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 91: Breaking the Line (feat: Pat McStay, Michael Renwick and Sean Nahas)
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The ECNL Podcast features Pat McStay founder of The Heritage Project, MVLA’s boys technical director Michael Renwick and NWSL’s North Carolina Courage head coach Sean Nahas. Breaking the Line Podcast host, Dean Linke, talks with McStay about how the Heritage Project helps educate and connect players playing within the ECNL to countries with whom they could qualify to play for through their lineage. Linke also speaks with Renwick on his time as a professional player in Scotland and MVLA’s club philosophies within the ECNL pathway. And finally, Linke catches up with former ECNL coach, Nahas, and what he has learned in his time as the head coach for NC Courage.
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 Line, the ECNL podcast, as we have three outstanding guests, including the director of the ECNL Heritage Project, Pat McStay.
Speaker 3:If coaches and directors are aware that this project exists, which is my hope, that they'll start to make an extra effort to find out the background of their own players, or if they're playing against someone who is pretty high level, just digging in a little bit deeper, because you never know what you're going to find.
Speaker 2:Also on the show MVLA Boys. Technical Director by way of Scotland, michael.
Speaker 4:Renwick. It's a fantastic platform that ECNL gives kids in this wonderful country.
Speaker 2:And the head coach of the North Carolina Courage, Sean Nahas.
Speaker 5:The more you can put yourself in moments to be on the grass and challenge yourself and grow. You need to do this if you want to do that, and that's sort of the approach that I've taken.
Speaker 2:Pat McStay, michael Renwick and Sean Nahas. You'll hear from all three of them on this week's edition of Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast, which 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. 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:The ECNL launches the Heritage Project to connect athletes with national teams around the world. Following the success of dozens of ECNL alumni representing numerous countries at multiple international events across the world in the past few years, the ECNL is excited to announce the launch of the ECNL Heritage Project. Director of the ECNL Heritage Project is Pat McStay, and he's designed this project to help connect high-level players with foreign heritage to federations around the world for whom they are eligible to play. The ECNL Heritage Project will help provide additional pathways and opportunities for players currently playing in the ECNL, as well as alumni who have ties to other countries based on their parents or grandparents' place of birth, as well as other factors.
Speaker 2:At last summer's Women's World Cup, current and former ECNL athletes took the field for a number of countries besides the United States, including Colombia, jamaica, nigeria and South Korea. This month, 53 ECNL alums represented 11 different countries in the inaugural Women's Gold Cup, including 13 who helped raise the championship trophy for the United States. The Heritage Project aims to continue to grow these opportunities for players in the ECNL, but McStay says that process can sometimes be difficult and frustrating for players, parents and clubs to attempt to navigate on their own. With that, I welcome in Pat McStay, who's heading up this project. Pat, welcome to Breaking the Line. The ECNL podcast.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2:I told you before you came on the air, as somebody who's been broadcasting for 30 years and was part of the 94 World Cup team, I always make it a priority to remember the past. You know, as we move forward into incredible times of soccer, that's not all you're doing. You're helping connecting youngsters with potential national teams, but I get the feeling you're doing. You're helping connecting youngsters with potential national teams, but I get the feeling you're also connecting the past right? I mean, that's part of what this is all about now.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I think when players begin to dig into their own history, they sometimes don't realize the opportunities that lay in front of them, and so our project is here to try and connect those two.
Speaker 2:All right, pat, before we dig a little deeper in this, I like to make sure that all of our listeners know exactly who they're listening to. I know pretty much everybody in the ECNL knows you, but let's just make sure who is Pat McStay? Where are you now? When did you get connected with the ECNL? That's a lot, but it's a podcast. We have time. Tell us your story, if you can.
Speaker 3:Grew up in Virginia Beach. I played college soccer at a small Division III school called Virginia Wesleyan. From there I began my coaching career. I was a grad assistant at Lynchburg College and then I moved on to the Midwest coaching as a staff coach at Kansas Rush in Olathe, kansas. From there I kind of bounced around back in Virginia at Virginia Legacy in Williamsburg, virginia, and then moved on to the Richmond area. I've been with the Richmond Strikers as a director of coaching since 2015. And I'm currently the director of coaching for the ECNL Regional League teams and NPL teams below that U13 to U19 at the Richmond Strikers.
Speaker 2:As we all know, at the ECNL level the Richmond Strikers combine with the Kickers to become the Richmond United right At the highest level.
Speaker 3:yes, yeah, yeah, that's right. We partner send our best players, usually starting at U13, rising into U13, to Richmond United as our kind of our ECNL National League platform pathway.
Speaker 2:say, quote, and I'm quoting mr mcsay he says based on the presence of ecn alumni and the women's gold cup, the women's world cup and the recent appearance of some ecnl boys and foreign youth national teams, we believe we can use the league as a platform to give more players exposure to an opportunity with additional federations they may be eligible to play for. So, right right off the bat, you hit that and look, I just showed you in 94. I mean, we found Thomas Dooley last minute right, he barely spoke English. Super player for Germany, you know, ernie Stewart came to us along the way and later would play a pretty big wave with US soccer. I think it's important for these young, outstanding players to know that they have perhaps more than just one country that they can choose to represent. That's part of what this is about, right, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:I think that part of the dream as you're playing youth soccer is to represent your national team and and sometimes, as you start that journey at 13, 14, 15, you come to the realization pretty quickly that maybe that's not in the cards. I think that our job as a league is to provide additional pathways if they're possible, and I think one of the frustrations for me is that when I looked around over the last 12 to 18 months, I didn't see the biggest platforms, which would be the ECNL and a couple other national leagues with a resource such as this one, where they were outwardly helping players try to potentially get to where they were going, and I think that this is a project that could prove to be very fruitful in the future.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you say it best in this press release. You say, quote of course we want to see the US national team win championships and World Cups of both genders, but there are players in our league who may not be called up to a US team or who may have eligibility with other countries that they would like to explore. Our intent is to provide opportunities for as many players as possible to maximize the potential and to experience the game at the highest possible level, and the Heritage Project is a commitment to do that. You were able to identify 12 American-based players, 12 through online searches and relationships with club directors, demonstrating the value that the East TNL Heritage Project will provide. That's back to the USA, so it already shows that it's not just you know. Hey, you know, you go play for Mexico or you go play for Canada. You're going to find, maybe, some future USA stars.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So when I was the US scout for Samoa I'm currently helping the Cook Islands and the Marshall Islands the way that we were finding players was very archaic.
Speaker 3:It was Google searches, figuring out the most common last names in that country and typing into Google and trying to figure out if there were any American-based players with Samoan heritage, for example, and I had pretty good luck the first six to eight months.
Speaker 3:When I was doing it. I started to come into some roadblocks, probably about eight to 10 months in, when they we were gearing up for a World Cup qualifying on the men's side and I was trying to find certain players in certain positions that they needed, and I really was looking for a directory from a couple of leagues that would maybe point me in the right direction Was thinking to myself this would be great at a national platform level if a person like myself who was scouting for a national team that wasn't very close, that needed to find needles in a haystack, could go to someone and say, hey, do you have any players that are of Samoan heritage? And could get an answer pretty quickly. And so my idea of the Heritage Project kind of stemmed from that frustration, not that it would automatically give you a database of players, but it would give you one person to go to that might have an answer for you.
Speaker 2:All right, well said, and I obviously got a little bit too excited there because that was more about you finding American-based players with Samoan connection. To then bring that Really, lorne Donaldson even flat out admitted he did that for the Jamaica team that made a big run in the World Cup and still proudly talks about that, with the country being so big and vast geographically, there are pockets of players everywhere.
Speaker 3:It's just a matter of being able to kind of coordinate our efforts to bring it all into one place, and so that's what the Heritage Project is about.
Speaker 2:More data to back up this incredible project, the ECNOW Heritage Project that will be headed up by Mr McStay. It says currently nearly a dozen players have been connected with foreign federations through the early stages of the EC and now Heritage Project, with McStay building a database of contacts that so far encompasses about 10% of FEPA's 211 national associations. Mcstay says the federations that he has gotten in contact with have shown excitement about the project as well and of course they would be excited right Because they don't know how to find some of these players Right when I was reaching out talking to these federations about the project.
Speaker 3:Everyone that I talked to that I could get a hold of were extremely excited about the potential. I have some contacts that basically reach out to me every few weeks asking how the project is coming along, how many players are in the database. The federations are really excited because I think that they had the same issues that I have, that if they wanted to find players in America they really didn't know where to start. It's definitely a melting pot and you can take some educated guesses as to where some players might be in different communities. But really we're trying to coordinate all of our efforts on a country-wide scale in the ECNL to try and create this extremely large, valuable database.
Speaker 2:Incredible. It ends by saying through this project and partnering with other federations around the world, the ECNL Heritage Project is expected to be an important part of the future of scouting ECNL athletes. If you believe and I'm talking to you, everybody listening right now to Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast that you have a player that fits the criteria of the Heritage Project, please fill out the Heritage Project interest form that I'm guessing you can find on the ECNL website. Where can people find the ECNL Heritage Project interest form?
Speaker 3:That is a great question. You can email me directly, pat at theecnlcom. It's gone out to all the technical directors. We're trying to roll it out pretty slowly but eventually it'll be up on the website as its own kind of resource page. But definitely reach out to myself, pat at theecnlcom. I've probably talked to three dozen directors of coaching over the last three weeks. Have almost 150 players in the database at the moment and it's growing every day.
Speaker 2:So, pat, you are very compelling because you've built this career on coaching, but you clearly have this other side of your brain that is data-focused, that is about connectivity. Help me fill in the rest of the blanks on that other side of your brain that made you want to take on this very ambitious project.
Speaker 3:Part of it is just kind of the underdog story, almost, where a player is trying to find their way. They have grandparents that are from Vietnam. They don't know how to get in touch with the Federation. You know, the dream kind of ends there, because if their coach doesn't have a connection, don't know how to get in touch with the federation. You know, the dream kind of ends there because if their coach doesn't have a connection or their director doesn't have a direct connection at the moment, then that dream kind of dies.
Speaker 3:And so my idea was that we're giving everyone kind of an equal opportunity. If, if you have parents or grandparents that aren't from this country and you dream of representing that nation in a World Cup, qualifying or whatever your dream may be in terms of representing a country, then that's kind of the dream that I'd like to help players fulfill, and the Federation will ultimately determine whether or not those players have the ability to do it. But that's not my goal with the project. My goal with the project is to connect them and then the opportunity is theirs to seize.
Speaker 2:We're going to take a quick break to visit with some ECNL sponsors, but when we return we'll have more with the director of the ECNL Heritage Project, Pat McSay.
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Speaker 2:The more and more involved I get with the ECNL, they send me out to call the select all-star games. It's one of the coolest things I do and I do a lot of cool things, having been broadcasting games 30 years where they get to talk to the players during the game, and it's a really neat experience for me. I love it and I've pretty much taken on everyone that is available. I got one coming up in a month or so in Richmond that I'll be at and then one in Greensboro. I got to go to Texas again and everything else. That's my way of saying, whether it's creating this select national game or doing what you're doing, the ECNL truly cares about the player and the player's pathway, even if it means headed down to the islands to represent a national team. Is that fair to say? I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 3:a national team. Is that fair to say? I couldn't agree more. I have not hit a roadblock yet in terms of trying to make this dream project a reality. So when I they only want to think of solutions, they never think of any of these things as a problem. So anytime that I've brought it up, I've gotten nothing but support, and I'm looking forward to the next three years of this project.
Speaker 2:And to add an exclamation point onto that last sentiment and your answer, it's not like they get a barrel of money for helping a team come up with a player. It's because you truly care about the player. Is that correctly?
Speaker 3:said yeah, I mean, it's the player's game and I think that our responsibility as adults and as the ECNL as a league is to give every player as many chances as possible in the game, and I think that this is just another way to do that. So I'm extremely happy to have partnered with the ECNL and be working for them now with this project.
Speaker 2:If you've listened to me at all and maybe you haven't, but I do multiple podcasts and one of my favorite books and I do multiple speeches. I often talk about Malcolm Gladwell's tipping point. So, to the best of your recollection, pat, tell me how this took off. I mean, you clearly had an idea one night. Maybe it was over dinner, maybe it was when you were sleeping, I don't know. But take me back to the tipping point of hey, that's pretty interesting. Why don't we bring you on to do this and a lot in between that? But try to walk me through how this happened.
Speaker 3:If anyone knows me, they know that I have a lot of really bad ideas, but I just throw them out anyway and, uh, usually with the the first 10 to 15 bad ideas, comes a good idea.
Speaker 3:So as I was trying to juggle this conundrum I had in my head when I was uh to find players for Samoa, I was also kind of voicing my frustration in my office and it eventually came out in a way that was more of, instead of complaining, a solution which turned into a project. And so I wrote it all down one night, probably six to eight months ago, and sent it to Jay Howell and said if this is a good idea, let me know, if it's not, also let me know, and then I'll just stop talking about it. And he got back to me a few days later and said yeah, this is actually a good idea. I think that you should find a way to pitch it to the ECNL and see what they say. And so that's kind of how the idea came about. It's very similar to what you said. It was not necessarily over dinner one night or in a dream, but I just had this reoccurring idea that started out in my head and ended up as the project.
Speaker 2:Well, jay, when you think of the ECNL, you think of him in the early days and then also think of him making a very steady handoff to, you know, the people that are there now. I think Christian was there from the beginning, but he's very much part of the beginning of the ECNL. So who did he send you to? Christian? Who'd you go to next to get it moving?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I went to Christian, I kind of sent him the idea of the email, asked if we could potentially talk about it, and you know, two or three meetings later we decided that it was a good enough project, well thought out enough at the moment to kind of move forward with it.
Speaker 2:And so that was the exciting part, and that was about five months ago I'm going to bring up Lauren again because I've had him on this show as well and he showed a couple interesting stories about during his time leading ECNL teams. He saw, for instance, a black goal goalkeeper and then he was able to kind of catch what he thought was one of their parents near them and, according to him, had a very much a Jamaican look which he would know because he grew up in Jamaica and, lo and behold, he went over, asked the question and the answer was yes, in fact we are Jamaican, or partly Jamaican, definitely enough Jamaican where that player can become a part of the team. Are you also doing that as part of this process?
Speaker 3:I think that I personally get better at it as I watch teams and look at rosters and see last names and can start to make some educated guesses. If every director dove a little bit deeper into their own rosters, I think that they would find that some players have some very interesting backgrounds. I just did it here. A few months ago I was at Jefferson Cup. Actually, not a few months ago.
Speaker 3:A few weeks ago I was at Jefferson Cup and talking to a parent actually about the project and you know they have a pretty, I guess, mundane last name that I didn't think twice about happened. To ask them a question, I found out that the mom's mom, the kid's grandmother, was actually born in England and it's a pretty high level player and so, you know, two days later I was connecting them with the English FA. So I think that my curiosity about the project has led me to a few stories like that. I was playing against a club this fall, noticed a player playing center back. It was a U19 girls team and I asked the coach a couple questions after the game and figured out that she had some Filipino heritage and connected her with Philippines. Take an extra, make an extra effort, so to speak to maybe find out the background of their own players or if they're playing against someone who is pretty high level, just digging in a little bit deeper, because you never know what you're going to find.
Speaker 2:The ECNL, as I mentioned at the start of this interview with Pat McStay, which has been fascinating, is excited to announce the launch of the ECNL Heritage Project. It'll be spearheaded by the director of the ECNL Heritage Project, pat McStay, our guest today on Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast. Now, pat, I've got to ask some tough questions. They can't be all softballs, but recently Casey Fair represented South Korea in the World Cup and then came back and headed out west to play for Angel City. At just 17 or 18 years old I've seen Casey Fair play. I know the USA team is loaded. She looks to me like somebody that might have enough talent to make the USA team anywhere. So I, as a USA citizen, get a little bit jealous. Right that she's playing for South Korea and not for the USA. Tell me how I agree. Yeah, tell me how I learned to deal with that.
Speaker 3:As a fan, I think that you hope that the United States has the right people identifying talent. I would say the same thing. I just watched LA play KC current the other day, and I would say the same thing about a few other players in the mix at the youth level. So my hope is that making the U S aware that this project exists also helps them maybe put more resources into identifying talent or bringing players in earlier or bringing more players in. So it only what's the quote? Iron sharpens iron. I think that that can be said here.
Speaker 2:You know what else it says to me and I want to try to say it the right way, but you know, I met Christian Lavers long before I ever started doing the podcast or calling games and always considered him the smartest man in the room, and then I feel like he surrounded himself with a lot more smart people including you, quite frankly, pat and one of the things that I always get from him is, hey, if US soccer doesn't want to hear from us directly, but we can show them how we can help them, that's fine with me as well, and he and he does it in his own special way with great people around him. Hopefully you understood that question, because it seems to me, like you know, he's doing this to clearly also make sure that he identifies players that are on the periphery, that could play for a different country. But I also feel like, in some little way, he's given a little wink to the Federation to say, hey, we can also help you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can't speak for Christian or the conversations that go on, probably 18 levels above me. I'm just excited about giving these players opportunities, and if it just so happens that we identify a player who's a dual national and because of that it accelerates their US national team process, then so be it.
Speaker 2:So, pat, as you sit there right now, knowing that you're still doing quite a bit of coaching, right? You said you're doing a ton of coaching, right? Okay, have you already figured out how you allocate the right amount of time to the Heritage Project? Great question.
Speaker 3:When it first started a few months ago, and we rolled it out pretty slowly, I had quite a bit of time on my hands and not enough players coming into the database. Now it's a little bit of the opposite, where I have almost 150 players with nationalities ranging from Japan to Sudan, and so I've got to now find a way to connect those players with the Federation. Sometimes the Federations aren't as organized as we would like them to be sending an email and getting an email back, or making a phone call and having someone answer the phone. So, yes, the time it's taking to make sure I'm doing right by the players who are now a part of the project has increased exponentially. But that's part of what I accepted when I took the role as the director of the Heritage Project was that it was going to get busy, and so I now have exactly what I wanted, which was a lot of players in the database and, hopefully, the ability to connect them to the federations that they're seeking out. So I just have to manage my time.
Speaker 2:All right, outstanding Three questions for you. A couple of them are truly softballs, but I still want to get your thoughts, knowing that you're diving in as the lead of this ECNL Heritage Project. The first four letters are ECNL. When you hear ECNL, what does it mean to Pat McStay?
Speaker 3:For me, it's the best league in the world. I think that it's the most well-run. They take the most time, they're meticulous. I just think it's the best platform for players.
Speaker 2:Great answer If you were given that same amount of time that you just gave to answer that question. To answer this one, and that is Pat, you only got a couple sentences to tell me what the ECNL Heritage Project is. How would you answer that?
Speaker 3:cnl heritage project is. How would you answer that? Uh, it's a project for aspiring players who want to fulfill their dreams of playing on a national team, and it doesn't always have to be the united states. Do your research as a player, as a director, as a coach, and and if there are players who may be eligible for another national team, then fill out the form and we'll try to connect you five, 10 years from now.
Speaker 2:what would Pat McStay describe as success and progress for the ECNL Heritage Project?
Speaker 3:Great question. So let's go. World Cup qualifying is going on right now. I see lots on social media about ECNL players being able to represent different countries in that World Cup qualifying. So I think that's a checkmark for us. Not that the Heritage Project played a huge part in it yet, but I think that's a step in the right direction that these players are able to help these countries try to qualify for the World Cup. It's a very difficult, time-consuming process anyway. So I think that that is part one. I think part two is getting to either a Youth World Cup or the full World Cup and being able to watch more than one game and say that player is from the ECNL, that player is from the ECNL, that player is from the ECNL and just be really excited about the small part that the Heritage Project played in that.
Speaker 2:Great answer. I believe repetition is information. So, as we end this great interview, pat, it's been great to get to know you. I love that you're digging in and making this happen. It's, it's fascinating. Remind everybody, until it is posted on the website, your email one more time so they can reach out to you.
Speaker 2:Yep, pat at the ECNLcom. Pat at the ECNLcom that's Pat McStay. He is the director of the ECNL Heritage Project. An outstanding concept idea and he ran it up the right flagpoles and now he's running it on his own. Pat McStay, well done, my man. I'm excited about this. I can't wait to follow it and, assuming I know the ECNL as well as I do, they're such a great marketing outlet They'll let us know when you land players at different countries. I'm assuming that's correct, right, pat? I hope so. Yes, that's the plan anyway. All right, awesome. Pat McStay, the director of the ECNL Heritage Project, did a great job breaking down what it is and what it means. And it means that the league, like they have said all along, they care about their players, whether they want to go to ironically, I'm wearing a Rutgers hat or whether they want to go to the Cook Islands or the Marshall Islands, they can get it done. Pat, great to be with you, man, keep going and all the best. Glad to have you on the podcast.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2:We are off and rolling. When we return, we visit with Michael Renwig from MVLA. I sat down with him at the ECNL Coaches Symposium and AGM in January. You'll like my visit with Michael Renwick after these messages.
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 the line, the ECNL podcast. Amazing, evergreen material collected at the seventh annual ECNL coaching symposium and AGM held in Las Vegas. It has been the biggest and best ever held by the ECNL and we are meeting some of the biggest and best celebrities of the ECNL and that's why they're on breaking the line, the ECNL podcast. So pleased to be joined by Michael Renwick by way of Scotland. He is the technical director for MVLASC and Michael Renwick joins me now. Michael, thanks for being on Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Dean, one of the things that I like to do if you listen to the podcast is I like to make sure everybody hears your story. You have that wonderful Scottie Sackshent. We talked before we came on the air about some ties I have to some people from Scotland and I always make the natural assumption that everybody in Scotland knows everybody in Scotland and you knew some of them. But, michael, tell me your story. When you grew up in Scotland, did you play over there? When did you come to the United States? What made you come to the United States? What clubs did you end up to? And then how did you eventually end up at MV LASC? That's a lot, but it's a podcast, so we have time for you to tell us your story. Do you mind doing that for us?
Speaker 4:absolutely um, you know I was a kid like any other kid in the country. I had dreams, dreams and aspirations to forge a career as a professional soccer player and, as we all know, the stats are very low on who goes on to achieve that. But you know, soccer was my passion as a child from you know, when I was able to walk I was kicking things and that was just probably a gene thing that was passed through my father. Scotland's a little bit different, you know, it's like a religion, the game of football. It was the only thing that was interesting as a child was kicking a ball around and you know I was introduced to football at an early age. It's not got the organisation that the game has in the world nowadays. It was straight into 11 vs 11 and I was at a very young age and I just had to figure things out and obviously I had a talent that was recognised as I started to develop through the age groups.
Speaker 4:I think I was around 13 at the time when I first ventured into the professional, as it's known now, the academy system and I was approached by Dundee Football Club to go and train two days a week with their selected group. They had a Dundee's an hour north of where I'm located in Edinburgh. So they had a training centre in Edinburgh where the best players that were identified from the Edinburgh area would go and train at Dundee or for Dundee, should I say and that was the start of me being identified by pro clubs. I'd play for my boys' club prior to that, which was Hutchison Vale, which is a very successful boys' club in the Edinburgh area or in Scotland, actually Very successful. The number of players that they've produced that have gone on to play professional football, that was the start of it.
Speaker 4:In terms of the professional exposure, I was at Dundee who wanted me to sign a schoolboy form. At that time I was highly discouraged to do that by my parents. They wanted me to explore as many clubs as I can from the professional aspect. So I didn't sign the school boy form, although I wanted to, and I then experienced Dundee, hibernian Hearts and then Brighton and Tovalbian would find me down in the school holidays to go and train with the youth apprentices. At that time I just had a great exposure to different clubs and different experiences and different environments and when I came to leave in school at 15 years old I had multiple offers from different clubs to make it a decision time. And Hibernia then came in when I was 15 years old and offered me a youth professional or a YTS at that time youth training scheme to be a two-year contract as a youth professional. And it was a hometown club there's two clubs in that city and I must say that I was a little bit torn because I had such a fantastic experience going on the school holidays to train at Brighton and that was where my heart was was to try to go there. Brighton at that time it was the second division before the premiership then took off in 1992 I believe I think it was 1991 and Brighton were in the second division and they'd made the playoffs to try to get to the the old first division and were beaten by Notts County in the play-off. But I had such a wonderful experience going there. I was treated very well, I was highly thought of by the coaching staff there, so that was pulling me in one direction. But at the same time Hibernian is a big club in Edinburgh. I eventually made the decision to go to Hibernian. So that was the start of my professional journey.
Speaker 4:I was 15 years old, I was going into a working environment with seasoned professional players and it was a culture shock to me. You know, all of a sudden you're a top-level youth player now going into training with 25, 24, 26-year-old seasoned professionals. I used to go home every evening and I used to go to bed. I used to think I'm a million miles away from where I need to get to and I could not see light at the end of the tunnel. It was just very, very challenging and I say that in terms of the whole environment of being exposed to adults, being taken out of this comfort zone as a kid, to be thrown in and treated like an adult, the way you were spoken to, the way you were expected to play. You know there was no biological understanding of as a 15 year old kid going to play against 25, 26 year old players in the reserve team. It was sink or swim. As I said for the first I think it was for the first nine to ten, eleven months I used to think to myself I'm a million miles away from where I need to get to. And then, I think, when I got to 17, the light bulb came on or the switch just flicked. I thought now I see a little bit of progress. And I did. I made my first team debut away at Kilmarnock on the last day of the season. There was two of us from the youth team Made our debuts. Then was in I'm going to say that would have been about 1993, where I made my first team debut in the last, the last game of the season, and then that was really the start of it.
Speaker 4:I had nine years at hibernian, made wonderful friends, wonderful experiences, and you know there was a lot of ups and there was a lot of downs, and that's just part of the journey that I've then took on to my coaching experience. That you know there's a lot of, a lot of downs and that's just part of the journey that I've then took on to my coaching experience. That you know there's a lot of, a lot of more negatives than there is positives if you become an elite, elite athlete unless you're at the really, really, really top end with you know, I mean there's only so many clubs that can be successful on the world stage the Real Madrid's, the man City's and the Liverpool's. The rest of the clubs there's a lot of downs in the game rather than experiencing the high moments and the successful moments. And again, that shaped me in terms of my own personal career and the character I had to develop with being a local kid that come to play for their hometown club, and a lot of criticism that came that way.
Speaker 2:Glad that you, even at a young age, kind of realized that you were going to have to fight through it to find it, and then, at 17, you did so. When did you pop over to the US and where have you been before you arrived at MVLA?
Speaker 4:So, prior to coming to the US, I retired from US. I was retired from playing when I was 30. I went to become an assistant manager in the second division in Scotland. I had an ex-colleague of mine who was a manager, so that started my coaching journey and then, after nine months, I then went out on my own and became a manager for another lower league Scottish club. That didn't work out. I was the youngest manager in the UK at that time. That didn't work out. I was sacked.
Speaker 4:So I then had to reinvent myself and there was a lot of valuable lessons learned in that period. So I then went to run a higher education programme headed at Watford University, and I was there for four years and I worked for the Scottish National Universities programme. I was the head coach for that, and that then led me to get an invitation to go to Cal State, bakersfield, where I'd done some coach education with a guy called Simon Tobin. He gave me the opportunity to coach his college team every summer. I'd done that for two years. On the back of that, I came out in 2013 in August 2013 to a club called Red Star Soccer Academy, which Adriano Allain who brought me out, which is in Northern California and I spent five years there and then in that period I also worked at San Jose Earthquakes in their system, before then making the move to MVLA in 2019 with Albertine Montoya and Joe Cannon, who gave me that opportunity.
Speaker 2:Oh my, I love Albertine Montoya. I mean, he's one of the all-time classics I'd call his games when he's at the WPS and now, of course, he's headed to coach the Bay Area team. Will he stay tied to everything that's going on at MVLA? I mean, that's even where I think his daughter played right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's a rich history of the Montoyas at MVLA, I think. For me MVLA is Montoya, so I think obviously Alberto, which is Albertine's father, who's very instrumental in the way the club is shaped to this day. Albertine obviously played his career there, his youth career there, and went on to be very successful, the foundations that he's left now behind. His wife, erin, is still there, still present, and there's the technical director on the girls' side, so it's in good hands and Albertine is still present, albeit less visible Right, but the presence of Montoya is very much still alive at MVLA.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, because they have one star, I think at Stanford right, they have one right, and how many kids do they have?
Speaker 4:Ali and Mikey. So Ali's now I think she's second year at Stanford and Mikey is a 2008 at MVLA.
Speaker 2:So Albertine still coaches Mikey's team and you see him going to the next level, whether it's straight to pro or college as well.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think obviously the next step will be the college route, which is a tradition in this country and that's a culture. So yeah, I fully expect that to happen, that he will follow in Ali's footsteps in going to the college games. It's a very talented team that Albertine has developed there. You know there's a lot of players on that team that can go on to bigger and greater things.
Speaker 2:Well, Michael, I'm so glad that you credited that M for Montoya, but remind us what MVLA does stand for, if you don't mind.
Speaker 2:So MVLA is Mountain View Los Altos, which is two cities in the Silicon Valley, mountain View and Los Altos, and I think it was around 1972 where both of them, the two names, amalgamated and then it formed Mountain View Los Altos Soccer Club and then I gotta believe, based on everything that the Matoyas have done that and I know you know you said you joined there around 2019, but I gotta believe that MVLA was one of the originals with the ECNL, if not one of the originals. They joined pretty quickly. Do you know enough about their history to know that? Uh, particularly on the girls side, they stepped up right away.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I know they were very instrumental.
Speaker 4:Albertine was a big driver of ECNL yeah you know, as the history was in the girls side, that's when it started in 2009, I believe. So they've been very successful, you know, they've created a number of or developed a number of talented players that have gone on to play for the national team yes, our youth national teams and D1 colleges and, as well as you know, a lot of that success down to the Montoya's Erin, who I think, um, you know, doesn't quite get the the recognition that she probably deserved, because I think of Albertine, yeah, but you know Erin is very much instrumental, but Albertine, you know, very successful in his own right. So a lot of rich history at the club on the girl's side and obviously, when the boy's side developed in Northern California, albertine was a huge driver for that.
Speaker 2:I think Aaron went on to a really high level and I think I may be wrong here, but I think Marguerite Alassassa if she didn't play there, she helped coach there and, of course, all she did is win a national championship in her first year at UCLA. I'm right about Marguerite being tied to MVLA as well, am I not?
Speaker 4:Absolutely. She played on Albertine, albertine coached her. Ok, and I do remember the stories of Albertine sharing when she was just a little girl and she was picking little flowers in the grass. And now you look at the journey she's been on since then, it's quite astonishing to now be to win a national championship there with UCLA. And that coaching journey started at MVLA. So again, it just shows you the mentoring that the guys have done, the Montoyles have done for Magri and the rest of us that are following in that pathway.
Speaker 2:Michael, it's clear that MVLASC doesn't need an NWSL team to be great. They've done it for years without it. But the fact that it is back and Albertine's involved, what a nice outlet for all of the talent you have there, if they can get to a game or two a year. Do you agree with that sentiment?
Speaker 4:Absolutely. I think the women's game has changed dramatically from a professional aspect. I think it women's game has changed dramatically from a professional aspect. I think it's just grown and grown. And to have a club you know, now obviously we have the San Jose Earthquakes on our doorstep for the male side of the game. To have that for the female side is huge. It does provide now a clear pathway, or opportunity, shall we say, for those that you know that show that necessary skill level and you know application. That there is a pathway to a local pro club and you know it'll be interesting to see how that shapes up in the coming years yeah, I can't wait at all.
Speaker 2:Your background is great. I'm glad you spent some extra time kind of breaking it down. To be fair, I mean, you still look like you're 30. So the fact that it was after 30 when you came over here, michael, says a lot about, I think, how much you love your job, because I always feel like the people that look the youngest are the ones that love your job. Is it fair to say you love your job?
Speaker 4:Thank you for the compliment, say you love your job. Thank you for the compliment. It might be the california lifestyle that doesn't hurt. So, um, yeah, I mean football has been my passion. You know, as I said, the journey I was on as a kid, whether it was whether I'm a professional, whether I was, you know, back home, just being a volunteer, I'd still be involved in the game somehow, just because of my upbringing and my. You know the culture that is in the UK. It's like a religion.
Speaker 2:I've been doing this a lot with our guests and I'm usually just looking for one or two sentences. Sometimes folks do it in even five words. It's totally up to you, but when you hear these four letters, particularly based on your vast experience, including overseas at Scotland, tell me what it means to you, Michael. Those four letters are ECNL.
Speaker 4:I think what it says is elite. The first thing that comes to you is elite, and then obviously, the club, the National League, and I think for me, the big thing is about being elite and I always stress that to the kids and the boys that I coach that to be at this level you have to be elite in everything you do, the way you carry yourself. You represent not only your family name but the logo that's on your chest, and I think that's very important that elite when you're playing in an elite environment, that you have to carry yourself as an elite athlete. And I just think you know that ECNL facilitates that for our clubs. That allows us, as technical people, to then try to develop these elite athletes that can go on and share maybe the journey that I have been on um throughout my youth to my adult um career just now.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I think it's a fantastic platform that ECNL gives the kids in this, this wonderful country well, we're always glad that we find the right people that make their journey over here and they get at the right place. Obviously, mvlasc has a tremendous history. You broke it down so eloquently. The technical director for mv la sc, michael. Great to have you on breaking the line. The ecnl podcast. Thank you so much for being a part of the show. Thank you, dean.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me take a quick break and we'll come back with the head coach, the north carolina courage, who also was a keynote speaker at this year's ecnl coaching symposium and agm in las vegas, sean nahas, head coach of the North Carolina Courage, when we return. 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. 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.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast, part of our collection of interviews for all of the speakers that participated in the 2024 ECNL Coaching Symposium and AGM in Las Vegas the biggest and best they've ever had. Over 750 ECL coaches, docs, ceos, you name it. They were here and the speaker list was off the chart. Over the last several weeks, you've heard from some of the great speakers, and I'm so glad that Sean Nahas was one of the key speakers. If you know me, you know that I know Sean well. Sean just finished his second season as the head coach of the Courage in the NWSL and signed a three-year extension for the future, which is just outstanding. Prior to that, he was an assistant coach for the Courage from 2017 to 2021, helping them to multiple league championships, while also holding director roles with the then named Capital Area Soccer League, now NCFC Youth and the NC Courage Academy since 2004. He also held various assistant coach and scouting roles with U14, u15, u19, and U20 US Soccer Youth National Teams. One thing that has to be said is, in those first two years, sean won not one, but two Challenge Cups, so he has already added to a very big trophy case for the North Carolina Courage.
Speaker 2:And with that, sean, who just got done presenting in front of 700 ECNL leaders, joins me now. Sean, great to be with you. Appreciate it, dane, thanks for having me. Yeah, sean, you very much controlled the room. Your presentation was powerful. Let's start with that. Did you have a name for the presentation or kind of a general scope of what you were trying to talk about in the presentation? What of a general scope of what you were trying to talk about in the presentation? What'd you call it?
Speaker 5:yeah, it was sort of uh when I spoke with christian about it, just wanted to get an idea of what they were looking for. Um, and he just wanted me to combine my, my experiences from the youth and the pro and the similarities between and. So it was just sort of a a journey from youth to pro and the similar is really what I was called similarities between the two, and it's interesting how people think pro and youth two different worlds, but they're really not. They're quite similar.
Speaker 2:You know well. You maybe don't know everybody, but you know almost everybody in that room, and not all of them would admit that they want to. You know, be you and do what you do, but a lot of them would. I don't know if that came up, but if they did come up and ask you and say what's the biggest way to get to where you are, what would you say, sean, based on your incredible background?
Speaker 5:I mean, I'm quite fortunate with my experiences, but I think the more you can put yourself in moments to be on the grass and challenge yourself and grow, and you find yourself getting opportunities. And I think so often people wait for others to give you the opportunity. And I'm more of the, I'm going to go seek it, I'm going to go find it and then, when I'm in it, I'm going to make it the most and best I possibly can. That's how I've always been and I don't want anything given to me. You know, I think the two most dangerous words are want and need in the coaching world, like I want to coach this team and or I need to coach this team, and the way I look at it is you need to do this if you want to do that, and that's sort of the approach that I've taken.
Speaker 2:It was Sean Nahas, the top man for the North Carolina Courage. I heard quite a bit of your presentation, but not all of it. But a couple of things that I walked away with is you set an example. We just had the NWSL draft and I'm not sure if it was directly correlated to that, but you said somebody called you that was on the team and said, hey, you drafted X player. You know what does that mean for me and I liked your answer. But can you just talk about that a little bit?
Speaker 5:Yeah, and look, I think that's. These players are so caught up in their roles, right, and they all want to play, they all want to perform, but I think with this one it's more of a. It's the inevitable. There's always growth and we're looking for the future. We're not looking for the, you know, this next year per se. So when you start making decisions, it starts to get in their own mind. It trickles in like what does this mean for me? And really what it comes down to is you have to trust the process. We have a track record of what we do with developing players. Our whole back line is players that no one would have thought would have played the way they did. So you just have to reinforce it and understand that they're going to get their time, they're going to get their moment, they're going to be taught the same way, and as long as we live by that, then that's all that matters, and then, really, when they get the opportunity, it's what they do with it.
Speaker 2:So it's a tough sell for sure, but it's one that we welcome. You're hearing Sean Nahas, the top man for the North Carolina Courage. Another thing you said and part of it was during your youth days, you know coaching, as you kept coaching up and building your way all the way up to now leading the North Carolina Courage is don't come to me with problems, come to me with a resolution to the problem. I like the way that sounds. Can you expound on that?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think so often and I'm guilty of this too, I think so often we want to take, we want to take blame off ourselves and put it on someone else because that's just common, common nature. And I think for me that's. I've learned that that's not the case, like if someone's deficient in something, my job is to help them be efficient in it and rather than say, oh well, they haven't learned it, that's my fault and let them continue to be deficient, because that to me, deficiency shows an opportunity and when you have opportunity, I may be the person, or you may be the person, that can light something in that opportunity. That also, this player becomes something they never knew.
Speaker 5:And it's the example I gave of ryan williams. Like she never thought that she would be fitting in my style or our style of play and I said, well, I guess we're never going to know unless you trust the process. And you know she felt that maybe these are certain areas. And now look at her. You know her. I mean, she's one of our best players. So, yeah, you got to. You can't. If there's a problem, help fix it, don't continue the problem. That's how I am going these days.
Speaker 2:Bouncing around to different layers of your presentation, which was really well received. I mean really well received, sean. So so well job. Yeah, my pleasure is. One of the things that you talked about is your coaching staff, which is really important because even if they're not coaching at the NWSL and only a few people get to do what you get to do, sean, and I'm glad that you talked about, you know, looking in the mirror and knowing that. But you said, you know, nathan and Emma were with you earlier, so you kind of knew how they worked and kind of how you talk and they talk and that type of thing, and you know that's part of the process. But then you talked about adding two new coaches and one of the things that they were doing was saying you know, we used to do this that way and that type of thing. And I think you brought them in and said, hey, you know, with all due respect, we don't talk that way. Walk me through that, because I loved hearing that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think it's just. It's just what they're. It's just what people are used to. You come from a new job and I'm guilty of it too. It's it's not. It's not common when they're not sure they're learning just as much as the new players are. So I looked at it as man maybe I haven't educated them enough and the conversations kept going well, yeah, we used to do this, we used to do that. And I just said, no, it's what we do here, it's no longer what used to happen, it's what we do here. So this is what we do. And it's important that that verbiage is being said is spread across, because if there's any deficient area where the players can seep in, because the players will read right through it. And it wasn't anything guilty, it wasn't anything that was purposefully done, it was just common. So once they saw it and adjusted it, it was easy. But my staff's tremendous. I'm not anything. We didn't have any success this year without my staff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you say that a lot. What is it about your staff that makes you say that and mean it?
Speaker 5:Well one. They got to deal with me and I'm a perfectionist, you know I strive for greatness. I want to catch excellence and chase perfection, and that's just my common nature. I think that's how I've been brought up. But they understand me and well kind of. But they're great with the players how they teach. They're football coaches and they study it. But they believe in what we're doing and I think that's so important to have as a staff. Their roles are still evolving, but it's becoming a lot easier to give things when they do the job that they do.
Speaker 2:That's a very endearing answer. I'm not sure when this one will drop in comparison to my interview with you with the United Soccer Coaches podcast. Sean, as you know, I wear lots of hats and love what I do, including being the voice of the North Carolina Courage when they have local games. I love every time and I get excited every time. But you know, when you sat with me, one of the things that I took away with it is you did say, because I said hey, man, christian Labors is really pumped about you being there. You know, like what's going on, man, you're out there and you're making things happen.
Speaker 2:And you talked about looking in the mirror and I wasn't totally sure what that meant, but it sounded great to me and I was so excited and enthusiastic about that interview you mentioned a little bit here during your conversation. But I mean, that's a lot, sean. You just were at the, you did the draft, you did podcast row. You're all over the place and now you're here. What is it about today's Sean Nahas, now in his third year of the North Carolina Courage that wants his message to be heard yeah, I mean I, you know me, I don't.
Speaker 5:I don't like the spotlight, I don't like it's just. I mean me, my brother, the same way, like we just stay on the periphery. But I think the success we had this year I just started to catch wind of how it showed to people and you know, there's other ways to do things and if we keep giving in to the norm, then how are we ever going to grow as a country in terms of football? So I think I've also just become we're ever going to grow as a country in terms of football. So I think I've also just become more confident in who I am as a coach.
Speaker 5:I think the 2021 year was a real eye-opener for me. 2022, much because of the players and how they were so coachable and the things that they took on made me really feel like I knew what I was doing. Not that I never did, but I just felt more comfortable, I felt trusted more and to see the way the game showed out and the way we played and the style of football that we played and some of the data points that we showed up there, it's like, okay, we did something pretty cool and I want that to be heard, because I want to help grow the women's game. I don't want to be stuck in the past, so that's why I started doing this stuff and I love doing it.
Speaker 2:All right, so that's why I started doing this stuff and I love doing it. All right, so let's take a dive into that. And you've probably answered this question in different forms and, more importantly, the way you've kind of answered it is scoreboard. You said look at the scoreboard. But you know, the North Carolina Courage lost a lot of big time players almost on purpose. I feel like you kind of saw what you needed to see and we're kind of moving on. And then all year long you had to listen to people like me although I didn't say this and, by the way, I want to thank you for the way you treat me on those calls. You're always very nice to me, by the way. I love that.
Speaker 2:I hope that means I'm asking smart questions, yeah, no all good, all good, but you know, you kind of in your own way, did say scoreboard. I mean, how can you explain envisioning getting rid of all those veterans, bringing in who you wanted to bring in, keeping the core of the team, making a big deal out of naming Denise O'Sullivan, my favorite player, the captain, and then being able to come all the way back and say scoreboard, because there you were, you won the Challenge Cup and you were knocking on the door. I mean, you were right there, ready to win it all. How did you envision all of that?
Speaker 5:I mean, if you listen to the doubters, you don't envision anything. Okay, you know and I think unfortunately the audio didn't play in the video but it was all the pundits saying I pick them to finish 12th, I pick them to finish 12th, I pick them to finish 12th. They've lost their whole back line. Those same people are saying I can't believe you guys have kept all your draft picks. We love them. It's like well, you've just got to trust us a little bit. And I think you know it's interesting, because I never looked at it as this is we're going to be successful. I mean, we started the season one and four and don't think for a second that there were no doubts in my mind, like, is this not going to work? But the players never wavered. So I learned from them by their actions and I noticed that they never questioned anything. They came to work every single day. They bought in everything we were asking and I knew at some point it would trickle in.
Speaker 5:And the one game was the Houston game. In Houston, when we only played the half because of the weather, I went back in the locker room and then, once the game was called, I said this is it. This is our turning point because we played such good football and I just knew at that moment we were only going to evolve. But I never once put a mark on it, I never once talked about results. I let them happen naturally and fluidly, and it's a credit to the players and that we never wavered from 1-4 and ended up being close to winning a shield.
Speaker 2:Because you're right here. The ECNL did want me to ask you about coming off the draft and some of the changes you made. So if it's okay, if you could talk about the players that you've added and why you added them, and then the players that you drafted and why you drafted them, and then finish. This is a lot, sean. I'm sorry, but then finish with the heartbreak of losing a couple players that I don't think you wanted to lose. I know you love Bodie and I loved Bodie, but it's part of it, right. So again, the new players that didn't come through the draft, the players that you did draft, and then just a comment on a couple that you lost that you wish well.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think from the players that we lost. That's sort of the starting point as to how we entered the draft. Obviously, when you lose Tess not because we wanted to lose Tess the expansion draft we knew that they were going to take our play. We did everything in our power to not have them take our players, but they wanted our players because I think they want to play similarly to how we do. The one we surprised was Caitlin Rowland, but she's from that area and she's good with her feet and that's the direction that they went in. Obviously, emily and Frankie this was an opportunity for them to get more time, so it was the right thing to do by them. But all of our players were so professional in how they handled it in our conversations they understood and they still have a massive part in what they did and helped us be successful this past year to help us build. So they're part of the foundation.
Speaker 5:Going into the draft, we wanted to get Ashley and once that became a viable option, we went full in and getting Ashley Sanchez is massive. It's massive and she'll suit us quite well. But then, when we looked at the rest of the draft, we wanted to make sure we we had a couple different options. We could sell the picks, we could move on, but we felt it was an opportunity to add some depth. And, you know, getting another center back and Stoudy.
Speaker 5:And Julia Dorsey from Chapel Hill, who is still coming back from a little bit of an injury but um can play multiple roles and, to be honest, her career over that.
Speaker 5:You've seen her play Chapel Hill but she earned that right to be a pro and we wanted to reward her for that. And then Landy Mertz, who I watched her play against Chapel Hill and I was like that kid suits our style. She sat against the line, she attacked the outside back and ate him up and I'm like that kid. And I said to the people before the draft I said if she's available, I'm going to take her because she's everything that we would want in a seven and with Carol being out, we needed a little bit of depth there. So it worked out perfectly and I've talked to people here and they're like man, you guys won the draft. Now they're saying that I think because of Ash, but that's part of the draft and full credit to our front office, full credit to my coaching staff for the scouting that they've done. This draft was as easy process as it could have been.
Speaker 2:I think I told you that I know the Mertz family really well, the babyface assassin, her brother, played for Michigan, a star in USL Championship with Pittsburgh and hopefully he'll play a little bit as well now that the other team's coming in. But you know, robbie married Kate Morris, who might be the nicest woman I've ever met in my entire life. She is Right, and the way I understand it is, the young woman merch that you're getting is the same kind of persons and you love that, right?
Speaker 5:I mean it's our locker room is so important, you know, and we've seen two different sides of it and, uh, we want to make sure we're bringing people in that have a good personality, to understand their role, that aren't coming in looking for anything, and I've had a couple of conversations with her and she's like humbled beyond belief but just is so excited to take part. All three were like. Stoudy was like nervous when she met us because it was just like holy heck, uh, julia, I knew obviously, and but she was so humbled by and and excited about it, and Mertz was like in tears. So when you get that feeling, that's why I think the draft is so critical, but yes, it was a pretty cool moment for us as a staff.
Speaker 2:We're with Sean Nahas, the head coach of the North Carolina Courage, entering his third year. He's already collected two trophies. He'll be very much open about the fact that one trophy that he definitely wants to win is the NWSL Championship, but it's part of the process as they continue to grow. I want to spend a little bit more time with you. I definitely want to talk about I don't even know if I'm supposed to do this as the broadcaster, but I've always been open about my love for Denise O'Sullivan and the way she plays the game. You know the ultimate junkyard dog, by the way, niall Quinn came in here and sat with me and we ended up talking about Denise O'Sullivan a long time, because he also loves her and Niall Quinn was a pretty good player, by the way you know, and being big time. What is it about Denise O'Sullivan that makes her so special?
Speaker 5:I mean, what's not about her? Yeah, I mean my relationship with Dee or Denise is unbelievable. I'm like you know it means everything to me as a coach, just to have that relationship. You know you can go to her and I think we have the relationship where she can come to me and say you need to snap out of it. That's just who she is.
Speaker 5:But she wants to be held to the same standard as everybody else. She doesn't want to be treated any differently and I think for her she's at a point in her career where now she's a little bit more of that vocal leader and leader and there's no question of who we were going to have as a captain. But she leads by example. She loves the crest, she represents the crest and, um, you know, for her to get the her first, the country's first world cup bid, and have her be a part of that it's, it says everything and the game is a good. Game is a good game because good people get rewarded, um, but she's just an unbelievable person high character, humble, honest, humble, honest, loving, but needs to be nasty when she needs to be nasty. And I'd much rather have her on our team than someone else's, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:That's well said. Okay, so we're going to forget about what happened before and we're only focused on the future, which is what you and I have always tried to do moving forward. But with that, steve Malik has added a ton of new owners, and really that kind of all came under the auspices. You're smart enough to know under the power of the North Carolina Courage, including the power that you were delivering as a head coach. That power in many ways has made Steve Malik's tireless commitment let alone his pocketbook, I think whole and has allowed you to push forward and get the three-year extension. And then it also, I think, has allowed the men's team to do things that they didn't think they could do before as well. That's a big role in all of that, because I know from where I sit. I feel good that Steve, if he hasn't got all his money back, he's got close to it back. I think he's got it all back and we're moving forward. Yeah, you know so I love that part of it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's interesting because I've talked to Steve. He's not a hands-on guy. He lets us do our job and we go to him when we need to go get answers and certain things. But I've probably talked to him five times in great detail and it's usually after we won or it's around the draft time and making player decisions. He doesn't, and I appreciate that about him. He's honest with me and I feel fortunate that he's entrusted me to lead this club into the future in this three year deal and there's no place else I want it to be.
Speaker 5:If there was some other interest, I'd never want it to leave North Carolina, at least not at this stage of my career. But when you get that trust from somebody and you explain your vision and these are the areas that we need to improve on, and he's like okay, go do it, but do it within this area Makes our life easy. And you look at this, I mean look at the signing we had today with Feli Rausch from Germany. No one that was on no one's bingo card, right, you know Right. So he's excited. But he also knows that we need some things to improve on and he's done that for us.
Speaker 2:Alright, so I want to spend the final five minutes because you're here as a presenter at the ECNL coaching symposium. Youth soccer has meant so much to you. You devoted your life to youth soccer. When you look at the power of the ECNL, when you know that 75% of the players that were in the college cup are from the ECNL, when you know that 75% of the players that were in the college cup are from the ECNL 14 players from Florida state were from the ECNL what does Sean Nahas say about what the ECNL continues to mean to the youth soccer landscape and, more importantly, where you sit as a head coach in the NWSL?
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's a, it's a platform. It's the best platform for youth women's footballers. Um, and I say that because so many people say they look at it as, oh you know, clubs, ecno, developing players and this. And then I'm like the ecno is providing a platform for players to develop. What the clubs do with those players is completely up to them. That's where the development happens and if you develop properly, then the platform is there for them. If you don't develop properly, then it's no one else's fault but the individual club. You can't blame a league platform for a development process. So it's really looking at yourselves internally and saying, ok, well, these are the areas we're in this platform. We know it's going to be competitive. How are we going to improve? How are we going to develop our players so that when they're in that platform now they're ready to go? And I think what they've done for the I mean I started originally with the.
Speaker 5:I mean I think heck, I think it was the red bull league back in the day, if I'm allowed to say that or not. But um, and then I was just talking to christian after my presentation. I'm not he's, he's like to think where we started from. I was like it's a credit to you guys the work you've put in, all the chaos that you've taken on, and you know you stood by it, you believed in it.
Speaker 5:You know and and I always say this if you're a part of something like all these clubs are a part of the ecno there's no reason why you should say anything other than positive things to help it grow. Otherwise, don't be a part of it. That's how I look at. Otherwise, you're a part of the problem that you're complaining about. So are you in it so that you can say I'm a part of an ECNL or do you trust the platform that's in place? Because if you trust the platform in place, like you should, then you're going to help it grow to be something really special. And the fact that they're having a symposium for just their coaches what other league is doing that? So it's a credit to the, to the staff, and I'm friends with all these people. But to see where it started, where it is now, I mean they should be really proud of it, because anyone that's been a part of it should be proud of it, because they had a small piece in it, but they've.
Speaker 2:They've done something really special because you've been so gracious with your time. I want to loop it back to what has been a consistent message from you all season long, and I talked to you about it as well at the other symposium, where you were not afraid to look into that camera and say you need to come out and support and here's my tie-in. So you're talking about this platform, right, and they continue to evolve. I think part of that evolving needs to be watching the best of the best. That means, quite frankly, sean, going to the North Carolina Courage games to see them play. That's my way to tie in, give you the mic to say once again why it's important not just one game here or there, but to continually have 8,000, 9,000, 10,000 people watch the North Carolina Courage.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean look, I think I said it in my podcast for you at the convention it's the risk, and I say this all the time. Anytime I'm in front of a business or something, I always say this the risk is not by investing in women's sport. The risk is by not investing in women's sport. So get yourselves into the crowd. Like the past happened. We understand, but we've done enough to prove that we're trying to build something special.
Speaker 5:Don't be a fan of individual players. Be a supporter. I don't like the word fans because fans waffle Supporters support. Fans pick and choose, supporters support. That's why, when you talk about Europe it's supporters you never hear of fans Supporters support. That's why, when you talk about Europe it's supporters you never hear of fans. You don't, you know, because they support. You.
Speaker 5:Could be at the bottom of the third league and it's a 12,000-seat stadium. It's packed out Every time, you know. So if supporters I always try to create this. If I'm standing on a ledge and I fall, it's that trust thing, right, and I have my supporters there. I'm expecting them to catch me. If I'm a fan and I'm not happy with that person, I'm going to say I don't really care, let them fall and supporters will always be there, no matter what. They'll always be there to lift up. And you know, I think support beams, like you think about housing, you think about all this stuff that was part of my presentation piece was constructing a house support beams, all that stuff. Well, it's the same thing with supporters. So you need to get into the stands because once you come in, you'll never leave.
Speaker 5:We had a fan, dean. I know I'm going a little bit longer here. No, you're great. There was a fan that just moved to Cary, north Carolina last year never seen a women's football game. Back onto the field and behind the bench we had just won. And he says Coach, coach, I just want to say something to you. I'm like, okay, so I go behind my if you see our stadium, but I go behind our seats and he's like I just bought season tickets. I'm like and I'm thinking he's like I just moved here but everything I just saw, I love football and I've never seen a women's football game, but I just bought season tickets because I love the way you, what you guys are doing, so like if you get there. Yeah, we have faults, but help us improve those faults and I think it's a special place. It's a special, unique situation that we're doing and I want everyone to be a part of it because we can make something really really great Well.
Speaker 2:You've been incredibly successful and I know that's going to continue. I want to congratulate you on the well-deserved contract extension. I can't wait for the season to start and really like the fact that not only were you at the United Soccer Coaches Symposium, but that you were one of the keynote speakers at the ECNL Coaches Symposium. Sean Nahas, the top man for the North Carolina Courage Great to have you on the ECNL podcast. Thank you, sir, thanks Dino. What a great show with great guests. I want to thank all of our outstanding guests. Also. I want to thank Ashley Willis, andrea Wheeler, ryan Bothman and all the great people at the ECNL, my producer, colin Thrash, for each and every one of them. 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 ECNLcom. Breaking the line the ECNL podcast is an ECNL production. Ecnl More than a league.