Breaking the Line: The ECNL Podcast
The Elite Clubs National League was founded in 2009 and continues to lead by daring to do things differently, embedded with grit, collaboration and tenacity – all things learned from the beautiful game. The ECNL protects and propels the integrity of the game and everyone it impacts by facilitating the perfect symmetry of excellence and humility, exclusivity and accessibility, freedom and community. We believe that challenging everyone to rise to their best creates game-changers that live well, long after cleats are unlaced. Born out of the belief in a better way. Continued in the ever-evolving pursuit of excellence.
Breaking the Line: The ECNL Podcast
Episode 90: Breaking the Line (feat: Paul McVeigh and Steve Danbusky)
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Episode 90 of Breaking the Line: The ECNL Podcast features Paul McVeigh a former international with Northern Ireland and Premier League player turned performance psychologist, and Steve Danbusky the Executive Director at Beach FC in Virginia. Breaking the Line Podcast host, Dean Linke, talks with McVeigh about his time as a professional player and how that's translated into how he works to improve the players in the game today, and Danbusky about his club philosophy and their time in the ECNL pathway.
Welcome to Breaking the Line the ECNL podcast, a bi-weekly look at all things related to the growing elite clubs nationally the ECNL. For more information on the ECNL, visit us at wwwtheecnlcom. Now here's your host for Breaking the Line the ECNL podcast, former US soccer press officer and longtime soccer broadcaster, dean Linke.
Speaker 2:Don't miss this week's edition of Breaking the.
Speaker 3:Line, the ECNL podcast, with two special guests from the ECNL Coaches Symposium at AGM in Las Vegas, including Paul McVeigh, an internationally acclaimed speaker and performance psychologist. I'll boil it down to three words Dream, believe, achieve. It's about understanding where you're going. That's that dream. How do you just have that? You know, blue sky, thinking, dream to fulfill every single desire you've ever had. But you really have to believe it. And as soon as that little switch was flicked was like cascading the waterfall, you know, just going over it and suddenly everything I ever wanted to achieve myself happened because of I had the ability to believe. And that's where the achievement comes from.
Speaker 2:And the executive director of Beach FC in Virginia Beach, steve Danboski.
Speaker 4:It really is just a luxury to be around so many good soccer people and it's a testament to what the ECNL reach is for them to be able to continue to grow this event year over year.
Speaker 2:That's right. Coming up on this week's show Paul McVeigh and Steve Danbuski. It all starts after this message from the ECNL.
Speaker 1:As the game continues to evolve. In the United States, the ECNL remains the standard of excellence in youth soccer. The elite club's National League has grown to include over 200 clubs and nearly 50,000 players across the country, with a robust competition platform for teams, educational resources for coaches and clubs, and unparalleled identification and development opportunities for players and unparalleled identification and development opportunities for players. Alongside its member clubs, collaborating to create a better future, the ECNL continues to raise the game every day. The ECNL is more than a league. Welcome back to Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast. Once again, here's Dean.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast, as we're talking to all of the incredible speakers as part of the 7th Annual ECNL Coaching Symposium at AGM in Las Vegas, the biggest ever 750 ECNL leaders, coaches you name it are part of it, and a big reason why is the speaker list this year is off the charts. That includes our next guest, paul McVay. Before we welcome in Paul, if he would oblige, I want to tell you a little bit about him. I've had him on the United Soccer Coaches podcast, so now to have him on Breaking the line, the ECNL podcast is a real honor.
Speaker 2:Paul is a performance psychologist and previously played professional soccer for nearly 20 years in the English Premier League. He has competed with and against some of the best players in the world, like Cristiano Ronaldo, thierry Henry, zlatan Ibrahimović, jürgen Klinsmann and the list goes on. These tacit lessons have elevated Paul's understanding of what it takes to be an elite performer on a global scale. Paul's credibility comes from the unique combination of reaching the pinnacle of elite sport. As well as being the first English Premier League player to qualify with a master's degree in psychology player to qualify with a master's degree in psychology, he is also an established broadcaster on TV and radio with the BBC, sky Sports, bt Sport, and a published author with Bloomsbury of the ironically entitled book.
Speaker 2:And this is what brought it home for me, because I remember the book the Stupid Footballer is Dead. That's right, the book is called the Stupid Footballer is Dead. Paul has recently worked with Rolls-Royce, pwc, grant Thornton, aviva, glaxosmithkline too many companies to name Microsoft. I mean just an incredible list. He's a great guy, carries himself in a wonderful way, and Paul McVeigh, a key speaker as part of the ECNL coaches symposium 2024 style in Las Vegas, joins me now on breaking the line. Paul, good to see you.
Speaker 3:Well, what an introduction. Who?
Speaker 3:is this guy? Do I know him? Is there someone else around here? Cause that definitely doesn't sound like me, but it's amazing and this probably joke. I wish you didn't come out with this joke on a podcast, but, uh, because it's uh probably not gonna work from a non-visual sense, but I actually look like a 14 year old child. If anyone can see me they'd be like why is this kid not in school? Um, but interesting, I'm into the 30th year of my career now, so it's just fascinating whenever you think I started in 1994 as a 16 yearyear-old kid, you know, coming across from Ireland to go and embark on my professional footballing career, and 30 years later you know everything you just read out. I'm sitting there listening, going oh, that's quite good. Oh, that seems fun. Sounds like that guy's had a lot of fun over the years, and that probably sums it all up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, amen, Amen. And I love that you remembered to bring in 1994. I was the press officer of the 94 US team and a pretty special year and the fact that you got rolling at 16 and have done all these things. And, Paul, I remember when I talked to you before like yeah, you're not the biggest guy, you do look like you're, you know, early 20s. It's incredible. You obviously take great shape of yourself, but I mean, how did you make it to that level for so long as you know kind of a wee man? You know what I mean. How'd you do?
Speaker 3:it and, to be honest, that's that's probably why I'm sitting here, because this is the, this is the, the essence of everything I talk about. It's just mindset and psychology. You know, and again, whenever you're trying to share this with younger players, and especially like there's so many smaller players who you know and might not even just be size, it can be strength as well, you know, they're just players who just don't feel like they can compete against other people who are bigger, stronger, more robust, you know, or even just have more skill, more talent than them, and and it's a long journey. It's really hard to try and be concise in this, but I do know there was definitely a pivotal moment and when I did come across the fact that you mentioned, you know, 94 was the year that I started my career. Obviously, the USA had just hosted the World Cup and it was because the guy who spurs, tottenham Hotspur, signed after the USA 94 World Cup was Jürgen Klinsmann, and so that was my first day. So you know, I've just come off stage and what a buzz, what a joy to speak in front of nearly 700 sporting directors and leaders of clubs all over the country there, and that was one of the first things.
Speaker 3:I shared that I got to play and train with jürgen klinsmann on my first day at tottenham hotspur because we just signed him. He's come across. The press were there, they all wanted photographs. The first team actually weren't back yet, so they had an extra couple of days and all the youth team most guys were in in training and we got to play and and the. The reason why I share that story is because everyone else in my team I could see the joy on their face. Like this guy's a superstar training with a World Cup winner. But in my head I was thinking, oh my God, how will I ever be a professional footballer if that's what it takes? I'm looking at this multimillionaire. He was a World Cup winner. He looked like a movie star and I'm just thinking there's no way I can ever ever get to his level. How did you do it? Well, I think that that was something that it was almost like a belief that I formed on that day by training with him and it carried with me. And part of the session that I just training with him and it carried with me. And and part of this, the session that I just shared with the, with all of the, the coaches in the room was to say that I didn't realize that I had this really limited belief that was holding me back. So not only was I the smallest player in the team you know I'm only five feet six now, so it's probably maybe five, four, five, five at the time I was always the smallest player. I was always told I was never going to be big enough to play in the top level.
Speaker 3:But about a year after I started in Tottenham Hotspur, a friend of a friend gave me a book. And it's quite ironic that I'm sitting here in Las Vegas in America because the guy's an American guy called Tony Robbins. So Anthony Robbins, he's obviously a huge personal development guru in America. The fact that he's a self-made billionaire now just shows how successful he has been. But I read the first book I'd ever read by Tony Robbins in 1995, called again. The title was very apt and apropos for me. It was Awaken the Giant Within and I thought that'll do me. I need a wee bit of that. So so I got the, I got the book and it was just a game changer.
Speaker 3:You know, you think you kind of my career must have been going down a certain path because I had this limited belief I didn't, you know, think it was capable of competing with these guys who were bigger and stronger and suddenly read this book and it was, like you, almost like blinkers on a horse. It's like someone took the blinkers off my entire world and, instead of going down this path, going down this road that was not going to go anywhere, it was like doing almost like a 180 and completely turn around, and this trajectory was towards being, you know, an English Premier player, the international player scoring in the Premier League. You know, it was just everything that I wanted to do was as a result of reading this book, and then I just realized it was about continuous improvement and constantly growing and learning with every single thing you do, and that's, that's a philosophy, that's not a, that's not a behavior, it's not an action, that's like a way of thinking and living. And so, no matter what our starting points were when we all joined the club at 16, or any other players around the country, I was just so hungry to learn and just bringing in anything I could, such as visualization techniques. You know, I was doing yoga.
Speaker 3:Talk told a story about, you know, starting yoga and doing it at 17, but doing it at home, because I didn't really have the confidence to do it in front of the players. And and then, when I was 21, 22, I went to Norwich City an established player and then I started bringing my yoga mat in and all of the challenges that they burnt it and they ripped it up and they threw it in the bin and I just kept buying new ones, new ones, because I had such a belief that what I was doing was the right way to do it until eventually the guys who were giving me lots of abuse and lots of grief ended up about four or five of them ended up joining me every single day to do yoga before we went out to practice. So again, it's just this overriding philosophy of how do you improve, how do you get better and how can you think outside the box to add to what you're already doing.
Speaker 2:I mean, you had like four or five marvelous stories in everything you laid out there and I want to get to your exact presentation. But, more importantly, I really want to understand and it's amazing that Tony Robbins was a part of it but while you're realizing that you can hang with Juergen Klinsmann and Thierry Henry and Zlatan and all these superstars, at what point you say you know what, when I'm done playing, I got something here. Do you have any idea when that tipping point was for you?
Speaker 3:It's very, very difficult to look back. So just a quick sidebar have you ever seen Steve Jobs' graduation speech at Stanford? Yes, it's a really famous clip. You'll catch on YouTube if anyone wants to just check it out and essentially he tells all these different stories and obviously he's an incredible entrepreneur and loads of things come out about him, but essentially what he did was groundbreaking, and one of the stories he shares is how you can't connect the dots going forward. You can only get to a certain point in your life and then look back and you go oh, the reason why I'm here now today in vegas in 2024, is because I did this and then I seven years working as a sports psychologist and I did my master's and I was working in the broadcast world for a number of years and I also do you know 15 years of keynote speaking all this stuff that you were doing. But the reason why that happened was only as a result of maybe six months, maybe before I actually stopped playing.
Speaker 3:Someone suggested I start going down this route of psychology and mindset. I never really thought about it. Interestingly, I was doing my degree distance learning while I was playing, but it was all around the sports science, so it was physiology that I thought was going to be the thing for me. And as I was doing the degree, I started at 28,. And obviously they have physiology, biomechanics, psychology.
Speaker 3:And as soon as I got to the psychology because I'd been reading books, like the Tony Robbins one, I'd been listening to CDs and just all the things that I thought I really enjoyed and I was fascinated by and as soon as I came to the psychology module and the whole degree, I was like, wow, this is really interesting. And one of our sports psychologists actually said to me as I was just about to retire he said you should come and work with me. I have a corporate training business. We work with all the biggest companies in the world and essentially your credibility as a player will allow you to go up and speak, but then obviously your ability as a speaker will be the thing that's going to drive your career going forward.
Speaker 2:So that's the answer. It was a sports psychologist that told you six months before you hung up the cleats and off you go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he said, because I'd worked with him about four years before I stopped playing, which was 2010. So he came in and I just loved the way he simplified a really complex subject like the field of psychology into bite-sized chunks and frameworks and certain steps to helping you improve. And because I really liked the guy, had great rapport with him, he was the one that said to me you've got something. You really love this subject. I can see that You've got a thirst for learning and all of the stuff that you're doing. You know that's. You walk into a room, people are going to listen to you, but I didn't see that. You know that that's something that I didn't have, that self-awareness, because I was just head down focusing on football and getting better in the physical side. But once he said it I just thought, well, you know what? And he said it would be a few times till.
Speaker 3:Eventually I thought this is such a huge world.
Speaker 3:You know people like former olympians who go and, you know, speak to companies all over the over the world, all over the country, people who come out of the military, you know, and they're just sharing what high performance looks like from their background into the corporate world or into whatever sporting world and I just looked at there was nobody from my background had ever done this.
Speaker 3:I thought that was really weird. Like how can the amount of professional footballers tens of thousands of players had played in the epl and not one player had ever come back and going into this sort of route of corporate speaking, delivering their framework back into into another industry? And because I saw there was no competition, I thought there's got to be a gap in the market for me. So I went off and and started and got my first one. Like you mentioned, one of the the uh companies was aviva, which is a big, like the fifth biggest insurance company in the world, and that was my first gig. And 15 years later I'm sitting here with you in vegas and just having an absolute blast yeah, the list of companies are endless.
Speaker 2:And, paul, before we get into what specifically the name of what your topic was as part of this seventh annual ecnl coaching symposium and agm, I just need, for fun, to ask you did you ever like have a collision with Ibrahimovic and go holy Toledo? I mean, did you ever run in? And when you did, run into players like that, I mean not everybody's built like him, I mean he's like Shaquille O'Neal playing soccer, kind of right, like yeah, yeah, what was your mentality? Were you like a fighter bulldog, like get up and talk a little trash. Or were you like whoa, I just ran into a brick wall? Like what was your mentality there?
Speaker 3:This joke might land for you, maybe not for some of the younger listeners. Do you remember the cartoon Scooby Doo?
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Do you remember his little brother or nephew Scrappy Scrappy, that was me that was you, so you would just get. Oh, just shake it off, and yeah, so I was the little tiny one that would run in and cause all this trouble, right, and then run away as soon as all the big guys started running away.
Speaker 3:But I think it was interesting. I knew I couldn't compete physically with these guys so I had to outsmart them. You know, if you're playing against, you know the likes of Rio Ferdinand and John Terry and Saul Campbell was a former team, he had a bang, but once he went the Arsenal and had his amazing career, and just the guys, they're too big so I can't compete with them physically. So I have to find a way to outsmart them, and most of the times you did. You know so it would be things like trying to draw defenders out of the positions they'd want to be in. But of course you're up against the best defenders in the world.
Speaker 3:So there's times I actually told this story yesterday that we played against Chelsea a number of times and John Terry was the centre-back and I remember Good man, well, it was. Just he didn't even need to use his physicality because he was so, so far ahead of me. Like everything I tried, I would go long to come short, and he was already in front of me and take the ball. Or I'd go short to go long to come short, and he was already in front of me. Or I'd like spin him behind to get it and he was already four yards behind. So every single thing that he saw me do, he had his game plan. It was four steps ahead of me and it was just when you talk about world class and you just can't compete. So there were certain players that you just they're too good, you can't even get the mental side of it like anything over them. But the rest of the physical was just me trying to say I can't have the physical battle. So what can I do to still impact the game?
Speaker 2:Paul McVay's made an incredible impact on the game. We'll have more with Paul after this message from our ECNL sponsors.
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Speaker 2:Infectious personality, paul McVeigh. No surprise that he is an elite level performance psychologist and no surprise because of that the ECNL wanted him to be here to be a key speaker, because if you follow the ECNL, they take that part of the game very serious and hopefully you figure that out as well, paul. So, paul, what was the name of your presentation that you gave and and can you walk through some of the key talking points that you hope the people in the room left with?
Speaker 3:yeah, my, my subjects that I love to talk about is is really just follows the trajectory of a footballing career. So the first thing is performance. You know, just to get to that elite level of playing in the epl, you're already in that no point, no, not no one percent of the of the global population who've ever managed to do it. So you have to perform at such an elite level. And then, of course, once you've played 50, 100, 100, 200, whatever games, you then are more seen as one of the leaders in the team. So then it goes from performance into leadership. And then, of course, you're in a team background and everything I do is about team and how do we do it more than just me and build together. And so the teamwork is the third subject. But of course those subjects are, you know, they're huge, they're so complex and multifaceted, and so I come from the angle of well, what's the psychology of performance? So you could talk about the physical side, the technical side, the nutrition, all the sleep, recovery, but I'm talking about what's the psychology of performance? So what's the psychology of leadership and the psychology of teamwork? So today was the psychology of leadership and essentially it's all about how so many leaders, so many people who are still really successful, but have this, you know, like an imposter syndrome, that kind of little voice at the back of your head who just goes no, I know you kind of think you're doing pretty well, but actually are you really? Should you really be in this position? Do you really deserve this? Like, what have you done? And it's that voice that just kind of can eat a lot of people up and lots of the work that I do, especially in the business world, the amount of successful business people who are running multi-million, multi-billion dollar businesses and yet they still have this little voice of well, am I actually sort of, do I deserve this? And unfortunately, women have it, probably at a greater scale than men do, but lots and lots of men suffer with it. And it's really a case of what do we believe we're worth and what's our you know our opinion of ourselves. So it's something lots of people never think about, never challenge. But as soon as you start realizing that your beliefs about yourself are just something that you've almost formed over your lifetime and lots of people never pay any attention to them, no idea where they came from. So a big thing is just understanding what is a belief, and the way that I would describe a belief is just something that you accept as true or real.
Speaker 3:So interesting whenever I was playing, one of the things I did was visualization. So that whole concept of visualization goes against what I thought was true or real. So the visualization scenario that I used to do was me standing on the old tottenham hotspur stadium field was was white hart lane, and I would imagine myself picking up the ball, cutting in and then curling the top corner and then run off celebrating for the 35 000 people. Now it wasn't real and it wasn't true, but in my head I visualized it so many times. And then, of course, you create affirmations and all these things that are just constantly trying to change your reality. So my reality at the time was 16 year old.
Speaker 3:I didn't realize that I had inferiority complex. Then I wrote, read the tony robbins book. Then I realized that a belief is just something that I can create. So then I started doing the visualization, started doing affirmations and, of course, then I fast forward 20 years and I sometimes play a little video before the start of any speaking gig. I do, and the one goal that I score more than any other in my entire career is getting the ball on the left-hand side, cutting in and curling it in the far top corner.
Speaker 2:And you showed that today.
Speaker 3:No, but it's just. It's the fact that it's about the beliefs that you create for yourself. Right, because you'll have lots of beliefs that you just automatically almost put on you. So people that you've automatically are almost like put on you. So you know people like that you've worked with, whether it's your coaches or your parents or your family or friend peers they'll say things, they'll do things and we'll just accept them. That that's the way life is, you know, and especially growing up in a place like belfast in the 70s and 80s and 90s it was.
Speaker 3:It was a civil war going on. You know it's. It's. It's collectively known as the troubles because of the, the bombs and all of the, the issues that we had over there but that had such a huge impact on what I thought I was capable of, what I thought I was worth, because people like me didn't really play in the english primary league at the time. So again, it's such a big subject, it's so complicated, but if you're trying to boil it down and just condense everything that I've probably learned over the years I've said it so many times today in my session it's about dreaming, believing and achieving. So dream, believe and achieve that's the three steps that I just wanted to keep repeating over and over to everybody in the room today 700-plus people in there who found you?
Speaker 2:Did you find the ECNL or did they find you?
Speaker 3:So a really good friend of mine, former teammate of mine, is a guy called Darrell Russell.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I love Darrell. I call some games with him. Yes, you did?
Speaker 3:he says so. Obviously he's with the Heat here in Vegas, but whenever I joined Norwich back in 2000, he was my teammate. So, he was, I think, 18, 19 at the time. I joined at 21 and, amazingly, you know, I've known him for 25 years.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:And so he's just been one of my best friends in the game, and the fact that you know I'm here in Vegas and he lives here. So I stayed with him a couple of nights before we come in today to the Circa Hotel, which is incredible. By the way, I even won a championship in my last year of our career my career I got to play with Daryl again the second time, so we both had two spells back in Norwich, Wow.
Speaker 3:And we won the championship and then got promoted the next year back into the Premier League. But for me he's just such a great guy and whenever Christian reached out to him and said, oh, we've got a space for one more speaker, who would you recommend? And he put me in touch with Jason and Christian. So, yeah, he's the reason why I'm here.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's brilliant. I mean, I feel bad for Daryl because he's such an ugly guy. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:He's not really got a lot going for him, has he, oh my God, six foot.
Speaker 2:Obviously, folks. I'm kidding the guy's so good looking, I know.
Speaker 3:Do good, look at it. I know, yeah, you know what. This is the weird thing about it as well. He, um, he just he can do anything. And this is like I kind of think how is this possible? So whenever we started and again this just kind of shows what he's like, what I'm like in 2001 we both started a business degree, right. So it was at the time whenever I don't know why we had this idea that we thought we should do this.
Speaker 3:But after maybe three months of going two afternoons a week, maybe one evening, I said to him listen, I just can't do this. We're training five days a week. I'm starting to play every week. I'm just getting too tired. By the time the game comes on the Saturday, after the two sessions with the class and then the evening class, I like I'm so tired I can't, I'm gonna have to drop out. And he's like, yeah, no problem. And then he went on and finished his degree, and then he goes and gets qualified as a chef, and then he starts building houses and then he's a coach, and then he's a mechanic. And I'm going, wow, how do you do all this?
Speaker 2:he's like, honestly, one of the one of the brightest guys I've ever met yeah, he's incredible, and so is Paul McVeigh, one of the brightest guys I've ever met. Yeah, he's incredible, and so is Paul McVay, one of the key speakers on a list of amazing people that you'll be hearing throughout the year as part of Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast. And along the way and I remember talking about this book in detail when you were on the other podcast that I host, the United Soccer Coaches podcast you wrote this book called the Stupid Footballer is Dead, and what does that mean exactly? Tell me sort of the premise of that book, and I'm assuming the book is still out there and people can get it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, interesting, whenever I just mentioned that story about Daryl and he and I whenever we both became students, after leaving school at 16, it was an assumption that just because we were athletes and we were pretty good at kicking the ball around the field, that people thought we were really dim and quite stupid and it was really an affront to me. I was thinking, well, why would you assume? And it was almost like every conversation I'd have with you know, once you become know, well known in a certain area and you're playing in a certain level of sport, people want to come up and talk and you're constantly being, whatever you know, approached by random people, whether they're fans or they just recognize you. And the amount of times I'd have a conversation with, with whoever, and at the end of the conversation I could see them kind of you, you know, a little bit sort of, were looking at me a bit strange, and they'd come out with the most backhanded compliment ever and they'd be like oh, you're quite intelligent for a footballer and it's just like I know.
Speaker 3:And you're looking at them going why would you assume that, like, just because I kick a ball around, I can't string two sentences together.
Speaker 3:Where's the correlation in here. I'm not sure, and so, even by 21, 22, I had the title of this book, that I had no idea how I can write a book or where it would ever come from, but I knew it was going to be called the Stupid Footballer Is Dead. So it was only whenever I stopped playing at 32 and then went on my course in America to go and become a keynote speaker that I thought this is, this has got to be the title of the book, and essentially it's about taking all of the lessons in this framework that I'd applied to become one of the you know the the best athletes and the highest performers in the whole sport, to then share that with, with people who wanted to do it, whether it's in sport or, of course, people who are in business how they can just perform better and and constantly improve what they do that is brilliant, and how long did it take you to to write that book?
Speaker 3:again, very simple. So I'm the type of person who you know uninteresting that was this. What a part of the session we just did in there around beliefs. You know what kind of person are you. I'm the type of person that wants to get to my goal, my objective, with the least resistance. So definitely, path of least resistance. And so I thought, right, I'd really love to write a book. I thought that it all wants to come from my head, all the words need to be mine. I just don't want to type it out. So I knew a friend of mine who'd written a book with another guy and he said well, he comes around your house and literally you talk. He asks you one question and you just talk. And so this guy, john Carter, came round to my house every Monday morning for 12 weeks and he said OK, paul, this is the first question. And he literally set his dictaphone down on the table.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So, john Carter, he came round to my house every Monday morning and he'd set the dictaphone down on the table and just as he asked the first question, three hours of stuff came out of my head and I just talked and talked, and talked and eventually he went right, thanks, and he went away and he literally typed it all up, restructured a few sentences and came back, sent it to me and then the following week we did that.
Speaker 3:I did it for 12 weeks and then I had a 12 chapter book and we brought it to bloomsbury who obviously, you know if anyone doesn't know, bloomsbury the the publishers of harry potter, you know. So they're one of the biggest publishing houses in the world and I said, oh, this is the book that I'm thinking of writing. What do you think? Would you? Would you be interested in publishing it? They came away, came back two weeks later, went yeah, yeah, we'll offer you a publishing deal essentially that was it, so it's so straightforward and yeah and it's the simplest but the best thing I've ever done, because it just opens so many doors.
Speaker 3:You know people who are interested in what you do but don't necessarily have the ability to contact you or or have can have a conversation with you or don't want to just read like an article on a website, but they actually go through the book and completely understand my entire philosophy and ethos of how I was able to do what I did is all in the book.
Speaker 2:Incredible. The book again is called the Stupid Footballer is Dead. Check out that book. But, more importantly, google Paul McVeigh. Find out about where he is, find out about how he can be involved with your company and help you with what you need for performance psychology is he's one of the top performance psychologists, quite frankly, in the world. Paul, just a couple more questions for you. You're up there because you know Darrell Russell. Thanks so much for connecting the dots there. Then you got to know Christian Lavers, but at the end of the day, you're also representing ECNL. I don't know how much you know about the ECNL, but I can tell you it's the real deal. At the girls level it might be the best youth league in the world. That's how good it is. And I know we're sitting in the United States and I know you're across the pond where you know they come out of the womb ready to score soccer goals and that type of thing. But are you aware, and how aware are you, of the power and growth of the ECNL?
Speaker 3:Yeah, daryl's kept me informed over the last couple of years and, obviously, meeting Christian and Jason and the team for the last few months, since I knew I was going to be getting involved and it just sounds so impressive. You know, the ability to develop and bring the best teams together is so key. You know, it's almost akin to whenever we were playing back in England and you have the best players in the country all competing against each other every single week and this is really interesting. So again, this is how, from my angle, why it's interesting on the psychology side, because there's a book called Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell that's essentially all aroundliers by Malcolm Gladwell. It's essentially all around.
Speaker 3:I love Malcolm Gladwell yeah so it's all around the kind of 10,000-hour rule that you know. If you can do something consistently over 10,000 hours, then that's the best opportunity you have to get to almost like expert level or mastery. But of course it's not just doing something for 10,000 hours. There's a certain criteria that's involved in it. So I don't know then.
Speaker 3:I don't know how long you've been maybe driving your car for, but you've probably done, I'd say, maybe 10 000 hours of driving your car. But that doesn't mean you're going to be a world-class driver. I'm just being jury, I didn't want to say. But what it is is you've got a lot of experience, but the difference is you haven't been consistently improving your skill set, you've just been driving at the same level. Right, and that's where where I make that comparison with the ecnl, when you've got the best players and consistently bringing in the same level of players, and when they're competing against each other, there's that constant improvement because one player is always trying to get better than the other. So the standard goes up, so the level of performance, and it just becomes layered and obviously across the whole country. So yeah, I know a little bit about it, but it's just. I'm so impressed with what's happening, as you say, especially on the girls side, but obviously the boys side is doing incredibly well too.
Speaker 2:Fantastic. Two more questions for you, as this has been so much fun hanging out with Paul McVay, who had an incredible career as a player and now has really established himself as a performance psychologist. He's also great in the broadcast world. He's an author, you name it, he can do it. And, paul, if I kind of like to do this normally on my last one, but I want you to promote on your last one, and that is, if people heard nothing else but what you say right now about the message you wanted to leave with everybody here at the ECNL Coaches Symposium and you had to sum it up in just one or two sentences what do you want to leave people with?
Speaker 3:I'll boil it down to three words Dream, believe, achieve. That for me, is and it's one of the lines I just said on stage, like 60 minutes ago, when I've just come off is that you're trying to take and this is the challenge with anyone in my position, anyone who's experienced things how do you take all of the knowledge of? I've been doing this for 30 years now 46, started at 16, so 30 years in what I would consider probably the most ruthless and competitive industry on the world, because to get to that level of playing in the best league in the world, in the most competitive league, and then, of course, going out and doing it with people and businesses who wanted to get to the best, you're trying to condense it, to say it's about understanding where you're going. That's dream. How do you just have that, you know, blue sky, thinking dream to fulfill every single desire you've ever had. But you really have to believe it, and that's my own personal experience, so that I didn't.
Speaker 3:Right at the start I didn't. Now, for whatever reason, I didn't believe in myself. That's a whole other podcast. But why I didn't believe in myself? That's a whole other podcast. But why I didn't believe in myself was the reason what stopped me and held me back. And as soon as that little switch was flicked, it was like cascading the waterfall, you know, just going over it. And suddenly everything I ever wanted to achieve in myself happened, because I had the ability to believe. And that's where the achievement comes from. So three words dream, believe, achieve.
Speaker 2:Dream, believe, achieve. People are listening to this right now. The listenership of Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast, continues to grow, Paul, and you've got all these incredible companies that you've worked for, including Rolls-Royce and Microsoft and Cisco and GlaxoSmithKline. I mean just Deutsche, I mean just an incredible list of companies. How do people track you down, Paul? Where do they find you? Is there a website, social media? What do they got to do?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, obviously lots of people are on social media and for me, if you want to get involved in business, then LinkedIn is the place to try and connect with me.
Speaker 3:it's it's something that I probably get 95 of my business online it takes me around the world and I'm actually I'm, I'm going back back, excuse me, I'm going back to the uk in the next, in the next few hours, because I've got an event in london, um, with a former premier league player, really top premier league player. Just because of all the things that I I do, it's the network that allows me to connect with the biggest, best companies and then be able to bring in the people we work with. So, yeah, linkedin is the one. So just obviously Paul McVeigh on there. Instagram is a good way. If anybody wants to get hold of me, just PaulMcVeigh77. I'll see him on Twitter, paulmcveigh77. Or just go to my website, just paulmcvaycom, and there's loads of ways to connect with me on any of those platforms Paul McVay.
Speaker 2:McVay is spelled M, little C, capital, v, e, I, g, h. The man is brilliant you heard it right here and we're so glad that he was part of the 7th annual ECNL coaching symposium and one of the key speakers, and we're so glad he spent time on the ECNL podcast Breaking the Line. Paul McVay, rock star, thanks for being with us. Top Monty, an honor to be called a top man by Paul McVay. And speaking of top men, coming up, next we'll visit with Steve Dan Buskey, who is the executive director for Beach FC out of Virginia, beach, virginia. He also was at the ECNL Coaching Symposium and AGM Up next. After this message, we'll hear from Steve Danbusky.
Speaker 1:Nike is a proud sponsor of ECNL girls. Nothing can stop what we can do together to bring positive change to our communities. You can't stop sport because hashtag. You can't stop our voices. Follow Nike on Instagram, facebook and Twitter.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to breaking line, the ECNL podcast. Amazing, evergreen material as part of the seventh annual ECNL coaching symposium and AGM in Las Vegas. This one has been bigger and better than ever and we're spreading our wings, talking to everybody that matters, and that includes Steve Danbuski, who's the executive director for Beach FC out of Virginia Beach, virginia. Steve, thanks for being on Breaking the Line the ECNL podcast. Thank you very much, dean. Thanks for having me. Yeah, first of all, tell me a little bit about yourself and then I want to learn a little bit more about Beach FC, steve. But you know, where did you grow up? Did you play college soccer? Were you a coach at all before becoming executive director? Give me a little background and, if you don't mind, don't be shy, it's a podcast, so we have plenty of time.
Speaker 4:Sure, I grew up in Long Island, new York, which obviously has a very vibrant youth soccer scene, and from there I had the opportunity to play college soccer at Williams College in Massachusetts. From there I actually had the opportunity to continue my playing career, which is what ultimately brought me down to Virginia Beach to play in the old A League. I played a couple of years in Long Island and Connecticut in the A League and in 2003, I signed with the now defunct Virginia Beach Mariners and prior to that, because I was living and playing in New York, one of the most expensive places to live while I was playing I got into the coaching side of things, realized that I enjoyed it, started to go through working with clubs, doing some licensing, and so I kind of had my eyes open that when my playing days were done I wanted to pursue a career at that time at what I thought was full-time in the coaching game. So I progressed through that, came down to Virginia Beach in 2003, continued on with my licensing while I was playing for the Mariners, got involved with Beach FC just coaching a team. Then I became the boys director of coaching from 2004 to 2009.
Speaker 4:And in 2009, I had the opportunity to progress in my career, which was a kind of a crossroads for me because it meant I was going to be stepping a little bit back from the field and more into the management and leadership side of youth soccer, which I wasn't 100% sure at the time would be fulfilling coming from the coaching and playing world. But that was about 15 years ago and I can honestly say that I do miss being on the sidelines regularly. But you know my locker room. My team has now become our directors and our coaches and our managers and you know those challenges that are put in front of me have become different but also greater in a lot of ways than some of the stuff that I was dealing with as a coach.
Speaker 2:Well, that's fantastic. So you've clearly invested a lot of time in Beach FC, and the fact that you were able to continue to move up the ladder during that time while investing, you know, all of your time, is pretty awesome. I mean, I think that's kind of a dream scenario when you see so many people hopping and popping around to different clubs. That's a long time at a club and it's got to be a club that you must love.
Speaker 4:It absolutely is, and I was fortunate enough that, having played four years in the Northeast prior to coming down and again the old A-League, unfortunately and I was having a cup of coffee with a former colleague who also played and coached in the league which has now obviously progressed to USL Championship and it's great to see how they've evolved. But back in kind of the heyday in the late 90s, early 2000s, when it was still when it was still very much, I don't want to say the wild west, but maybe not as evolved as it is currently. You know those were, you know a lot of the pioneering days of one year there's 29 teams in the league. The next year there's there's 13.
Speaker 4:So through those experiences I said, all right, when I, when I'm done playing, I have to to have kind of a backup plan, obviously what's going to be next and how do I springboard from the playing days into what is next. And so when I was considering looking at teams, I had opportunities in a couple of different areas and Virginia Beach was an area that had good college soccer, good youth soccer. It was an area of the country that I saw myself living in and you can't read the crystal ball, but I was hoping to be able to find a spot that I could put down roots, and that's exactly what's happened, and I haven't looked back since.
Speaker 2:You know, having been down there for now 21 years, you're hearing the voice of Steve Danbusky, the executive director for Beach FC out of Virginia Beach. I like to drop names a little bit and I know you 'd already mentioned it, but you know I've been around long enough where I do remember kind of the wild wild west of a lot of those leagues. I spent a lot of time with US soccer but when it was done I did get into the wild wild west a little bit on the back end after spending three years with the Colorado Rapids. So I know exactly what you're talking about. That's my way of getting to who was the head coach of that Virginia Beach Mariners team when you were there.
Speaker 4:So, as is typical in the A-League, we had a number of them. Sean McDonald was my first coach, jay Hoffman who's a big?
Speaker 4:name in soccer was also a head coach for a couple years and unfortunately, as many A-League clubs have been destined, our final coach was Colin Clark and we were two weeks into preseason before we were under new ownership. That maybe hadn't been vetted correctly, but we went out in a blaze of glory in 2007, before the season started without having a season and the schedule was done. But, yeah, we had some really good people involved and it's a shame because Colin Clark ended up going, I believe, to Puerto Rico and then Carolina, but we were really excited to have him in Virginia Beach. He brought a young team in with a couple of us kind of veterans that stayed and we never had the opportunity to kind of see how that experiment played out. But I know a lot of those guys you know landed on their feet and found other places. But it's a shame that we haven't had that level of professional soccer in our area since?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is, because at one point you guys kind of had built a neat little stadium. I don't know if that's still there. It is, it is still there, ok. Well, your loss was our gain. I've been with the NCFC and Carolina Railhawks for 17 years and we had a great run with Colin Clark, actually, by the way, and then Jay Huffman I was with at US Soccer as he did all the Olympic festivals and was on the staff and got to know him well. So I like that we have those connections. I told you I was excited about your ties because you know, living in North Carolina and you being in Virginia now is awesome. We're here with Steve Danbusky, executive director with Beach FC. Steve, let's kind of take in this year's ECNL Coaching Symposium and AGM. It's the seventh annual and they've never had one bigger or better. Their speakers lineup is off the chart. So can you kind of put in perspective how cool it's been here these couple of?
Speaker 4:days. Yeah, it's eye opening. You know, this is my first opportunity to come out here. We had two other directors that attended last year and raved about it, and so it's obviously a very busy time of year with convention, with league games going on with, you know, programs that we all run at our clubs. So when we were looking at who we were going to send out, it was something that I definitely wanted to be a part of.
Speaker 4:You know, this is the type of, you know, leadership kind of event that it really is appealing to, whether you're a coach in a club, whether you're a director of a club, whether you're an executive of a club something that applies to all of those facets and to have a diverse group of speakers on different topics and to listen to the AGM last night to learn about. It's very league centric, but it's also kind of growth mindset centric as well, with with some, some people from different backgrounds and different, different roles in clubs, so many good you know soccer people and it's, you know, a testament to what the ECNL reach is for them to be able to continue to grow this event year over year.
Speaker 2:Steve Dambusky, the executive director for Beach FC, and Steve, you won't get electrocuted or buzzed if you're off a year or two on the dates, but do you have an approximate time of when you feel like beach fc joined the ecnl and did they join early enough? Where the regional league was not an option, you went right to the national league or you now in both? Uh, give me as much as you can on that sure.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, this is an easy one because it's our tenure is relatively um, recent, okay and uh, you know, as youth soccer continues to evolve, we joined the ECNL in the regional league in fall of 2021. And so I think one of the reasons that a regional league was fairly new at that point and the ECNL leadership, I believe, was kind of using that as a platform, as a proving ground. We had applied as a club to get into the full national program for the boys and girls and the feedback that we had received was hey, we're building out this regionally, we know your club, there's some good things there, but we want to see, we want to try and create and implement this as a proving ground. So we we gladly accepted it.
Speaker 4:Obviously, there was some level of initial disappointment you want to stack yourselves up against the clubs that you're used to playing in and other leagues and events. But we completely understood and said this is an opportunity for us. We went in in the fall of 21 with our boys and girls top teams playing in the regional league did well on the field, continued to make those connections and evolve in the ways that we needed to in order to kind of refresh our application and, very fortunately for us, we were given full selection the following year, so fall of 2022,. We were in the national program on the boys and girls side and now our second teams compete in the regional league on the boys and girls side and we're proud to be full-blown members on the boys and girls. But we're also proud to be in the regional league in Virginia and continue to offer more for a larger population in our club.
Speaker 2:Look, that's the perfect answer, because one of the things that we're finding is kind of those lessons learned. There's some teams that want to just jump right in at the highest level, and the creation of the regional league not that long ago has allowed you to take that kind of one little mini baby step or one giant baby step and make it happen, and you're a perfect example of that. No, absolutely.
Speaker 4:And you know it forces, it forced us. As a club we had a year where we had to obviously navigate a little bit of disappointment but also say, hey, we've got to, we've got to, you know, prove our disappointment and, you know, not only get results on the field but also show that we can be a compliant and a good standing member in the league. For if and when that opportunity to make the jump presented itself, which fortunately for us did in the following year. But in addition to that we then had to quickly maneuver our second teams into a regional league, and for us that's some of the best.
Speaker 4:And I'm actually on the board of directors for the VPSL in Virginia, which runs the EC&L Regional League in Virginia. So I work closely with Mike Cullinan, Jay Howell, lee Kalashaw, a lot of the guys that are kind of synonymous with club soccer in Virginia and beyond and who have been running really well-run leagues and events for years and years and years. And so the ability to now take our second teams and play them in the regional league against certain clubs' top teams but also other ECNL members second teams it's a really good challenge for us and you know we're in the infancy of that. We're only in year two, we're coming to the back end of year two in that, but we feel it's a really good fit and it's allowed us to just increase the standards in our club that much more.
Speaker 2:We're not done with steve dan buskey, the executive director for beach fc out of virginia beach. We'll take a break to hear from the ecnl sponsors and return with more steve dan buskey. The ecnl is pleased to announce quick goal as the official goal provider and partner for ecnl girls and ecnl boys. A new partnership created to support the growth and development of the country's top players, clubs and coaches At all national events, including national playoffs and national finals. The Quick Goal Coaches Corner will provide hospitality and social space for ECNL Girls, ecnl Boys and collegiate coaches. Quick Goal will also be the presenting sponsor of the national championship winning ECNL Girls and ECNL Boys Coaches of the Year and the ECNL Girls and ECNL Boys Goals of the Year.
Speaker 2:Quick Goal looks forward to helping the ECNL continue to elevate the standards of youth soccer and provide more opportunities to players on and off the field in the coming years to players on and off the field in the coming years. Welcome back to Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast. We're with Steve Danbuske, the executive director for Beach FC out of Virginia Beach. When we took a break, we were talking about the regional league, and so now, steve, as we return from break, I want to ask you what has been the biggest highlight for Beach FC in the National League and the biggest highlight in the Regional League.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So I think the biggest highlight for the National League that's probably an easier one first is on the boys' side, having a number of teams qualify for the playoffs in year one. Our older boys' teams have done quite well and that's obviously a testament. Ryan Snagoski is our boys EC&L director and he has created a really great culture on that boys EC&L program and our staff is fantastic and we're trending in that direction again to have at least a number of teams qualify for the playoffs, and so that has probably been the biggest highlight in the National League. And I'll be honest with you, on the girls' side we haven't seen the level of success that necessarily has a hold of boys. But we are looking at where we have been in year one to year two and I think obviously there's nuanced differences on both genders, and you know, on both genders and you know we've had to evolve ourselves to continue to progress. Obviously, the girls ECNL is just, you know, the top, top league and the Mid-Atlantic Conference is one that is towards the top of that in the country, and so being able to, you know, play regularly against those teams is a challenge and we're looking at continuing to progress and make the necessary changes to become, you know, continue to become more competitive in that environment.
Speaker 4:Going back to the regional league, obviously, you know, being that it's our second teams, the Virginia ECNL regional league is broken into a north and south bracket.
Speaker 4:We play geographically and then we have playoff format against the north and so, you know, we kind of set some realistic expectations, knowing that we were playing against some very good clubs, top teams that we felt like we wanted to be in the in the top third as a club.
Speaker 4:Maybe you know, we know we weren't going to be, we were playing against, you know quality. Maybe you know we know we weren't going to be, we were playing against, you know quality clubs like the, you know Richmond Strikers, richmond Kickers, who have that much longer experience in the ECNL. They're in a different geographic market but they were kind of the litmus test that we kind of hold ourselves aspirationally to become at the regional league where you know we can kind of inch as a club to get towards that top, you know, top tier of the regional league, where you know we can kind of inch as a club to get towards that top, you know, top tier of the regional league. And we've been very pleasantly surprised that you know we are in that top. We're in that top half of the league, we're in that top, you know, maybe borderline as a whole in that top third, not far behind those. And that's a good litmus test for us.
Speaker 2:Outstanding Steve, even pre-ECNL or during ECNL. How about some notable alumni that have come out of there that have gone on to play for big-time colleges and that type of thing? Any players come to mind.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. Yeah, I mean Beach FC has a long history and obviously you know, much, much longer than my tenure in town, but you know some of the originals and we have their jerseys hanging in our futsal facility, um that that we have in in virginia beach, you know. But steve jolly, uh, wade barrett, um, those are two of the two of the uh, the ogs of of mls time and who had unbelievable careers in the league. Um, more recently, we have some guys um eric bird, who I had the privilege of coaching. He was in the MLS for a little while but he's in the USL championship. Yaki DeVries, who played a little bit in the MLS, is now playing overseas. And Angela Hughley is on the side, who is obviously, you know, one of one of the OGs and it's great to see her continued involvement on the West Coast and it is to play in a women's national team and to win Olympics and have those experiences and have her jersey hanging in our facility is something that is fun to walk into every day and look at at work.
Speaker 2:Good one to end with. I just saw Angela Hukeley's at the United Soccer Coaches Convention and over my 28 years of broadcasting I've done several games with her. And of course, now that she took that big time job with Angel City she can't broadcast anymore, or at least as far as I know. But just a couple ACC championships ago I worked with Angela Hukeley. She's just a wonderful spirit and big-time brain, on that woman for sure. All right, as we wrap up our time and it's been good time, steve, well done. Steve Dambuske, the executive director for Beach FC. When you hear these four letters in two sentences or less, what do they mean to Steve Dambuske? And the four letters are quite simply ECNL.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's a great question and I would say that, especially reflecting on some of the points from the AGM last night, I think what puts it into perspective to me is a league, a movement as I believe Christian Lavers put it yesterday that will continue to push youth soccer forward in America. A big country that has been obviously we're all in it and it's been messy at times and it's been disjointed at times, and I see ECNL as being one of the steadiest and, kind of, you know, most secure environments that continues not to rest on their laurels but continues to push the boundaries in a positive way in order to scale out what we all want as youth soccer leaders in America.
Speaker 2:Wow, what a great answer. And as we say goodbye, I'm a big family man. I feel like in this business, without strong support from your family, it makes it more difficult. Steve, I hope you agree with me. Would love to hear the names of your wife and kids as we say goodbye. If you don't mind plugging them, Is that okay?
Speaker 4:Absolutely. I'm sure they'll love to hear it too, and I couldn't agree more. And, to be honest, dean, one of the reasons that I stepped off the field 15 years ago to a degree was because my wife travels a lot for work. We were at the front end of having three wonderful boys and we were trying to manage. You know the daily grind, and I made a decision to stay in the game and progress in a different direction that had somewhat more regular hours, but not always. But you know my wife, teresa, of almost 17 years, Teresa Dambuski, and I have three boys Kieran Grant and Evan, 16, 14, and 9, or about to be 16, about to be 14, and 9 years old. All play for the club as well.
Speaker 2:Brilliant, all right, steve Dambuski, executive Director Beach FC and a welcomed guest on Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast, and certainly great to reconnect with him, as we have been on a podcast or webinar together during COVID time and, steve thanks for reminding me of that. Hearing you talk and, by the way, you're outstanding at this reminds me of that, steve Dambuske, hey, if people want to follow Beach FC website social media, what do you got for me?
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's a good one. Our website is beachfccom and it's a little bit confusing even for the ECNL because there's a Beach FC in California and sometimes we get each other's mail, but we make sure to keep that com one. We're beachfccom, our social is at Beach Beach FC, underscore VA Beach. So check us out and we're. We're taking some notes out of the ECNL leadership because they do an unbelievable job with their social channels and we're trying to continue to move in that direction to improve our game as well.
Speaker 2:Amen, well said, you covered everything, steve Damboski, executive director Beach FC and a welcome guest and a great appearance on this week's Breaking the Line the ECNL podcast. Great to be with you, steve. Thank you, dean, thank you, steve, and I want to thank all the great people at the ECNL, especially Ashley Willis, Andrea Wheeler, michaela Hampton, the whole gang. I also want to thank my producer, colin Thrash, for each and every one of them and all of you. I'm Dean Linke. We'll see you in two weeks for another edition of Breaking the Line the ECNL podcast.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast. For more information on the ECNL, visit us at wwwtheecnlcom, and if you have a suggestion for the show or a great idea for a guest, please email us at info at theecnlcom. Breaking the Line the ECNL podcast is an ECNL production. Ecnl more than a league.