Latest / I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth / I Hate Soccer #130 - Eric Simmonsen, Boise Thorns-Timbers Director of Coaching

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I Hate Soccer #130 - Eric Simmonsen, Boise Thorns-Timbers Director of Coaching · I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Eric Simmonson is the director of coaching for the Boise Timber Storms.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: He's also like the director of player development.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: I got a chance to work with him and sit down with him when I was in Boise, I don't know, last week during the mountain and desert tour.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: I first got to talk to him for like an hour on the phone, and we just discussed everything under the sun.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: And then we set up the podcast and we went for about two hours on this one, and we cover a lot.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: We cover club development, player development, what's going on in the country, what the plan is going forward for the club, about turning his beautiful like Bermuda grass fields into turf, uh, the history of the club, uh, their relationship with the Portland Thorns and Portland timbers.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: Hope you guys enjoy getting to know Eric.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: I hate soccer.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: I think it was you.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: When we were growing up, we couldn't even watch soccer.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: We can watch every single college game now.
1:10
unknown: Oh.
1:10
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that wild?
1:11
SPEAKER_02: I remember trying to tune in growing up here, like, wasn't cable, public TV, because I'm old, I'm 55, age myself, but trying to tune in and getting fuzzy, fuzzy Mexican League or Bundesliga games on like PBS or something.
1:29
SPEAKER_02: Or some local station, you could see it at sometime on Sunday, but it was so fuzzy and you'd have to, you know, rabbit earnings.
1:37
SPEAKER_02: But that that was, you're right, the environment wasn't a robust.
1:41
SPEAKER_02: I mean, even the number of college programs.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: And that is like 30 years ago.
1:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: We've come, and I've and I've this is gonna be re if somebody listens to all the shows, it's just gonna be repeating and repeating the same stuff.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: But it's like, think about how far we've come.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: Everybody thinks that the world is falling, and it's pissing me off because I think that we've come so far in the last 30 years.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: 30 years ago, we didn't even, it was the first year of the MLS.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we didn't have an NWSL, we didn't have a healthy women's league.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: How many women's leagues did we go through before NWSL finally cracked?
2:17
SPEAKER_00: And that was only because US Soccer allocated the players.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: Remember?
2:20
SPEAKER_00: Remember when they were all paying like$50,000?
2:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and owners were willing to, you know, eat money essentially to help it happen.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: The year before I got to Western New York Flash, that's when they had Marta and they had Abby Wong back.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: They lost like$500,000 that year.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: But he owns Salem's hot dogs, so he just writes it off as a tax loss.
2:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:43
SPEAKER_02: I remember I remember Soph coming back, she'd come back like Sophia Huerta come back like when I first trained, because I didn't coach her growing up, but when she'd come back, she'd come back like in the winter break.
2:54
SPEAKER_02: And she'd go, Hey, would you train me?
2:56
SPEAKER_02: I've never been trained, coached by you, and I want to use the complex, do some stuff while I'm home.
3:00
SPEAKER_02: Christmas break, we'd come out and do some stuff, and knew of her and knew her through ODP and whatever.
3:06
SPEAKER_02: But she was like, it's interesting when they're like, Yeah, we were we were only getting paid during the season.
3:11
SPEAKER_02: And we're getting and she was a top 10 draft pick by a red star.
3:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
3:16
SPEAKER_02: And she was 40 grand a year, only getting paid, living in a house with five other girls, no cars, trans Chicago, one of the more expensive cities in the U.S.
3:29
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
3:30
SPEAKER_02: You know, Logan Emory was talking about that when he was in the MLS in Toronto, one of the most expensive cities in the world.
3:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
3:36
SPEAKER_02: Five guys, they're eating ramen, hot dogs, peanut butter and jelly, double shacking in a room, you know, riding the subway, train, whatever, to get around places because they couldn't afford, couldn't afford to live, a lot of them.
3:50
SPEAKER_02: But it was pro, it was top, you know, division.
3:53
SPEAKER_02: Right.
3:53
SPEAKER_02: And that was those were early days of NWSL.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: But when I was there, the rookie minimum was six thousand dollars.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, okay, it's March to depending on how far you make it, September, October, but six thousand dollars?
4:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's crazy.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: That is insane.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's crazy.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: And then how far we've come, and now it's very healthy.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's I mean, look at some of the girls that are making millions of dollars.
4:20
SPEAKER_02: Trin and well, and it's funny too, because like people, people with like the pros, whether it's you know, from our club like Sophia or Emily Madrill or people like that or Emily Sam's now, you know, it's interesting because they'll go, Oh, did you see so-and-so's worth?
4:36
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, Yeah, but I mean, I guess here's the big thing, like, even the evolution of coaches and coaches pay.
4:43
SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
4:44
SPEAKER_02: Right?
4:44
SPEAKER_02: Like, we were some of I was an independent contractor for the club for you, because that's what it was, and that's how the club could save money.
4:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
4:50
SPEAKER_02: And no taxes, no fee, no benefits, fight, go, you know, whatever.
4:53
SPEAKER_02: We didn't have benefits, retirement, we didn't have anything.
4:56
SPEAKER_02: Do you have benefits now?
4:57
SPEAKER_02: We do now.
4:57
SPEAKER_02: It took like 10 years to fight.
5:00
SPEAKER_02: Really?
5:00
SPEAKER_02: And we had a great president at that time, a board member that came in and said, Hey, let's see if we can make this happen.
5:06
SPEAKER_02: But we have medical, we uh we have retirement now, but retirement's only been about six years.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: That's great.
5:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but but how many clubs actually?
5:16
SPEAKER_02: Well, and the thing is, people forget, like even a pro-athlete, their lifespan of earning that is short.
5:22
SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
5:22
SPEAKER_02: So people go, Well, look what Sophia, and I go, but you don't realize what Sophia did to make a living, you know, and live her first 13 years.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: Right.
5:33
SPEAKER_02: Make 40 grand for six months.
5:36
SPEAKER_02: Then go to Australia.
5:37
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
5:38
SPEAKER_02: Play there.
5:39
SPEAKER_02: Constantly re and she's con you know, and she had goals and what she was doing, what she wanted to do, and sacrificed a lot.
5:44
SPEAKER_02: And even like Logan Emory, who's at Seattle United now, but he was with Portland and played at Portland and played in Toronto and played USL and he he was a kid from our club, probably one of the first ones who really kind of was in there.
5:57
SPEAKER_02: And John Gwynn's the old one.
5:59
SPEAKER_02: He's he's the old original who was like Tony Miola, John Harks.
6:02
SPEAKER_02: He was all in that U23 and like ruptured his Achilles when he was at Duke in Brazil with the national team.
6:09
SPEAKER_02: And but he's kind of like the first guy out of the valley that like my generation other went, oh, I want to be John Gwynn.
6:15
SPEAKER_02: Right.
6:16
SPEAKER_02: Like he's like he's legit.
6:17
SPEAKER_02: He he actually forego like his senior year and went played Irvine Strikers in California.
6:22
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
6:22
SPEAKER_02: Live, you know, moved down there his senior year, went to Duke, went to all this stuff.
6:27
SPEAKER_02: But back to that point is like their lifespan of the their quote unquote worth or what they're making, if they only make that over five, six years and they're done.
6:38
SPEAKER_02: Now what?
6:38
SPEAKER_02: And they didn't make it the first twelve, ten years, what what does that million, two million, six million, what does that do for them long term over fifty years?
6:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
6:49
SPEAKER_02: Forty or whatever uh, you know, potential income revenue generating time period is for an adult.
6:55
SPEAKER_01: Right.
6:56
SPEAKER_02: People forget that aspect.
6:58
SPEAKER_02: You know, they they don't realize what I think a lot of these guys have sacrificed to do.
7:02
SPEAKER_02: But like you said, the evolution and the contracts and like Trini Rodman and Sophia Smith and people signing and Europe now raising their standard in the women's game financially.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: Which is hurting us.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: Right.
7:17
SPEAKER_02: But the great thing is for the players, it's a more immediate reward for who they are, what they could be, their potential, etc.
7:24
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, it's it's it's definitely been an evolution.
7:27
SPEAKER_02: I and I do think you know, the game across any aspect we talk about or anybody battles or hates or loves, there's been some evolution, I think, at every level, whether it's like US soccer, national team, youth competitive, United States, I think there's been growth.
7:46
SPEAKER_02: Right.
7:47
SPEAKER_02: Beyond population.
7:48
SPEAKER_02: Right.
7:49
SPEAKER_02: You a lot of times the the horror stories get the highlight.
7:53
SPEAKER_02: You know, the myths and mythologies and misinformation get the highlight.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: The dropout rate, yeah, and that's our biggest issue.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not.
8:01
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's like I was telling you, you know, when we were talking on the phone, it's just like it's interesting when you look at it's always these here's the national average of a kid that advances to college soccer.
8:12
SPEAKER_02: And then they'll microsize that to D1.
8:15
SPEAKER_02: Right.
8:15
SPEAKER_02: And not say D2, D3, JUCO and a community college.
8:19
SPEAKER_02: They won't take any of that, but then but when they then you get all these aspects of just the population, but then you know, and we highlighted, I think, quite a bit, we may not do it enough.
8:30
SPEAKER_02: Um you know, like our girls over 15 years, and it's probably more than that now, but over 15 years, when we look back data, our girls are we're placing 94% and higher of our senior classes to college programs, athletically and academically.
8:47
SPEAKER_02: And then the rest of the 6% are they're choosing you know, but my dream school was University of Oregon, but I can't play.
8:54
SPEAKER_02: The soccer program didn't, I can't play there, right?
8:56
SPEAKER_02: But that's what I want to do.
8:57
SPEAKER_02: I want to go to sorority, I want to be a UOL alum.
9:00
SPEAKER_02: My parents, you know, that's and they have the program I want, I'm academically strong.
9:04
SPEAKER_01: Right.
9:05
SPEAKER_02: And we say, go play, you can play club soccer.
9:07
SPEAKER_02: Why not play club soccer at the university?
9:10
SPEAKER_00: It's a fun environment and it's a high level.
9:13
SPEAKER_02: I mean, Cal Poly's Cal Poly's women's club team, like they're like national champions, I think, something like five out of the last ten years.
9:21
SPEAKER_02: And they have a great program and they're invested in it, and they travel, and they we had a girl that did that, he was the old AD, Kurt Apsey at Boise State and at Carroll College, and then came back to Boise State, and he was the athletic director.
9:31
SPEAKER_02: But he originated from there, he played at Cal Poly, coached Cal Poly, coached Grant Landy, who's at Humboldt, wasn't Cordia.
9:38
SPEAKER_02: But um, his oldest daughter was like, I want to go to Cal Poly.
9:44
SPEAKER_02: And she played on the club team because of one reason or another, or didn't get assessed by the head coach to play on the you know NCAA team, had a great experience.
9:53
SPEAKER_02: She's driving, is a was a club national champion, was you know, all these things.
9:59
SPEAKER_02: And that's the thing, is like even our kids going through stuff.
10:01
SPEAKER_02: It's like I talked to a girl yesterday, she goes, I'm a little worried, I'm a senior.
10:06
SPEAKER_02: Um, I got these three D3 schools, she knows she wants to go to D3, super academic, very strong soccer IQ kid, maybe not the best athlete per se.
10:18
SPEAKER_02: Okay, but can play the game, like plays on our ECNL team, top team.
10:24
SPEAKER_02: And she sees all her friends around her committing, you know, and younger ones committing to D1s, to whatever, etc.
10:31
SPEAKER_02: So of course she's getting a little, but I and I said explicitly, what does your text mean when you're worried?
10:36
SPEAKER_02: She goes, Well, I'm worried I don't want to go that far, or I don't want to make that my home for four.
10:41
SPEAKER_02: And I go, Well, you're starting to ask the right questions, so that's good.
10:44
SPEAKER_02: You know, I said, but there's a lot of so like what's your three top priorities?
10:48
SPEAKER_02: Right.
10:48
SPEAKER_02: And she's like, Well, I want free law aspect, I want a high academic, and I want to get away from town, my parents.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: But I want to be close enough, but if close enough, if I need to get a few, holidays visit, they can watch my games, etc.
11:02
SPEAKER_02: Right.
11:03
SPEAKER_02: Because it's a positive parent environment, right?
11:05
SPEAKER_02: She just wants to get out of the valley.
11:07
SPEAKER_02: She's lived here forever.
11:09
SPEAKER_02: So, but she, and then we started dialoguing back and forth, and I think her dad wanted to call me.
11:13
SPEAKER_02: I wasn't able to pick up the phone, but I think they get worried about and I'm like, you know, traditional D3s are waiting to see if a kid after their first semester of senior year can get in the school.
11:24
SPEAKER_02: That was the old model.
11:25
SPEAKER_02: They're waiting, they gotta make sure you can get in the school.
11:27
SPEAKER_02: Right.
11:28
SPEAKER_02: Because they're hard, especially East Coast D three schools.
11:31
SPEAKER_02: I said, and she's looking at Minnesota, Iowa, and an Oregon school.
11:36
SPEAKER_02: And she said, Should I shift?
11:38
SPEAKER_02: Should I do whatever?
11:39
SPEAKER_02: And she I said, Well, you can look at some stuff and contact and let me know here.
11:44
SPEAKER_02: We have coach connections, etc.
11:46
SPEAKER_02: And but it's it's interesting, the stressor of the environment, you know, from a college.
11:53
SPEAKER_02: And they all deal with it.
11:54
SPEAKER_02: It's like they commit, then the monkey's off their back.
11:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and they start worrying about oh my gosh, this is the right choice.
12:00
SPEAKER_02: But then the other ones are really freaking out.
12:02
SPEAKER_02: I mean, Olivia Smith, who is at what uh BYU, it's probably the actual I know it's the only coach I've ever called Jen Rockwood.
12:09
SPEAKER_02: And she's awesome, and BYU's program's been phenomenal.
12:13
SPEAKER_02: And and Olivia played against Emily, who was at Florida State in the national championship game four or four or five years ago.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
12:22
SPEAKER_02: And I think they faced each other in the final four the year prior.
12:25
SPEAKER_02: But Olivia was drafted by the Royals.
12:27
SPEAKER_02: She wanted to go to San Diego, she was drafted by the Royals, but she was a kid growing up, and if you ask her mom Allison, she was awesome.
12:34
SPEAKER_02: Like, when social media became a thing, Facebook, likes, like, like, like, like.
12:40
SPEAKER_02: She was never too wrapped up in that.
12:41
SPEAKER_02: She was a really task-oriented kid.
12:43
SPEAKER_02: I would have never known it.
12:44
SPEAKER_01: Right.
12:45
SPEAKER_02: But her mom was like, hey, she might be struggling a little bit, you might see some struggle because we're dealing with it right now.
12:51
SPEAKER_02: She's she's feeling the pressure of social, like, if her post doesn't get a hundred likes, she's associating her value or stuff with that, like socially.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
13:02
SPEAKER_02: And it was just like, I was mind-blowing for me.
13:04
SPEAKER_02: I was like, well, who gives a shit?
13:06
SPEAKER_02: Or I'm sorry, who cares?
13:08
SPEAKER_02: I don't care.
13:08
SPEAKER_02: It's like, who cares?
13:09
SPEAKER_01: Right.
13:10
SPEAKER_02: You know, you know your value, you know what you get.
13:12
SPEAKER_02: And she's the one kid that Jen through her whole she she's LDS.
13:16
SPEAKER_02: Wanted to go BYU, been to all the camps, didn't want to go to any other school.
13:19
SPEAKER_02: So it was BYU robust.
13:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
13:21
SPEAKER_02: She's a tiny little thing.
13:22
SPEAKER_02: She grew a lot in her late, she was a late bloomer.
13:26
SPEAKER_02: Um, but literally called Jen and I said, hey, I mean, here's the thing.
13:30
SPEAKER_02: Parents can afford it.
13:32
SPEAKER_02: There's no cost to you.
13:33
SPEAKER_02: This kid's legit.
13:35
SPEAKER_02: She's diamond in the rough.
13:37
SPEAKER_02: If she never plays a minute, she'll be an additive, value-added thing for your program.
13:42
SPEAKER_02: And Jen was like, okay, well, talk to the assistants, go from there.
13:47
SPEAKER_02: Then Liv called and said, Hey, BYU offered me a spot.
13:50
SPEAKER_02: It is not because of me, right?
13:51
SPEAKER_02: It's because of Liv.
13:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
13:53
SPEAKER_02: But it's it's like once in a while you have to do that, right as a coach.
13:57
SPEAKER_02: And the hard part is like advising these kids.
13:59
SPEAKER_02: It's like, here's the thing: I know you, I see you every day.
14:02
SPEAKER_02: I see your habits, I see who you are, I see your comfortability.
14:06
SPEAKER_02: These guys are getting snapshots at like an ECN National Showcase, a game, and they may be there 10 minutes and head into another game for 10 minutes.
14:13
SPEAKER_02: If they don't like what they see, that's your whole case history for them.
14:17
SPEAKER_01: Right.
14:17
SPEAKER_02: Depending on what they want to invest in.
14:20
SPEAKER_02: Right?
14:20
SPEAKER_02: Like there are some college programs that really invest in tracking a kid's case history.
14:26
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
14:26
SPEAKER_02: Right?
14:27
SPEAKER_02: Like talking, film, really, really good about which I think is awesome.
14:32
SPEAKER_02: You know, but we also know there's some byproducts in the environment.
14:35
SPEAKER_02: Like you were we were talking earlier, does Idaho maybe get overlooked?
14:40
SPEAKER_02: I mean, yeah, but if you look at the overall population, you know, and the metrics and the number of kids that come from X State for national teams or for programs or et cetera.
14:50
SPEAKER_02: You know, I mean, I mean, even getting Sammy Smith to Stanford wasn't easy.
14:55
SPEAKER_02: And her mom was a rower at Stanford, her dad played soccer at Duke, her little brother's, and he's a Tucker's the same thing, I think I was telling you on our phone call.
15:02
SPEAKER_02: I mean, he's a he's a walk-on non-guaranteed spot.
15:05
SPEAKER_01: Right.
15:05
SPEAKER_02: And he turned down offers to go to Duke.
15:08
SPEAKER_02: And now he's playing and he started.
15:10
SPEAKER_02: And he's two weeks ago.
15:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and he scored a goal, had her go tie up a game or win the game.
15:16
SPEAKER_02: But they uh you know, so even for our top quote-unquote athlete premier, performer, personality, all that stuff, then it's not super easy.
15:27
SPEAKER_02: Just I think because of like if you're sitting in a pocket, obviously Florida State can see Florida kids and Southern kids routinely.
15:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
15:35
SPEAKER_02: Whether it's high school, ECNL club, etc., because our conference allows it.
15:39
SPEAKER_02: We and the ECNL, the East NL did help us that way a lot with like with our early conference makeup of Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Washington, and then adding the Oregons, it did that the aspect of like, hey, you can come to a competitive match as a college coach, and it doesn't have to be a tournament.
15:58
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't have to be a national showcase.
16:00
SPEAKER_02: Right.
16:00
SPEAKER_02: We're in your backyard or we're 100 miles or 40 miles from you.
16:05
SPEAKER_02: You can now see kids more routinely or track a case history and build, you know, build more of a case history than contact, email, video, coach recommendation, uh Vegas College Showcase Regionals.
16:19
SPEAKER_02: Right.
16:20
SPEAKER_02: That was our old window for kids.
16:23
SPEAKER_02: But now that's what the window exists for most.
16:25
SPEAKER_02: And now the thing is like college coaches aren't going to regionals anymore.
16:28
SPEAKER_02: USYS region and USY regionals don't exist anymore.
16:31
SPEAKER_02: But they're not going to those things anymore.
16:33
SPEAKER_02: Right.
16:33
SPEAKER_02: They're going to ECNL games and ECNL MLS.
16:37
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
16:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's our big knock on the boys thing, and ECNL's done a good job, I think.
16:42
SPEAKER_02: And I think the I don't know, the deconstruction of the old DA, MLS formats.
16:49
SPEAKER_02: And I know some of those MLS clubs didn't like homegrown clubs in the league because they were beating them.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: Like you're talking about like the MLS academies.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: Oh well.
16:59
SPEAKER_02: I mean Crossfire's and FC Golden State and you know Hawks and who you know.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: Right.
17:04
SPEAKER_02: They're going in and beating an MLS academy.
17:06
SPEAKER_02: That doesn't look good.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: No.
17:07
SPEAKER_02: So we can protect ourselves here by making it an MLS only thing.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: But that's why MLS academies now they like you play up.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: So like your 15s are playing 16s.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: So like if they lose, well, they're playing up, and it's kind of like an excuse, I guess.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: Right.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: But I mean, I feel that over my career, I I feel like I can relate to the kids.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: What I cannot relate to is watching all of your teammates commit, and you're like the last one to commit.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: That has to be awful.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: And I had a 2000, well, she's in 08, so she graduated last year.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: And she was the last to get recruited, and I saw what she was going through, and I was just like, my, and she's such a good player.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: She played at uh Western Euroflash or uh ECNL.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: And it's just because every her teammates going to Georgetown, going to Wisconsin, going to all these places.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: They're committing their sophomore year.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, how many calls did you get on June 15th?
18:14
SPEAKER_00: Right.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: Well, I got 12.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: How many did you get?
18:16
SPEAKER_02: Right.
18:17
SPEAKER_02: Zero.
18:17
SPEAKER_02: Well, now with social media, they share it.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
18:20
SPEAKER_02: It's like we have we have football players around here sharing.
18:24
SPEAKER_02: Where are they going?
18:25
SPEAKER_02: I've got my 24th official offer.
18:28
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
18:28
SPEAKER_02: And then you talk to like people in the community that are football people, and they're like, those aren't those aren't offers.
18:33
SPEAKER_02: Those are like a visit.
18:36
SPEAKER_02: It's not an offer, you know, from a standpoint, but but they just throw it out there.
18:41
SPEAKER_02: It's so weird.
18:42
SPEAKER_02: It's nuts.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I've been invited to this camp.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: It's like, because it's all public.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: My nephew plays at Eastern Michigan.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: It's tight end.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: And he would like announce, oh, I got my offer from Toledo.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: Got my offer from and I'm like, you just you just say that willy-nilly.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: I was like, that's probably gonna come on the soccer side.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: Watch.
19:03
SPEAKER_02: And it's here.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
19:05
SPEAKER_02: It's here.
19:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, people are all over.
19:07
SPEAKER_02: It's it's starting.
19:08
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
19:09
SPEAKER_02: It's like it's everything's trendy, everything trends.
19:12
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
19:13
SPEAKER_02: Right?
19:13
SPEAKER_02: So they fought, it was like everything's Twitter X, whatever, and I'm not on it and stuff, but so I don't see it as much.
19:21
SPEAKER_02: But smart.
19:22
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I know I know some of the I know some of talking to the college coaches, you know, it started about maybe 10 years ago, eight for sure, where they were like post-COVID that for sure they were like, and maybe COVID created it, because it created this nobody's playing, nobody can trout, nobody's seeing.
19:43
SPEAKER_02: People are afraid to trout, whatever, to where we need a medium.
19:47
SPEAKER_02: Because I remember the old days of college advising, college coaches saying, We don't want video.
19:52
SPEAKER_02: Anybody can doctor video up, you guys don't know how to shoot 'em.
19:55
SPEAKER_02: You only show us your good stuff.
19:58
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's the it's the messy dribbling.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: Anybody can make a highlight tape, yeah.
20:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so they were like, We don't want that.
20:04
SPEAKER_02: We want to see you play.
20:06
SPEAKER_02: Now, we want film.
20:09
SPEAKER_02: I mean, they can sit in their office in Purdue watching 32 games over a weekend in San Diego by logging into Huddle.
20:19
SPEAKER_02: Right.
20:20
SPEAKER_02: And watching film.
20:22
SPEAKER_02: Right, and watching kids, they don't have to per se travel anymore.
20:26
SPEAKER_02: Right.
20:26
SPEAKER_02: Or they have one at home doing that, and then the other ones are traveling.
20:30
SPEAKER_02: You know, so it's like, so it's like this, it's like this evolution, it's it's just shifted, you know, and I think the social media aspect of it and those things are it's great.
20:41
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's I mean we talk about it with our social media teams and volunteers and stuff, and it's like we get questions a lot, like, hey, should we share this?
20:49
SPEAKER_02: Or hey, so-and-so tagged us, and we're always like, as long as it celebrates the kids and the game or us, go ahead.
20:56
SPEAKER_02: If it can't answer that question, don't share it.
21:00
SPEAKER_02: Right.
21:00
SPEAKER_02: You know, somebody makes a comment, block them.
21:03
SPEAKER_02: We don't, we don't need you know, nothing against you or anybody else.
21:07
SPEAKER_02: Nothing against you, nothing against you or anybody else, but we don't need followers.
21:12
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
21:13
SPEAKER_02: So I mean we need we need members, right?
21:15
SPEAKER_02: And people and sustainability, and I think it's I think that's what we're seeing and and and we're where we're going.
21:22
SPEAKER_02: But it's I mean, but the other aspect of it, we're at our annual meeting, and one of our young, you talk to her later, McKenzie, goes, Hey, I think um something we should look at for like marketing and stuff like that, because at our annual meeting we actually go over our targets, metrics as a club, all our departments, our administrator, finance, technical department, everybody.
21:43
SPEAKER_02: It's really cool.
21:43
SPEAKER_02: We go up to the mountains and do an annual retreat and go over the year and set everything in our quarterly rocks and go on from there.
21:50
SPEAKER_02: But we and and we and we do leadership stuff and mentoring and kind of like team health, you know, we we kind of mix it all.
21:56
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
21:57
SPEAKER_02: Um, but she said I she goes, I And this is me, it's hard for me because she was like, Hey, I hate to say this, we're not on TikTok.
22:07
SPEAKER_02: Like from a girl's or voice, and I and I realized it, like, man, every time I ask a kid, what are you doing?
22:14
SPEAKER_02: I'm on TikTok.
22:16
SPEAKER_02: And I was sitting there and I'm like, man, I hate it.
22:19
SPEAKER_02: I can't, I can't just me.
22:21
SPEAKER_02: It's older, it's what just be genuine, be yourself.
22:24
SPEAKER_02: Don't you don't have to create a false narrative because some of that goes on, right?
22:27
SPEAKER_02: Be authentic, be yourself.
22:29
SPEAKER_02: And it's just like, holy crap.
22:31
SPEAKER_02: And the time they spent, like, I'm like, man, the time you spend practicing that dance, you spend some time juggling or doing some foot skills or working on your finishing touch reps.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: Imagine.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: Whew.
22:42
SPEAKER_02: Be more time invested in what you really want to do.
22:44
SPEAKER_02: I mean, unless you're gonna be on dancing with the stars or something, I don't know, you know, but or be an influencer.
22:50
SPEAKER_02: But but but I had to like really eat crow and go, God, you know, maybe I need to talk to like Sherry, our show social media person, other, and go, do we do we need to do a club TikTok?
23:03
SPEAKER_02: Do we need to start looking at something like that over the next year?
23:06
SPEAKER_02: That does help us.
23:08
SPEAKER_02: Like we we offset, I mean, this like this year alone, our partners, competitive coaches gear, our new partner sponsors, like community, all of them are community businesses, corporations, etc., alumni, those people that are on our uniforms, on our competitive coaches gear, we'll be out on the fencing, all that stuff, they're offsetting close to$250,000 of operating revenue costs.
23:35
SPEAKER_02: So like we share, we share our budget with our members every year in May.
23:39
SPEAKER_02: We show them the pie, we show them where pieces of their fees go.
23:43
SPEAKER_02: And it's like I can tell you on the phone, it's like when they see, hey, competitive player dues, which I'm not gonna lie, are your moneymaker.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, of course.
23:52
SPEAKER_02: Those are 55% of our overall operating budget.
23:55
SPEAKER_02: So what covers the other six, you know.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: You guys are sending on millions and millions of dollars.
24:02
SPEAKER_02: Right.
24:02
SPEAKER_02: Because that's what everybody thinks.
24:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
24:04
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's it's funny, we get even stuff from the community.
24:06
SPEAKER_02: Our coaches do licensure stuff and they go, hey, and they're new.
24:10
SPEAKER_02: McKenzie came back from I Get Apollo last year and goes, Oh, I heard a coach tell me, like, like, oh, we lost our lease agreement with our complex because we we have we have expanded our rec league to have geographic sites.
24:23
SPEAKER_02: So we're using some high schools.
24:25
SPEAKER_02: So somebody saw that and said, Oh, BTT's moving to Waihee High School.
24:30
SPEAKER_02: They're losing their land.
24:31
SPEAKER_02: They're doing like so it's like, and I'm like, well, Mac, we own the land.
24:36
SPEAKER_02: Like, we don't rent, we own this.
24:39
SPEAKER_02: We're actually in a really good spot.
24:40
SPEAKER_02: And we gen, we've, I mean, we're getting ready to do with our membership.
24:43
SPEAKER_02: So by the time this comes out, we'll have probably out to our membership with our capital campaign to turf at least three fields on the west side, because we want this complex to be a year-round facility.
24:53
SPEAKER_02: And our winters are getting.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: You're talking about right here.
24:56
SPEAKER_02: And we love our grass.
24:57
SPEAKER_02: But we're talking about three turf fields lighted so that we can we're we're spending, we're spending it it's six figures.
25:06
SPEAKER_02: Oh, easy.
25:07
SPEAKER_02: In high school turf rental fees for three and a half months.
25:10
SPEAKER_02: Because we can't train on our grey grass in Idaho.
25:13
SPEAKER_02: Can't train on it, because it will kill it.
25:15
SPEAKER_02: Because the winter and the frost and everything will we will literally kill our grass, and then what will happen is in the spring when we come back, it'll be dirt and brown, and then we'll just we'll kill it.
25:24
SPEAKER_02: We would literally have to take people off of it for three months, reseed, sod, whatever.
25:29
SPEAKER_02: So we have to manage the seasons here.
25:31
SPEAKER_02: So we were so one of the board's goals last year was like going, you know, BTT complex should be a 365 facility for our members.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: What are your winters like?
25:41
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we can get we can get we can get evening lows, 19 degrees, 20.
25:48
SPEAKER_02: Instead, our kids are tough.
25:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, they get negative too.
25:52
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
25:52
SPEAKER_02: But we we we we typically are training about 30, 30 degrees.
25:56
SPEAKER_02: We hate we do have like a cold weather policy, frostbite, wind chill, of course, all that stuff.
26:01
SPEAKER_02: Um, and luckily, like last winter, it was really, really dry here, really mild, really dry.
26:07
SPEAKER_02: We were able to get through.
26:08
SPEAKER_02: But now with our conferences, and that's the thing, like with ECNL, etc., and that that's the other thing with our parents, is like we can take that money, and if it's 25 bucks a month or whatever, it ends up, don't quote me, but that's what it is per player for rent to a fees because we don't include it in our club or club operating costs.
26:25
SPEAKER_02: And then we also rent for like ECNL games because we play late February.
26:31
SPEAKER_02: We usually travel December, January, yeah, because Seattle and Portland typically rain.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: Right.
26:36
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
26:37
SPEAKER_02: So and they have turf.
26:39
SPEAKER_02: Like every field is turf, right?
26:41
SPEAKER_02: And in Portland and Seattle.
26:43
SPEAKER_02: It has to be there, right?
26:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
26:44
SPEAKER_02: So, and so that's just the makeup of our conference.
26:48
SPEAKER_02: So for our for our members, it's a financial load, right, in the winter.
26:53
SPEAKER_02: And then it evens out because we get the home games returned through the spring.
26:57
SPEAKER_02: Now we play here on the grass, you know, March, mid-March after.
27:02
SPEAKER_02: Unless we have a uh we have it this year with pre-E CNL, ECNL RL fully loaded, we've got a situation where we're like, we gotta we're gonna load this place up and then we've gotta rent two high school turf fields just to make it work.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: How much did you say?
27:21
SPEAKER_02: I think our rental fees, um, our high school rental fees over three and a half months are close to like$150,000.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: $150,000.
27:30
SPEAKER_02: But we're like, we can take that money, we can literally take that money and build turf fields.
27:35
SPEAKER_02: And then what we've done too is we have we do a car raffle.
27:38
SPEAKER_02: Um we actually got it from Washington Premier.
27:40
SPEAKER_02: They do like a mandatory car raffle or two hundred dollar, I guess, donation, whatever.
27:46
SPEAKER_02: So you can sell raffle tickets, but if you sell your 10, you get 75% of every ticket at sold after that.
27:52
SPEAKER_02: So$20 ticket every member, competitive member, just one per family.
27:56
SPEAKER_02: We don't make everybody so then that creates kind of our club fundraiser every year, which which typically is bringing in about 80, you know, a good year, 100,000, but it's typically around 75, 80 grand.
28:09
SPEAKER_02: We have put that in a capital improvement fund.
28:12
SPEAKER_02: So like when we need to extend the parking lot, which we had to do a couple years ago, costs money.
28:17
SPEAKER_02: Doesn't just magically happen.
28:18
SPEAKER_02: No, you know, it's just like our fields, like you driving around with me earlier and in the grass.
28:22
SPEAKER_02: It's like, yeah, we have it, but it takes a lot to maintain it.
28:27
SPEAKER_02: So we have our own mower, we seed, we aerate, we fertilize, we pre-spray for wheat, you know, we so we do all that stuff in-house, which uh you're I guess you're just normal judgment person would be like, oh, you guys get all this money.
28:44
SPEAKER_02: That's not necessarily the case.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
28:46
SPEAKER_02: Right.
28:47
SPEAKER_00: And then like when you go over the numbers, well, we need to end pay-to-play.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: How?
28:54
SPEAKER_00: There's not always a great community that's gonna support soccer.
28:59
SPEAKER_02: Right.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: There's not small businesses, there's not a lot of millionaires and billionaires that love soccer or want to give it.
29:06
SPEAKER_02: And there's not a lot of large businesses.
29:07
SPEAKER_02: A lot of large businesses that we talk to are like, we would love to, but if we do it for the new, we gotta do it for everybody.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: And the reach, I mean, for a big conglomerate company, the reach, and you you have three thousand players or however have a thousand players, that's not the reach that they're trying to get.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: So it's so and everybody's like, well, just go get a sponsor or just do fundraising.
29:31
SPEAKER_02: It's like well, it's easier for them to do Boise State and put all their stuff on Boise State campus because Boise State's on ESPN, CBS, everything, every exactly, every four days, every three days, every two days.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
29:43
SPEAKER_02: There's something that their name is on.
29:46
SPEAKER_02: Right.
29:47
SPEAKER_02: And we've had really good support from our alumni members, community members.
29:51
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it started out honestly with an angel donor when we were first talking to people and uh Court Christensen, Pet IQ, they had an old and then John Landry and old um Altson's exact these kids had played, and they were like, you just need an angel.
30:07
SPEAKER_02: And they they had actually started their own thing called Pet IQ, which is in like in Walmart's.
30:12
SPEAKER_02: They bought uh from what I know, they had bought in a plant in Ireland, like for dirt cheap.
30:18
SPEAKER_02: Then it created like veterinary supplies, dog treats, foods.
30:22
SPEAKER_02: So they did they started this pet IQ model, and it's they've done really well.
30:26
SPEAKER_02: Right.
30:26
SPEAKER_02: Right, and they went public in the stock market and they went and they said we'll be on the front of the uniforms.
30:32
SPEAKER_02: And they were kind of our first, you know, big one, which I think helped.
30:36
SPEAKER_02: It's cool when we have like Asia Lawyer who's at Voice State, and I think they were talking about equity or something, Title IX and Wall Street Journal, and somebody grabbed a photo somewhere at an East Nell vent, and there's Asia Lawyer and her Nike pet IQ Boise Thorns jersey in the Wall Street Journal or the Washington Post, and I send it to Court and go, hey, check this out.
30:57
SPEAKER_02: And he was like, This is great.
30:58
SPEAKER_02: He goes, just so you know, this you know, this doesn't sell us any extra pet IQ product when you really look at our metrics.
31:06
SPEAKER_02: Right.
31:07
SPEAKER_02: Right?
31:07
SPEAKER_02: Of course, like we're so so but I but I but I think you know the community overall and the willingness, and you see it more and more.
31:14
SPEAKER_02: You see so many clubs, it's it's almost normal now.
31:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
31:18
SPEAKER_02: I mean, our title donor this year, I can't name them.
31:22
SPEAKER_02: They said we'd we actually don't want to be on the jersey, but you're gonna get your money.
31:28
SPEAKER_02: Can you figure out other ways to do it and celebrate?
31:31
SPEAKER_02: And it was like, I felt really uncomfortable.
31:34
SPEAKER_02: But I mean, you know, wow, thank you.
31:38
SPEAKER_02: Looks kind of weird just with our stuff on it.
31:41
SPEAKER_02: But we have our other sponsors like Jackson Foundation and you know, Table Rock Oral and all our other ECNL patch, we have all that stuff, but it's um it's kind of throwback, right, when nobody had anything on the front.
31:53
SPEAKER_02: But we do have a title sponsor, but they are more like of an anonymous we're we're good, we don't have to have our name all over the place.
32:02
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty awesome.
32:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was cool.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: How how do you price the sponsorships and stuff like that?
32:09
SPEAKER_02: I'll tell you what, honestly, I have just like like I told you on the phone, we've we've always operated as kind of a we're a small market compared to major marketplaces, a lot of clubs, a lot of places, a lot of the US.
32:23
SPEAKER_02: Um Boise's growing.
32:25
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's it's definitely growing, and and actually Boise's not growing.
32:28
SPEAKER_02: It's all the outlying stuff that's growing in.
32:30
SPEAKER_02: I mean, the amount of fields and pasture and things you'd see in here.
32:34
SPEAKER_02: I mean, Eagle Road, the busiest road in Idaho for years.
32:37
SPEAKER_02: When I was here, it was a two-lane country road, and the only thing that was on there was the Corsic distribution plant.
32:42
SPEAKER_00: I was here 15 years ago for a college football road trip.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: I came to Boise versus TCU.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: This is Kellen Moore.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: Uh I think it was Andy Dalton.
32:53
SPEAKER_00: Boise lost on a missed field goal.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: And uh I would go by the stadium this week and I'm like, Oh, it's Jesus.
33:03
SPEAKER_00: I don't remember any of this.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: And then I was I was talking to everybody, and they're like, oh yeah, this is all new.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: It's like, I don't remember.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: I remember this bar.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: I don't remember this bar.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: What is this?
33:13
SPEAKER_00: Oh, those brand new five years ago.
33:15
SPEAKER_02: Voices voices changed a lot.
33:16
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we got our first raisin canes, you know, like what is that?
33:21
SPEAKER_02: Down off Eagle Road, but they and they're they're great.
33:24
SPEAKER_02: They've they're doing a whole sponsored our golf tournament and all this stuff, but it's uh, you know, it's it people everybody that's ever come here, like our conference opponents and everything, like even the Seattle guys, whoever they're like, hey, if you can pay me enough, I'd move here.
33:37
SPEAKER_02: Like this place is and and our people even here complain about traffic, Eagle Road, etc.
33:45
SPEAKER_02: And then they talk to a family who's transplanted from Seattle or California, and they're like, you don't you're not spending four hours in the car for practice.
33:55
SPEAKER_02: Two hours there, two hours back.
33:56
SPEAKER_02: You know, this this is nothing.
33:59
SPEAKER_02: You know, to drive 20 minutes, 30 minutes, this is nothing compared to what they're used to in major cities.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: What road is AC Boise on?
34:08
SPEAKER_02: Is it um they're at the fairgrounds?
34:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I went there yesterday.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: Wasn't able to get any of those guys on, but that story is crazy.
34:20
SPEAKER_02: They're in year one.
34:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I have season tickets.
34:23
SPEAKER_02: The club, we bought season the club bought season tickets, and we're in year.
34:26
SPEAKER_02: We give them to our we give them to our partners and others to go to their game.
34:29
SPEAKER_02: Already going into championship?
34:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think they had they they had it.
34:33
SPEAKER_02: I know Bill Taylor, who's one of the owners, um, great guy, coached for the club for years.
34:39
SPEAKER_02: Uh they've been trying to get a USL team forever, trying to do stuff with Boise State, trying to do stuff with the hockey, basketball, etc.
34:48
SPEAKER_02: Um, and then I I think they've got a really good deal.
34:51
SPEAKER_02: I don't know the exacts of because Garden City proper essentially is its own city, not really Boise.
34:59
SPEAKER_02: Right.
34:59
SPEAKER_02: So they were trying to hit Boise, trying to do so they're able to do something with the fairgrounds because it was a horse track.
35:05
SPEAKER_02: It was actually a horse racing track.
35:07
SPEAKER_01: Right.
35:07
SPEAKER_02: And and I remember going way back when, you know, and um but they stopped horse racing years ago, so it's just sat there and it did like the concerts for the fair over two weeks.
35:18
unknown: Uh-huh.
35:19
SPEAKER_02: And they got in and did it and redone it.
35:21
SPEAKER_02: Now they're talking about adding a grass field and they're adding 3,000 seats on the east side, which but it it's unbelievable.
35:29
SPEAKER_02: It's and I will say this, Boise has always had a Boise's always had a knock to be an event town.
35:36
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
35:36
SPEAKER_02: You know, like even though BSU sells out games, which is because people buy season tickets and do everything, but you look around the stadium and you go, This place isn't really full all the time.
35:45
SPEAKER_02: Right.
35:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
35:46
SPEAKER_02: AC Boise's full all the time.
35:48
SPEAKER_02: A a Wednesday night game, a Sunday, uh air quality, 90 degrees, 105 degrees, that thing's always full.
35:57
SPEAKER_02: Like it's it blows me away.
35:59
SPEAKER_02: Like it's like and people roll in, you know, they're they're not always there early, but by the time kickoff's going and they're going, that place is rocking.
36:08
SPEAKER_02: And it's cool.
36:08
SPEAKER_02: Nate's a great guy, the head coach.
36:10
SPEAKER_02: He was he worked with Blake Bottle, he's one of our alumni, and Keegan Euler, um, Jackson Stevens, who's at High Point, was their first like amateur contract kid, and then Grayson Carter, who's at Pitt, played for us, played for the Timbers, and RSL.
36:24
SPEAKER_02: Jackson was at Austin FC.
36:26
SPEAKER_02: Um from like the U 16 years and on.
36:30
SPEAKER_02: Um and then came back for their oldest year.
36:33
SPEAKER_02: Grayson's always been involved with after he left Timbers with RSL.
36:38
SPEAKER_02: But um they they've done a good job.
36:40
SPEAKER_02: Bill, like Bill's been around the the community forever.
36:44
SPEAKER_02: He's a good guy.
36:45
SPEAKER_02: I'm surprised, I mean, I'm surprised they didn't get in contact with you.
36:48
SPEAKER_02: They like they like sharing the story, it's a cool story.
36:50
SPEAKER_02: I think it was initially what I was gonna say is initially in their agreement was you know, USL team, within two years you will have to bump up, but they got in a year earlier.
37:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah and I don't know if that's because of the two years of and I don't know that landscape very well, but USL Premier is supposed to be matching MLS.
37:10
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
37:11
SPEAKER_02: So I don't know what that does to them, or maybe they go to Premier.
37:14
SPEAKER_02: Who knows?
37:15
SPEAKER_02: If they're functioning and sustainable and financially secure, right?
37:19
SPEAKER_02: I would imagine USL would say, hey, who can who can do this?
37:23
SPEAKER_02: Who can battle with MLS, you know what I mean, or whatever from a financial standpoint, not necessarily battle with MLS.
37:29
SPEAKER_00: I feel like they like USL is kind of like a they hide or they hid it, it's like hidden because we don't know exactly what's going on and how many teams are gonna be in premiere, how many teams are gonna be in championship, how many teams is it 2020 20?
37:43
SPEAKER_02: Is it well I think it it's interesting you say that because it's like look at our youth landscape, look at that, the pro landscape, they they all create something because something won't let them operate within something else.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: Gatekeepers, right?
37:58
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, the old USYS being the only thing when Derek Armstrong, Phil Wright, um my name's spacing him.
38:07
SPEAKER_02: He's president of U.S.
38:08
SPEAKER_02: Club now with U.S.
38:09
SPEAKER_02: Soccer now from the East Coast.
38:11
SPEAKER_02: But when they started US Club, it's because they were upset with the state associations, essentially with we have to apply for a travel pro you have to have three teams.
38:20
SPEAKER_02: We have to have yeah, we can only have one team per age group.
38:23
SPEAKER_02: No poaching.
38:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we have all this stuff, right, to protect you, yeah, or make it easy or whatever, and then they found out that's not true.
38:34
SPEAKER_02: Well, if you don't want to do it for us, we'll go find a vehicle that will.
38:38
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
38:38
SPEAKER_02: So, like MLS, probably the same thing, ownership groups, except you know, whatever, etc.
38:44
SPEAKER_02: You won't let us in.
38:46
SPEAKER_02: Well, we'll go find something, or we'll go create something else.
38:49
SPEAKER_02: Because wasn't wasn't the USL kind of essentially created after the NASL fall part?
38:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think so.
38:56
SPEAKER_02: Because there was still an old NASL.
38:57
SPEAKER_02: I can't remember, because I know Michael Kafari, who's involved with um, and he's an alumni of ours.
39:02
SPEAKER_02: Well, played majority of his years here.
39:04
SPEAKER_02: Um he went to New Mexico, was a high-level player, played in the USL, played NASL, I thought, with like Puerto Rico, and but he was with the New York Cosmos and the Remember the A League 2?
39:15
SPEAKER_02: Maybe that's what it was.
39:16
SPEAKER_02: Remember that?
39:17
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it was the A League, yeah.
39:18
SPEAKER_02: So, anyways, I think Ryan.
39:19
SPEAKER_02: I think America, right, overall, whether it's pro, youth, whatever, somebody's gonna find something to make them be viable or provide an option if somebody's not gonna let them in.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: Look at the NFL, right?
39:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I'm a cheese fan, die hard, I was born in Kansas City.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: So Lamar Hunt, he tried to get an NFL franchise in in Texas, in Dallas.
39:48
SPEAKER_00: NFL said no, and he's like, okay, I'll just start my own league.
39:53
SPEAKER_00: And then that's how the AFL started.
39:55
SPEAKER_00: And he started the Dallas Texans.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: Then he ended up moving because the Cowboys, he ended up moving the team to Kansas City.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: Didn't Herschel Walker sign with the AFL before the NFL?
40:04
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
40:07
SPEAKER_00: It was like he signed with like the USSL or something like that.
40:11
SPEAKER_00: But uh, but then AFL developed such a good product that NFL came calling and wanted to merge.
40:18
SPEAKER_00: And so then all the stats, oh, since the NFL merger.
40:21
SPEAKER_00: I think that's eventually what's gonna happen with USL and MLS.
40:25
SPEAKER_00: I think USL is gonna put on too good of a product, and MLS is just gonna come on calling and be like, okay, you showed that it's gonna work, that promotion relegation can work here.
40:35
SPEAKER_02: Right.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: Controlled promotion relegation.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: I don't think we're gonna allow every single team to put in a pro team like they do in Europe.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: Right.
40:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and just start at the bottom and then because the country's so big.
40:48
SPEAKER_02: It is so big.
40:49
SPEAKER_02: Because I can't see I can't see like Europe a club being able, and and I don't know if the money's there.
40:55
SPEAKER_02: I think Europe, the money is probably there and present.
40:59
SPEAKER_02: So, like example, somebody gets promoted and they shouldn't and they get knocked down the very next year.
41:04
SPEAKER_00: Right.
41:04
SPEAKER_02: Well, are they getting knocked down and now they're you know 50 million in debt and now they can't even operate in the championship?
41:11
SPEAKER_02: Right.
41:11
SPEAKER_02: So they get knocked down.
41:13
SPEAKER_02: You don't see that a lot.
41:14
SPEAKER_02: Right.
41:15
SPEAKER_02: Right?
41:15
SPEAKER_02: You see them kind of pop in out, in out of the story.
41:19
SPEAKER_00: And they got parachute payments when you get down.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: It's like are we gonna have that?
41:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's some sustainability from the association or the league that helps the structure work, which would be interesting because it's like you look at a smaller, because again, Boise, Emily, say they're the top tier, whatever that's called in your model or what you're saying.
41:39
SPEAKER_02: I think it'd be unbelievable.
41:41
SPEAKER_02: Now, the other thing is to get in and out of Boise, like we like we have to tell the ECNL, we're still small, we're uh we're not an international airport.
41:49
SPEAKER_02: We actually it's called Boise Air Terminal.
41:51
SPEAKER_02: They might have changed the airport finally.
41:53
SPEAKER_02: But I said we have very limited flights.
41:56
SPEAKER_02: So like we have to always send them every year, hey, remember, this is not for our only advantage.
42:03
SPEAKER_02: We have no problem playing a four o'clock game Sunday, and if we can have our last game or on Monday, say for a three-game fixture ECL national game, if we can have that before noon, because our flight windows to hit stuff from other or to get into boys.
42:17
SPEAKER_00: We always have to have a layout.
42:18
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna have to stay an extra night, we're gonna have to miss school, we're gonna and and they're great about it.
42:23
SPEAKER_02: They're like, okay, call opponents, whatever.
42:25
SPEAKER_02: If you guys are cool, you know, not changing Saturday's game, doing this, because they do a good job trying to get, I think, you know, 18, 20 hours, you know, rest in before games.
42:36
SPEAKER_02: The whole 24 hours between a game is funny because people forget the game actually happens.
42:40
SPEAKER_02: So if you got a two o'clock game, it's not ended till four.
42:43
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
42:44
SPEAKER_02: So you shouldn't play till four the next day.
42:46
SPEAKER_02: Right.
42:46
SPEAKER_02: But then we're like, we gotta get home, or we're gonna spend more money in hotels, more money in you know, food and missing school and all those types of.
42:55
SPEAKER_02: But they've they've always been great about helping us out, even opponents, you know.
42:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we have no problem swapping games.
43:02
SPEAKER_00: Right.
43:02
SPEAKER_02: You know, and that's just because but I but you look at it at the pro level, because I I don't think AC Boise has its own plane.
43:08
SPEAKER_02: I don't know any MLS, I don't know if any MLS team has its own plane.
43:12
SPEAKER_02: So the thing is, is like you're you're depending on the transportation system exactly right now for you to go Boise to all those major marketplaces on a routine basis.
43:23
SPEAKER_02: I mean, interestingly they're kind of doing now.
43:26
SPEAKER_00: You look at the map of the USL, yeah.
43:28
SPEAKER_02: And even look at look at the MLS.
43:30
SPEAKER_02: It's like Seattle.
43:32
SPEAKER_02: I guess you have Vancouver.
43:34
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but you got Vancouver, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland.
43:36
SPEAKER_02: Everything's really south, and then right, Mississippi East.
43:42
SPEAKER_02: Right.
43:42
SPEAKER_02: Or Missouri, whatever, Missouri East or whatever.
43:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
43:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
43:45
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to sound ignorant, but I don't know what river is more most west.
43:50
SPEAKER_00: It's Missouri.
43:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but but that you look at that map, right?
43:53
SPEAKER_02: There's this huge you know, van.
43:57
SPEAKER_02: So it's like it can't be And I know Seattle and Portland have international, but even Portland has, you know, airports going, hey, we're not flying direct anymore.
44:06
SPEAKER_02: Seattle's our hub, LA's our hub.
44:08
SPEAKER_02: Right.
44:08
SPEAKER_02: You know, you changing all that stuff.
44:10
SPEAKER_02: So it's it's funny what like you were saying earlier, it's just some of the aspects people don't think about.
44:16
SPEAKER_02: They just think it equitably it's the same cost for every program.
44:20
SPEAKER_02: It's like, well, there's a lot to go with that.
44:23
SPEAKER_00: Right.
44:23
SPEAKER_02: Right.
44:23
SPEAKER_02: And then I what I would hate to see in that model is, you know, uh trying to think of like uh I mean I don't know if there's any other example.
44:33
SPEAKER_02: You know, Salt Lake could be considered isolated, but you have Vegas and Denver, which are close, but you have, but like, right, there's no teams in Vegas.
44:43
SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's prospective teams potentially coming in.
44:46
SPEAKER_00: Right.
44:47
SPEAKER_02: But then most of the Vegas teams are teams that have left somewhere else and now call Vegas home.
44:52
SPEAKER_00: They got one in the uh championship.
44:54
SPEAKER_02: So you lose, yeah, Vegas lights or neon, yeah.
44:57
SPEAKER_02: But but yeah, he I I I mean I I will be honest to you, the AC Boise energy, I think Landon Donovan was here.
45:02
SPEAKER_02: His nephew, his nephew played for the club.
45:04
SPEAKER_00: Just found that out.
45:05
SPEAKER_02: His sister lives here.
45:06
SPEAKER_02: His nephew is a goalkeeper at Wright State, played for the club.
45:10
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
45:10
SPEAKER_02: He's a great kid, coaches high school now, and but he used to come in and out and stuff.
45:16
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, so he was here, and and he knows like he knows Nate, the head coach, and Blake Bodily when they were with Loyal when they were in San Diego before Emless awarded that to a different ownership group.
45:28
SPEAKER_00: But and everybody wants to copy like Europe, like blow for blow.
45:34
SPEAKER_00: It's like, wait a minute, they don't have TV deals to protect the younger or the lower levels so that people actually go to the games.
45:43
SPEAKER_00: So you can't we we watch more EPL here than they can watch there.
45:49
SPEAKER_02: Right.
45:49
SPEAKER_00: Because they only have like three games on per week.
45:52
SPEAKER_02: It's like the local games blacked out, right?
45:53
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
45:54
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, no, you have to go to the game.
45:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, and that you know what's funny?
45:57
SPEAKER_02: That extends, that honestly extends to like the youth.
46:02
SPEAKER_02: We use a lot of us use Europe and we use Spain and we use and we use that model.
46:07
SPEAKER_02: Like I was just on call yesterday with Coach's Voice with the expert in football youth licensed, they're it's a cohort they're doing across the nation with ECNL clubs.
46:17
SPEAKER_02: And um, we have like our all of our technical leads are in it.
46:23
SPEAKER_02: Um, but even talking to them and and listening to them, and it's interesting.
46:27
SPEAKER_02: All the methodology, all the stuff they have, all the format, it's crazy how formalized you know Breitenhove's Academy is and the amount of film work, individual development programs, cycles of individual every 24 weeks, amount of coaches they have with like their U12.
46:47
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
46:47
SPEAKER_00: They have like five.
46:49
SPEAKER_02: And then they're talking about you know, they're talking about the value of taking six coaches, strength and conditioning, three assists, and then they they are coaching the back four of that block, and they're coaching the individual.
46:59
SPEAKER_02: They got the go, and then they and then when they rotate their coaches through the value.
47:02
SPEAKER_02: And one of the coaches said, Well, you know, one one of the issues we have here in America is coach resources.
47:09
SPEAKER_02: Like what and you started, you know, when we talked about this earlier, like you know, like retirement, pay, things like that.
47:16
SPEAKER_02: Like parents, a lot of time, or I wouldn't say parents, I'd say members, if they don't look at the overall picture, or if a club doesn't provide it, because there's that issue too.
47:25
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
47:26
SPEAKER_02: You could have clubs that go to their annual meeting and they just say, Here's our fees, pay them.
47:32
SPEAKER_02: We're the best.
47:34
SPEAKER_02: Right?
47:35
SPEAKER_02: We have ex-player come and talk about the club.
47:39
SPEAKER_02: Oh my god, we're enamored, we gotta play there, or we ain't gonna make it.
47:42
SPEAKER_02: Right.
47:43
SPEAKER_02: Or you could actually share your transparency in the piece of pie where the money goes and let them know how they're part of like volunteering, how much volunteering matters to our organization, how much the need for sponsors and people to play in the golf scramble and to do and go to our scholarship fund, because we operate about as I think we operate last year it was about a$75,000 scholarship fund for players in need, families in need.
48:07
SPEAKER_02: And we have a whole metric, you know, W-2s, that kind of stuff, et cetera, and ward.
48:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
48:13
SPEAKER_02: But but but that stuff just doesn't get created from allocating a percentage of our club dues.
48:19
SPEAKER_02: Right.
48:19
SPEAKER_02: We do a golf scramble and we have a tournament.
48:22
SPEAKER_02: Like I was telling you on the phone, tournaments suck.
48:24
SPEAKER_00: They're awful.
48:25
SPEAKER_02: They're wh they're and the and the return, you know, referees cost more, and I think they should.
48:31
SPEAKER_02: We pay our ECNO referee fees for here, we pay more than the local, any of the local or other fixtures.
48:38
SPEAKER_02: Because we they should get paid more, and we want the best ones.
48:41
SPEAKER_00: Right.
48:41
SPEAKER_02: You know, in theory.
48:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
48:43
SPEAKER_02: You know, or we want people that want to be the best ones.
48:45
SPEAKER_02: That's okay too.
48:47
SPEAKER_02: They can be learning referees or they can be aspiring, as long as that's what they want to do.
48:52
SPEAKER_02: We would welcome them and we would pay them for their time.
48:55
SPEAKER_02: But you know, like the like you were saying, the the layers and the stuff that people don't know or don't want to know.
49:02
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you you I don't know if you experienced on your podcast the comments or people make, or you know, we we did our raffle.
49:08
SPEAKER_02: Here's an example.
49:10
SPEAKER_02: We have a club member from years ago, and a parent, because I don't look at it, a parent actually said, Man, did you see that comment on Facebook about you?
49:19
SPEAKER_02: And I go, What the hell are you talking about?
49:21
SPEAKER_02: So I went and looked at the club page, and it's from one of our members, and it's like people are talking about money or something or something, and they said, Well, you should ask Eric.
49:30
SPEAKER_02: I heard I heard he's got an extra hundred thousand laying around in his pocket.
49:34
SPEAKER_02: And they were alluding to the car raffle that generates and now has close to half a million dollars that we're gonna be able to invest in the initial parts of our turf fields, phases, etc.
49:48
SPEAKER_02: Go get capital campaign, sponsors, those kinds of things.
49:52
SPEAKER_02: But at least our goal is we can start construction doing one and find if we need to finance whatever, we'll do whatever.
49:59
SPEAKER_02: But at least they see a product, right?
50:02
SPEAKER_02: When we say we're gonna put a fence up, the fence is up.
50:05
SPEAKER_02: When we say we're gonna expand the parking lot, the parking lot's up.
50:08
SPEAKER_02: We say we're gonna buy new goals, they see there's more goals.
50:10
SPEAKER_02: Right.
50:11
SPEAKER_02: There's but the like you were saying, the pay-to-play layers, people don't see it.
50:15
SPEAKER_02: But it's interesting, you know, people make that comment.
50:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it pissed me off for about five seconds, but I was just like, whatever.
50:21
SPEAKER_02: But they they assume it all is going to the coaches or the director or somebody, but what like I was saying, 15 years to get benefits, right?
50:34
SPEAKER_02: And it's like one of my initiatives because I grew up in the generation of not getting paid to coach, independent contractor, no taxes taken out, etc., yada yada yada, to now.
50:44
SPEAKER_02: So it's almost like you know, Sophia O'Herta being worth X.
50:49
SPEAKER_02: Well, she's only gonna be worth X for a smaller window than she was worth why.
50:54
SPEAKER_02: Right.
50:55
SPEAKER_02: Right.
50:55
SPEAKER_02: So she's gotta make up for why.
50:58
SPEAKER_02: Somehow.
50:59
SPEAKER_02: You know, so but it's but it's interesting how people people twist that, and then like you're saying, then you know, pay to play.
51:06
SPEAKER_02: And I and I think even I mean our high schools here are pay to play.
51:09
SPEAKER_02: It's not a lot, right?
51:11
SPEAKER_02: It's not a lot, but that's in Michigan too.
51:13
SPEAKER_02: Right?
51:14
SPEAKER_02: Because they're the the district says we gotta pay our coaches.
51:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
51:18
SPEAKER_02: But they don't want to do anything funding or anything creative to pay the coaches beyond charge the member.
51:24
SPEAKER_02: Yep where high school won't be initially coached, it was truly a merit-based program.
51:29
SPEAKER_02: Or, you know, yet and here it hasn't been sanctioned.
51:33
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I don't know when they sanctioned.
51:35
SPEAKER_02: I think they sanctioned in about let's see, how was it, Timberline at 99, 2000?
51:40
SPEAKER_02: I think they sanctioned in 2001, 2000.
51:43
SPEAKER_02: So it's only been sanctioned by IHSAA for 25 years.
51:49
SPEAKER_02: Right.
51:49
SPEAKER_02: Where other states, you know, it's been a part of their high school program forever.
51:52
SPEAKER_02: So but it's but it's interesting um from the overall aspects.
51:57
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, and I think I mean obviously I think the ultimate goal is this the federation, like if if you're in Spain or other places, the federation's the top of the triangle.
52:08
SPEAKER_02: Then everybody but then the other thing is everybody helps everybody else.
52:12
SPEAKER_02: So the money, like you were saying, if we're getting relegated or we're doing whatever, well, like we said, pay to play when we were on the phone.
52:18
SPEAKER_02: I did I did transfer development fees, kind of, you know, little chat GPT estimation you know, of our players that have played with us since 12 years old to 18 or any time period in there, based on our players we have in the pros and et cetera, if we were in Europe, we would have got a close, we would have got a check close to$700,000.
52:41
SPEAKER_00: Right.
52:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we don't get that in America.
52:44
SPEAKER_02: No, whereas in in England they do.
52:47
SPEAKER_00: Right.
52:47
SPEAKER_02: Right?
52:48
SPEAKER_02: So it's like, but and then people go, it's pay to play, pay to play.
52:51
SPEAKER_02: You know, it'd be interesting.
52:52
SPEAKER_02: Here's the counter, like always do the devil's advocate.
52:55
SPEAKER_02: What if in Spain sporting never got a dime for Bruno Fernandez, Cristiano Ronaldo, right, Deco, the the you know, the 40, 50, hundreds of players they've yeah, they maybe yeah, their stadium would be like would look like the the pantheon, right?
53:14
SPEAKER_02: Like just a concrete structure there, probably.
53:17
SPEAKER_02: You know, and probably it would be the same thing in England and same thing in every other country, right?
53:24
SPEAKER_02: Just they couldn't get a return on their investment or what they pay, you know.
53:28
SPEAKER_02: Because it is, I mean, goals, I mean, kids around here will climb on the nets, and I'm like, hey, stop, you know, stop climbing on the nets.
53:35
SPEAKER_00: $2,000.
53:37
SPEAKER_02: They're$2,000.
53:39
SPEAKER_02: What?
53:41
SPEAKER_00: There's this club in New York, and they kind of got like shit on two for having some funds in the bank, right?
53:50
SPEAKER_00: But there are 501 three C.
53:52
SPEAKER_00: You can't just send sit on like tons and tons of money.
53:55
SPEAKER_00: But it was like$250,000, maybe.
53:59
SPEAKER_00: Guys, that's an emergency fund.
54:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
54:01
SPEAKER_00: How long could$250,000 last?
54:04
SPEAKER_02: Well, look at co- look at COVID.
54:06
SPEAKER_00: COVID, what did that teach us?
54:07
SPEAKER_00: Have six to twelve months of an emergency fund because you never know if another pandemic is coming or something.
54:15
SPEAKER_00: Right.
54:15
SPEAKER_02: So Or just the cost of one.
54:18
SPEAKER_00: $250,000 doesn't last long in club soccer.
54:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
54:23
SPEAKER_02: But our CIP in separate, and we've always told people the the percentage a club gets for the first 10 tickets or 20 tickets you sell goes to the club.
54:33
SPEAKER_02: And then everyone you sell out.
54:34
SPEAKER_02: We we have we've had families, it blew me away.
54:38
SPEAKER_02: We have had families literally pay eight kids, pay all their club dues and all their club uniforms off of our car raffle tickets.
54:48
SPEAKER_02: So, like when we're bored or a shift or new people go, hey, is it worth it?
54:52
SPEAKER_02: Some, you know, a couple people complain about it.
54:55
SPEAKER_02: Well, there's a couple people that really benefit from it.
54:59
SPEAKER_02: Right?
55:00
SPEAKER_02: Like we like we just up, we just I'm trying to say it delicate.
55:05
SPEAKER_02: We rewarded our concessions coordinator.
55:09
SPEAKER_02: Because in two years, she has taken our concessions, so like BSU, Mav Sports, AC Boise, like our people that can sign up for concessions to make funds, which is actually, I think, one of the best ways that our membership gets money.
55:26
SPEAKER_02: Some people just don't want to go to a concert and serve popcorn or hot dog or pride or whatever.
55:31
SPEAKER_02: But she she has increased it from two years ago of$14,000 overall to where now it is it's six figures going back to our members' pockets, going back into their individual fees accounts.
55:44
SPEAKER_02: And then we look at it and I go, gosh, how do we bump her when it's not a it's not a revenue thing for the club generating?
55:53
SPEAKER_02: Because we don't take, I think like we get a little percent, I think maybe one percent is the contract or something.
55:59
SPEAKER_02: But they're like, they're sitting there and she showed me a text the other day.
56:03
SPEAKER_02: Like a parent texted her and said, Oh my gosh, she was so happy because she's a great person.
56:07
SPEAKER_02: She just loves to do it.
56:09
SPEAKER_02: She, if we told her, hey, we can't pay at all, she'd probably be like, okay, I'll hang in there and do it.
56:15
SPEAKER_02: Because those things are ruthless.
56:17
SPEAKER_02: Like those events come up and they go, Hey, yeah, you're on the clock.
56:20
SPEAKER_02: First one to call, who wants Boise State basketball this week?
56:23
SPEAKER_02: Or hey, who there's a new game out of Daisy Boise International wasn't on the schedule.
56:26
SPEAKER_02: Who wants like she's like, I'm I'm pulling over on the freeway.
56:30
SPEAKER_02: You know, hey, we'll take it, you know, or I got people who can outfit it, and she's done it, but she she got a text the other day from a mom that said, Oh my gosh, I I didn't realize last year, you know, I kind of looked at my account because I had to go pay something for a travel weekend or an assessment.
56:46
SPEAKER_02: And she goes, I looked at my account and went, There's$2,000 in my player account already.
56:51
SPEAKER_02: And she goes, Yeah, that's your concessions, you know, from last month.
56:56
SPEAKER_02: And she goes, Holy crap, thank you.
56:58
SPEAKER_02: I love you, I appreciate you, blah, blah, blah.
57:00
SPEAKER_02: And I was just like, that's awesome.
57:02
SPEAKER_02: So when like Leslie, our bookkeeper administrator, we were just like, Yeah, it doesn't bring in revenue, but it justifies it for us to pay her for all those families that it's bringing in money in their accounts.
57:15
SPEAKER_02: That because we because so many people look at it like we need money in in order to give back out.
57:22
SPEAKER_00: Right.
57:22
SPEAKER_02: You know, where she's just creating that for our members.
57:25
SPEAKER_02: So but it's and some people don't do any fundraising.
57:28
SPEAKER_02: Some people, you know, the marketplace have 200 player waiting list to be in their club, uh, and they're ruthless.
57:38
SPEAKER_02: You know, you're not performing, you don't want to go, you don't like it, leave, because I got 20 others who will jump in and take your spot.
57:47
SPEAKER_02: Right.
57:47
SPEAKER_02: I don't think they explicitly say that, but I think I think we've all seen where in practice it occurs, you know.
57:54
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, where they're like they just threaten kids and be like, Do you know how many people are trying to try out for this team?
58:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's like, yeah, we see them, they're here all the time.
58:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, to just try to do that.
58:05
SPEAKER_02: We heard that from the Timbers Academy MLS early on with our agreement with Timbers and the Academy teams and the MLS and talking to the scouts, and and and they don't operate this way because they can't, and that's what they've choosing not to, but they said early days, like, and I can't remember which one it was, because the LA marketplace is so huge, so culturally diverse, and the number of players is massive.
58:30
SPEAKER_02: The environment essentially in those youth academies was perform or leave.
58:37
SPEAKER_02: So a kid is on the U-14 Academy team a week, doesn't do well for three trainings.
58:43
SPEAKER_02: Well, we'll just go get the next one, get out of here.
58:46
SPEAKER_02: Or we saw some kid playing, you know, in this local league, he's legit, we're bringing him in, you're out.
58:51
SPEAKER_02: It's just like wow.
58:54
SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't I don't even know European clubs that do that.
58:56
SPEAKER_02: They they typically invest in the kid.
58:59
SPEAKER_02: Right, they give him more time.
59:01
SPEAKER_00: But I mean, the cutthroatness, it's like you want to be like Europe?
59:05
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's be like Europe.
59:06
SPEAKER_00: They're they like what happened to the 13-year-old that Messi replaced?
59:11
SPEAKER_00: Because we all know the story.
59:13
SPEAKER_00: Messi gets there at 13 and the rest is history.
59:17
SPEAKER_00: Okay, what happened to the third?
59:18
SPEAKER_00: Like, it's not like every eight-year-old at Barcelona makes it and is going into be a pro.
59:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so they're like releasing kids and bringing in new kids every single year.
59:27
SPEAKER_00: Right.
59:28
SPEAKER_00: And some of it is like, I think IX is separated into six-month periods where they release twice a year, and they bring in new kids twice a year.
59:37
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, okay, you want to be that cutthroat?
59:40
SPEAKER_00: You want you really want to be like Europe?
59:42
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people will say yes.
59:44
SPEAKER_00: They're like, Yeah, we want to be more cutthroat.
59:46
SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, then there are gonna be a lot less.
59:49
SPEAKER_00: We're worried about the dropout right now.
59:51
SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be a lot more dropout if we get even more cutthroat.
59:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's crazy.
59:56
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's nuts.
59:57
SPEAKER_02: It's it was interesting with the Bill Bau guys, Athletic Bill Bao years ago when U.S.
1:00:01
SPEAKER_02: Club brought him in for like the La Liga formation kind of coach education thing.
1:00:06
SPEAKER_02: And and we have we have a huge basket population in Boise.
1:00:09
SPEAKER_02: It's the largest in the world besides Bill Bao because we it literally sits on the same latitude line.
1:00:15
SPEAKER_02: So the and like I was in McCall north of here, kind of mountain town.
1:00:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and they're they're still pushing sheep through the mountains, migrating them, doing their stuff.
1:00:27
SPEAKER_02: So culturally, and there's a Basque block downtown.
1:00:29
SPEAKER_02: I was actually gonna text you and go, hey, you should go to Barganica or go somewhere down there and get some Basque food.
1:00:35
SPEAKER_02: Okay, you know, or Eppies and Meridian.
1:00:37
SPEAKER_02: Um, but there's a huge Basque culture here.
1:00:39
SPEAKER_02: I grew up with a ton of Bascos, but it was interesting listening to them because they were like the Spanish Federation, how it's set up, the curriculum, everything down, and this is 16 years ago.
1:00:50
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:00:50
SPEAKER_02: And they were talking about everything, and then we were like, Well, how many teams do you have at Bilbao at U-12?
1:00:56
SPEAKER_02: And they go, We have as many as the players want who want to do it.
1:01:01
SPEAKER_02: And we were like, that's interesting.
1:01:04
SPEAKER_02: So how many do you have?
1:01:06
SPEAKER_02: Well, we have our Bilbao and we have our provincial provinces and provincials in our geographic.
1:01:12
SPEAKER_02: So each one under our system is every kid that wants to play can play.
1:01:18
SPEAKER_02: Now, they said obviously, they said, like the main one at Bilbao, they had nine, I think nine U-12 teams.
1:01:25
SPEAKER_02: And he said, like, my son is on the B team, U-12, but he gets to train with the C team, play, B team, train with the A, the whole academy.
1:01:34
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and he's talking about all the inclusivity of everything.
1:01:38
SPEAKER_02: Um, but it was just interesting to hear him say, so you don't turn anybody down.
1:01:42
SPEAKER_02: And they're like, well, they naturally, some of them will naturally weed themselves out and go play handball or basketball for the club.
1:01:50
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:01:50
SPEAKER_02: Or and that's the thing is some of those, you know, like I think originally, and I don't know if they still do, but like Ace Milan had a world-class hockey team.
1:01:58
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:01:58
SPEAKER_02: And they and they were they was an athletic club because they provided all athletics.
1:02:03
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
1:02:03
SPEAKER_02: It was basketball.
1:02:04
SPEAKER_02: Oh, but we should only be one sport.
1:02:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so so they had all this stuff, and then naturally the kid migrated to what they did well or what they wanted to do.
1:02:14
SPEAKER_02: And some did both, you know, like I think wasn't Paul Gasc pass Paul Paul Gascal or whatever.
1:02:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Paul Gasol.
1:02:20
SPEAKER_02: Like he like he's good at soccer.
1:02:23
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
1:02:23
SPEAKER_02: But he was better at basketball.
1:02:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:02:25
SPEAKER_02: Because he was 6'10, but he actually could play soccer pretty well.
1:02:29
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:02:29
SPEAKER_02: Right in whatever academy was.
1:02:31
SPEAKER_00: Supposedly Mbappe is an incredible handball player.
1:02:34
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I could see that.
1:02:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:02:36
SPEAKER_02: No, I could see that.
1:02:37
SPEAKER_02: That'd be crazy.
1:02:38
SPEAKER_02: We it's interesting because I don't know if he's BSing me, but um Toti, I used to work at CYSA downtown, an old Capital Youth Soccer Association.
1:02:49
SPEAKER_02: Great building, six and main old building.
1:02:52
SPEAKER_02: Then there was this little Italian like kind of you know restaurant, cafe, something.
1:03:00
SPEAKER_02: But so I'd always go get stuff for lunch or soup or something.
1:03:03
SPEAKER_02: And he saw, he goes, Oh, you could.
1:03:04
SPEAKER_02: I had an AC Milan, like old Adidas AC Milan training top on.
1:03:08
SPEAKER_02: And he goes, Oh, you like AC Milan, blah, blah, blah.
1:03:10
SPEAKER_02: And go, yeah, and he goes, he goes, My nephew plays in Italy.
1:03:13
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, he goes, he comes here every summer to escape, get away.
1:03:18
SPEAKER_02: I I didn't really understand what he meant by that.
1:03:20
SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
1:03:20
SPEAKER_02: But then I go, and then he's like, Yeah, he plays at Roma.
1:03:23
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, he goes, but I played hockey at AC Milan when I was a kid growing up.
1:03:28
SPEAKER_02: And he's he was he was older than me, but maybe 50.
1:03:31
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:03:31
SPEAKER_02: And he I go, what brought you here?
1:03:33
SPEAKER_02: And he goes, Oh, I just love America, I want to move, you know, blah, blah, etc.
1:03:36
SPEAKER_02: And I go, who's I go, who's your nephew?
1:03:39
SPEAKER_02: Because he because I started figuring out this guy plays at Roma.
1:03:43
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:03:43
SPEAKER_02: And that's probably when like it was my nephew's Toti.
1:03:47
SPEAKER_02: And I go, God.
1:03:48
SPEAKER_02: Princesco Toti.
1:03:49
SPEAKER_02: And this one, Toti's John.
1:03:50
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:03:51
SPEAKER_02: And he goes, Yeah, his mom's my sister.
1:03:54
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, he comes here every summer?
1:03:58
SPEAKER_02: Does he want to come to a summer camp?
1:03:59
SPEAKER_02: Does he want to and he goes, no, no, no.
1:04:01
SPEAKER_02: He comes here and he he goes to Sun Valley.
1:04:04
SPEAKER_02: He just disappears right from everything.
1:04:10
SPEAKER_02: He couldn't do it.
1:04:11
SPEAKER_02: He told me he can't do anything in Italy.
1:04:12
SPEAKER_02: He can't go to the coast.
1:04:13
SPEAKER_02: He can't go to because everybody would flock.
1:04:17
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:04:17
SPEAKER_02: And I was just like, so I I could never tell if he was BSing me or if he was.
1:04:22
SPEAKER_02: But he seemed pretty genuine about it.
1:04:25
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, but he was he was a cool guy.
1:04:28
SPEAKER_02: But but yeah, so but I don't know what else you got, man.
1:04:33
SPEAKER_02: When when you're I could talk to you literally probably friggin' all day.
1:04:36
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
1:04:38
SPEAKER_00: I'm just looking out there and thinking about the turf and the light.
1:04:43
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna have a fight with the housing?
1:04:46
SPEAKER_02: Um we we actually had we actually went through a couple years ago.
1:04:50
SPEAKER_02: Our CUPs here in the county are two years.
1:04:53
SPEAKER_02: So when we did, we expanded this parking because we had parking all the way down like Hazel.
1:04:58
SPEAKER_02: So we expanded some parking, created additional parking just to help out and deal with it.
1:05:04
SPEAKER_02: Um it still hasn't addressed it.
1:05:06
SPEAKER_02: People still park on the main road or whatever.
1:05:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I bet.
1:05:08
SPEAKER_02: But it has helped a little bit with tournaments and the amount of things we have here now.
1:05:14
SPEAKER_02: Um so when we did that, we actually did a three-phase, you know, turf fields, lights, parking lot.
1:05:21
SPEAKER_02: It was parking lot, turf field lights, just kind of did a build-out within the CUP, and it had all got approved.
1:05:26
SPEAKER_02: We went to like our town hall meetings, met with the public, we had it all funding-wise, we do that because now it's like, oh my gosh, the parking's a lot of money.
1:05:38
SPEAKER_02: That dips into it, crap.
1:05:40
SPEAKER_02: So then we're in not in the rears, but just under budget for everything else.
1:05:46
SPEAKER_02: So then as you go through it, boards and whatever, time and energy, right?
1:05:51
SPEAKER_02: People go through that and they then it's like crap, the CUP's expired.
1:05:56
SPEAKER_02: So, and that happened that happened like a year ago.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_02: Ago, I think, when I kind of brought it to the board's attention.
1:06:02
SPEAKER_02: I said, just so you know, the CP is a it's a time sensitive, it's got a cost yeah, time sensitive.
1:06:07
SPEAKER_02: And one of our board members now is with City of Meridian, does wastewater project planning.
1:06:11
SPEAKER_02: We've got all our legal people are bored right now.
1:06:13
SPEAKER_02: Not that our boards in the past have been bad because they're doing phenomenal, super active board now.
1:06:18
SPEAKER_02: Um, Sammy Smith at Stanford's mom Kristen is on the board.
1:06:22
SPEAKER_02: So we've got I brought in some alumni people whose kids actually aren't here anymore.
1:06:26
SPEAKER_02: But they were like, Yeah, we want to see it.
1:06:29
SPEAKER_02: We want to see it happen.
1:06:30
SPEAKER_02: Like we want to see that thing be 365.
1:06:34
SPEAKER_02: And it's a big reason they're on the board.
1:06:36
SPEAKER_02: Um so we we are actually doing the new CUP now.
1:06:40
SPEAKER_02: Um it's kind of nice because we had the other one already approved and it had all the drawings and electrical.
1:06:47
SPEAKER_02: And years ago, we when we had put in these field lights, um, we got those granted years ago through the U.S.
1:06:54
SPEAKER_02: Soccer Foundation with um Musco.
1:06:58
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
1:06:59
SPEAKER_02: Which a lot of those things don't even exist anymore.
1:07:01
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:07:01
SPEAKER_02: Like you try to do it, and it's like we'll cover four percent.
1:07:05
SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
1:07:05
SPEAKER_02: And I hate to say it, four percent doesn't put a chunk in three million, four million.
1:07:12
SPEAKER_02: So it's kind of like sorry to you know, decline you on your thousand dollars, you can contribute to the project, and then you have to use their contractors and use theirs, right?
1:07:21
SPEAKER_02: And they're nobody's located here, so you can't get like in-kind work and whatever.
1:07:25
SPEAKER_02: But but we've gotten those light, but when we did that, and we put in our new in-ground sprinklers, because we used to have wheel line like crop above ground sprinkler systems, uh huh.
1:07:35
SPEAKER_02: We invested in in-ground sprinklers because the amount of labor, like you were saying, we're driven out.
1:07:39
SPEAKER_02: You guys all have to do that, you have to train yourself on all this.
1:07:42
SPEAKER_02: How to drive tractors and mow and and we um how to grow grass?
1:07:47
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, it's crazy.
1:07:49
SPEAKER_02: So, but um, but we take a lot of pride in it, as you can tell.
1:07:53
SPEAKER_02: But the um we did actually pre um when we did the in-ground sprinkler system and they put Doug in and put the valves, we pre-put electrical conduit sleeves.
1:08:06
SPEAKER_02: So we pre-prime that.
1:08:07
SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
1:08:08
SPEAKER_02: So those are essentially staged and built into our main water supply valve.
1:08:15
SPEAKER_02: Because we had to run electrical for our valve box and valves and all those.
1:08:18
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:08:18
SPEAKER_02: So we just pre- it was one good thing that the board decided to do is do a pre-electrical build out if we ever needed future.
1:08:27
SPEAKER_00: Have you guys like money the math on it where you realize how much money you're going to save once it's turfed?
1:08:37
SPEAKER_00: Because everybody thinks turf is so expensive, but everybody forgets.
1:08:40
SPEAKER_00: You have to cut grass, you have to grow grass, you have to water grass.
1:08:45
SPEAKER_02: And you have to pay people to do that.
1:08:47
SPEAKER_00: And you have to pay people to do that.
1:08:49
SPEAKER_02: Which we do in-house.
1:08:50
SPEAKER_00: Whereas turf, it's much cleaner, it's much easier to maintain.
1:08:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:08:56
SPEAKER_00: Health issues aside, or injuries aside, it's so much financially more stable when you plan out that a lot of turf has like a 15-year warranty or 20-year warranty.
1:09:08
SPEAKER_00: You're cutting water costs for 20 years.
1:09:11
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:09:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:09:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:09:13
SPEAKER_02: That's it.
1:09:13
SPEAKER_02: Clinton put together a whole thing, one of our board members on all that stuff and everything.
1:09:18
SPEAKER_02: And then, like we were saying, just the rental cost alone.
1:09:21
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:09:22
SPEAKER_02: You know what we're having to pay.
1:09:24
SPEAKER_02: Not that we don't know.
1:09:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, not that we don't want to.
1:09:26
SPEAKER_02: We've always taken a little pride in supporting the high schools and being able to essentially give back, you know, on rent and stuff.
1:09:32
SPEAKER_02: And then it's crazy because they talk about their districts.
1:09:35
SPEAKER_02: We thought they would actually get money, and they were like, nah, the district takes it all.
1:09:39
SPEAKER_02: But just recently they've changed that and they're like giving the high school 80%, and the district takes 20%.
1:09:45
SPEAKER_02: You know, because most of the time it's your AD who's running that.
1:09:48
SPEAKER_00: Why doesn't it just go to the athletic department?
1:09:50
SPEAKER_02: That's what, yeah, that's what we always thought.
1:09:52
SPEAKER_02: But now it now it is.
1:09:53
SPEAKER_02: It's flipped, so it's doing that.
1:09:55
SPEAKER_02: Because we we have kids everywhere.
1:09:56
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we've got we've got kids from Ontario, not as much anymore, but we have kids.
1:10:03
SPEAKER_02: It's just the eastern, it's the western border of Idaho.
1:10:07
SPEAKER_02: So it's about 40 minutes.
1:10:08
SPEAKER_02: Right on the five.
1:10:09
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, 40 minutes away by the freeway, 45 minutes.
1:10:12
SPEAKER_00: Only 40 minutes from Oregon.
1:10:14
SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
1:10:14
SPEAKER_02: I mean, if you if you book it, no traffic.
1:10:17
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:10:17
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, from Oric and and then Oregon's really just not populated beyond the west side.
1:10:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's just west coast.
1:10:25
SPEAKER_02: So, and then you have um we've got kids from Mount Home, which is east, about 45 minutes to an hour.
1:10:32
SPEAKER_02: Sun Valley Kids, which is an hour and a half.
1:10:36
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:10:36
SPEAKER_02: I had two boys that drive down from Sun Valley three days a week, two days a week, games.
1:10:41
SPEAKER_02: So your radius is kind of like an hour and a half radius.
1:10:45
SPEAKER_02: And then early on, the discovery we we were a club that actually really, I don't want to say benefited from like a financial or negative because we never really charge those kids.
1:10:54
SPEAKER_02: Um, we charge them honestly just kind of something to keep our members from going, why do those kids get a play for free?
1:11:01
SPEAKER_02: So we but we've had kids from Quarterlaine up north, which is an eight-hour drive, seven-hour drive.
1:11:08
SPEAKER_02: And Montana, Helema, Bozeman, Billings, Wyoming, Jackson Hole, Eastern Idaho.
1:11:14
SPEAKER_02: We've had kids, we've had Discovery Players, which which, by the ECNL rule of Discovery Players, they were really truly kids who wouldn't have got opportunities based on the community they were in, where they lived, etc.
1:11:29
SPEAKER_02: You know, so they one of them just committed to Boy State Ruby Holster.
1:11:32
SPEAKER_02: She was like the Wyoming Gatorade Player of the Year.
1:11:34
SPEAKER_02: And then and then the crappy thing, it's not crappy because Max does a great job, who's the associate head coach at Boy State, and he's our college advisor, but he coaches our older ECNL.
1:11:44
SPEAKER_02: So then when they get there, it's like we got NCA rules, he can't coach anybody outside of a thing.
1:11:50
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:11:51
SPEAKER_02: And then like I think Ruby went to play with Colorado Rapids or something the last year or two years.
1:11:57
SPEAKER_02: But it's like we can't, we don't have the ability in the coaching depth to just say, hey, we're gonna keep you and move this coach or move him around, right?
1:12:08
SPEAKER_02: Because of this issue or something, not that it's bad or good, it's just it's just what it is.
1:12:14
SPEAKER_02: So, but they they truly come from, and a lot of those kids are usually kids that are early on, it was truly based on need.
1:12:23
SPEAKER_02: Like our team was 16 players deep, only had one center back, or didn't have a goalie, or we didn't have we had one goalie, but she could only travel half the time.
1:12:33
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:12:34
SPEAKER_02: Or we have no front runner on this oldest team.
1:12:37
SPEAKER_02: And I'm talking about our year one, two, three of EC and L.
1:12:40
SPEAKER_02: Alexa Coyle is a great story out of Montana.
1:12:42
SPEAKER_02: Her brother Bart Coyle played for the played for the Seahawks and the 49ers.
1:12:47
SPEAKER_02: I think he won a Super Bowl, but he was a linebacker at Montana.
1:12:50
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
1:12:50
SPEAKER_02: There's their Montana kids.
1:12:52
SPEAKER_02: She was like an Olympic level downhill skier to be, but then she went and played.
1:12:56
SPEAKER_02: She played college soccer at Montana.
1:12:58
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:12:58
SPEAKER_02: They're a great story.
1:12:59
SPEAKER_02: Now she's I think she works in the front office for the Seahawks now and does stuff.
1:13:04
SPEAKER_02: We've we've got kids.
1:13:05
SPEAKER_02: I we got we got kids all over the place.
1:13:07
SPEAKER_02: Grace Michael's the money ball.
1:13:10
SPEAKER_02: She'll probably be mad because it's like CIA, I guess, but she's the money ball expert for the Seattle Mirrors.
1:13:16
SPEAKER_02: She went to Northeastern, played soccer at Northeastern.
1:13:19
SPEAKER_02: And her dad, they're great supporters, the family.
1:13:22
SPEAKER_02: And but she uh when we she we we we we had we used to have when we used to travel with the girls, we travel like Phoenix, whatever, etc.
1:13:29
SPEAKER_02: Um, like we go to Phoenix and Shalise Miller, who played at Marquette, she was there, and now she is the lead producer for Turner Sports.
1:13:38
SPEAKER_02: So she does all the women's national team production, NHL.
1:13:41
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
1:13:42
SPEAKER_02: She used to do ML MLB with the Braves.
1:13:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:13:45
SPEAKER_02: But she's out of Phoenix now because that's where they run their hockey division, I think.
1:13:48
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:13:48
SPEAKER_02: So she and they do the women's national team.
1:13:51
SPEAKER_02: But they we would have essentially our alumni come in and talk to the girls in the hotel, tell them about their journey, right?
1:13:57
SPEAKER_02: Share what college was like.
1:13:59
SPEAKER_02: It's not all it's cracked up to be, you know, injury, you know, etc.
1:14:03
SPEAKER_02: But it was kind of cool.
1:14:04
SPEAKER_02: But Grace came in and the kids were like, So what do you do?
1:14:07
SPEAKER_02: And she's like, I don't know.
1:14:08
SPEAKER_02: She goes, actually, I just report to the president, the GM, and the lawyer.
1:14:12
SPEAKER_02: And I just sit in and tell him, Nope, he's not worth that because his on-base average and this and that, etc.
1:14:17
SPEAKER_02: And Max is like, so tell me about I can't remember what player named, and she goes, I can't, I can't divulge that information.
1:14:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:14:24
SPEAKER_02: He goes, Come on, this ain't CIA.
1:14:26
SPEAKER_02: What do you think?
1:14:27
SPEAKER_02: She goes, kind of is essentially.
1:14:30
SPEAKER_02: But I was like, how cool is that to be you know the MLB and they almost won the World Series last year.
1:14:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's like you're the money ball, essentially expert, you know, if I have the term right.
1:14:41
SPEAKER_00: But it's just how do you find those kids that are eight hours away and in Wyoming and in Montana?
1:14:49
SPEAKER_02: Some of them reach out to us.
1:14:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:14:50
SPEAKER_02: Um, some of them we see like guest playing or something like years ago, we had a girl that played for an East Irel team, she's playing our boys' team, and I'm at my game warming up, and I see her and she's competing with these boys and just killing it.
1:15:05
SPEAKER_02: And and then after the game I said, are your parents here?
1:15:07
SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't want to talk to you.
1:15:09
SPEAKER_02: Or I think I talked to the coach, and they said, Yeah, her parents.
1:15:12
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Hey, we you know, we we're part of this league, has this program that's like this.
1:15:16
SPEAKER_02: You just if you wanted more information, get a hold of our girls director.
1:15:19
SPEAKER_02: But I saw your daughter playing, like I mean, trust me, you don't have to do it, like, but there are opportunities for kids like that, you know.
1:15:27
SPEAKER_02: If you want to she's on the Guatemalan national team now and some other stuff, and I don't know if she's I don't know if she's playing at UVU, but she's committed to UVU.
1:15:36
SPEAKER_00: She's a freshman.
1:15:37
SPEAKER_00: So do you just have them here for games or just showcases?
1:15:41
SPEAKER_02: Um, some of them train.
1:15:42
SPEAKER_02: Um, she ended up moving here.
1:15:44
SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
1:15:45
SPEAKER_02: Uh some of them will come in like a day early and train, but most of the time they just they play and show up and meet us.
1:15:51
SPEAKER_02: Those those early years, uh, because our girls are the only ECNL, they were the only ECNL forever.
1:15:57
SPEAKER_02: And our boys started out RL two years and now they were NL last year.
1:16:03
SPEAKER_02: Got it.
1:16:04
SPEAKER_02: And we do have RL boys too.
1:16:05
SPEAKER_02: So we have we have full platform pre-ECNL, ECNL RL, and ECNL.
1:16:10
SPEAKER_02: But our girls were always the first ECN, because obviously, you know, people it's funny because I was on podcast somebody today or Instagram.
1:16:17
SPEAKER_02: You know, what do you think ECNL?
1:16:19
SPEAKER_02: You think girls, you don't think of boys.
1:16:20
SPEAKER_02: So their whole narrative is Eric's.
1:16:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so their whole narrative is.
1:16:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so their whole neat, their whole, you know, you know, mantra was about that.
1:16:29
SPEAKER_02: But then the people's comments were great, you know, about it and stuff reading some of those things.
1:16:33
SPEAKER_02: Not that I spent a lot of time doing that.
1:16:35
SPEAKER_02: But then um the so we were always NL Girls, and we're still the only NL girls platform based on their objective measurements, player development history, you know, team develop accolade, all that stuff that they use to place initially when people were applying in golf or we didn't get in until like year three, and we literally, we literally said, Hey, we'll we would be willing to travel 75% for us to be in this.
1:17:04
SPEAKER_02: And then Utah Avalanche was our partner because they had moved, I think they added a Colorado team because they were initially Avalanche's initial partner was a Colorado team.
1:17:14
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:17:15
SPEAKER_02: So like when we played each other, we just go, hey, every other year, let's just play a doubleheader.
1:17:20
SPEAKER_02: Instead of have to travel to Utah, travel to Boise, let's just play a doubleheader, and we'll host this year, you get next year, flip-flop, boom, boom, boom.
1:17:28
SPEAKER_02: That makes so much more sense.
1:17:29
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:17:29
SPEAKER_02: So we'd come up with Crave Solutions and do that, and then they then we'd both travel to Seattle or Denver, which was our conference back then.
1:17:37
SPEAKER_02: Um but over the What is it now?
1:17:39
SPEAKER_02: Here's the amazing thing.
1:17:40
SPEAKER_02: Over the years, the ECNL, even our club competitors, the Seattles who are the major um, I wouldn't say the major players, but they're the major population in our conference.
1:17:53
SPEAKER_02: So you have a lot of drivers.
1:17:55
SPEAKER_02: Everybody, and even um Ralph, Ralph was great from SLSG when he was the commissioner.
1:18:01
SPEAKER_02: Um and when he came in, he said, hey, here's how we do it in our conference with you know um Missouri, um, I think a one-off Minnesota, somebody else.
1:18:12
SPEAKER_02: Here's how we've created equitability in travel.
1:18:15
SPEAKER_02: Because I think this model could work for you guys if you're willing to do it.
1:18:20
SPEAKER_02: So and one of the things is like once in a while we have to travel for a one-off.
1:18:25
SPEAKER_02: It's very rare.
1:18:26
SPEAKER_02: But like we told our families, you want to play two games, but we're going to Seattle Friday night, playing Saturday, and you come home Saturday night.
1:18:36
SPEAKER_02: So you'd save Saturday night's hotel, food, Sunday.
1:18:39
SPEAKER_02: So whether you're there one or two or 48 or 72 or whatever, the cost relative effect is still the same.
1:18:48
SPEAKER_02: The cost relative effect for us for league, our conference fixtures to Salt Lake, driving, Portland we can drive, Seattle we can drive, but we typically fly because we play in the winter and the snow.
1:19:00
SPEAKER_02: Our conference deals with stuff that a lot of conferences don't even have to think about.
1:19:04
SPEAKER_02: But with the snow, the boobs, the passes, sometimes they're shut down because of snow, ice, whatever, we typically tell our parents to fly to Portland, Seattle during December, January.
1:19:16
SPEAKER_02: Just so you can make it.
1:19:18
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:19:18
SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think the other clubs, like we played them in the winter, I said.
1:19:22
SPEAKER_02: But it was cool because over the years it developed, and everybody it was interesting because they were like, the Seattles and others were like, we kind of like just having go Friday night, play Saturday, or go Saturday, play Sunday, come home Sunday night.
1:19:36
SPEAKER_02: Like our kids can actually go to their high school football game on Friday and watch it, or run their track meet.
1:19:42
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:19:42
SPEAKER_02: Or they can actually do because the again, the cost-relative thing, it wasn't monumental to play one game versus two.
1:19:53
SPEAKER_02: But most of us have travel.
1:19:54
SPEAKER_02: We have an odd partner.
1:19:55
SPEAKER_02: We have or we have an odd number because we don't have an Idaho travel partner.
1:19:59
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:19:59
SPEAKER_02: Right?
1:20:00
SPEAKER_02: And then some of the state Washington has five, not four.
1:20:03
SPEAKER_02: So they have an odd.
1:20:05
SPEAKER_02: So we get paired up and they rotate us with Washington Club every year, and they'll come here or we'll go there.
1:20:11
SPEAKER_02: So like when we go, I can't remember if it's Crossfire or East Side or who our partner is this year.
1:20:18
SPEAKER_02: So like when we go there, we'll just play a doubleheader Saturday, Sunday, home and away.
1:20:24
SPEAKER_02: And it's cool because they like, well, we'll pay the ref fees.
1:20:27
SPEAKER_02: Just because you're the home team, we're not gonna make you guys pay the ref fees because you're having to travel.
1:20:30
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:20:30
SPEAKER_02: But then we come back here and they have one extra because they come here to like play the Utahs.
1:20:36
SPEAKER_02: So it really only adds one travel to Washington.
1:20:40
SPEAKER_02: Doesn't affect the Utahs or the Oregons.
1:20:44
SPEAKER_02: Because they're evil, but then we go.
1:20:46
SPEAKER_02: Um, we even got creative this year at the NL where our games that were supposed to be at Portland.
1:20:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Pac Northwest puts on a big college showcase 1st of January.
1:20:57
SPEAKER_02: We Pac Northwest is one of the one of the odd teams.
1:21:00
SPEAKER_02: So when we go there, what we said is essentially Port the Portland clubs were like, or Oregon, they said, hey, we would be willing to count our home games in Seattle at the Pac Northwest College Showcase, because it does get a good geographic Northwest group of college coaches every level.
1:21:19
SPEAKER_02: And we and Pac Northwest was well, we'll devote the fields, the locations, all the same place, etc., for our four ECL clubs to play their fixtures at the Pac Northwest Showcase, and then in turn, college coaches can go to our and so that's a conference fixture for us.
1:21:38
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:21:39
SPEAKER_02: But we essentially are gonna have close to a hundred college coaches in attendance.
1:21:43
SPEAKER_02: And that's so it's like creative solution making to help things work, and in and I get it, the Washingtons, they probably could just play each other and play each other all the time and be fine and develop.
1:21:55
SPEAKER_02: But like I was telling you earlier, creations of new conferences, if they were to do a Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and create a 16 conference, yeah, new one.
1:22:06
SPEAKER_02: Well, the problem is is the platforms and where you're at, and we would be the same way.
1:22:11
SPEAKER_02: We would report the same thing, honestly, even though we would gain an automatic qualifier for the Champions League, old Champions League level.
1:22:20
SPEAKER_02: Somebody loses the Washingtons will lose it.
1:22:25
SPEAKER_02: So they're kind of like, hey, we'd rather keep our conference the same and keep our three automatically advanced, one goes to the North American showcase, blah, blah, blah.
1:22:36
SPEAKER_02: Why limit those opportunities?
1:22:40
SPEAKER_02: Because our conference is working.
1:22:42
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:22:42
SPEAKER_02: And it's it's competitive.
1:22:44
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's a it's a competitive conference.
1:22:46
SPEAKER_00: So one of my questions was gonna be how there's not a lot of colleges here in Idaho within driving distance.
1:22:56
SPEAKER_00: But when you do go to Portland, when you do go to Seattle, when you go to Utah, that's where all these coaches get to see these players and we even set up tours with them and stuff like that, college visits.
1:23:08
SPEAKER_02: Like if it's informal or formal, yeah, we'll do something.
1:23:13
SPEAKER_00: How many, how many of your girls over the last let's say five years have gone to a neighboring state for college?
1:23:22
SPEAKER_00: Utah, Oregon.
1:23:25
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's interesting because we we have a class right now of our 08s where I think just with the recent commit in Whitney.
1:23:35
SPEAKER_02: We have Lily is at University of Texas San Antonio, and I think she has five more going.
1:23:42
SPEAKER_02: Derek Pittman's got six from our 08-09 age groups.
1:23:47
SPEAKER_02: What they're going over to University of Texas San Antonio.
1:23:49
SPEAKER_02: It used to be a Gonzaga, so you uh and he's a great dude.
1:23:53
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, and so but um and just our relationships.
1:23:57
SPEAKER_02: We we host a huge college ID camp in June here.
1:24:00
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
1:24:01
SPEAKER_02: About I think this last year we had 55 girls' college coaches and 30 men's.
1:24:05
SPEAKER_02: And we've been running that well since 2010.
1:24:10
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:24:10
SPEAKER_02: So it's and it's 16th, so gonna be 17th year this year.
1:24:14
SPEAKER_02: So it's it and it's it's awesome.
1:24:17
SPEAKER_02: We don't we don't do it, we honestly don't do it as a moneymaker.
1:24:21
SPEAKER_02: Um well, I'll be honest with you, and I'll be honest with everybody.
1:24:24
SPEAKER_02: We use the proceeds of it to pay for all the college coach travel, those for those who don't want to.
1:24:29
SPEAKER_02: Because that's a new environment, right?
1:24:31
SPEAKER_02: Like some of the big schools are like, eh, we have it in our budget, we'll fly in.
1:24:35
SPEAKER_02: You know, like no problem.
1:24:37
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:24:37
SPEAKER_02: You know, but not everybody does it.
1:24:39
SPEAKER_02: But not everybody.
1:24:40
SPEAKER_02: We pay for the hotel and we get them food and drink and do our thing, get them in, get them out, try not to waste too much of their time.
1:24:46
SPEAKER_00: I think that's what the Jags do.
1:24:48
SPEAKER_02: And then what we do with it, honestly, what we do with it is the proceeds of it, because it's a majority of our kids.
1:24:54
SPEAKER_02: But with the proceeds of it, we pay for our ECNL membership every year.
1:24:59
SPEAKER_02: We don't charge our families.
1:25:01
SPEAKER_00: That's nice.
1:25:03
SPEAKER_00: Man.
1:25:04
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know.
1:25:07
SPEAKER_02: The whole But back to your question, I would say about I would say now on the girls' side, it's a little like I was telling you on the phone, it seems like traditionally, all our girls that have gone east or south, I can't remember one transferring or leaving.
1:25:28
SPEAKER_02: But if they go west or Hawaii, right?
1:25:32
SPEAKER_00: They have to, yeah, they're phone as all Big Ten.
1:25:35
SPEAKER_02: Transferred or not, you know, not playing, whatever, find a program.
1:25:39
SPEAKER_02: And we don't have a lot of it, but I would say, I would say to answer your question, like Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Utah, I would I would say about 80% of our girls, 85% of our girls are probably going to schools in that location.
1:25:54
SPEAKER_00: I wish clubs would start marketing that.
1:25:57
SPEAKER_00: They're always marketing, you know, she's going to Florida State, she's going to North Carolina.
1:26:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:26:04
SPEAKER_00: But they'd never say, like, okay, how'd that go?
1:26:07
SPEAKER_00: You know, did she last all four years of Florida State or wherever?
1:26:12
SPEAKER_00: And I think that if clubs did that and marketed that, it would put a lot of people at ease.
1:26:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:26:18
SPEAKER_02: It's shut up as we blow up.
1:26:21
SPEAKER_02: We had former former employees, directors, etc., in their college of value, and this is our nature.
1:26:29
SPEAKER_02: I don't know, I don't know if it's anybody else's, but our landscape in nature is the really, you know, the U-17 national pool kit.
1:26:40
SPEAKER_02: They're gonna get recruited.
1:26:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:26:42
SPEAKER_02: They're gonna come in.
1:26:44
SPEAKER_00: You're a made man or woman.
1:26:46
SPEAKER_02: But then the funny thing is, like you said, clubs celebrate that one only, and that's their ride, right?
1:26:52
SPEAKER_02: Like there's been some local groups that have had some teams, not us, but local groups that have had some teams that are pretty good, successful, and they've literally celebrated two players for nine years for their whole entire club's existence.
1:27:06
SPEAKER_02: And maybe currently.
1:27:09
SPEAKER_02: Whereas we have kind of a roots run deep, you know, everybody, you know, is going somewhere, type of attitude, and celebrating, because the real work comes from where do you place the kid that I got the phone call yesterday from, who Max has worked with the college advisory, is asking me for some information too, who's worried, worried about shifting, finding a university, and she's two months into her senior year.
1:27:36
SPEAKER_02: Right?
1:27:37
SPEAKER_02: Like, and that's where the work, right?
1:27:39
SPEAKER_02: And then these kids and the work getting these kids like we've had kids go to William and Mary, we've had three kids go to William and Mary, John Daly.
1:27:46
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's because he saw one.
1:27:49
SPEAKER_02: And we've always told our kids like our biggest thing is we've got to place you somewhere where you're wanted, not where you want to go.
1:27:59
SPEAKER_02: So Big difference.
1:28:01
SPEAKER_02: And then the other thing is like building those relationships in the college ID camp and et cetera.
1:28:06
SPEAKER_02: I mean, John would come out and come to regional because one kit, Franny Swakowski, God, I don't want to age Franny, but and her mom was a phenomenal club volunteer in IYSA and US Club.
1:28:17
SPEAKER_02: She used to help with US Club ID2 camps.
1:28:19
SPEAKER_02: She's been involved for everything, and she's an Uber volunteer.
1:28:23
SPEAKER_02: But Franny went to William and Mary years ago.
1:28:26
SPEAKER_02: This was before ECNLs and everything.
1:28:28
SPEAKER_02: Franny might be 40, 42.
1:28:32
SPEAKER_02: Not that that's old.
1:28:33
SPEAKER_02: So but the the uh but but we always told our kids, your job doesn't end here.
1:28:41
SPEAKER_02: You represent all those under you who want to be you and may want to go where you go or use you as a reference.
1:28:49
SPEAKER_02: So if you go to William Mary, you basically, and Sammy Smith at Stanford and Emily and J and whatever, you know, you basically tell that coach what type of kid or person or character they're gonna get in a voicey timber thorn coming to their program if they assess some of an ability to play at their program.
1:29:12
SPEAKER_02: Don't let us down.
1:29:13
SPEAKER_02: We won't let you down in representing you.
1:29:17
SPEAKER_02: So in turn, don't let your community down in representing yourself and who we are.
1:29:23
SPEAKER_02: Because it's it's just too small to do.
1:29:25
SPEAKER_02: And and we I've had parents, you know, you know, you guys don't help out, you don't, you know, it's like, no, we do, we do because we're being honest.
1:29:33
SPEAKER_02: We've told you your kid is probably not a division one athlete.
1:29:38
SPEAKER_02: Or there's not gonna be interest.
1:29:39
SPEAKER_02: And I was telling you earlier, it's like if I'm coaching somewhere, I would probably take a kid that I know, but that's because I've seen their case history every day for ten years.
1:29:51
SPEAKER_02: I've seen what they've come from at nine to you 19.
1:29:56
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:29:57
SPEAKER_02: The college coaches don't have that luxury, you know what I mean?
1:30:00
SPEAKER_02: So then they have to trust, you know, and then who are their relationships with?
1:30:04
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
1:30:05
SPEAKER_02: You know, and so and I said sometimes to be honest with you, I can love you, and they may not.
1:30:11
SPEAKER_02: And that's just the reality of it.
1:30:12
SPEAKER_00: And that's how soccer is, because we all have our opinions, we all see players differently.
1:30:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and have you ever been burned by a player though?
1:30:21
SPEAKER_00: Like that you did send.
1:30:23
SPEAKER_00: We have boys, we have boys, and then a coach is like, I'm never coming back to you guys again.
1:30:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we had well, yeah, but Mario's not at UNLV.
1:30:32
SPEAKER_02: This is years ago.
1:30:33
SPEAKER_02: We had a Romanian kid, uh-huh, really good player.
1:30:36
SPEAKER_02: Bernie James of Crossfire always tried to recruit him to come play for Crossfire.
1:30:40
SPEAKER_02: Really good player, full ride to UNLV, didn't report, didn't do anything.
1:30:50
SPEAKER_02: Actually, two kids, a girl and a boy.
1:30:53
SPEAKER_02: And then um, but he signed with FC Patrol in Romania.
1:30:58
SPEAKER_00: Well, in Romania.
1:31:00
SPEAKER_02: Because he went that summer, try it out.
1:31:02
SPEAKER_02: We've had boys recently talk about doing stuff like that.
1:31:05
SPEAKER_02: Like, hey, I'm committed, I'm just gonna get it, and my dad's talking about going taking me to Spain, and if I make a team, then I'll just tell him I'm not coming.
1:31:12
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like we we wouldn't advise that.
1:31:18
SPEAKER_02: And you know you're under 18, you can't sign as many, you know, you gotta educate them.
1:31:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
1:31:22
SPEAKER_02: Right?
1:31:22
SPEAKER_02: Because the like we were saying with the new world, you know, that used to be the whole like helicopter general, commander parent, you know, has just enough information.
1:31:32
SPEAKER_02: Now it's like parents have a ton of information to be the tank commander general component.
1:31:39
SPEAKER_02: You know, I think the tank commander wasn't a negative person, right?
1:31:42
SPEAKER_02: But it's it's like they almost have I can be a general of soccer knowledge because there's enough of it out there that I can take it in, regurgitate it, think I know the landscape.
1:31:52
SPEAKER_02: And it's it's like, I mean, we we literally had this last year before, tryouts, registration shift, right, from birth year to school year, quote unquote, all this stuff.
1:32:02
SPEAKER_02: We our boys director came down who you talked to, and he goes, he goes, I don't know how to answer this.
1:32:08
SPEAKER_02: I I literally had a phone call from one of our members that said, I was talking to a personal trainer well known on social media.
1:32:17
SPEAKER_02: So they are not from here.
1:32:19
SPEAKER_02: I'm just telling everybody, they're not from Idaho.
1:32:21
SPEAKER_02: And Julio Mariah, elite international people, there they do a great job.
1:32:25
SPEAKER_02: There are some really good personal trainers starting to evolve.
1:32:29
SPEAKER_02: But I'm just telling, they're not here.
1:32:31
SPEAKER_02: So we know it's somebody on Instagram, something, whether it's a something.
1:32:36
SPEAKER_02: And she literally quoted this person as well, what you need to do is invest in personal training, not play on a team right now that's not important for a 13-year-old boy developing.
1:32:48
SPEAKER_02: You don't really have to play games, you don't have to, and I don't know any theory in the world with European countries and etc.
1:32:56
SPEAKER_02: I mean, the the whole expert of football is Steve, the coach's voice, the Spanish are saying the most important thing is you need to play.
1:33:03
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
1:33:04
SPEAKER_02: They have to play at a young age, they've got to be able to play.
1:33:09
SPEAKER_00: The biggest red flag that I have said for years about uh technical trainers is that if they ever tell you to leave your club team, run for your life from that person because they think that they could themselves can develop you, and that's just not how development works.
1:33:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's not, and so but they um but he goes, I don't know how to answer it because she's quoting this guy on Instagram saying all this stuff.
1:33:33
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, man, I was like, it's the times.
1:33:36
SPEAKER_02: Like I hate to tell, like I was, I think you and I were talking about the other day is like whether whether people like the analogy or not.
1:33:44
SPEAKER_02: And and honestly, it's more like our coaches, it's more like our coaches and people within soccer, and and maybe others, not just ours.
1:33:53
SPEAKER_02: They don't like somebody had asked me, you know, like well what's your parent model?
1:33:59
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, oh, what do you mean?
1:34:01
SPEAKER_02: And he's like, Do do are parents allowed to interact with you?
1:34:06
SPEAKER_02: And it's like, yeah, they can interact.
1:34:08
SPEAKER_02: Like, I'd rather, but like I told him, I said, I'd rather have them not have to.
1:34:13
SPEAKER_02: Because our our interaction or our action is proactive, and we're giving them the wise, what's house.
1:34:21
SPEAKER_02: They can always say, I didn't read the email, or I wasn't at the pre-game, game within the game, talk before the game.
1:34:28
SPEAKER_02: Sorry, coach, I didn't I didn't know you were gonna say I didn't know you said we're working on you know possession under pressure today against this opponent, and I'm yelling at my kid to go score eight goals, you know, because the opponent may be weaker or something, but we're trying to get something out of the game.
1:34:43
SPEAKER_02: You know, and um, but so that so you're always gonna have that.
1:34:47
SPEAKER_02: People can always have their opinion, people can always do it.
1:34:50
SPEAKER_02: It's just like our values.
1:34:52
SPEAKER_02: I've told some of our people, well, you gotta get to a point.
1:34:54
SPEAKER_02: It can't be the first point, but you gotta ask them, these are our values.
1:34:58
SPEAKER_02: If you don't value them, it's never gonna fit.
1:35:02
SPEAKER_02: You know, Drew Brees spoke at the ECNL AGM one year, and he was talking about his kids in sports, and I think they were playing like basketball, club baskets, and and somebody asked him, like, how do you pick, how do you pick programs for your kids?
1:35:15
SPEAKER_02: You're an NFL Hall of Fame, you know, franchise investor, leader, like crazy.
1:35:21
SPEAKER_02: And he goes, honestly, and I just took it away from it.
1:35:24
SPEAKER_02: He said, Honestly, I just look, what's the coach and team that shares our values?
1:35:32
SPEAKER_02: Like, if it's not there, we ain't doing it.
1:35:37
SPEAKER_02: And he goes, That's any sport, it's not soccer, you know, that's it's anything you do, that's a company you work for.
1:35:43
SPEAKER_02: Are you willing to compromise your values because you get a million-dollar paycheck with Exxon?
1:35:50
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:35:51
SPEAKER_02: Right?
1:35:51
SPEAKER_02: And you're okay with the mission statement is we're trying to provide you know quality world, but you have no problem spilling tons of oil in the ocean every day.
1:36:00
SPEAKER_02: You know, you have a cookie cutter, you have a cookie cutter mission statement, you know, that everybody uses.
1:36:05
SPEAKER_02: But anyways, it was interesting when he said that because we feel the same way.
1:36:09
SPEAKER_02: And I it's like it's never gonna work if the values don't align.
1:36:13
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:36:13
SPEAKER_02: You know, if you do if you don't think we can't be better together, it's not gonna work.
1:36:18
SPEAKER_02: I can speak to you all the time, every day, phone call, it won't be heard.
1:36:24
SPEAKER_02: Or you won't listen, or you won't be willing to look back and reflect and see if it'll work.
1:36:29
SPEAKER_02: So as a member, you got a choice to make.
1:36:35
SPEAKER_02: Then you gotta take your kid and maybe go somewhere that aligns with your values.
1:36:39
SPEAKER_02: But like you were saying, more than not, they start figuring out I'm the problem.
1:36:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:36:45
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of them don't.
1:36:46
SPEAKER_02: Uh, it's crazy to the melt that don't.
1:36:48
SPEAKER_02: They don't.
1:36:49
SPEAKER_02: But it was um, it's it's like we're talking about like, you know, when I was talking about like the interaction and do we allow parents to et cetera, it's like more than not, what we talk to the coaches and we challenge them with in our groups and et cetera, and it'd be interesting with what other clubs do, but I've always said, you know, they they have they have a gun.
1:37:09
SPEAKER_02: Now they have ammunition.
1:37:11
SPEAKER_02: Who's supplying the ammunition?
1:37:13
SPEAKER_02: If they don't have any ammunition, they're gonna go look for it.
1:37:16
SPEAKER_02: Now, who are they gonna look for it from?
1:37:18
SPEAKER_02: You know, like this case, the social media and flow, et cetera, they see them as the resident expert.
1:37:23
SPEAKER_02: Now they're loading their gun with that information.
1:37:25
SPEAKER_02: Now, my challenge is kind of like as a leader, accountability, etc., what haven't we done that's kept that gun loaded so when they fire it, it's it's our information, the right information, honest, transparent, and they're understanding it.
1:37:42
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:37:42
SPEAKER_02: Because if they don't, we have a little bit of ownership of that.
1:37:46
SPEAKER_02: Right?
1:37:47
SPEAKER_02: Like, and that's why we years ago, not to reiterate it a bunch, but years ago at our AGM, we essentially share everything.
1:37:55
SPEAKER_02: We share all our expenses.
1:37:57
SPEAKER_02: We share everything when we raise club dues, we tell them why.
1:38:02
SPEAKER_02: Like one year we raised club dues and we had to do it after COVID, which was unheard of, but we raised it$90.
1:38:09
SPEAKER_02: And we said the reason we have to do this, guys, is we found out 99% of the resin and fertilizer for paint and grass products is manufactured in Russia.
1:38:23
SPEAKER_02: There's a massive shortage, and now guess what?
1:38:26
SPEAKER_02: The cost of it has trickled down to your little club in you know in the Treasure Valley, Idaho.
1:38:31
SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
1:38:32
SPEAKER_02: And in order for your grass to be green, your lines to be painted, and everything else, we've had to raise our club dues$90 on our budget projections, because that's how much it's gone up.
1:38:44
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:38:44
SPEAKER_02: And we don't even know if we can get it.
1:38:47
SPEAKER_02: It's like, you know, people are saying, you better order it now, or you know, you may not have it, you know, etc.
1:38:52
SPEAKER_02: But um, but I think I think people appreciate that honesty.
1:38:56
SPEAKER_02: I mean, they can literally turn around and go, well, you're full of shit, or you're a liar, but you know what?
1:39:02
SPEAKER_02: Here's the thing that's your opinion.
1:39:04
SPEAKER_02: You can decide what you want to do with that, but we are giving you the information and we're being transparent.
1:39:10
SPEAKER_00: That question, the question that that parent asks is, well, what's your parent uh uh how did he word it?
1:39:20
SPEAKER_00: Like like what's your parent policy?
1:39:22
SPEAKER_00: Parent policy something it's I mean, you're dealing with, and I say this all the time, you're dealing with their most prized possession, and they want to know.
1:39:34
SPEAKER_00: But I came up wanting to be intimidating to parents.
1:39:40
SPEAKER_00: I didn't want parents to come up to and talk to me after games and stuff like that.
1:39:45
SPEAKER_00: And then it's like you can't do that intimate.
1:39:48
SPEAKER_02: Well, and you know, honestly with a coach, it's like it's so funny you say that.
1:39:52
SPEAKER_02: How people want to do that, it it's it's funny.
1:39:56
SPEAKER_02: Like my wife, past people, etc.
1:39:59
SPEAKER_02: Like, it's like, and she did this last year when I was coaching high school club, and it's like, and then she started figuring out, oh my gosh, it's it's like they're an athlete too.
1:40:09
SPEAKER_02: They have just expended X amount of energy, and like a lot of it, I mean, I think majority of us, probably yourself and others, your planning, your game scripting, your set piece organization, what you think you're gonna sub, then what the real game situation is gonna be, and now the energy to rethink it and the system before me, if if you know that's the level and whatever, but even our younger coaches, they experience the experience just like players do.
1:40:35
SPEAKER_02: Like I've I've kind of always done this as like I don't they go, why don't you talk after games?
1:40:40
SPEAKER_02: I go, well, one, if we won, they're celebrating and they're not listening.
1:40:44
SPEAKER_02: Two, if we tied, we should have won and they're pissed, or we should have lost and they're okay, and they don't want to listen to anything.
1:40:52
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:40:52
SPEAKER_02: Because three, if you lose, nobody wants to talk to anybody.
1:40:55
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:40:56
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
1:40:57
SPEAKER_02: And and a lot of that's with energy and I've always mental energies I've always felt is like ten times fatiguing as physical.
1:41:04
SPEAKER_02: So people forget that about coaches who are actually engaged and interacting and doing and valuing and prideful.
1:41:12
SPEAKER_02: Worst time to approach them is after the game, before the game.
1:41:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:41:16
SPEAKER_02: Right?
1:41:17
SPEAKER_02: And they forget that.
1:41:18
SPEAKER_02: Like most of their kids don't want to talk to them.
1:41:21
SPEAKER_02: Right?
1:41:21
SPEAKER_02: Like my niece, who's at Boise State and killing it, Campbell Wilson shout out.
1:41:27
SPEAKER_02: She's like a great example, you know.
1:41:30
SPEAKER_02: Mom, dad, me, whoever say something, and she'll just she's like, I got this.
1:41:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've been doing this for a while.
1:41:39
SPEAKER_02: You know, I have my game routine, I have my stuff.
1:41:42
SPEAKER_02: I've done like when have I not performed?
1:41:45
unknown: You know what I mean?
1:41:46
SPEAKER_02: Like, like, like I've been doing this for so long.
1:41:50
SPEAKER_02: Um, but it's a great example.
1:41:51
SPEAKER_02: They don't need that and they don't want that, but I think the coaches too.
1:41:54
SPEAKER_02: But I but back to your question, I think you know, the other aspect of that is like, do you want me to do that in your environment?
1:42:01
SPEAKER_02: I had a board member years ago when I was a young coach, and he was like, I can't remember what he's going off about, but he essentially was going off about technical decisions within the club or a coach issue or something.
1:42:15
SPEAKER_02: So he was crossing a line of what a board member's supposed to do.
1:42:18
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:42:19
SPEAKER_02: But he had taken his E recently, or you know, so he was an expert.
1:42:23
SPEAKER_02: But he was a great lawyer in town.
1:42:25
SPEAKER_02: But I didn't talk a lot when I was younger.
1:42:28
SPEAKER_02: I listened a lot, especially in board meetings, too.
1:42:31
SPEAKER_02: It was you know, just navigating the space and you're prideful of other people and lawyers and doctor and whoever in the room, CFOs.
1:42:40
SPEAKER_02: But you're sitting there and I and I just looked at him and said, Hey, listen, do we when's the last time I came to your office, asked your legal assistant to ring you in and talk about it, because I wanted to talk about your case that you're working on and how I think you're doing it wrong.
1:42:59
SPEAKER_02: And he goes, That'd be out of place and out of line.
1:43:01
SPEAKER_02: You have no experience with legal procedures and legal research.
1:43:05
SPEAKER_02: And I said, I don't know if I need to say anything more.
1:43:10
SPEAKER_02: And then the other board members were like, Hey, I think we've gone off on a tangent here.
1:43:13
SPEAKER_02: Like, this isn't an issue.
1:43:15
SPEAKER_02: The board, like, we need to trust the technical leadership.
1:43:18
SPEAKER_02: And that's what our board I will say, kudos to our board, a majority of our board members.
1:43:23
SPEAKER_02: They have always drawn a line, and I and I sit on the board as a board member.
1:43:27
SPEAKER_02: I can't vote on my pay, can't vote on things like that, but I'm a voting board member as the technical chair.
1:43:36
SPEAKER_02: But our boards, even coming in, whether they're hand selected, express interest, we've interviewed, whatever, they have always been great about the technical business running of the club is done by the employees.
1:43:51
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:43:52
SPEAKER_02: Right?
1:43:53
SPEAKER_02: The the you know, the financial responsibility, fiscal responsibility, special projects, legal, HR, um risk management, all those types of things, that's a board, that's a board issue.
1:44:07
SPEAKER_00: That's why the you know, I used to always be anti-board, but you don't want soccer people in charge of all that stuff.
1:44:15
SPEAKER_00: No offense.
1:44:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:44:21
SPEAKER_02: Because there are that are that.
1:44:23
SPEAKER_02: But like it's funny when I meet people and it's such a foreign thing to me because it's happened so much more.
1:44:29
SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm the owner of X Surf, or I'm the owner of Club Y.
1:44:36
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, what does that mean?
1:44:39
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:44:40
SPEAKER_02: Well, I bought the rights of the franchise, you know, or I'm the owner of How Beyond This or that.
1:44:44
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, and I'm like, and then I'm the and then and then they go and I'm the president of the board, and I'm the director, and I'm like, whew.
1:44:52
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'll be honest with you, I went through a phase where uh we had brought in Dave Chesler, he's a great guy, great member.
1:44:59
SPEAKER_02: He's with IYSA's U.S.
1:45:01
SPEAKER_02: Soccer National Staff and Coaching Education, phenomenal human being, phenomenal leader, teacher.
1:45:08
SPEAKER_02: Um, but I had gotten to a point as a director, young director, where I kind of gave the board and said, hey, we need to bring some more people in.
1:45:14
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm I can't remember how old I was.
1:45:18
SPEAKER_02: Daughter was born, 33, 34.
1:45:20
SPEAKER_02: I'd been coaching a long time, being in leadership roles, directors.
1:45:24
SPEAKER_02: I was director of the club here.
1:45:26
SPEAKER_02: So we need to bring more professionals in, more people in.
1:45:29
SPEAKER_02: Can we?
1:45:30
SPEAKER_02: And then the board said, hey, Ches might be in, we brought him in.
1:45:33
SPEAKER_02: But I literally went got to a phase in my point of my development where I went, man, I'm fatigued.
1:45:39
SPEAKER_02: I'm tired of being the one who has all the answers.
1:45:43
SPEAKER_02: I don't know all the answers.
1:45:45
SPEAKER_02: So he did that, and then I did a little sabbatical where I just stayed coaching with the club, but I went outside the industry with uh semiconductor mask reticle joint venture in town with Micron Photonics, had some background in EHSS, did some things, did that for three years, but kept coaching, volunteer coached at Boy State, then I was full-time with Boy State, and um but the one thing I learned in the photonics environment that I would kind of run away as a younger developing leader was you know, facing or having to work with assholes or you know, adversity or people that disagreed, whatever, and then I figured out, oh my gosh, in the corporate world, you're doing that every day.
1:46:26
SPEAKER_02: Yep, whether it's another department unit, and then and then I finally was kind of like going, I mean, I don't need to run or switch away from anything, and then clubs merged, they wanted me to come back full-time, did and and I was I was in a position of like, you know, making 40 grand a year, no taxes, independent contractor, no benefits, just had a baby girl, had a baby boy on the way, had a you know, and it was like, I gotta get a real job.
1:46:51
SPEAKER_02: I can coach wherever, you know, and people have always asked me, you know, if if if the club fired you tomorrow, would you still be involved?
1:46:58
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Yeah, because that's the way I started.
1:47:00
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:47:01
SPEAKER_02: I started not getting paid seven years.
1:47:05
SPEAKER_02: I didn't know you could get paid.
1:47:06
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:47:07
SPEAKER_02: You know, Kevin Boyd at uh University of uh Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and he used to be at Cal and Arizona State, and he actually started the girls-only club LaBois here in town.
1:47:17
SPEAKER_02: His niece Chloe plays for us.
1:47:20
SPEAKER_02: His brothers are in the club's members.
1:47:22
SPEAKER_02: Um but he he was one of those like, oh man, you know, we have licensure here.
1:47:27
SPEAKER_02: You have stuff like you can do this here.
1:47:28
SPEAKER_02: Because I was my mom had said, hey, yeah, go do this thing in Holland.
1:47:31
SPEAKER_02: Uh I was I was influenced by KMVB guys, yeah.
1:47:34
SPEAKER_02: Dutch guys and curver systems, things like that.
1:47:37
SPEAKER_02: Alex Palma, who's at Life University and was with Georgia, and but some others, so I was gonna go do this thing, and you get a play like on a township team, you know, men's team, KMVB licensure, and get like your K through 12 university diploma sometime.
1:47:52
SPEAKER_02: But then literally stopped, and I was like, oh man, to go do this D license with Kevin Boyd and Tommy Atencio and Bill Eisenwinner and really geeked out, and then the club was like, hey, we're thinking about paying coaches and we want you to stay involved because our directors leave, will we be the director?
1:48:06
SPEAKER_02: So I went from like a U11 coach for three years to a club director of like a six-club Boise Alliance.
1:48:14
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:48:14
SPEAKER_02: But then just did my C, did my BDMA, worked with Gansler, Bob Gansler, um, Dr.
1:48:19
SPEAKER_02: Tom Fleck, but but yeah, people asked, and I and I think that's that's something we look at too here, is it's like it's weird now sitting as an executive director in this seat, because I'm not coaching a team this year.
1:48:33
SPEAKER_02: That's the first time, like for me, not age relative, but I've been coaching for 34 years straight, right?
1:48:42
SPEAKER_02: And our body, as you know, your bodies get wrecked, or but if you're active and you're involved and demoing, but it never comes, rears its head until you're old.
1:48:50
SPEAKER_02: You don't realize it, yeah.
1:48:51
SPEAKER_02: So anyway, and we got guys around here going, I'm old, and I'm like going, they're 15 years behind in investment time here.
1:48:58
SPEAKER_02: But, anyways, it's interesting seeing now, and and the like you said, the resources and the advancement of like coaching education.
1:49:08
SPEAKER_02: Like, not the only platform then was USSF coaching licenses.
1:49:13
SPEAKER_02: And then it was NSCA, now USC.
1:49:16
SPEAKER_02: But now, like this the coach's voice and all these other aspects and what the people and the coaches can use is just like crazy.
1:49:25
SPEAKER_02: You know, I remember writing all that stuff on my notepad, watching curver VHS tapes and breaking down rewinding it, yeah.
1:49:31
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
1:49:33
SPEAKER_02: But I would say, like you're saying, and we started the conversation out with was like the advancement of the game is awesome.
1:49:41
SPEAKER_02: I mean, not that everybody gets it, not and I would say some I mean, some people can comment.
1:49:48
SPEAKER_02: I would just say some people are lazy.
1:49:51
SPEAKER_02: Some club, some some club people, soccer people make a ton of money or what people consider a ton of money, and they do.
1:50:00
SPEAKER_02: It however they do it and however they value it.
1:50:02
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:50:02
SPEAKER_02: For me to question that, I don't know if that's appropriate, because that's for that person to answer.
1:50:08
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:50:09
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:50:09
SPEAKER_02: But the other side of that is like the investment in it, what's happening, etc.
1:50:16
SPEAKER_02: Like, we'll always choose an investing in like early on.
1:50:19
SPEAKER_02: It was like sports session planner with Magnus and Alfred and those guys.
1:50:23
SPEAKER_02: We were one of the first clubs, I think, in the US, if I asked Magnus, to use it.
1:50:28
SPEAKER_02: And it was all the sports session planner moved your players, and then the U.S.
1:50:31
SPEAKER_02: Soccer had created their online platform, right?
1:50:34
SPEAKER_02: And everybody hated it because it was they couldn't develop a session or whatever.
1:50:38
SPEAKER_02: But then and then they started Coach's Voice.
1:50:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:50:41
SPEAKER_02: Was basically out of sports session planner.
1:50:42
SPEAKER_02: Now they're doing international tours with Coach's Voice.
1:50:45
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:50:46
SPEAKER_02: But it's interesting because as long as I've known Magnus, Magnus is not a guy, per se, unless I'm just a horrible judge of character, that has been the only reason I'm in this is to make a billion dollars.
1:51:01
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
1:51:02
SPEAKER_02: Right?
1:51:03
SPEAKER_02: Like for him to take the time to, we met in Vegas before the AGM to just buy me coffee a couple years ago, sit down, and then he had Peter Kenyon come in.
1:51:13
SPEAKER_02: And I'm a big, I'm a Manchester United fan, I'm a mad United fan, but I'm a man united fan.
1:51:18
SPEAKER_02: So Peter Kenyon, the golden days, Manchester United left, went to Chelsea.
1:51:22
SPEAKER_02: He was there as one of the presenters.
1:51:24
SPEAKER_02: And he Magnus knew as a man, and he brought Peter Kenyon.
1:51:27
SPEAKER_02: We had coffee and we talked, and I was able to ask him questions about you know Beckham and everybody and the players and the management and what he's now doing now with Formula One.
1:51:36
SPEAKER_02: And then you figure out, oh, Peter Kenyon is an investor in coach's voice.
1:51:40
SPEAKER_02: But good for Magnus.
1:51:42
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:51:42
SPEAKER_02: For a guy to start out at sports session planner, was a and he'll even tell you like a roots level coach.
1:51:48
SPEAKER_02: His kid had started playing, didn't have any tools, he wasn't a professional English academy coach, loved the game of soccer, just want to provide more to come up with something that could be used by the world.
1:52:01
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:52:01
SPEAKER_02: It's pretty impressive.
1:52:03
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
1:52:03
SPEAKER_02: Right?
1:52:04
SPEAKER_02: So it's kind of like you and others who are doing this kind of stuff.
1:52:08
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we had talked about it.
1:52:09
SPEAKER_02: I hate soccer.
1:52:10
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's it's it's it's what it is, we get it, but it's um but they I think the overarching statement is you know, gotcha.
1:52:18
SPEAKER_02: You know, Jason Jason doesn't hate soccer.
1:52:20
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
1:52:21
SPEAKER_02: Jason actually loves soccer, and and he's providing a platform for people to help express.
1:52:27
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I mean, like when we talk.
1:52:29
SPEAKER_02: I wanted to showcase Idaho.
1:52:30
SPEAKER_02: I appreciate it.
1:52:31
SPEAKER_02: I I wish we could add video of the field.
1:52:33
SPEAKER_02: Maybe I can send you videos or pictures of the fields and things like that.
1:52:36
SPEAKER_02: And yeah, but for us, like like I was telling you, for us as a club, our operating expenses, you know, we can't hire like some clubs that I've seen and talked to.
1:52:48
SPEAKER_02: And again, I'm not mad at them.
1:52:51
SPEAKER_02: Good for them.
1:52:52
SPEAKER_02: They have hired three to four camera people who have digital wireless cameras, who are at every one of their fixtures and events taking pictures of kids, taking pictures of kid, uploading it to Instagram, Canva, boom, boom, boom, and within an hour after the match, they're or during the match, they're celebrating their club, marketing their club.
1:53:11
SPEAKER_02: Does does our club have the bandwidth to do that?
1:53:13
SPEAKER_02: No.
1:53:14
SPEAKER_02: Would our parents and members value it?
1:53:16
SPEAKER_02: I don't think so, but some might.
1:53:19
SPEAKER_02: Maybe.
1:53:19
SPEAKER_02: But for the dollar amount, I don't know if they would.
1:53:22
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:53:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:53:23
SPEAKER_02: You know, I think I think like going back to our earlier conversation, showing our pie chart and showing everything to our members, if we were to say, hey, we're not gonna do the car raffle and we're not gonna mow the grass and or we're only gonna mow it once a week, and we're not gonna add fertilizer, we're not gonna take clip, or we're not gonna do a tournament, or we're not gonna do our tournaments, and we're gonna, you know, cut four staff members from our club, and it's gonna cost you more now.
1:53:52
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
1:53:53
SPEAKER_02: They'd be like, You'd be surprised.
1:53:55
SPEAKER_02: What the hell?
1:53:56
SPEAKER_02: But then some other people would be like, good.
1:53:58
SPEAKER_02: But then they'd be mad within three months because they don't like their coach.
1:54:04
SPEAKER_02: The fields are crap.
1:54:05
SPEAKER_02: The nets are destroyed, you know, the environment's not positive.
1:54:09
SPEAKER_02: They would be the ones that come around and demand it, but then don't realize.
1:54:13
SPEAKER_02: So that's why we that's why we've always been transparent about it and using that.
1:54:19
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I think the game, the game's advanced crazy.
1:54:25
SPEAKER_02: Um, I mean, even us with our film huddle.
1:54:29
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we don't even use it to the you know nth that you could.
1:54:34
SPEAKER_00: You could huddle a nine-year-old game.
1:54:36
SPEAKER_02: Oh, we have them.
1:54:37
SPEAKER_02: I have alumni kids that play for me, played Division I, and their kids are five, six year olds in the rec league.
1:54:43
SPEAKER_02: And I reply on their Facebook going, Are you serious right now?
1:54:46
SPEAKER_02: You have the highlights have been a little bit more than a few years.
1:54:48
SPEAKER_02: And they're like, Well, it's for the people that can't make the game, and some people don't all get to see their kids.
1:54:53
SPEAKER_02: I go, No, it's not.
1:54:55
SPEAKER_02: Come on.
1:54:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because grandma really wants to watch this game.
1:54:57
SPEAKER_02: You're walking, you're walking them through eating ice cream cones after the game.
1:55:02
SPEAKER_02: Let's get real.
1:55:03
SPEAKER_02: And when you played, we just kicked it really far.
1:55:05
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
1:55:06
SPEAKER_00: So we had to because we were playing on an 11 v11 field at seven years old.
1:55:11
SPEAKER_02: That's that, yeah, no kidding.
1:55:12
SPEAKER_02: That was my that's my thing now with some of our alumni that come back.
1:55:15
SPEAKER_02: I'm like going, remember, you don't you don't say anything to your kid because you were not the brightest IQ soccer player.
1:55:21
SPEAKER_02: Like you worked hard, but and they just laugh.
1:55:25
SPEAKER_02: It's funny.
1:55:26
SPEAKER_02: But no, it's good.
1:55:28
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for doing this, man.
1:55:29
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no problem.
1:55:30
SPEAKER_02: I appreciate having you.
1:55:31
SPEAKER_02: But like I said, that resource in you is it's kind of a no-brainer.
1:55:35
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I would for clubs like us and others, you know, fiscally responsible, membership responsible, I would I would recommend it to anybody.
1:55:44
SPEAKER_02: I was even talking to some of the local people that called me when they saw like the Instagram release, and I was like, well, I mean, I don't know.
1:55:51
SPEAKER_02: It's you get to celebrate the game and celebrate your kids and celebrate you.
1:55:56
SPEAKER_02: It I don't know why you wouldn't.
1:55:59
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:55:59
SPEAKER_02: You know, and in this day and age, like we're saying, the platforms and what exist, it's it's just real.
1:56:05
SPEAKER_02: It's what it is.
1:56:06
SPEAKER_02: So people like to knock it, they like to make comments, they like to, you know, bash, you know, or I researched you and this and that somebody said this, and you're like so dumb.
1:56:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I don't know how you do it sometimes.
1:56:19
SPEAKER_00: But just get in a room with me and just talk to me.
1:56:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm actually like kind of normal.
1:56:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:56:24
SPEAKER_00: How excited are you of like the growth of Idaho, just as uh or Boise as as a whole?
1:56:30
SPEAKER_02: It's good.
1:56:30
SPEAKER_02: I mean it's cool.
1:56:31
SPEAKER_02: I mean it's too restrictive.
1:56:35
SPEAKER_02: It it's good.
1:56:36
SPEAKER_02: I think you know, I think we have too many clubs here.
1:56:40
SPEAKER_02: Um people would say otherwise.
1:56:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:56:43
SPEAKER_02: Um but we have every I mean we have Albion, we have surf wheel slammers, we have everything.
1:56:49
SPEAKER_02: You do?
1:56:50
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:56:51
SPEAKER_02: It's uh people might comment on this, but and we are a merged club, right?
1:56:58
SPEAKER_02: Relabeled, whatever, rush, what everybody's gone through something.
1:57:03
SPEAKER_02: Yes, right, or it came from somewhere.
1:57:05
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:57:06
SPEAKER_02: Right, like they took their girls' program and created a new club and became ex.
1:57:10
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:57:10
SPEAKER_02: You know, and it's it's funny how people get hung up on that stuff.
1:57:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:57:14
SPEAKER_02: But at the end of the day, I always, I mean, I always tell people as a, and Cobe Michelson, who's a Cal Baptist, he's awesome.
1:57:20
SPEAKER_02: But he's like, you know, it's it's like he calls it the crap sweater, right?
1:57:26
SPEAKER_02: It's like you got you got a crap sweater and people spray paint it gold.
1:57:30
SPEAKER_02: And then people go, oh my gosh, there's the FC gold sweater, and then they wear it for a while, and then either they just repaint it and they go, Oh, it there's the platinum sweater, you know.
1:57:43
SPEAKER_02: But after a while, people start figuring out, oh my gosh, this thing's made out of poop.
1:57:47
SPEAKER_02: Like it's actually made out of crap.
1:57:50
SPEAKER_02: Like, but they told me it was gold and it was platinum.
1:57:53
SPEAKER_02: It's like, no, it's always been made.
1:57:55
SPEAKER_02: Not saying that people are crap, right?
1:57:57
SPEAKER_02: You know, not or personalities are crap or clubs are crap.
1:58:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but it's just kind of, you know, like I told people, it's like it's like if I took a Bud Light can and put a new label that said Bud Elite and you know, urinated in it, and you drank it and went, wow, this is really good Bud Elite.
1:58:11
SPEAKER_02: After a while, you figure out it's piss.
1:58:15
SPEAKER_02: You know, but there but there's more environments than Idaho that do that.
1:58:19
SPEAKER_02: You know, there's there's others, and and and I think for the most part, people get it right.
1:58:23
SPEAKER_02: The growth aspect of it, the growth aspect of it for us is kind of like what I really worry about is I think without naming names, I think you know, whether it's state associations, leagues, clubs, whoever we are going through, we don't have it, and there may be one other that doesn't have it per se.
1:58:46
SPEAKER_02: But we're facing a real big decision point here in the valley of are we just gonna be consumers of our landscape or are we gonna be contributors?
1:58:58
SPEAKER_02: Are we gonna be competitors or are we gonna be facilitators?
1:59:01
SPEAKER_02: We have one soccer complex, dedicated soccer complex.
1:59:06
SPEAKER_02: Only one body has control over it, can use it.
1:59:09
SPEAKER_02: So they dictate games, etc., blah, blah, blah.
1:59:13
SPEAKER_02: And it's not their fault.
1:59:14
SPEAKER_02: It's the you know, the original builders of the complex.
1:59:18
SPEAKER_02: How it used to be.
1:59:19
SPEAKER_02: Yep, and how it used to be, and no research by a city of number of games per fields, and they don't allow anybody to train on it.
1:59:26
SPEAKER_02: So it's not getting training use.
1:59:28
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:59:28
SPEAKER_02: So there's a lot of things done 40 years ago that are still that are still being done.
1:59:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:59:34
SPEAKER_02: So it's not a stadium association.
1:59:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's not a state associate's fault.
1:59:38
SPEAKER_02: It's not anybody's fault, it's not anything.
1:59:40
SPEAKER_02: But then the other aspect is like it's created almost this culture of competitors only.
1:59:47
SPEAKER_02: So like for our growth aspect, we get slammed here.
1:59:50
SPEAKER_02: Once the high school players come back.
1:59:52
SPEAKER_02: Like I told you, for our tournaments, we don't just use this facility.
1:59:55
SPEAKER_02: We use this facility and two other city parks.
1:59:58
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:59:59
SPEAKER_02: Right?
1:59:59
SPEAKER_02: And then we use uh resident little tiny park to complement a couple other fields.
2:00:04
SPEAKER_02: So it's like even as great as we have this, would we take 20 more acres?
2:00:09
SPEAKER_02: 100% we would.
2:00:11
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:00:11
SPEAKER_02: Right?
2:00:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
2:00:12
SPEAKER_02: 100% we would.
2:00:13
SPEAKER_02: Will we have lights on every field?
2:00:14
SPEAKER_02: 100%.
2:00:15
SPEAKER_02: Like daylight's been lost every year more and more.
2:00:18
SPEAKER_02: So we have one field that's lit for training.
2:00:21
SPEAKER_02: So we have to change training plans and overlap sessions.
2:00:25
SPEAKER_02: Start at 4 30 or get portable lights, which is a cost and etc., which takes time and labor.
2:00:32
SPEAKER_02: The coach has got to set them up and start them and bring them, break them down because we don't want them left out because they can get damn it.
2:00:38
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's it's like all this stuff.
2:00:39
SPEAKER_02: But but I think our valley and the growth and and what we're looking at is I think, you know, just I guess southwest Idaho is when are people gonna start reinvesting in the game?
2:00:52
SPEAKER_02: Like in what I'm saying, more fields are needed.
2:00:54
SPEAKER_00: More fields, more facilities, and an indoor facility with an 11-11 field.
2:00:58
SPEAKER_02: Indoor facility, yep.
2:00:59
SPEAKER_02: More and there is one off State Street.
2:01:00
SPEAKER_02: It's one of our alumni people um are building an indoor facility.
2:01:04
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if it's a level 11.
2:01:06
SPEAKER_02: I think they have three like 77 or 99 type, but it's better than anything, right?
2:01:12
SPEAKER_02: Um, and then yeah, so I think that's I think that's probably the worry I have is if others are only in it um to not reinvest, right, and reinvest in the game and the community, at some point the numbers and the player numbers is gonna create an atmosphere of where are we gonna play.
2:01:36
SPEAKER_02: Because like some of the outliers and where they go, like we're on a call with iOSA and they say we put a form in for you know field conditions.
2:01:43
SPEAKER_02: Can you tell and we say, well, can we do that for your fields too?
2:01:46
SPEAKER_02: Right.
2:01:47
SPEAKER_02: And they're like, Oh yeah, 100%.
2:01:49
SPEAKER_02: And I think they I think and anybody gets defensive.
2:01:52
SPEAKER_02: We would get defensive about our field, anybody, but then us and some other, and not really me, but two other organizations said, Yeah, we should let the city know.
2:02:00
SPEAKER_02: Like when the fields are bad, you know, they they should know.
2:02:03
SPEAKER_02: Do they need to hire more work, do they need to hire more labor?
2:02:06
SPEAKER_02: Because like one guy trying to take care of 20 fields is unheard of.
2:02:11
SPEAKER_02: Right.
2:02:12
SPEAKER_02: And actually it's unrealistic.
2:02:13
SPEAKER_02: Very right, like to paint them, mow them, move the gold sleeves, do everything, empty trash, clean bath, like come on.
2:02:20
SPEAKER_02: No, you know, and that was by the city was cut after COVID because they sh Boy City went dark.
2:02:27
SPEAKER_02: Right.
2:02:28
SPEAKER_02: We sit in Ada County.
2:02:29
SPEAKER_02: We actually had clubs calling us saying, hey, will you guys not do programming through the summer and do restrictive training?
2:02:36
SPEAKER_02: Because we we did everything month off for sure.
2:02:39
SPEAKER_02: Then we got right back into it, but we were in groups of three, groups of nine, so you know, separate all the rules.
2:02:46
SPEAKER_02: ECNL did a great job providing material stuff for us.
2:02:49
SPEAKER_02: And then we played through the summer and we created our own, we just created our own internal summer league.
2:02:55
SPEAKER_02: We just had kids play up, play down, girls versus boys, boys versus girls, second versus first, first versus second.
2:03:00
SPEAKER_02: And we create because I was like, we owe, we owe our membership a month and a half.
2:03:06
SPEAKER_02: And we're not we're not gonna not do it.
2:03:09
SPEAKER_02: But other organizations were, and I think they did it because they didn't want to do it.
2:03:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they're lazy, like I said, some people are just lazy, so they just wanted their summer off.
2:03:18
SPEAKER_02: And they weren't giving refunds for their club dues, and they weren't, but I was like, we're not gonna do it because we're actually gonna extend your season because they moved our trials to August from like June.
2:03:27
SPEAKER_02: Right.
2:03:28
SPEAKER_02: So, but and I'll be honest with you, some of those environments were probably the most healthy.
2:03:31
SPEAKER_02: We had SoCal Blues coming here in the fall because California was shut down.
2:03:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:03:37
SPEAKER_02: Trinity's agent Baker brought his teams up, played here because Ada County was like, you can play as long as you practice social duties, things, yeah, wipe down equipment, things like that within the county, you're fine.
2:03:50
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
2:03:52
SPEAKER_02: But and then they got I think they got in trouble by their state association for traveling.
2:03:56
SPEAKER_02: Of course.
2:03:58
SPEAKER_02: But of course they did.
2:03:59
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm the most non-political person you'll meet, so it's but they yeah, it was it was interesting.
2:04:06
SPEAKER_02: But that's that's kind of like the if we have more facilities and more resources, then ultimately you can provide more solutions.
2:04:14
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
2:04:15
SPEAKER_02: So for me, if we're gonna grow and population could come in and clubs are gonna get bigger and IOS gonna report more teams in the league, well, if we're gonna do that and we haven't thought about soccer fields, exactly.
2:04:31
SPEAKER_02: That's what are we doing for?
2:04:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we kind of need them.
2:04:35
SPEAKER_02: You know?
2:04:36
SPEAKER_02: So and if we're not gonna reinvest in them, if we're not gonna invest in things to make it happen.
2:04:42
SPEAKER_02: So that that worries me a little bit with the growth.
2:04:45
SPEAKER_00: It'll be interesting to see how like if I come back here in like two years and just see how everything has changed or grown.
2:04:52
SPEAKER_02: Well, hopefully, it's just a turf in an outside bathroom.
2:04:56
SPEAKER_00: How long?
2:04:57
SPEAKER_00: When is the first like groundbreaking for the turf?
2:05:01
SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm not sure.
2:05:02
SPEAKER_02: We have a board meeting next Thursday sometime.
2:05:04
SPEAKER_02: To go everything because we were doing the scaling and we had an update on our CIP that we didn't know about our last board meeting.
2:05:09
SPEAKER_02: We were like, whoa, we're they didn't know we had that.
2:05:12
SPEAKER_01: Right.
2:05:13
SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's been the big thing with the board is like if if we're gonna say we're gonna do something, the members gotta see it.
2:05:19
SPEAKER_02: Like it can't be it can't just be this constant, but then they also need to understand with a hundred thousand, we don't make a dent in a turb field.
2:05:29
SPEAKER_02: So what are we gonna show you?
2:05:31
SPEAKER_02: Right.
2:05:32
SPEAKER_02: You know, a prospectus that sits there for five years on the website, you know, of a of a three-field complex.
2:05:39
SPEAKER_02: So that'll just piss them off even more.
2:05:41
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
2:05:42
SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah.
2:05:43
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, and I'll send you I'll send you some video pictures of the fields.
2:05:47
SPEAKER_00: Love it.
2:05:48
SPEAKER_02: But um yeah, it was awesome.
2:05:50
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, brother.
2:05:51
SPEAKER_02: No problem.
2:05:52
SPEAKER_02: Appreciate you.
2:05:53
SPEAKER_02: Awesome, man.
2:05:53
SPEAKER_02: Thanks, dude.
2:05:55
SPEAKER_00: I hate soccer.