Latest / I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth / I Hate Soccer #137 Brian Maisonneuve, Ohio State Men's Soccer Coach

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I Hate Soccer #137 Brian Maisonneuve, Ohio State Men's Soccer Coach · I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Brian Masenoff is the head coach of the Ohio State University.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: He's a Michigan guy.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, grew up playing Michigan soccer, Michigan youth soccer, and Michigan high school soccer at De La Salle.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: And if you want to know what Big Ten men's soccer looks like or what they look for in players, this is your episode.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: This is the episode to watch to show you what he recruits and how he recruits.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: We also talk about his coaching history, and I actually got to work with him.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I was I did his goalkeeping at an NTC, I don't know, like 16 years ago, when he was the U17 men's national team assistant coach.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: He then went back to Indiana University to be an assistant with his best friend Todd Yeagley, and he's been the head coach at Ohio State since 2018, and he took over for John Bloom, who also coached me or was my head instructor at one of my coaching courses in the past.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: So lots of stories, lots of uh lots of Michigan talk, obviously, Ohio State talk.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: So enjoy this one.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: I hate soccer.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: What a view that is.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's nice.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Who was the last coach before you?
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't John.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: John Bloom, yeah.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: It was John Bloom.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: He ran uh one of my NSCAA courses.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, he was my direct, like is my premiere?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: I forget.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's getting inducted to the high or the Ohio Hall of Fame tomorrow.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: Is he?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're doing it new fire game tomorrow.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: So that'd be funny.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: Good.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I look sadly.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: And that was just he just retired, didn't he?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: If you wanted to stay longer or not, but I think he was, yeah, he was he was right.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: He's a good good guy.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: He comes around all the time.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: So, okay.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm not gonna do like an intro or anything.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: I just start talking as if we're having a coffee together or a beer or whatever.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: And uh you we just talked about Darlington Nagby.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe this real quick.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um guys in there for players' meetings?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I think they're actually doing a Bible stuff.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: How often do they do that?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Once a week?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: Usually do it on Wednesdays, so our coach he works with fellowship Christian athletes.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: He's usually four and ten of them that'll that'll meet you.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, you were talking about Darlington Nagby maybe being one of the best MLS players ever.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Who do you think the best player out of Michigan ever was?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's a tough question.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: Going right at it.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know my history, but there's been a lot of good ones.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, there's you, there's a letsey.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you could go younger, you could go Justin Miriam.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: Could go Miriam.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: You could tell I I I one of the best players I ever worked with was Stank.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: Caleb Stanko.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: And but he was always, you know, overseas.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: He had one little stint here with FC Cincinnati, but for the most part.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: I forgot about Caleb.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, what do you think?
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, Ali Curtis, you mentioned.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, Ollie.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: I forgot Ollie.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: Jeff Kasar.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Cassar, Mike Gentili's.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: It depends how far you want to go back.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they played on the youth national teams.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: Joel Russell was a captain of the national team back in the day, the U 16s.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm trying to think of like current guys.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, who are the current?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: How often do you recruit out of Michigan?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm there a lot.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's just um, there's so many good programs in Michigan.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: And to draw a kid out of Michigan, uh, when you're talking about scholarship money and out of state and all that.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, if you offer an out-of-the-art at Michigan or Michigan State, maybe Western.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, so many, so many good schools, UAD, I mean, you could Oakland.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: You can keep going on.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: So, and then there's a lot of good players in Michigan, but there's a lot of good programs.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: So we're aware of all the good players coming out of Michigan, but unless we think we we're gonna get in the mix with you know the strongest offer we can do, it's sometimes it's just hard.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: What's your roster makeup of Ohio kids?
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we're about I would say 13 to 15.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: 12 to 18, probably that window every year.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's really good.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: We um one thing when we got here in 18, we wanted to make Ohio State a destination for the for the Ohio kids.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: For the Ohio kids.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um and and we we've we've tried to do that.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: And it's um, you know, we try to get the best kids out of Ohio.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: Now we got a lot of program, great programs here too, between Akron, Dayton, Xavier, you name it, Cleveland State.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, they're all really, really good.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so it's it's a battle to get, but there's a lot of good Ohio kids.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: So we try to get um, and we we liked, you know, it it just you know, Ohio kids are I call them buckeyes, um, and to keep them it, you know, sometimes it means a little bit more when they put that jersey on.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's how the OP uh guys were talking to.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, this is buckeyes, and then you gotta focus on the in-state.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: I think there are some schools in Michigan that lost that a little bit, especially on the women's side.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I thought I thought University of Michigan kind of lost that on the women's side for a bit.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: And now Dave Deani is back, and I think he's gonna fix some of that.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, how how many of the guys that are let's say just domestic, how many are from MLS Academies?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: I should have crunched my roster, but I'll give you it could be ballpark.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's um 50% of domestic kids, maybe?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because I was just wondering, because I'm looking at a few ECNL kids and exactly, and that's what people need to know.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: A couple, yeah.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: That is not just all MS next kids, it's not all ECNL kids.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes there's probably a kid that you find that's not on in either platform.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel that the Washingtons, the Ohio states, the Michigan states, it's mostly domestic because everybody's complaining about the internationals, right?
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but I feel like five to seven internationals.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: That's and that's maybe eight.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: When you compare it to the Vermont of the world, you know what I mean?
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: And it's I feel like the power, well, I guess there's no power for, but you like you guys are mostly domestic players.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_02: We got a lot of domestic players, a lot of Ohio kids.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_02: We again we do have five to eight internationals, I'd say, every year.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, but most I mean the majority are domestic.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: And then how I mean you got UCLA coming up, right?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Played a lot of UCLA, Washington.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: How what has that done to the conference?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's it's elevated it quite a bit.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, the the conference in itself has always been really good and growing every year.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I'll tell you what, in the last five years, it's you you add in UCLA, you add in Washington.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, those are two top two top 20 teams.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, look at last year, you talk about the parody of a conference.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: Maryland wins the conference, um, UCLA wins the conference tournament, Washington wins a national championship.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: So Washington wins a national championship, didn't even win a Big Ten title, but won a national championship.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um Indiana wasn't even in the Big Ten tournament.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I mean you you look at you and then this year when you look at the you know you look at the top 50 RPIs, I think there's don't quote me because they change all the time.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe seven to nine teams in the top fifty RPIs, which is which is pretty impressive.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then how when you are going into a season using that metric of like Washington didn't even win a big ten the regular season or the tournament, when you're talking about team goals going into it, is it almost better not to win the like the league and the tournament to have success?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because was it last two years ago you guys were a semifinalist?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: Last year?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: 24 we won we won the regular season and the tournament and then lost in the college cup.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um and that was that was the first year that um that was the first year Washington UCLA.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: Washington and UCLA, yeah.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um I mean, and and we were pretty happy and pretty proud of proud of that because I think it's gonna be that's gonna be hard to do with with the parody in the in the league.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, to to win the regular season, to win the tournament, um is is it's gonna be tough.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: And how I mean, how do you structure your non-conference?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Because every game is a is a gauntlet.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it is in the Big Ten.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: Every game is absolutely it's a it's a gauntlet.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so you got to be smart with your with your non-conference.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you want to schedule hard for RPI, but man, you don't want to beat yourself up um because the Big Ten itself, if you take a couple inches, like right now, last couple games, we were missing six players, probably four to five starters, and you know, we're facing UCLA, and it's just like this this isn't gonna be easy.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, credit to our guys.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we we we played them tough.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: They beat us two to one, but we played them tough.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, if you're not careful, and you make every game that you know it it it can be it can be a long season.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: And how well?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's so many ways that we could go.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: But uh in saying that, I'm sorry.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: You you look at any college team, there's so much parody in college.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: So like when you look at making your roster, there's no in men's soccer, you can't say, okay, I I know I'm gonna win that game or I'm gonna win that game.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: No matter who we face, it's good it's gonna be it's gonna be a battle.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um I don't think there's any gimme's in in college soccer for anybody.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: If that makes sense.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: Well, yeah, and it's the only think about this.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's the only sport where a mid-major can win a national title.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, currently I I mean maybe some obscure like Olympic sports, but nobody no mid-majors win a college football national title.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: No, I don't see bat basketball for I mean, for the most part.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Women's soccer isn't gonna have a mid-major.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: No, not anytime soon, I don't think.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: So it is one of those sports where you're right, the parody.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: And there's less programs.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: There's what 128?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Something like that.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's two twelve.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: 212, 212, 216, and then like three something in the girls.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, maybe three twelve.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking football actually, or bad uh yeah, I'm thinking football is a big one.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: 216 rings it in my head.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: Were you gonna find out right now?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, go ahead.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: What was it?
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: Were you guys part or what did you have any say, or you or Damon or anybody?
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Did you guys have any say on the full year?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um in terms of what?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um I mean, we talked about it quite a bit.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Any thoughts of how this the obviously the positives and negatives, but is the Big Ten in a position where they want this as 213.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: 213.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Does everybody up north here and the pen, you know, well the Big Ten, Wisconsin, Penn State?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, do they do you guys want the full year?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we we support it.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: We were Big Ten, ACC were kind of the two conferences that were pushing it.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um and definitely wanted it for the for the good of the game.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: I know what you're saying.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: There's gonna be some um if it does pass, which it hasn't passed yet.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: So you gotta realize there there's still it's it's called a like a rescinding period or some kind of period right now that we have.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um from the time that it did pass, it's like a 30-day window that schools can still go back and say, okay, now that it's passed, do we really want it?
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then they have 30 days to I think you gotta get like 75%.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I think like, and that's for um, I think everybody who sponsors soccer, men's or women, and they can um they can reverse the vote if they don't want it.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I am in favor of it because I think it's just uh more of like the international calendar, to be honest with you.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm not saying that we're all in it to develop pros, but it is going to help that portion of the American player for sure, and all the internationals that are coming over to be in a more year-round professional environment.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: The biggest knock that I hear is that they're worried about it becoming a more southern state because you know Columbus in in February.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's beautiful.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Just like Michigan.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um yes, and I mean there will be some challenges, especially the first couple years in terms of facilities and uh the rhythm of the schedule and all that.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, when you when you look at it, right now we don't get our team for a full year.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we have them in the fall, and then our seniors leave, and then we play a spring, usually with a lot less numbers, and then we get an influx of freshman or transfers, and then we do that cycle again.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: So to have our our full team for a full year to develop, to train, is just it gets me excited when I think about it.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, then not only that, is when you have that compressed schedule adjusting to fall, like we took a couple injuries this year, uh, this season.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, a four to six week hamstring, now you miss probably eight games.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_02: And then by the time you get your rhythm back, it could be 10, could be 12.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: The season, we play 16 regular season games.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: So you miss pretty much the whole season.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: And then if you're a senior man, you probably try to rush that back to cut maybe two or three games off.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: So then you're you're you're really not rehabbing it the way you should.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you know, with the full year calendar, if it's four to six weeks, you're gonna miss four or five games, but you're gonna have you know another 15 games, whether the end of the fall or the spring, to play.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: So you can properly heal your your body and and play.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: So I mean, there's so many benefits from that standpoint alone that it makes a lot of sense.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's part of the benefit of the five and five rule, too, is that there's no more red shirts.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: So let's say a kid has a knock and that's gonna knock him out of like 10 games.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, you don't the whole season's not washed right because you could come back later on in the season or for now in the spring and and and play.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I I think there's a lot of positives in the five and five, and everybody's, you know.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: Were you uh impacted by the 2022s rule where you had a player that played a couple games and now they're got a game?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: They didn't play a game.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: We we brought one of our our English guys.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: So we had an English guy that um finished up in in uh in January, and he didn't finish his degree, but he went on a couple trials, didn't work out, and then he went back home, but he was he he exhausted eligibility.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: Well, when uh five for five came back, our administration said, Yeah, he's eligible, and he hasn't finished school, so it made a lot of sense.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: Bring him back, let him finish his education, and he can play one more year.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: He got here three days later, though the rule was reversed, and so he's been here training with us.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: He's on our roster, he's just not eligible to play.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: Man, I mean it's craziness.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's been wild.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and it's hard to follow along.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, there's some other, you know, men's D1 coaches that I've talked to that they don't know necessarily always what's going on, and it's like fluid.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like there, I always feel like there should be like a soccer commissioner, yeah like a division one soccer commissioner, a women's soccer commissioner, because it's not the same sport, yeah, you know, but yeah.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's not a bad idea.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's just there, there's just so much going on between NIL five for five, and then now we throw the full season model.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um there's just there's just a ton going on um in terms of just when you talk about play.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: I feel bad for the 2027s and 2028s because man, we we're talking to our seniors right now of who you know, we have a couple guys that want to come back.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: Do you want to come back?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: Do you not want to come back?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: And then with the roster limits, you gotta, if you want your seniors to come back, you gotta hold those.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, how long do you hold them?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: All that kind of stuff.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, we have a couple guys that are mid-years for in 2027, that means they graduate in December.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_02: But if it's a full year, that changes that whole cycle.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: So then we gotta, we gotta plan, you know, anywhere from from resources.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_02: If you had a kid graduate in in in December of 2027, you know, they're on they're only on your books for one semester.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: If it goes two years, you gotta find that that money to pay for the full year.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: Does that make sense?
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I didn't even think about that.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so there's the kids that graduate.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you got a lot, you know, right now we usually have two to three mid-year guys.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_02: So, and they're on our books for graduating mid-year, and so then we got to redo our whole calculations and all that.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: What about I know this is prevalent on the girl side.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: On the boy side, does anybody really graduate high school early to get it to school earlier and to get in the program?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, do they?
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, some some come early.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um we'll have two seniors that'll come early in in January.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I wouldn't say it's as popular, but but it it does happen, yeah.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: So what's that gonna do?
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you win this the full year.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: I I think they there won't be a tra you can't play.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: I don't quote me on it, but I think the rule is you can't play for two schools in the same season.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: But I think high school kids might be able to join you mid-year.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: I think those are some of the things that you you gotta you gotta iron out.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then what about the transfer portal?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: What are they gonna do?
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: Just move it to one window in May, yeah.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: In May.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, which is do you think that that should are uh that's how it already should be in in May?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, if it it it it may be one in in November.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um I mean, but then there's talks of the you know, some of the legislation that's there's only gonna be a one-time transfer, and it's it you're not gonna be able to go school to school, school, but none of that's passed, so who knows what that's gonna look like.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, you gotta live, you gotta live day to day.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: So, like when you were an assistant at IU, what years were those?
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh 10.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: I got there in 2010 and left, but 2017 was the last year.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: And think about like that climate, and now it's I mean, first of all, the you recruited heavily out of the DA.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: The DA doesn't mean it exist anymore.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's a different world, right?
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's a completely different world, but the transfer portal, the NIL, I I mean now five for five could be a year-round model.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's there's so many different things going on now that it is it's it's it's a totally different world.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: Don't think about when you played.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: Totally different world.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's not even yeah, that there's I mean it's not even close.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the my favorite things about this podcast is that I'm traveling the country really and getting to talk to all kinds of uh people with different backgrounds.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: But what the underlying thing is how far we've come in just 10 years, yeah, let alone 20 and 30.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: You're talking about soccer in general.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it's I mean, when you look at the league, I I obviously it started in 1996.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: That was my first year to see where the league's come since 96.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: I retired in 05, and to see how far it came in those years, let alone now, it's like it's it's fantastic.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, from the the stadiums to the training facilities, and we were blessed here in Columbus to build the first Docker specific stadium and one of the first uh training facilities in in OBET.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but when you go back to Obet to look at it now compared to you know what what they have right now, it's the All Saul Lake has or something, yeah.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, even I mean the crews renovated there, and it's incredible.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's just it's so much fun to see.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it is uh, you know, sometimes you you get a little jealous and you're like, man, I wish we had that.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: But at the same time, some of the memories of of 96, 97, 98, and those early years are just they're priceless.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: How I talked to Alecko uh about this.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like how important were those early years to make sure that like it of the MLS that it was stable, yeah, that it was going to last, or trying to build something that was that could last.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it was essential.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you had to obviously if it didn't last, it would be done.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_02: So um, but at the same time, we you know, some of the guys didn't know better.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we didn't know collective bargaining, we we just we just played because we we we love to play and uh we're actually getting paid to play, and we're like, of course we'll do we'll do that.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um so it was it was just different times.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_02: So you don't I mean, is was our love for the game different than now?
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: No, of course not.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but we just we didn't we didn't know any better.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: We're you know to play soccer in our home country and get paid for it was yeah, sign me up.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm in.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: How far do you think the like the American player let's just say college age?
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: Let's say 18 to let's call it 23.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: How how much further along do you think they are, maybe versus your like upbringing?
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: I feel that we're not as technical as you guys were, but I feel like maybe soccer IQ has improved.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's some other people's opinions as well.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, I I would say that was actually Darlington.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: The level, the amount of good soccer players that are there right now are I mean tenfold.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, when I go to a recruiting event and I'm watching, I was like, I'll I'll take any of these guys.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like they're all really good soccer players.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: I do think the elite soccer players back then, your Claudia Rayners, your Tab Ramos, they're they're right in the mix like right now.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_02: They would be good at in any any era.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: Era.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: So I think your elite back in in the day um would be would be just as good.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I think there's so many like good, really good soccer players now compared to you know, you know, 20, 25 years ago.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: And that just shows the growth of the game.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_02: And that's how it should be.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, the league's really grown.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, the expectations of our national team have have grown.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, just the expectations of soccer in this country have grown.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, when you think about our league started in 96 and now we're 2026, I mean, we're only, what, 30 years?
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, some of these leagues and you know, the the the history of the sport goes, you know, really deep for 100, 150 years.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we're we're fairly new.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we still have some coaches that never played before.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: Where in other countries that doesn't happen, that doesn't happen.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I mean, once we get the the dads that have played, you know, at a high level, and now they're they're at a young age they get chosen to coach their sons, they they know what they know what they're talking about.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like we know the game.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: It's not like my dad had never touched a soccer ball.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: So I mean, if I would have said, Dad, can you you want to go out and kick a ball with me, he would have been lost, had no idea.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: Now it's easy to grab a dad and say, let's go, let's go knock the ball around because the dad probably played at at some level.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I think when you know when the when the roots keep it's gonna keep it's gonna keep growing.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um I mean it's it's it's it's fairly young in this country.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I'm I'm excited for the future, yeah.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: Do you I've always believed that all the best players that I've ever worked with, whether as boys or girls, they usually had two things in common.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: Either their parents played or they were the very youngest of the three siblings or whatever that where they had older siblings that played.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: Do you use that in your recruiting?
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it's funny.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um do we?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: We probably do a little accidental ask.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, I mean, you you do your digging and and you get to know the recruit.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's that's our jobs.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so and and those are, I mean, those sometimes that criteria is spot on.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, like a coach's son, usually his IQ might be a little better than the other.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: Christian Polisic.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was like a perfect storm, right?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: Or, you know, what did your dad and ma?
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, if both mom and dad played, your your genes are probably pretty good.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, if you're the youngest of of two brothers, you probably got beat up.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_02: You learned how to succeed, and you learned how to, you know, to get things done.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so yeah, all that criteria.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: Is it a is it a full-fledged stamp?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: No, but um, I mean, to ask those questions, I mean, that's part, that's part of our job.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, one a couple names that we missed when we were talking about Michigan players that were more recent, but maybe they didn't have the illustrious like MOS career.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: It was like Simone Omekanda, who had two older brothers that kill uh killed him.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: Nate Norman, Nate, and Luke Norman.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, that's those that's two others that were you know, brothers that just you know beat the heck out of each other.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you bring them all out there, you got it, you got it, you got an opponent right there that's gonna teach you, if nothing else, how to fight and and scrap and and compete.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: How did you develop?
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: Without having a parent that played, yeah.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: How did you develop?
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, I was I was an interesting one just because um my mom and dad didn't play.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh they were fairly athletic.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: My my dad was coordinated, my mom probably had the athleticism.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but my neighbors across the street were maybe eight, eight years older, you know, anywhere seven to ten years older, and they were really good athletes.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: They played basketball, they played soccer, and I wanted to be like them.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: So I I always mimicked them.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then my sister and I got involved in the soccer, and my sister was a really good athlete.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and she was a better, she's three and a half years older than me, and she was always better than I was.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_02: But we so she was kind of my older brother, and we would compete.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: It the problem was she was always too nice.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_02: And when it when it got heated, you know, it was um she would just let me win because I would whine and cry.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: So she'd be like, I don't really care, just go ahead.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: And then I I would yell to my mom, Lynn's let me win again.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: And my mom would yell down, if you're gonna play with your brother, you can't let him win.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: So my poor sister was caught in like she's got this whiny little kid that she's just trying to get out of the game because she's had enough of me.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_02: But if if she beats me, I cry.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_02: If she quits, I cry.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so she was in she was in a tough spot.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I give her a ton of credit for helping me.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I I had to beat my older sister for sure.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, and then we had a bunch of people in the neighborhood that played, um, and then I played for the Carpathia Kickers at a yellow.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then I had a couple of things.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think you know Gentile, probably.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: Uh well, I played with Gentilio Vardar.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the kickers though was kind of in the Warren that their their um clubhouse was right on Van Dyke.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, oh yeah, yeah.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the and then um, well that's I think the new one, the one that's has the fields out back.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: There was one on Nine Mile in Van Dyke.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_02: I think it was Van Dyke.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then we would we would train at Warren High School.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and there was a coach named Huey Allen.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: He he passed away a while ago.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: He was a Scottish guy, and he really took me under his wing like at U8.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: And he would actually take me and a teammate to go watch Scotland play in Toronto.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and he really showed the love for for the game.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um and he was he was a huge influence on me from like eight to like 12, 13.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: And then I I moved on from there.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but he was he he was a huge influence at a young age.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: To Vardar.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I didn't actually go to Vardar till what was it, U 16s, U17s?
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_02: I I played it with a couple local when I went to high school, my freshman year high school, I played with uh kind of a local team.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: I can't even think of the name of them, but they were mostly my high school friends.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: And then I think it was when I was a junior is when I I said, okay, I gotta I gotta head over to Vardar.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then did that help you with your recruiting or like Vardar for sure?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: Or was it more of the ODP system?
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_02: It was ODP for sure.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_02: So with me, uh it was high school, ODP and Vardar, but ODP was a big one.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_02: So um when I was U 13s, I made the regional team.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_02: Remember the OD?
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I played with Mike Clark, I played with Joel Russell, yep, I played with Todd Yeagley.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and he was at Indiana, he was Indiana, obviously.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, because his dad.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: And then I was a late bloomer, so I didn't grow for three years.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: So I I didn't make the regional team 14, 15, 16, and then I think U 16 or U17, I was back in a regional team.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and Poppy Yeaged, um Jerry Yagley, yeah, um, always says Todd was the one that recruited me because him and I played in a regional team together.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_02: Best friends.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_02: And he just said that um, you know, that my my freshman year at IU, I think we had 18 fresh incoming freshmen.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: It was like a they graduated in the rebuilding year or okay.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_02: It was technically a rebuilding year.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_02: We went to the because they didn't want the national title.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_02: In 90, they did not.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: They won in 88.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_02: But 90 was like European summon summer's year.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_02: Chad Deering, I think, left in 90, and they had a bunch of guys leave um to go pro and and just graduate.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_02: So brought in a really big class.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_02: And Todd, myself, uh Brandon Ward from Ohio, sorry, um, Mike Clark, uh, we were all kind of on the same regional team.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_02: So I think Todd being on a regional team was like, I think he's pretty good.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: I he kind of brought along his teammates to IU.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so it worked out, it worked out great.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I give, you know, the the Yeagley family, um, I I never made a national team until I went to to IU.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: And it wasn't until my junior year I made I got called into the national B team first, and that was the first national team I've ever played on.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: And just the development from I was like I said, I was a late developer.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_02: I was 5'1 in ninth grade, 5'1, I think 105 pounds.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: And then when I graduated high school, I was like 5'10, 160 pounds, and then I I still grew another inch, inch and a half in college.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I I was uh I was a later developer, but um the development in college was is something that I always say just so important for the for this age players, because there are some there are you you can still develop in college, put it that way.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: Were you on the 94 roster?
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: You weren't.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_02: I was not.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: I was uh Were you part of that '93 uh training camp though?
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: I was in California.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_02: You were not part of the you were still in school.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_02: I was still in school in '93.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_02: 94 is my senior year.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um 95 was uh when it well, I was with the U-23, so getting ready for the 96 Olympics.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then so I I left school in in January 95, and then the 96 Olympics, we kind of did a residency program, and yeah, I tore my ACL in that time and kind of trained getting ready for the for the Olympics.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: And then and then '98, obviously.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: And then yeah, 96 was the Olympic year, uh, but also started MLS, so we kind of did both.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_02: And then once the Olympics were done after the summer, we jumped in with our club team.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: Do you miss that old pathway at all?
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: In terms of yeah, is that all right?
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: You want me to turn it on?
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: It does it to me all the time.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's a motion sensor.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, it might work if you don't move.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, there you go.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, do you miss that old pathway of like ODP just coming up through that and being identified through that?
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: Or do you l like love what's going on now, especially with like, you know, the MLS Academies and everything and the more professionalization of youth soccer?
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I I think I'm gonna walk the fence on this one.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think there's benefits to both.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I think the old pathway, um maybe it was easier because you knew you know that the guys were kind of coming through that state team, the regional team and all that.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I do think there is some value, you know, when I played club soccer, you know, Vardar played um the Blazers, played the Wolves, played, you know, in state, you had, you know, eight to ten really good teams all over the state.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_02: Now, some were better than others.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_02: Of course.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but you win your State Cup and then you go to regionals and you play them.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I do I do think sometimes the travel on young kids, it it's just it's a lot.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but the professionalism of it all is is incredible.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's so many good academies and um the amount of like sports science that goes into the academies, the amount of professionalism of training.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, back in the day with with club, I mean the the fields were just okay.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: Now you're playing on really nice surfaces, and you got you know your sessions are really properly planned out, and then you have the individual training uh platforms and programs and all that.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_02: So um I think that's incredible, don't get me wrong.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I I do sometimes there is a lot of travel, and you know, I've had discussions with people like if you're traveling three hours of training and back, is it better to spend those three hours training instead of sitting in a car?
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I mean you you can talk about that, and um, but I mean, man, there's so many, there's so many good club teams and and so many good coaches and and programs.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's um it's fun to see.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, think about how far coaching has come as well.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I was sat in on OP's like technical meeting yesterday.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: Gus ran it from from previously with the crew, and um Eric previously with the crew ran it, and I'm like, this is way different than my B license.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's like I learned uh sometimes I feel like I learned more yesterday than I did in my and then I did in my B.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm just thinking, I'm like, and then I watched the crew game last night, and I looked at the game differently because of what Gus was teaching in the meeting, and I'm like, and I texted them, I'm like, I hate you because like you make the look at the game differently.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: But it's obviously a good thing.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because it's just education, and it's what's the game that was, yeah, right?
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_01: 3-1.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean what did they have?
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_02: 40 shots?
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, 80 shots.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they were they were feeling it.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_01: Do you miss or did you ever were you ever inclined to go at that level as a coach?
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um I I had a couple chances.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_02: I I you know, I really like I really like the the the coaching side of it.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: And not that you don't coach in the in the pros, um, but you you manage a lot too.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, the the guys are really, really good.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um would that be fun to be in that kind of arena?
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, especially the professionalism and all that.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, man, when I go watch the crew train, it's just like I mean, again, the sports science, uh, the trainers, that this field setup, the you know, you you're doing a water break and you got a couple clips that coach wants to show you because you're working on your your your pressing structure and um they have the next game of and they're just clicking it on there, and as you're getting water, you're saying, okay, uh, New York does this, this, okay, let's let's go do it.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, just it's it's incredible.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so yes, but I do like the coaching.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_02: I even like camps during the summer when you know we have our day camps and you're out there and you're you're working with the eight, nine-year-old kids and you're teaching them how to trap a ball.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_02: I there's I really, really still enjoy that part of it.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um now, don't get me wrong, there are some times I'm like, man, that would be a lot of fun to be part of.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um when you're teach when you're telling a kid over and over like you got to do it this angle, and they're still not getting it.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_02: And and tactically at the pro level, you can just change some things and stuff like that.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_02: But there's a lot of things you can do in college.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_02: I think college is a really good mix.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_02: You can still coach a lot and teach a lot, uh, but tactically you can still adjust and and make some some changes and and and the the players get it.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_02: So um and I love college because you can have conversations, adult conversations, and you can still influence their lives.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, you take soccer aside, and it's it's still a lot of fun just to to build those relationships, and it's still development.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's all you're always developing, even if you're a 30-year-old pro, you're still developing.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_01: But this is almost like those years where it's uh it's almost, it seems like 17 and under.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: We can compete with some of the best academies in the world.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_01: Some of our MLS academies or even ECNL academies can compete.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then obviously at the world stage, we're 16th.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: What were we ranked in 98?
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_02: Going into the World Cup, I think we were 14, maybe 12.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, we were we were pretty high, and we were in that group of death with Germany.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yugoslavia was there at the time.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_02: Germany, I think, was three, Yugoslavia was eight or nine, we were 12-ish, maybe 14, and then Iran was the outlier.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: They were like 30 something.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think there's something like what do you think about like 17-year-olds going pro and not going to college?
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh do you feel like the going a full year is going to fill that 17 to 23 gap where some people think that we're missing something in this these ages?
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um what do I think about 17s going pro?
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_02: I I I think everybody's pathway is a little bit different.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I take me me for instance, at 17, I wasn't ready at all.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, like I said, college, I developed in those first two years of college.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like, actually, from my kind of junior, senior, freshman, sophomore year in college, end of high school, I developed a ton.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_02: Part of it was just my physical and my maturity.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I needed that.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_02: If I if you would have said go to this pro academy at 17, I probably would have been out a year later and my career would have been over.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I needed, I needed college.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_02: But by the time I was 20, 21, I was ready to compete.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_02: And and that's where sometimes when people are like 21, 22, you're too old, I'm like, man, if you can still help an MLS team at from 22 to 30, eight years, I'm sure if the crew said, okay, this kid's gonna come in and either be a good rotation player or a starter, they they would take him for those eight years.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I I don't I disagree when people say, well, he's too old because he's 23, 24.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_02: If he can still have a six to eight year good career because he needed those years to develop, yeah, then you know, whether he's 18 and he and he burns out at 26 or he's 24 and burns out at 30, I mean, everybody develops a little bit differently.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: So going back to your question, 17's going pro, nothing wrong with it.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_02: If if that's for you, um, if that's your path, because everybody's pathway is different.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: If you need college just to develop, mature, and grow, then maybe you you come to college for four or five years and then you become pro at 21, 22.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but you do have to have the right uh structure to develop those guys, I think is what you're saying.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_01: Do you another recruiting question?
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want to recruit guys that want to go on and be pros?
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I would say yes, and I would say 95% of the young kids, if you say do you want to be a pro, they say yes.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: Now, do their actions follow that they want to be a pro?
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_02: Do they know what it takes to be a pro?
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that's that's a different question.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_02: But when they come in and I'm recruiting them, you know, what are your goals?
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, do you want to play soccer as long as you can?
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_02: I would say 99% of them say yeah, of course, coach.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_02: And and I don't blame them.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_02: They they should.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_02: But when it comes down to it, you know it is a daily ground.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_02: Are you putting an extra in?
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, do your actions justify what you're saying?
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes that's a little different.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_02: But sometimes kids just don't understand.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: Is that because we're so a lot of the country is removed from the pro the pro game?
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_01: They're not around it.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_01: They don't have the think about in Michigan, we don't have an MLS team to draw on the experience of like this is the day in and day out of a pro.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_01: And we're so far removed.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and then also, I mean, it's it probably happens in every sport, basketball.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, every basketball player that goes to college probably says, Yeah, I want to go to the NBA.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_02: But they're it's just yeah, I mean, you what is it, 1%, half a percent of Division I college athletes play professionally.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's it's such a small portion that I mean you're talking the best of the best of the best of the best, and then also you got to have some breaks and you can't get injured, and you can't.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you can get injured, but you know what I'm saying.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_02: Right is you might be out a year, and then what is what is your rehab look like?
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, if you tear your say, oh, you got six months, yeah, you can be back and you can be back 110%, but you got to put in an unbelievable amount of work and you're not you're not even touching the soccer ball.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I mean, it just it there's there's so much that has to happen for you to be a pro.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody wants it, I think.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_02: But again, do your actions justify you know how much how much you want it?
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_01: Was there like a wake-up call when you got to Indiana as a player?
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um of like, whoa, this is different than Vardar.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_02: I mean the first that first training session, it was like all these guys are really, really good.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I was pretty fortunate to play on a regional team where we had a good regional team.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_02: So I I knew what good was, but I I mean they were all they're all the I mean there's so many good college programs, and I mean I use still one of them, but I mean there were back in in '94.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_02: You could kind of pick the 10 top teams, and probably six out of those, four out of those ten are gonna make the final four.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_02: And you could probably usually be pretty right almost every year.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_02: Almost every year those same ten teams.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_02: And now kind of your point earlier.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's probably your top 50 programs every year could have a chance to win the national championship.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think that's better than do you think that parity is better than the dominance that it used to be?
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: From those five years.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's it just says how many, like I was saying, how many good soccer players there are nowadays.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_02: Like there's good soccer players to fill 50 of the top programs, and those 50 change every year too.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm just saying on a given year, if you look at your top 50 RPIs, any one of those teams could win the national championship.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_02: And every year, those tip top 50 RPI teams change.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's not the same 50 programs you're even looking at.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_02: So, I mean, it just says how many good soccer players across this country, how many good internationals want to come to this country to play, um, which which I from that from the soccer standpoint I think is good.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, as a coach.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: standpoint man it's a it's a long season because every game's a battle uh which is which is great yeah think about the the professionalism that you went from indie uh indiana to mls to college now do you think that like our college process now mirrors more of the college or the pro environment just just in the the sport science and how well these athletes are taken care of and everything I mean the food the sports science the facilities um the travel I mean you know you you have uh you know you have cafeterias just the the amount of food that's now can in the supplements and and you know the nutrition the the the sports psychologist the um the um the recovery you know from your cold tubs to float tanks to uh what is it cryo chamber that yeah um your Normatex I mean every school has them and it's just to recover and and and play at the best you can so yeah I would say yes it's um the the college professionalism has definitely grown as well and they're I mean depending on the sport they are already treated as professional athletes well yeah I mean with a name image like this I mean they're getting paid to play yeah sports so I mean that's the definition of a pro.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah um but I mean that's that's a different have you ever lost a recruit because of NIL uh yes I mean it it is it is part of it's just part of it yeah it's part of it and everybody has a different amount resources are different nowadays so right it it is what it is there is a there was a a transfer portal a transfer portal like combine up in Ontario like last year last um winter and one of the Niagara University uh coaches texted me and he goes Clemson's up here for one player and they offer them sixty thousand dollars on top of scholarship and it's like that's 2025 2026 that's how it is now yeah I mean do you feel that you have to constantly re-recruit your players that have been here because of the transfer portal or or do you you try to build a culture where like they don't want to leave I mean where are they gonna go of course you try to build that that that culture I I think every school would say the same thing.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean NIL and stuff like that it it's it is a it is a different world and and you can't blame um at least I can't blame some kids.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_02: I mean if you're if you're offered you know 60 grand on top of everything or you know some of these football players they're offered you know an extra the quarterback from Michigan is like$10 million.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean even from one school to the next if another school comes in and says I'll give you an extra million dollars um to to play for us and the kid might say I love this school I love this program I love the culture but for an extra million dollars when he might not be guaranteed to be a pro uh I mean most people would change their job even though they love the company if another company came in and said I'll give you an extra million dollars they would probably say man I love this company I'm working for you but you're you're you're tripling my salary you're doubling my salary um unfortunately I I I gotta at least think about it um especially if your your windows only so big and and um you know you you you know it's some of the some of that money changes changes your life I mean if you invest right yeah yeah and I mean it's just wild to me.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_02: How I don't want to get into like budget or anything like that, but like how vast can your recruiting be in terms of in terms of how many events you can guys can go to how many if OP is playing somebody do you go out and watch like yeah what is that what does that look like I mean you yeah some of it's budget I mean you still have your your seven evaluations and I mean you still have your NCA rules of how many times you can see the same right player over and over during a year.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_02: And there's so many events you really do have to pick and choose what events you go to how you see certain players um do you go to events just because of the event do you go to events because of certain teams that are going there do you go to events because certain players are going there and and you do have to pick and choose because there's just so many of them and you just don't have time to go to them all.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly so um and then obviously budgets as well I mean um you know it's not cheap for us to fly out to the West Coast to you know go to certain um events out there but if it's the right event and the right teams and right players are there we we gotta be there.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_01: How so MLS next there's FEST which is basically a showcase and then there's flex where it's actually like some competitive meaningful games these games mean something I've been told that a lot of college coaches would rather go to Flex than FES because there's skin in the game and there's and there's something behind those games do you uh do you see it that way as well yeah I'm gonna walk the fence on this one too of course um I I do like when there's some skin in the game I mean you you learn a lot um you learn a lot about them sometimes how do you handle competition not even from a technical tactical side just more of a personality you know what does it look like when the chips are down when when the game's on the line a ref makes a bad call or your teammate makes a huge mistake are you the kind of guy that gets on them or do you walk over there pat him on the back say listen I got your back um yeah I I learn probably as much from that from a recruiting standpoint.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_02: I say it a lot you know I'll I'll get to recruiting events early just to see how a kid warms up how he treats um their teammates and I actually like going when the ref's really bad um just to see how he reacts how does he handle bad calls uh does he lose his marbles um can he keep his composure and then you throw a little skin in the game and it just amps up everything so then you you kind of you kind of see his true colors and and from um a culture standpoint and and building a team standpoint program standpoint that that's huge yeah I it's it can't be easy because when what's the earliest that you identify some players like what's the youngest player that you've in your what eight years now here how how what what is the earliest that you said I'm gonna go after this kid is it 15 is it 16 is it 18 like uh I mean 14 15 you can't technically go after right but then you can identify them so we've had a couple kids that come to camp at and they've been 15 I was like we got to keep an eye on this kid um but I mean truthfully you're not tracking him the whole time but you know the name so when you see him at an event you're like oh maybe I'll go watch him you can't talk to him and you can't contact him but you you can watch him and and you know there's been some 15 year olds I was like I think that kid's gonna make it and sure enough whether he's not with us you just see him in at with another college program and you're like there he is I knew he was gonna pop up so you can you can uh just like some kids you know I'll see in the in the summertime going in their senior year and then they'll and I'll be like okay he's okay and then I'll see him December that same year five six months later I'm like whoa talk about turning some corners so I never write off a kid I I say it a lot like I'll never write off a kid because you just never know when they're gonna turn the corner or that light switch is going to flick sometimes it's it's a physical thing that they turn the corner and gain a step or gain 10-15% and you're like whoa he's much faster or sometimes it's tactically where this kid was just running into traffic or head down and you know missed so many passes and then the next thing you know he's playing one touch two touch and he's pulling the strings and you're like who got their hands on this kid or did it the light just sway you know the or a late developer.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_02: Or a late developer.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah I just uh spent some time with Lewis Robinson he is the executive director of Midwest United uh and he's the head coach of Western Michigan's uh women's program okay he was talking about how and he wants this and everybody that he talks to in Michigan on the women's side they want this they want to move the date from June 15th of sophomore summer going into junior year to not even January but May they're talking about May 15th on the women's going into your senior year or we want going in your junior year May May 15th that they're gonna push it then and here's the thought process because I'm not gonna name names but somebody was like we can't have students come and visit us in Michigan on February 15th.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_01: We'll never get a recruit because next week they're going to UCLA they're going to USC they're going somewhere else on the women's side and we'll never get a recruit.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_01: So let's push it to May 15th and then kids can visit on June 15th.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_01: May 15th you're going into your junior going no May 15th at the end of your junior year going into your senior year.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_02: So a full year later for almost a full year later okay any thought on that um I mean I don't know from the women's standpoint I uh for and I know I mean this is just a general I mean girls usually develop a little bit sooner than than boys.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yep um so like a if we watched the uh a a male uh a boy in in sophomore year he could look totally different his senior year exactly totally different yeah he's a man now he's a man yes um so I do think the later I would be beneficial like it yeah um my process I I don't think I took any of my visits to my senior year and even in in the fall I think I took one and then everything else was after my high school season into January February and then I I chose a school I think in February March of my senior year.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah so and so the whole recruiting process was so much later then um than it is than it is now but um I I do think the the later the better um I do like the the the planning of knowing um like you kind of know what you need and you get right half your class and you do save a couple for those late developers but at least you have the majority of your class if you have you know last year this year we had 13 new faces if I had to do third get 13 players from March to to um but there were really no mid-years and stuff like that.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_02: That that kind of goes you know if you're gonna get a mid-year kid that that would change a little bit too so there's a lot of things to think about but um I do think sometimes uh we're recruiting a little bit too early right now.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_02: I agree and I always tell like my players' parents the later you commit the more likely you're gonna find the right fit like you the earlier you commit you could be in the transfer portal once once or twice maybe but uh okay I had a DM from a parent her son is going into freshman year of high school do I need to do I need to email coaches and I go no you don't because they can't talk to you they can't see you they can't maybe for name recognition but it's it's a 14 or 15 year old kid you probably already know the name what are your thoughts on that I mean freshman I mean if they want to come to camp and just experience the the culture get to know the coach how he coaches all that kind of stuff see the school go see the school uh maybe get your name on the radar there are some freshmen that have come to camp that like I said I'm like whoa he he's we gotta keep an eye on him but um freshman year is is early but if you want to go see what kind of the process looks like I mean camps are are are a good way uh but you're absolutely right I mean if you email a coach he can't get back to you anyhow right so I mean he can just send you that the rule basically that we can't talk to you until June 15th but can give you camp information so is it necessary to reach out your your freshman year probably probably not it's a little early yeah but at the same time it doesn't hurt I mean we put them in the you put them in a file so you have it so we have his information um if they send a schedule and man I'm at MLS Fest and and nobody else is playing and and I have maybe I'll go watch oh I got I'm not have no other games so I might as well go watch a a younger game and then sometimes the name recognition like you said might pop up but um I don't think you urgently need to to start the process at at freshman year.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_01: Good I I I just wanted I I just wanted to know because I could give a more educated answer probably and that's fine.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know but uh have you how many in your tenure even at IU how many players would you guys find at your camps that ended up playing at that school uh right now we are probably 30% maybe 40% have come through our camps um and sometimes it's we we knew of them and we invited them.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh sometimes we recognized them or identified them at camp.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_02: So quite a few I mean we got like I told you we got quite a few Ohio kids.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_02: So usually most of those high ohio kids if they've interested in Ohio State they will make it to one of our camps.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_02: Is that like an elite camp that's like invite only or is it you have winter ID camps um and then we have a high school camp so some of them will come through there.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then we have like a a summer a bigger like elite camp.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_01: Got it how often do you most schools have that how often do you get back home into Michigan?
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_02: Not as much as I would like so my sister's still up there.
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah um my my cousins are still up there um my other cousins so my wife and I are both from Michigan so she she's from Warren as well.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um so we grew up like three miles away from each other.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_02: Okay so her family's still up there my family's still up there so we try to get up there as much as we can we just don't get up there as as much as we'd like we went to Port Austin this summer for I I go to Port Austin every 4th of July.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_02: Oh do you really yeah I think it was the 4th of July you were up at Fort Austin I no I'm sorry it wasn't the 4th of July I also go up Labor Day.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_02: It was it was uh my cousin's wedding was um 18th I think it was July 18th one of my one of my best friends has a lake house up there right on the water and we love playing right downtown there yeah yeah we could ride our bikes and into downtown oh what a great little downtown I love it it's great we stayed um there's a big wedding venue there uh uh like right downtown it's the far the big like uh it's like a barn yes it looks like a barn yeah yeah yeah and then they have a bunch of uh houses you can rent as part of the wedding yeah so we were there for the weekend that's phenomenal yeah that was fun we had a blast yeah uh we rented jet skis one day um and just cruised around kayak that the people are great yeah um the farmer's markets the farmer's markets it's great it started raining on us but we went down there for uh I forgot it was the wedding day and the bride uh my cousin Nicole wanted uh I can't think what they were some kind of pies and so I bought whatever 10 of them for her and a wedding party but it was great yeah we loved it yeah who do you talk to in the soccer world the uh from Michigan still obviously Damon yeah Damon shock I mean all the big ten coaches of course um coach mukhtar my high school coach Mukhtar yeah yeah yeah I uh we probably chat once a month he's he's a great guy he's I mean you talk about uh a huge influence on my life he was um from a soccer standpoint a life standpoint he is uh he's one of the best of the best so uh one of my favorite humans so I talked to him quite a bit and um man I I talked to a lot of my uh some of the some of the old club coaches um some of my teammates yeah I I keep in contact as much as I can and with the Michigan group yeah I mean some great memories uh I just we talked about gentili I just saw Mike Gentili up in Wisconsin um Jeff Cassar came down here last year he's up in Texas he came for the Texas Ohio State football game okay so it's great to see him um so yeah keep in contact with uh with some of those guys how many how many uh football games do you like your players get to experience not really yeah there's a student athlete appreciation football game that most of the student athletes went to um but I mean it's tough it's tough because you guys usually play on Sunday we usually play on Friday or Sunday or train on Saturday or and usually we train if we train on Saturday in a home football game we usually train during the football game because that's the quietest everything's the easiest to get to the stadium in and out I mean for us right here all these lots are all R V lots during football game and the football stadium's that's almost a mile but it's packed here.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_02: I mean the stadium holds 105 and probably outside of the football stadium is 200 000 people I mean it's it gets crowded.
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's the first time I've been on campus.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_01: Okay and um I'm way I'm more blown away by that stadium than even the big house.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah it's a it's a cool stadium right there on the river and uh it's really neat.
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean do you ever get like why are you why are you at Ohio State?
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_02: From the Michigan I've actually lived in so I moved to Columbus in 96.
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_02: That's true.
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_02: So from 96 to 26 I mean I've almost lived in Ohio longer I lived in Michigan.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_02: You have lived here longer than Michigan yeah because I left I left when I was 18 to go to IU and and I just I I mean I would go back I think I went back two summers back home but then once once I hit 20 most of my summers I was still in Bloomington or traveling with the with the youth net or the it was it was called the B team back then.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I I went home not not much after my my sophomore year of high school or college.
• 1:03:03
  SPEAKER_02: What's it like coaching against like Todd like your best like one of your best friends um you know it's it's bittersweet I obviously I want I want to win being a competitor but man I I cheer for Todd um all but one game.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_02: And we talk quite a bit um like I said the Yeagley family Todd for sure uh I've known him since we've been 12 so we go back and you know coaching together was it was you know some of the best memories and you know win the national championship in 2012 and you know we could kind of finish each other's sentences when we were coaching because we've been around each other for so long.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah a special friendship so it's tough when you're playing against each other um but it's also fun and and it's always a it's always a good game because obviously they play um you know they're it's they're fun to play against because you know you're gonna play soccer it's gonna be competitive they're very very good and um so it's always a it's a fun game to be a part of do you get to see or talk to Jerry a lot you know I haven't seen poppy eggs in a while um you know I'll shoot him a text before almost every season just thanking them and and um because he was a huge influence I mean it what you know how it is as a coach you you take you take a little bit from every coach you've been around and and steal different things and you know for me between coach Mock Tar with the Olympics was Bruce Arena um Steve Sampson with the World Cup uh Poppy Aggs in college I mean you talk Bruce could be the all-time best coach you know poppy eggs could be the all-time college coach uh coach mock could be the all-time high school coach in it in Michigan so I mean I was I've been I think about all the time how blessed I I've been to be around such you know and I had Bob Gansler with the 23s Timo Liakowski um you know just so many good coaches um Greg Andrulis with the with the crew and just I could just say so many different coaches that I've been blessed to be around and just take different pieces from I remember when I worked for you at the NTC yeah I was doing your goalkeeping and you brought in all the boys and you were like what is the most important play in soccer and the kids were like score a goal or the keeper was the save and you're like no the next one yeah and I have repeated that and I have told the story about me working for you for yeah I I don't know what is that 16 years now you were with the 17s right at that time and yeah and you were just filling in for somebody else that was supposed to be there and you were randomly in Michigan okay and then you contacted Mike and and then obviously I was right I was Mike's assistant at University of Detroit.
• 1:05:48
  SPEAKER_01: This is before I was coaching at Vardar uh and then later on he they lured me to to Vardar to go coach there before I went to Western New York Flash.
• 1:05:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah that's great.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_02: And speaking of that I mean The the the um the 17th was my first coaching, so I retired and then went down with hack.
• 1:06:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I I say it all the time.
• 1:06:07
  SPEAKER_02: You talk about being blessed to be around coaches.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, hack was one of my biggest influences as well.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_02: But Keith Falk, Raul Diaz Arte, Timmy Mulquine was down there, and so there were the five of us were down there, and I worked for U.S.
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_02: soccer for three and a half years, and then Thomas Rodningen, Dave Durr was with the 20s, and you know, to be around those guys, and everything went through the IMG Academy back then, even though because US Soccer, the residency program was there, right?
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_02: So everything went through there.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I always say that three and a half years of of coaching the national team down there was like 20 years of experience because the MLS for preseason went through there.
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_02: So when I was done training in the 17s, I would pop over and watch, you know, Bruce with DC United.
• 1:06:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because he'd be like, I'd be like, Can I come watch you train?
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_02: He'd be like, sure.
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_02: So then, you know, I'd watch them train, and then you know, Seattle would come through, watch them train.
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_02: So it was just like as much soccer as I wanted, just stealing different things.
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_02: And then a lot of the B courses were there, the A courses, so I could go watch the C there.
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody kind of went through there, and to be there with the 17s was like, like I said, I feel like those three years was like 20 years of experience because I just got to pick brains and watch sessions and talk soccer.
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_01: What was that?
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh 2010 to 13?
• 1:07:25
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, with the residency, I was 05 to 08.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that was young earlier.
• 1:07:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:07:31
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:07:31
  SPEAKER_02: So Josie Altador was like uh he was at 80, 89.
• 1:07:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, he was kind of on that first team.
• 1:07:38
  SPEAKER_02: Brex Shea was down there.
• 1:07:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 1:07:39
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Jared Jeffries was kind of the older um Kirk or so.
• 1:07:44
  SPEAKER_02: He was he was a crew uh crew guy.
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then with the 20s, uh, it was that 07 when we when the U-20 World Cup was in Canada.
• 1:07:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 1:07:55
  SPEAKER_02: And we lost in the quarterfinals to Austria, and that was like Freddie Adoo, Josie was on that team, Michael Bradley.
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um it was a good group.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_01: Danny Zatella.
• 1:08:04
  SPEAKER_01: Do you miss or does you like hack miss like having Bradenton exists anymore as a you know, uh a national team residency, or is it now we have MLS Academy?
• 1:08:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think so.
• 1:08:18
  SPEAKER_01: Now we have MLS Academies doing all that work.
• 1:08:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I think they um it was just the residency, there wasn't the need for guys that I mean they're getting great trainings with their with their academy.
• 1:08:29
  SPEAKER_02: So um I thought it was it was probably good timing to call it quits on the residency program, but I I think it served its purpose um while it was there for sure.
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_02: Do you talk to Hack lately?
• 1:08:40
  SPEAKER_02: I do.
• 1:08:40
  SPEAKER_02: I text them every now and then.
• 1:08:41
  SPEAKER_01: Have you played Navy at all?
• 1:08:42
  SPEAKER_02: No, I know we haven't.
• 1:08:44
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna try to?
• 1:08:45
  SPEAKER_02: We thought about it, yeah, yeah.
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:08:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um but like I said, anytime you play good friends, it is bittersweet.
• 1:08:51
  SPEAKER_02: I love it because you know it's gonna be a good game and a lot of fun to be a part of.
• 1:08:54
  SPEAKER_02: But it's tough.
• 1:08:55
  SPEAKER_02: You look across the sideline and you're you're kind of cheering for them, but we're playing against them.
• 1:09:00
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for doing this.
• 1:09:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm so glad.
• 1:09:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh this is great.
• 1:09:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and hopefully, I mean, good luck tomorrow.
• 1:09:06
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it.
• 1:09:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they're they're down here.
• 1:09:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they're on their bus right now.
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_02: Damon called me earlier, they're they're heading down.
• 1:09:12
  SPEAKER_02: Speaking of another great Michigan guy, I mean Damon's doing a great job at at Michigan State.
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_02: And absolutely uh talking about playing, you always love playing Damon.
• 1:09:21
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you cheer for him, but at the same time, you know it's gonna be a good competitive game, so it's it's always a lot of fun.
• 1:09:26
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 1:09:27
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much, yeah.
• 1:09:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no problem, appreciate you.
• 1:09:30
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 1:09:31
  SPEAKER_01: I hate soccer.