Right.
57:47
SPEAKER_00: So is this somewhere you're gonna want to live for four to five years?
57:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, is the coaching staff someone you're gonna want to deal with?
57:53
SPEAKER_00: So we we teach the players to almost interview the coaches when they go in there to start to talk to them so they have a better understanding of it.
58:01
SPEAKER_00: So it's almost not a it's it's almost not a shock to them when they see other players because our a lot of our teams have played at such high levels.
58:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we have a number of them that get to playoffs, and it's you know, us and Celtic are have done very well in terms of the GA.
58:16
SPEAKER_00: So they've played at high levels.
58:18
SPEAKER_00: So when they see other GA players, they're like, oh, okay, good, we're gonna have a quality squad.
58:23
SPEAKER_03: Right.
58:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, and even when they see the other ECNL, it's not even it's not even a matter of, oh, well, you played at ECNL.
58:29
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting to me because that's not the same, it doesn't feel the same.
58:34
SPEAKER_00: Where GA players are just like, as long as you're a good player, I'm okay with it.
58:37
SPEAKER_00: Where ECNL kind of turns their nose up at GA players because of all the stuff they've heard and everything that kind of goes around.
58:45
SPEAKER_02: So when did you guys get into the GA?
58:48
SPEAKER_02: Oh, was it before you got here?
58:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was before I got here.
58:52
SPEAKER_01: I want to say they were just it would have been, I want to say it was the year Pat and I got here.
58:57
SPEAKER_00: Or U19, yeah, or U19s started at U14 because they weren't gonna do a full yeah, because our 20 or U17s will be the first group when they graduate, they'll be all GA where they went from U13 to U19.
59:11
SPEAKER_02: Was there a restructuring of the club?
59:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, because I see uh you and Pat have only been here for five years, you've only been here for three years.
59:18
SPEAKER_02: How long has she been here?
59:20
SPEAKER_02: Um just a year longer than you, I think.
59:23
SPEAKER_02: Five years.
59:24
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
59:24
SPEAKER_00: So what there was a like a just a restructure of trying to be more professional or more competitive, more competitive, more competitive, give give something more because it was it was uh very family-based, and I probably should let Garrett talk on this more, but it was a very family-based, um, we're a place for everybody.
59:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then bringing in the uh national platforms helped us.
59:49
SPEAKER_00: Now we can start to give more to our membership and offer them that next step.
59:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we we were always the club that was able to develop talent, but we also have the identity of if you want to play soccer, we want to give you an opportunity to play it because we believe that there are diamonds in the rough.
1:00:09
SPEAKER_01: We can't we can't see what every kid is going to be at U9.
1:00:13
SPEAKER_01: So, regardless of what you look like right now, we want to give you the opportunity uh to play here and have access to high-level coaching and developmental opportunities.
1:00:23
SPEAKER_01: Um, and so the restructuring was essentially adding in the national platforms of going, okay, now that we've developed, we have found these diamonds in the rough.
1:00:32
SPEAKER_01: We have provided kids that maybe other clubs wouldn't have given a chance to.
1:00:36
SPEAKER_01: Um now we actually have a place for them to play.
1:00:40
SPEAKER_01: Before it was, okay, we've developed you, and our top teams are just state league teams, you don't have access to college opportunities, things like that.
1:00:48
SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, possibly getting cherry picked by other clubs that did offer those opportunities.
1:00:54
SPEAKER_01: Now we're able to keep them in-house and and send them off.
1:00:57
SPEAKER_01: I would say on every national platform team, we have kids that started, if not on a bottom team, a not top team when they came into the club, developed them into players that are capable of playing against some of the best in the country.
1:01:13
SPEAKER_01: Um, so that that restructuring um is is about giving again every kid the opportunity to play, but now we can provide the top players a place to play as well.
1:01:25
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:01:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:01:27
SPEAKER_02: I mean I'm just trying to think how how clubs are structured can dictate so much more than just organization.
1:01:51
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
1:01:52
SPEAKER_02: Like it's not just and every single one that I've partnered with, they have an office.
1:01:59
SPEAKER_02: There's clubs that there's a lot of clubs that don't have an office.
1:02:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they don't have anywhere for you know their directors or their coaching staff to meet, or forget fields and facilities, that can come later, but start with an office like this.
1:02:13
SPEAKER_02: This is this is like 1500 square feet, and that's all you need.
1:02:20
SPEAKER_02: Start start there, and then uh people will see that okay, they're a little bit more organized now, they're a little bit more um serious, maybe serious or taking it seriously.
1:02:32
SPEAKER_02: Now, I don't know when did soccer when did soccer come become so professional?
1:02:38
SPEAKER_02: When did youth soccer become so professional?
1:02:41
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
1:02:42
SPEAKER_02: It it's it's because when we started, yeah, it definitely wasn't.
1:02:46
SPEAKER_00: It definitely wasn't.
1:02:46
SPEAKER_00: And I and I still worked in organizations in Florida that didn't didn't have an office, that Zoom call meetings were two or three times a week, and that was that was what it was.
1:02:56
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think the first time it was it was actually at Nona that we actually bought an office space.
1:03:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:03:01
SPEAKER_00: Um, and that was the first time I'd ever worked at a club that had an office space.
1:03:06
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it was unbelievable, but it was it started to put a more professional look on it.
1:03:14
SPEAKER_00: So I I mean that was that was the biggest thing was how professional can your youth club look and what can you offer in that professional type base?
1:03:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I it's it was interesting, but it it has it, it's been the last 10 years at least, I would say.
1:03:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:03:31
SPEAKER_02: And I don't know.
1:03:34
SPEAKER_02: I just and you guys are working on uh facility, right?
1:03:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, tur.
1:03:42
SPEAKER_02: How far is that from here?
1:03:44
SPEAKER_02: Uh 15 minutes.
1:03:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, 15, 20 minutes.
1:03:48
SPEAKER_02: What do you guys do now?
1:03:49
SPEAKER_02: Or what do you guys use now for fields?
1:03:51
SPEAKER_01: Um so the majority of our state league teams, we we rent uh a school for them to practice at.
1:04:00
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then for games, we we rent a city field that's quite nice in in K'esville.
1:04:05
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
1:04:05
SPEAKER_01: Um, so that's what we use right now.
1:04:07
SPEAKER_01: And then we also have an indoor facility in K'esville as well for for winter trainings.
1:04:12
SPEAKER_01: Got it.
1:04:12
SPEAKER_02: And then what's the timeline on your like uh on what you guys are doing?
1:04:18
SPEAKER_01: Could be as soon as this uh the spring, could be a little bit later.
1:04:22
SPEAKER_01: Um just kind of waiting on on finances and things like that.
1:04:27
SPEAKER_02: What do you guys do in the winter?
1:04:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh either rent turf space and hope that it doesn't snow, or we we have our indoor facility.
1:04:35
SPEAKER_01: It's like an outdoor turf, right?
1:04:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:04:37
SPEAKER_01: Or we have our indoor facility that we can fit two to three teams in at a time.
1:04:41
SPEAKER_00: We have our national platforms do University of Utah, Weber State, uh, because the University of Utah's got a uh a massive indoor facility.
1:04:50
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:04:50
SPEAKER_00: Um so we'll send some teams down there.
1:04:52
SPEAKER_00: There's also we've got we'll go down to Harriman as well uh and use the RSL facility.
1:04:56
SPEAKER_00: Spencycles here in Aubin.
1:04:58
SPEAKER_00: Spencycles is an outdoor facility that has turf.
1:05:01
SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, I mean last last winter it was great because we could train all winter.
1:05:04
SPEAKER_00: It was a yeah, because it was dry winter, right?
1:05:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
1:05:07
SPEAKER_00: But we're keeping keeping fingers crossed, at least I am that we can train all winter long again.
1:05:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure I'm sure there's a lot of people that would disagree with that, but oh yeah.
1:05:15
SPEAKER_02: Well, yeah, I I was wondering that too.
1:05:23
SPEAKER_02: Because everybody's a ski bun or snowboarder.
1:05:26
SPEAKER_02: It's not a lot to be honest with you.
1:05:28
SPEAKER_02: Really?
1:05:29
SPEAKER_01: Not at the top level.
1:05:30
SPEAKER_01: If if your players are playing in a national platform, they're usually bringing them in.
1:05:34
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to go get hurt snowboarding on a Saturday.
1:05:37
SPEAKER_01: They will though.
1:05:39
SPEAKER_01: They get one Saturday off and they'll they'll go break their wrist and yeah.
1:05:43
SPEAKER_00: But our but our kids are our national platform kids.
1:05:45
SPEAKER_00: Once they get out of high school, we we kick off when we gotta start.
1:05:48
SPEAKER_00: Because we we at the GA, we get started the second week of November for our season.
1:05:53
SPEAKER_00: So we have to get 'em back and and even state state final this year is October twenty fourth, twenty third, and twenty fourth.
1:05:59
SPEAKER_00: So we Then have three weeks to get them ready.
1:06:02
SPEAKER_00: Not even two and a half weeks to get them ready.
1:06:04
SPEAKER_01: Our state players, though, they'll they'll find time.
1:06:07
SPEAKER_01: We we run a uh an indoor futsal league out of our facility on Friday nights and Saturdays.
1:06:13
SPEAKER_01: And you know, usually if you're a team that gets a a Saturday game time, you know, you'll get an email from a parent, hey, we were supposed to go skiing this week.
1:06:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no kidding.
1:06:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, somebody's welcome in.
1:06:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:06:27
SPEAKER_02: Uh how are you like adjusting in three years?
1:06:32
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm loving it.
1:06:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm loving it.
1:06:33
SPEAKER_00: To be honest with you, it was it was the first year was uh culture shock to say the least.
1:06:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:06:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's it's been because this is more similar to Western New York, right?
1:06:43
SPEAKER_00: I get four seasons.
1:06:44
SPEAKER_00: Uh the mountains out here, obviously a little bit different than what you get in Western New York, but but with the the four seasons, it it feels a little bit more like home.
1:06:52
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I actually get some downtime from the heat.
1:06:56
SPEAKER_00: I actually get to put on uh put on a jacket and I don't think I can live down there.
1:07:01
SPEAKER_02: I uh Florida is or Arizona.
1:07:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no.
1:07:04
SPEAKER_00: I was I was there for 17 years, and it wasn't until the last two that I really started getting used to the heat where it was 85 and humid, and you're like, oh, it's a nice day.
1:07:12
SPEAKER_00: But then it gets to 96, 97, and it's 100% humidity, and it feels like a buck fifteen, and just don't want to go outside.
1:07:20
SPEAKER_02: And you never left.
1:07:22
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
1:07:23
SPEAKER_01: Uh how do you leave and then come back?
1:07:27
SPEAKER_01: Or do people just not leave?
1:07:29
SPEAKER_01: People in Utah just don't leave, um, to be honest with you.
1:07:33
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I'm not even originally from Utah, so I'm actually the probably the anomaly that I stayed even though I'm not from here originally.
1:07:42
SPEAKER_01: Where are you from?
1:07:43
SPEAKER_01: Uh Denver.
1:07:44
SPEAKER_01: But I moved here when I was a young kid.
1:07:46
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
1:07:47
SPEAKER_01: Of course.
1:07:47
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I I I'm Utah and I I grew up here.
1:07:51
SPEAKER_01: This is where I'm I'm from.
1:07:53
SPEAKER_01: Um, to me, leaving was getting out of Davis County, moving to Salt Lake, you know what I mean?
1:08:00
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I and part of it is, you know, just connections, school.
1:08:03
SPEAKER_01: I went to the University of Utah.
1:08:05
SPEAKER_01: When I was there, I just kept getting more and more teams, more and more responsibilities became full time.
1:08:10
SPEAKER_01: So it wasn't something that it was like, I'm I'm trying to stay here.
1:08:13
SPEAKER_01: It was just more happenstance.
1:08:15
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I've I've never left.
1:08:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:08:17
SPEAKER_02: Well, some of my best friends, they just well, they just got married, but they uh they live in Draper, and that's where I'm staying.
1:08:25
SPEAKER_02: And they're like, You should move out here.
1:08:27
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, maybe I don't know.
1:08:30
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna be traveling like the next year and just keep on doing these.
1:08:34
SPEAKER_02: And and after that, I think I'll really figure out where I want to live.
1:08:39
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting, and the more you kind of like go around, and you know, I'll tell people like, Oh yeah, we're from Utah, and oh, I've got cousins and Provo, oh I've got my best friends and Draper, and yeah, like it feels like everybody you talk to in the soccer community has some weird connection to Utah somehow.
1:08:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um it's really bizarre, but like you know, we go to MLS Next Fest, we go to Surf Showcase, and you know, the rest, the other team, where are you guys from?
1:09:07
SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh, I I know someone there, and it's that's weird, yeah.
1:09:11
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's sneak, it's sneakily is that a word?
1:09:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's sneakily big.
1:09:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, it is big.
1:09:21
SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of people in this valley or whatever you would call it.
1:09:25
SPEAKER_02: But thanks for doing this.
1:09:27
SPEAKER_02: I know you guys were made to made to or whatever, but I appreciate it.
1:09:31
SPEAKER_02: Thanks.
1:09:40
SPEAKER_02: It's gonna be fun.
1:09:42
SPEAKER_02: Continue to love soccer, not hate it.
1:09:45
SPEAKER_02: But thanks, guys.
1:09:46
SPEAKER_02: No, thank you.
1:09:47
SPEAKER_02: Appreciate it.
1:09:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and now your ears are free.
1:09:49
SPEAKER_02: I hate soccer.