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
Building a Successful Youth Club: Club Structure, Relationships with Professional Organizations, Distinct Player Pathway and More | Ep. 111
Let us know the topics of interest to you!
The Breaking the Line crew is back with their newest episode, this time with a topic that came straight from a listener question.
A parent from Richmond, Va., asked Breaking the Line: "Is there an ideal blueprint for an ECNL club?" The question specifically cited the success of local club Richmond United, and to tackle this discussion, we went straight to the source.
In Episode 111, Jay Howell, Executive Director of Richmond United, joined Breaking the Line to discuss his origins in the youth soccer space and spearheading Richmond United since 2014 and how throughout the years, Richmond United has become a leader within the youth soccer space, culminating with a complete club rebrand launching at this podcast's release.
Howell and Breaking the Line discuss how clubs can build a structure that puts the players first, and how navigating a club structure can be difficult with multiple coaching philosophies and personalities, especially with multiple youth clubs joining forces.
They also discuss how to build and maintain relationships with professional organizations, and how youth clubs and pro clubs can work together to ensure all parties can see success on and off the field.
Finally, the crew works through what is a player pathway, how respective age groups and leagues fit into that pathway, and how putting the players first can lead to great moments across the club.
While there is no one right way to build a successful youth club, there are many factors that clubs can emulate and glean from this incredibly insightful discussion with one of the ECNL's top clubs.
Thank you to our fan who submitted Episode 111's topic, and as always, please submit questions to Breaking the Line here: https://ecnl.info/BTL-Questions.
Welcome to Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast, where Christian Labors and Doug Bracken talk all things ECNL and they invite special guests to talk all things ECNL, and they always seem to be on top of the right topics. Well, this week two Richmond soccer clubs the Strikers and Kickers have joined to form Richmond United. The Strikers and Kickers have joined to form Richmond United. Organizers say the move will help streamline the region's programs and offer a more cohesive experience to about 10,000 soccer players across central Virginia. Here to talk about it is the CEO of what was the Richmond Strikers, but now united with Lee Kalashow, and the Richmond Kickers, but now united with Lee Kalashow and the Richmond Kickers. Together they move on as Richmond United, with so many key players that are a part of it. A fascinating discussion on how to build the ideal soccer club, with Jay Howell and Christian Labors and Doug Bracken leading the conversation. Jay Howell talking about Richmond United and how to build the ideal soccer club after this message from Nike.
Speaker 2:Nike is a proud sponsor of ECNL's. 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 1:As you just heard in the open on today's show once again Doug Bracken from the ECNL, jacob Bourne from the ECNL, special guest Jay Howell and, of course, christian Lavers. Take it away, christian.
Speaker 3:Appreciate it, dane, and I think most appropriately. First thing to say is welcome back to the podcast, jay Howell.
Speaker 4:I think it's been about a year, it's been a year and I've been excited about joining you again. Lots to talk about, lots to discuss.
Speaker 5:Jay Howell has been through the ECNL over the years. He's always been a great part of what we're doing. We've had some obviously great times together, some interesting conversations along the way, Jay.
Speaker 3:Perfect, perfect person to be on. I remember asking who Jay Howell was the first time when I was in the Marriott in Chicago back in the Red Bull days and everybody was meeting at that time I think there were 32 clubs to decide who were the next eight clubs going to be and you were very opinionated in that meeting and I was like who's that guy?
Speaker 4:2005,. Right, it was that way.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think that's right. It's exactly right. I was there, that was. I didn't. I already know who Jay was, though. That's the difference.
Speaker 4:That's right, that's OK Now. But now look at us. Look where we are 20 years later, gone from young Padawans? Yes, exactly, but it's been a great 20 years.
Speaker 5:It has it has.
Speaker 3:Well, happy inauguration day, happy MLK day or week, jacob. This topic for the podcast was spurred I think we're going to go deeper than we normally do on one question based on something that was sent in last week that we thought would be really interesting. So you want to tee us up with that question?
Speaker 6:Absolutely. Thank you for everybody who continues to submit questions via social media, via our Buzzsprout podcast link. This was from a Richmond, virginia parent and they were asking is there an ideal blueprint for an ecno club? Richmond united's tie to two local youth clubs kickers and strikers and the usl pro team richmond kickers has been important. How does this club compare structurally to other ecno clubs and how do you build a successful ecno club?
Speaker 3:now somebody's gonna accuse us of planting that question, which we didn't, but when we saw that, it seemed like a very appropriate timing of a bunch of stuff going on and even some new announcements in Richmond. So I think, the short answer being, there is not really one right club. There's a variety of different factors to consider and we're going to unpack that over the next hour or so we're talking about, but maybe before we even do that with that question in mind, jay, I think it'd be helpful to get a little bit of your background so that people have a sense of the perspective and context that you speak from.
Speaker 4:Okay, well, we can start in 2005. How about that? We'll start 20 years ago. That's a simple way to start. At that time, I was the director of coaching at Castle, which is now NCFC in Raleigh, North Carolina, and around that time 2004, 2005, it became clear to a lot of the leaders within the youth game that we had to have a more organized way of competing against each other that's the way I would sort of phrase that we weren't seeing each other enough. We saw each other seldomly, normally at finals of tournaments and or through regionals or nationals, and we wanted to get in a situation where we were playing each other more competitively, more often. So that was 20 years ago.
Speaker 4:I left Castle, I believe, in 2010, and went down to Birmingham, alabama, where I was a part of Birmingham United, which is now Alabama United, I believe, and I came to Richmond in 2012, where I joined here as an executive director for the ECNL at that time, as well as I coached within the ECNL and ran the ECNL program for the Strikers 2014, the Richmond Strikers and the Richmond Kickers Youth Club decided to work together to form Richmond United and they wanted to create a program that would house our national level programming.
Speaker 4:At the time it was the DA and the ECNL and now it is the ECNL and yesterday we actually formally announced that Richmond United is all now one large club. So we brought together our current ECNL programming, we brought together the Richmond Strikers, the Richmond Kickers Youth, as well as our Strikers Youth South program and we brought it into one large organization proudly known as Richmond United. Now New, brand new way of doing things, new mission. We're very excited about the future and we're very excited about being a part of the ECNL as well as the regionally so let me back that up to make sure people understand.
Speaker 3:So I think you said in 2007 or nine is when Richmond United was initially created 2000 and what is it?
Speaker 4:2014,. It was created 11 years ago.
Speaker 3:So 2014,. At that time, you have Richmond Kickers and Richmond Strikers, two independent clubs who came together. Richmond United, solely at the top team in each age group, u13 and up. Correct, correct. So 12 teams, six boys, six girls, yep, and the clubs remained independent in operation. Obviously, you probably had some guidelines and rules and sort of how you interacted, but independent staffs, brands, identities and everything underneath that, whether that's 12 and down, or from your second teams and down at 13 and above.
Speaker 4:The regional leagues. We had Richmond Strikers Regional League, we had Richmond Kickers Regional League and then we went down into the NPLs with our groups all the way down through the system. So we were two independent clubs supporting Richmond United 50-50 as organizations.
Speaker 3:And so for a long time the Richmond Kickers and Richmond Strikers collaboration was used kind of as a model when people spoke about collaborating in a market, specifically within the DA, but even after that, about how two clubs that notoriously competed over everything could actually come together for the greater good and try and do something to improve the level of competition and performance for players or at least reduce the maybe range of talent at each level by putting like with Blake. And then your announcement yesterday is saying that after 11 years of that collaboration going pretty well, the decision was made to just put all the chips in the middle and go fully unified from under six all the way through everything. So there is no longer a strikers or a kickers, there is only a Richmond United.
Speaker 4:Yes, and one of the main reasons for that? Well, two. I'll segue. Everything in the game is built on relationships, as we all clearly know because we've known each other for a long time Lee Kalashaw, their executive director and now the director of soccer for Richmond United. We've been working together for 10 years. We built up a lot of trust and we built a strong relationship in that time. So that was important between two organizations that were competing against each other and competing for players. But we clearly, over time, we clearly understood that we could work with each other, that we could work together for the common good, for the community and the area, and we could work together on tournaments and work on teams and during recruiting time and naming teams. It just cleared the air because we had some trust and so that worked.
Speaker 4:And then another main reason for bringing it all together one of the whys is we wanted to really have a clear pathway for the player. We want to have a comprehensive pathway system for the player, meaning we didn't want to have these different clubs trying to feed to the top. We wanted to create a system that would bring a player in at any point and there would be a flow based on our structure, based on it being a meritocracy, based on opportunity for players, and so one conversation will be had between directors instead of six or seven, because you're crossing a lot of lines. I think this will be by bringing our programming together under Richmond United minds. I think this will be by bringing our programming together under Richmond United. It's going to be much better for our players as we move forward, because the pathway as a player will be clear, as well as the sharing within our coaching structure, sharing of coaching ideas, and our overall environment is going to improve by working together.
Speaker 3:Right? Well, I think the first part is congratulations. Let's get some more details, though. So give us some of the numbers size of Richmond United collectively, various infrastructure or other sort of assets that are sort of within this environment.
Speaker 4:Now Well, we're looking at in and around 10,000 players where we have a. We have a program that will be called the Little Kicks and that is for our preschoolers and that's something that the kickers youth have had, and so it's joined into Richmond United. We'll have a recreational league that will be pretty massive within the Richmond metropolitan area, which will have around 5,000 players, and we brought them all together in a structure that makes sense. As far as game weeks, we have end of season tournaments as a group, and so that's going to really work out really nicely. No-transcript into richmond united. We have our tournament series and maximizing our facilities. So we have the jefferson cup coming up here in march, where we're going to have 1,930 teams this year. So it's a massive undertaking run by chrisan and he's doing a great job. And then we have actually, beyond the four Jefferson Cup weekends, we have eight other weekends that we're either hosting or running events as we go along, because we also host ECL National Championships here as well as host regional league events here in November. So we have a lot of stuff going on right now.
Speaker 4:Facility Facilities we have going on right now. Facility Facilities we have oh, we have major facilities everywhere now. So we're we have working through, we're going to have Stratton and Ucrop Park and on Chesterfield that we work with we're going to have River City, which we you know the EC&L is used as well in Chesterfield. We have our West Creek facility in Goochland County, which is the west of us, and then we're going to continue to use Stryker Park and Glover and Capitol Park, which would be here in Henrico. So this will sort of be our areas where we're going to train and maximize for our membership.
Speaker 3:To conclude this infomercial here, because I think getting the scope of it's important. What's the connection with the pros?
Speaker 4:Great question. We're going to continue to have a connection to the pro entities the Richmond Kickers pro team, professional team, as well as the Richmond Ivy women's team With the bringing to Richmond United. We're going to continue this collaboration. Mika will now become more of a pathway specialist. He's the assistant coach with the.
Speaker 3:This is just to be clear. Usl Championship and USL Super League.
Speaker 4:I believe so. Yes, I believe so, and so women? Yes, I believe so, and so we're going to continue that relationship. It's very important. We have several players now that have come out of Richmond United's boys program that are now playing for the kickers pro team, and we had several players on the girls' ECNO program for Richmond United that are currently playing and will play for the Richmond and Ivy. So it's important that we, richmond United, as an organization, continues to have strong bonds with the professional entities and be supportive to the professional entities in the area, as well as working with them to make sure that we're giving players the opportunities. I think that's the next large part of our pathway is making sure that our top players have this opportunity to play for these teams in the future.
Speaker 5:What, jay? Because this is all great and obviously it's taking a lot of work for you guys to get to this point. What have been the biggest challenges getting?
Speaker 4:here. The biggest challenge was the first two or three conversations getting through who's going to sort of manage what well, ego and everybody you know and how are we going to work through this and being comfortable with that. And then, how will the technical side work? Because we are fortunate in Richmond, among Richmond United and the strikers and kickers, we have some really talented individuals here, and so it was a matter of how do we maximize our current staff in a way that makes sense, and what I appreciate about working with Lee is he approaches things with common sense and he thinks about the player.
Speaker 4:He was an incredible player in his day and he also played professionally with the kickers. He coached the kickers. He has a very, very vast understanding of the game, and so once we got through the first couple of meetings of how this is going to work and started really talking about sharing ideas about where we could put certain people and what would work, we found out that we actually thought a lot alike. We're different in the way we approach stuff, but it just sort of made sense to do these kinds of things. And then we also acknowledged each other's staff that we thought were talented and we thought that we had did a good job, based on our recognition of looking across the aisle, so to speak, and then our dealings with them or even coaching against them, right, and so that sort of fell in line really quickly.
Speaker 3:Well, let me. Let me poke up that, jay, because when you talk about collaborations and people talk about this all the time and the reason we wanted to go through that infomercial, basically of everything there, is because what you guys have done is taken one city and sort of put it into one club and I know there's other clubs in Richmond but when you look at the size now, the scale, the amount of facilities, the amount of resources that can come and support, that that only happens usually when different people can come together into one, that that only happens usually when different people can come together into one. And when anyone talks about clubs coming together, from my experience the first two things that one is obvious, one is less obvious that create the problems. First is and I don't mean ego in a bad way, but who's in charge? Because there's fear associated with that. Before you can even have alignment and division there, you got to deal with at least mistrust, fear and security.
Speaker 3:And then there, as silly as it sounds, there's always the issue of the name and the logo, which that's to me almost funny, but it has derailed a lot of talks, I think, in the past. So how did you get past? Let's go back all the way to 2014, because somebody has to give up control, or you at least have to share control and you have to get over the insecurity and the fear. So how did you guys do that in 2014? And then, obviously, you have 11 years of trust build up, but still it takes another step to get over it and totally take everything and put it all in. How do you do that? Because that's, I think, where most discussions of clubs collaborating and working together fall apart.
Speaker 4:We're fortunate now and then I'll go back. We're fortunate now because both clubs are very successful. It's strength to strength, so it's easy to have a conversation when you're both doing well. That makes it a little bit easier in the conversation. Referencing back now, 10 years ago, some benefit that we've had over the last 10 years is that Lee Kalashaw and I both coached within Richmond United, so we were both in situations where we were around each other and we were both around each other's sort of coaches and staff. That makes a difference, right, and you create those relationships.
Speaker 4:It helped that we were forced, based on supporting Richmond United, as the strikers and kickers youth 50, 50, that we had to sit down weekly, monthly, daily, however you want to say it and we had to sort through things all the time because we, we, it was a, we were a joint relationship. So I, I, you know I couldn't just make a decision without talking to Lee and vice versa. We had to sit down and work through the budget every year which you understand that's difficult for some clubs to work through and how we're going to allocate funds to do what right, and so, working through all of that, like I said, I think that we built trust based on decision-making, based on we realized that we were not all far apart when we're looking at the game, although we're different in the way we sort of approach things. It just comes down to common sense.
Speaker 4:As we move forward, I will act as the CEO for Richmond United and Lee will be the director of soccer. And what does that mean? It means that I'm going to be giving a little bit more oversight to the whole organization as a whole and dealing with the tournaments and facilities and everything else. Lee's focus will be more on the business of what we're doing within soccer, but we have agreed fundamentally that we won't make any decisions that affect anything that we're doing without a conversation. First, because I think, even within a large club versus a smaller club, even a large club, you have to talk through everything because, as you both know, dealing with clubs, everything is interconnected and so there has to be an understanding among the leadership team. I think another important thing is that we share the same values and, approaching the community approaching, we have a shared purpose in what we're trying to do, we're trying to achieve something special for the player, and so that whole-.
Speaker 3:Can I stop you there, yep? Did you articulate some shared vision or mission or values at the beginning of any of the either one of these stages of discussions, or did you guys just try to come to an understanding and trust factor personally? Or was there? Was there an intentional creation of hey, what? What are we? What's the end game we want to get to and what does it look like?
Speaker 4:I would say you're going to laugh. I would say it's a little bit of all of the above, and so where you come from is sort of going to determine your approach. I was fortunate to work with a massive, successful organization, so I understood that Richmond had always had smaller clubs that have been broken up and have been competing with each other. There has been talk for a long time beyond me being here, 15, 20 years has been talk about bringing this all together because of the efficiencies and facilities and what's best for the player, and so I think we started with that in mind a little bit, and I think over time we started to learn that we, like I said, we look at things the same way, we're trying to approach things the same way we problem solve and, as you know, we're dealing with high level teams Richie United each year and tryouts and competing.
Speaker 4:Lee and I were forced into situations where we had to talk through some things and we had to work through some issues that were going on within the program. We had to work through hiring, when staff leaves and these kinds of things, and that's when you're sort of forced to say, okay, are we really in this, are we really trying to make this successful together. Are we just sort of just doing this so we can just house these groups of teams? And I think we both made a decision, as well as the staffs here, that no, we really want to make Richmond United special, which led us to where we are now.
Speaker 5:You guys have obviously done a lot of the high high level work are now. You guys have obviously done a lot of the high high level work. How is this received by the players, families and all that, because I'm sure there are some allegiances there to to the kickers and the striker brand and all that. So how have you guys felt like that's that's been received?
Speaker 4:The feedback that we've received through this last three months has been really positive, and it was the worst, best kept secret in all of Richmond for like two months, okay. And so I think people are excited. I think the players are excited. I think people have asked this question a hundred times in the last three years about this why don't you guys just come together? Why isn't Richmond just one big club? This just goes on and on and on Right, and so I think it's been met with excitement. There's a little bit of, of course, because there's going to be new and there's going to be some formation of some new teams. There's going to be some, you know, some apprehension, and people are going to be a little bit nervous because we're going to lead up to, as you have in every tryout, but I think that generally, everybody's very excited.
Speaker 4:The staffs have been working together for two months about everything. We tried to be as thorough as we could. We've met the staffs early on. This is all in late November, beginning of December and we made sure that we started sitting down and talking through all the structural pieces, all the environment pieces, all talking through how we're going to do things, who are going to be in charge, and that fell into place, which made everything much easier. And so, and then we started to engage with others in and around us team managers, people within the soccer community, having conversations and the feedback has been very, very positive and people are excited about what's possible. That's the way I would explain it.
Speaker 3:If we go back, richmond United is going to be a dominant soccer organization in the city now to the degree, to the degree they already were. It's going to be even more clear because now when you go to whether it's politicians or county parks, or to sponsors or to anything you're coming as one. Uh, there's some gravitas, there's, you're the 800 pound gorilla. That is what you helped establish at what is now ncfc, who has a similar, I think, dominant position in raleigh, north carolina and the triangle. You tried to do something similar in alabama with birmingham a little bit more obstacles there at the time and I think over the last 10 years it's kind of evolved there. But seeing that in three different cities I mean they're all southeast but they're different Do you take away anything between what made it successful in some places and less successful in others in terms of any variables there that you can extrapolate out?
Speaker 4:We've talked about this a lot, and I think it's a matter of coaches and directors and clubs that are, I would say, smaller or midsize. They have to sit down and really look and think about what their purpose is and what they're trying to achieve. And I think that if it makes sense for two groups to work together in order to create a better environment for their players and to create a better structure for their players to develop, that's ultimately the conversation. And then, once you can get through the first sort of 15 awkward minutes of talking about sort of how are we going to do this, who's in charge? How's the money going to work?
Speaker 4:Which people just sometimes, as you know, just have a hard time just talking about that to start with, I think they'll start to understand that there's a lot of benefits by working together and there's creates more opportunities for players within your structure and more opportunities within your players, within your different programming, which then ultimately leads to how are we going to work with our coaches? How are we going to educate our coaches? What kind of methodology are we going to have? How are we going to break out our methodology? Does it even work? And then, ultimately, it comes down to how are we going to compete and what leagues do we want to engage with and how is this going to work for our membership, because there has to be different levels within our league play ultimately to have a great developmental structure as we move forward. So I think it comes down to the bottom line is is I think that a lot of directors rightly so have a good thing going and they have their club and they're feeling good, and change might be hard and change might be a little bit tough, but I think every once in a while, in certain cases, it's worth the conversation to see how we can sort of I don't know power up as an organization, how, by working together, can we create something better for our member.
Speaker 3:How much of this is driven internally versus externally, and what I mean by that is right now, one of the biggest issues that you hear every club director talking about and parents to some degree as well is the leagues that you're in. You know the competition pathway, and I put that as an external factor. And then the internal factor is in looking at what do we want to accomplish and what does it take to do that, and do we have enough resources? Is there enough quality of player or facility or whatever? I mean? The answer is probably a little bit of both, but did one drive more than the other in either one of these? Again, I'm looking at 2014 as step one and then 2025 as step two.
Speaker 4:Lee and myself and others involved with the organizations for the last 15, 20 years have always seen us as a possibility.
Speaker 4:I think that Lee and I's relationship built over time.
Speaker 4:It became more of a reality, and then Lee and I clearly felt that there was a lot of strength in bringing more of our programming together.
Speaker 4:And then when we sat down and we formatted how everything will work as an organization and what our options are, then it really became this is what we want to do, because ultimately, like we talked about just to be it's, it will have these comprehensive, clear pathways for our players when they come into our program, and then we'll also have the right competition for our teams as we move forward, whether it be in the ECNL or be in the regional leagues and now for us in the MPLs as well. And so that's where it really became important to just we were already doing much of the same things. We have really really good staffs. We were already doing some sharing of facilities. We were actually helping each other some with tournaments. We were working together during tryouts to sort of stay out of each other's business, right, just sort of you do yours, we do mine and we stay out of that, and so then it became like why wouldn't we just do this all together and really call it Richmond United, which really it is. There you go.
Speaker 5:How important is your participation in the pyramid, if you will, of ECNL, RL, NPL. How important is that to you guys as you guys move forward on this?
Speaker 4:It's incredibly important. I mean, I've been, you know, personally, I've been a part of all these things since their beginning, and so I think it's important. Obviously, the ECNL is an unbelievable platform for our girls and our boys not only to develop but to also showcase their abilities and prepare for what's next. And then we use the regional league as a developmental program, developmental leagues to prepare players, hopefully, to fight for their opportunity to compete within the ECNL, and the same thing within the NPLs. I like that more and more US club soccer and the ECNL as an entity are working closer together to create these pathways for these organizations so that we have these different leagues that are organized and there is a conclusion to all this. We're playing for something. I think that's important.
Speaker 4:I know there's some leagues now that are out there that they just play in this league, but you're not playing for anything relatively, I mean, you're just playing to play games. I think it's important for teams to have something to play for. In the end of everything, there has to be some kind of conclusion and I don't think that necessarily comes down to level. I think that players that are playing in the NPL or playing in a league and playing in a championship. They want to be successful. Players that are playing in the ECNL and playing for a championship they want to be successful. I think it merits both. We're competing this to be successful. I think it merits both. We're competing, this is part of it, but also it has to make sense geographically, it has to make sense from a parity sense standpoint and it has to make sense, obviously, within your club and what you're able to support with your group of teams.
Speaker 3:Jay, as a club director, when you're dealing with the external environment of changing leagues and all the stuff that's going on and we've seen some of these announcements recently of attempted relationships, trademark licenses and expansion of platforms to levels how do you read that as a director and navigate through that and communicate to your coaches and your parents where the signal is in the noise, or what's important there, what's not important there? I'll put that all again within the context of you have your organization and what it believes and what you stand for and what you're trying to do. You have the external environment that's kind of chaotic and you've got to navigate both. You got to choose what you believe in, you got to choose where you want to go, and then you have to deal with the noise of what the other side or the outside says or does. How do you navigate that in terms of helping your for lack of a better word constituents understand what they should be thinking and what they should sort of glean from the various releases and gossip and all the stuff that goes on?
Speaker 4:I think in Richmond, virginia, we're in an interesting spot because we're already working and playing and competing with successful leagues. And so where I currently work and with the membership here and the players here, we're currently in an environment where the ECNL Girls and Boys National Programming has been very successful for our organization and so we're getting great competition. It's organized wonderfully, we're getting great showcasing opportunities and I would say that that moves down into the regional league and its creation and being here in Richmond, and so we play in a great league. Here in the VPSL and the regional league we have competition, the right kind of competition. Here in our state Our better teams have the opportunity to advance. So they've really enjoyed that and so I think that for that group everything has been making sense. And then within the NPLs, I would say it's the same thing. It's grown over time here and they're seeing that there is an outcome to being successful. I have this advancement that I can go to. This next thing.
Speaker 4:So for the conversation here would be when we're looking at other opportunities. It's something that's. It's over there, so to speak. They're aware of it, but there isn't any real reason to make any changes, so to speak, because what we're doing currently is successful, and it's been successful in player development. It's been successful for our competition, and so that's the way we're approaching things Now. Granted, you're living in Southern Maryland, it might be a different conversation Because you're dealing with different things. We, you know, we have a strong relationship with our professional entities here, so that helps us and benefits us, whereas if you're living in another area, it depends on your relationships and your clubs and who you're competing with and all those kinds of things.
Speaker 3:Well, let me stop you on that and ask you what is a strong and positive relationship with a pro team? Because right now we live in an environment where I think and maybe there's a difference between a relationship with a pro club and a pro league, because I think I would describe the relationship between clubs and a pro league as contentious. Right now. Relationships with clubs and a pro club may not be necessarily, they may be copacetic, but how do you describe what is a good relationship with a pro league and what is the relationship that you guys have with, uh, the richmond kicker?
Speaker 4:well. So the first thing is, I believe and I and lee came from this environment into the youth club I think it's important in our community that we support our professional teams. Okay, we're, this is we're richmond, they're the richmond kickers, they're richmond ivy. I think it's very important that we support our local professional entities and that's the first thing I would say. I think it's part of the growth of the game and we have to support the pros above us.
Speaker 4:Secondly, the kickers professional team and the Richmond Ivy have already demonstrated over the last two years that they are fully invested into Richmond players.
Speaker 4:They play our youth players.
Speaker 4:They bring youth players from Richmond United and from the strikers and kickers, by the way into their environment and they'll play them, so they don't treat the local talent as a token.
Speaker 4:They have shown that they will bring in young players and they will play them and make them a part of the squad. And so we have several players now playing within the kicker pro ranks that are current members of their roster and will play, that have come from Richmond United, and we have the same that have joined the Richmond Ivy during the summer. We have youth players that have done so, and so we've had players that were within Richmond United that have joined in, trained and played with them. The leadership, rob Ucroft, and the leadership there with the Kickers Pro and the Ivy he has clearly stated that they're going to invest in local talent, they're going to invest in the community and I think that they've demonstrated that with their actions. It's not something that's just done, said and then not done. They're trying to build on our players in our area and they're trying to build a stronger program for us by giving those players those opportunities.
Speaker 3:So everything you say there and I think this is really interesting and really critical, because everything you said about the relationship between youth and pro there revolved around player opportunity player opportunity in a training or competition environment with a pro team and, fundamentally, a localized pro team.
Speaker 3:You didn't say anything about having the same brand and in fact, Richmond Kickers is now a different brand than Richmond United and Richmond Ivy is a different brand than Richmond United. You didn't say anything about being a part of some monolithic league structure that says well, just because I'm going to put a logo on it, that does anything for me. You didn't say anything about moving players across the country, on selling a pipe dream. You talked about providing opportunity for local players to move into a pro-level environment to see whether they could make it and to create player opportunity and service. Not marketing, not trademark, not league all these things that right now confuse the market and that threaten the market, that are totally divorced from. Ultimately, can this technical person identify opportunity for a player in another technical organization that help move that player along the pathway?
Speaker 5:Well, I think the other point to be made here is and I think, jay, you rightly said, it's our responsibility at some level to support the professional game here in this country. But to your point, it sounds like the kickers are also supporting you, and I think that is. The difference is, support can't just be one way. You know, support has to be, has to be both ways, and it sounds like you're getting and your players are getting the benefit of that because the kickers are supporting the community players in the community and vice versa. You, you're more inclined to say, hey, we support you because we know that that's a professional game and you're giving our players the opportunity. Oh, totally. I think there's a disconnect there sometimes, where it's like maybe we just are supposed to blindly support something without getting any kind of reciprocal support at all, whether that be coach, education or you know, whatever it is.
Speaker 3:Well, and I'll go farther on that, Doug because, Jay, you led the Richmond Strikers and the Richmond Kickers were the youth club of the Richard Kickers USL team and somehow the Richmond Kickers USL team could overlook the audacity that you had to not have the kickers name on your shirts and actually find positive player outcomes, which I think kudos to them and for that not being tribal and sectional and all that sort of stuff. Because ultimately and you said this all the way back at the beginning, you know it's 45 minutes ago about looking at what do you want to provide for the player. And so, if we translate that from, you got to start with the vision and the structure and the resources that you have, whether you got 400 players or now you have 10,000 players. But you're going now all the way to the other end of the continuum, which is the exit or the off-ramp of a player from youth soccer to whether it be college or pro or whatever.
Speaker 3:If that is the driving influence of decision-making, you're far less likely to go wrong than when the driving influence of decision-making is brand, is trademark and I'll say it, and we're a league or is league you have to believe in values and you have to believe in what you're trying to accomplish, and that's what I'm hearing in this, and I contrast that completely with what is the general discussion going on in the marketplace right now, which is all about trademark, brand and things that are not really going to impact in any positive way necessarily, maybe even negative to some degree, but they're not going to impact the player. It's just a patch.
Speaker 4:I think that another demonstration of their interest in the community is that the coaching staff Darren and Mika and Evan and Connor all have coached within Richmond United. They come to games and watch. They're invested in the players. They have invited players out to train with the first team. They're obviously in the Richmond Ivy as well. They're interested in the Richmond-based player they had half their roster were Richmond-based players that weren't solely Richmond United. There were also strikers and kickers players that have now made the Richmond Ivy based on their development in the college game, which is really interesting.
Speaker 4:And so I would agree with you because basically we had three entities supporting the pro entity. You had Richmond United, you had the Richmond Strikers and you had Richmond Kickers youth that were all sort of pushing this way. Now, as Richmond United, it's much simpler and a pathway in organizing it, and we'll continue to support the Richmond Kickers pro team and we'll continue to support the Richmond Ivy and we'll continue to support the richmond kickers pro team and we'll continue to support the richmond ivy and we'll continue to see our players develop to the level where they'll be able to compete and represent richmond virginia I think all these things are these are relationships and relationships are built on trust and I think it.
Speaker 5:I think it. It goes beyond a pro club to a youth club. It goes to leagues. If we don't support our membership, our clubs, we can't really ask them to support us right? So I think it's important to note that support is a two-way street and it's important that that happen, and I think that transcends youth to pro, youth to league or whatever we're talking about. I know you best because we've had a relationship in the game for such a long time, and over time you build trust and you become colleagues and talk to each other, and I think that's ultimately what the game has to be built on Yep totally, and it's tough.
Speaker 4:I mean Darren pro coach, he's always put in a tough spot because he's trying to give these young Richmond guys a chance and he's competing in a pretty competitive league and he's, you know, he's got to bring these young'uns into this environment where they're playing against, you know, grown men that have been in the league for five, six, seven years. I mean it proves that he's committed to development, development of the American players, so to speak. And so, and like the Richmond Ivy, it was wonderful. I went out. You know Richmond Ivy were had, I guess their, their, their attendance, average attendance was close to 6,000 a game last summer. It was incredible going to the games and it was awesome to go out there and you, you, we've all been there. We see it on TV. When you walk out there and you're like, oh my gosh, I feel like coached eight of the players on the field, it's like really cool to see that when you're there in that crowd and you're just one of the 6,000 just enjoying the game.
Speaker 4:But I think it's inspirational, aspirational for our players to say I can come through all of this and there is an outcome. But I will add one thing the Kickers pro staff, the Ivy staff they've been supportive of trying to help players get into the collegiate game as well, and so everybody in the staff they all played collegiately and they understand that there's several different ways of looking at this and the pathways have got to be clear, and so they've been very supportive. Mika has helped tremendously with placing players into the college ranks, and we have college players that go off and play and come back and come back and play for our teams here. So we're lucky that this has all worked out. It's like I said, it's not perfect, it isn't always. You know a lot of egos, a lot of people talking about a lot of stuff, but generally we come back to hey, what's the right thing for the player here, where are we going with all this? And I think people in the room have gotten gotten down to that and we've gotten down to doing making good decisions.
Speaker 3:I would add to that and I'm going to regret at some point giving you compliments because it's going to come back and another conversation I would add to that that if you're well led and you have a strong sense of purpose and a strong sense of culture, you can survive and thrive in any type of circumstance and environment. And I'm going to look at you from what I know from afar from your club. Mika, who you've referenced a few times, started in your club as a youth coach. She's now working with the pro team with a smaller role in your youth club and some sort of connectivity pathway. I think you've mentioned.
Speaker 3:You've had guys like Matt Lowry who started in your youth club and some sort of connectivity pathway. I think you've mentioned. You've had guys like Matt Lowry who started in your club and now Matt Lowry is running the Atlanta United MLS Academy. You just had guys like Aaron Bruner who went from your program, who went to Florida State, was an assistant when they won a national championship, now came back into Virginia George Mason, I believe coaching in college.
Speaker 3:You've had coaches come from your youth club, go into USL, go into MLS, go into college. You've had players from your youth club come in and go to USL, go to MLS, go to college, and there's a lot of people who are threatened by the environment and circumstances of people moving on and taking steps forward, whether that's players or coaches, and feel like they need to make decisions out of fear. And yet what I see from you guys is you've been a pathway for talent and, as talent has moved on, you've been able to leverage that pathway to become stronger and become bigger and to do it in your own unique Richmond way and not do it in a way that somebody above you whether it's a league or a pro club or a federation or an association they're not demanding and dictating that you do it this way or do it that way. They're facilitating your progression of players and you are not afraid of your players moving anywhere.
Speaker 4:I think that it's wonderful to be surrounded by talented people, and I think that when you're surrounded by talented people, good things are going to happen.
Speaker 4:It's only going to make you better, and it doesn't matter if it's coaches, if it's staff, if you're working with administrators. Certainly it's never hurts to have talented players, and so I think that's what you have to seek out ultimately, and you have to do this understanding that if you're working with talented people, they're going to challenge you because they have internal drive and ambitions that might be different than others as well, as you have to understand that eventually, they might probably want to move on, because that's part of dealing with talented people, right, and so you don't want to. You don't ever want to hold anybody back. Um, you want to make sure that you let them run run free when they move forward, because that's ultimately how you're going to build the most talented players and talented people and talented coaches, and I've been incredibly fortunate to work environments where I've been around incredibly talented people for a long time, including others on the call. There you, you go, christian.
Speaker 5:So there's your give back, there all right, I thought you were talking about me.
Speaker 4:I was talking. I know you don't need it, but I want to make sure Christian was mentioned.
Speaker 5:Okay yeah, he needs a hug, he needs a hug, he needs a hug everyone.
Speaker 4:So I think that you know we've dug Christian UI, we've, but we've Doug Christian, you, I, we've talked about this for 20 years when we're addressing, talking about environments and people and leadership, and you know talent is. That's the number one lesson I learned from my father is don't be afraid of talented people. You want to be around them, you want to surround yourself with talented people.
Speaker 3:That's the best, because then you can really accomplish things. Let me slice that, then, because you're talking about supporting talent and progression of talent staff. There's progression within your organization, which we talk about all the time. We want to have people that come into our league and can go through and grow and an opportunity and compensation and scope, all that sort of stuff. So we want careers in, but there's then pathways out, so you have that side and then you have and I know you've had to deal with this before and this is true whether you're a big club, small club, but certainly as you become bigger, there's times in which you have to say, no, this is how we do it here and it doesn't have to be how you do it, but you can't do that here. So how do you separate those two things in terms of aligning vision and values in your organization, supporting the development and growth of people that may at some point exit your organization? But how do you balance those two things, if that makes sense?
Speaker 4:Yeah, some tough questions on this. I think the biggest thing is that you have to stick to the purpose. You have to understand that it's going to take a team, a group, in order for us to truly move forward. It is a team sport. There you go. That's a simple way of putting it, and sometimes coaches, players, staff have got to understand that you can't work against what we're trying to achieve. You can't work against our purpose. You can't work on selfish lines and you're going to have to. Sometimes, as a leader, you're going to have to address that and I know that's difficult because that's sometimes you have to confront.
Speaker 4:But I think it's talking about where we're moving forward.
Speaker 4:I think if you're truly going to serve an organization professionally, if you're going to be what we would, you know, determine to be called a professional within the game, that means you're going to serve your organization to the best of your abilities. That's ultimately what a professional is, and so I think that is and I look at that when I'm, when I think about our organization as we move forward I want to find talented people that want to move forward our purpose, our player, our club to the next level and they're willing to buy into that, knowing that there's going to have to be an agreed-upon way of doing this and we can't all be doing whatever we feel like. And, as I say to my players, we're playing rock standards here. This is the way we're going to defend, this is the way we're going to attack. We're not playing jazz. This is not 1959 Miles Davis. So what we're doing is we're going to do this, because if we're these consistent things, if we do these things well, if we stick to our values, stick to our purpose, we will be successful.
Speaker 5:How often does that process turn into confrontation and how do you deal with?
Speaker 4:it. It's confrontation all the time. That's true. Was it who?
Speaker 5:said it. Maybe it was the answer that said confrontation, or someone said confrontation is meeting the truth head-on yes, yeah, well, that sounds like yeah, I think, uh, I think it also comes to your conversations daily and how you're you're.
Speaker 4:You know you're talking with people and you're talking within your staff and you're talking as a part of the staff. You know you're not over here. You're a part of what's going on. Certainly, it helps when you're in the game and you're in the grassroots. It helps when you're coaching, because you can demonstrate, you can live the way you're talking about Right, and so I think it's. It just depends and you collect and you start to work on really building a solid group of people that you can trust and that's obviously built with time and relationships, and they also have to buy into what you're trying to achieve, and that's part of leadership as well. As they said about Saki and the Italians, it's all about convincing. You're always convincing. You're always convincing when you're dealing with talented people. You're convincing where you want to go, convincing the way. This is where we're going to do stuff, and so I think that's the biggest thing is, keep talking about the message and be very open about what you're trying to achieve.
Speaker 3:I'm assuming in your conversations with kickers and then with your conversations even with the USL kickers, as you are creating the relationship, and with the Ivy, there was a unique perspective you brought as a youth club and as a youth coach. You mentioned some of the unique perspective that maybe some of the kicker staff pro staff had because they were youth coaches at one point. I personally feel like the youth soccer director is incredibly unique in the soccer ecosystem in terms of the interface with the American family and parent in a way that a professional organization or a federation will never really understand, because it's the difference between operating something and doing something and reading about it. In those discussions I assume you had some non-negotiables like every organization has non-negotiables or places's places where you say, hey, I'm open to do a lot of good things, but there are certain things that we just have to have and that we believe in fundamentally. Did you, can you share any of those? Did that? Did that come up in any discussions in these?
Speaker 4:lee kalashaw as I stated before, he's well versed in all of this at all levels and and he has a different perspective because he was as, as I said, he was an excellent player as well goal scorer, which is tough. We saw eye to eye on a lot of things involved with our organization as we move forward. The first element was is that we're going to hire the best people we can to run the organization full-time. That was the first. As we move forward, we will allow influence, we will allow discussions about coaching, education and methodology and pathways from the pro entity, from the IV, from our relationship with Inter Milan, which we have currently have a relationship with Inter Milan, with the Strikers. We will have those conversations, but ultimately it will come down to our full-time leaders within the organization. So we were going to have full-time directors with the Boys and Girls, ecnl, full-time with the regional leagues and then NPLs and everything, and from there we will work as a spine within the organization to the limbs on how we're going to organize and run ourselves. We're not going to have an independent source or a part-time source leading and guiding us as we go forward. That's what I would say. And then, secondly, lee and I also recognized early because of the scale, size of our organization, just because some of our beliefs. I believe I'm saying for me, and there's going to be people, that this is where people will maybe we'll get mad at Jay Howell.
Speaker 4:On the technical side, I think it's very, very difficult to imprint a club wide methodology. I think it's going to be. It would be very difficult to do with the size that we are. So what we did was we determined that we're going to break it up into groups ECNL, region, league and down there and this is where we're going to have to start implementing. What are our ideas as far as methodology, our training habits, how we're going to approach things. And this is going to be the big quest over the next three or four years is how do you manage all of that?
Speaker 4:I think if you're in a smaller group, if you just had said 12 teams and that's all you do, then I think you could hire the appropriate staff that are all on the same page and have a technical lead that can manage that. I think when you're having a group of individual coaches that are coaching here and there and doing this and everything else, I think now it's more about how can we get together, share ideas, learn from each other, improve our environments. So we're continuing to progress as coaches, as a club, and I think that Lee and I recognize it was going to be tough. But I'll throw a but in there. I am not against the idea of, down the road, having technical leads, and I know this is a conversation that you've had already within all your discussions. It would be wonderful to have two or three or four technical leads that all they do is they work with our coaching staff and they work on methodology and they work on training and everything else. But it's very, very difficult at this point as we move forward.
Speaker 3:A lot to do well, you point out one of the differences between what I would call a mega or super club, which I think 10 000 plus players merits, and a club of three 500 players. There's just different challenges in execution, different challenges in leadership, and the same exact style of play may not be appropriate for a player that's at this level, to this level based on what they're capable of, and where success can be found as well, because there's got to be success in anything. Nobody has a good methodology as well, because there's got to be success in anything. Nobody has a good methodology or successful methodology if there's not success along the way.
Speaker 4:Correct Big club teams training at multiple sites. Coaches our most talented coaches are going to be asked to coach on the front end, of course, and so it would be very difficult to give complete oversight, but our directors are also going to have to manage working with the coaches around them, working on improving their environments, work on improving the coaches around them as well, and so it's going to be a tall order. It's, it's it's going to. We have a lot of work to do in the next two or three years.
Speaker 5:So, jay, I think we can put a bow on this maybe if we go back to what the the topic of the podcast was is you know how to build the ideal soccer club and, in your, in your opinion, you know what are, what are the things that you think about when you're, when you're doing that.
Speaker 4:The ideal soccer club. Well, we're. I will say the ingredients that we have, that we're fortunate with is that now we will have critical mass right. We will have facilities and access to facilities, which you need. We will have professionals, administrative professionals, professional coaches in place. We'll have experienced leads that will be in place. We will have a structure that we have brought two structures together that were similar and put them together, and so it makes sense because there's going to be more of this flow with our pathway. We have combined leagues, we're in the same league, so this is easy because it brings it together as we go forward.
Speaker 4:I think the most important thing is that we try to have the player at the top of our mind when we make decisions, and then we've got to have the structure that's going to support the player through the pathways. We've got to make sure that we have the appropriate coaching for all levels. I think you have to make sure that you have the right environments that are safe for the players to grow and develop, and that goes beyond facilities. That really goes about where we're training and how we train. And then you got to have the appropriate leagues, and then it's not talked about enough we have incredible administrators with our both our organizations that do a lot, of, lot of hard work, that really keep things moving forward quickly and efficiently, which is important.
Speaker 4:When you're dealing with scheduling, carding, getting back to people about things replacing a uniform, you're well aware of all the dynamics.
Speaker 4:You need to have really, really good people that are quick and smart, and we have that and we're fortunate. And then I would say the last thing is that you have to have leadership that is aware of what's going on in the environment, not only locally, but what's going on regionally and nationally and how that does that impact what you're doing. And then I'd add one more thing you have to have important strategic partners as you move forward, and that can be a small club or a big club, it doesn't matter. You have to have really good partners that you work with matter. You have to have really good partners that you work with. We're fortunate that we're going to be working with Nike as we move forward. We're fortunate we're working with soccercom, as well as some other local partners, and obviously I've been a longtime partner of the ECNL and the regional leagues, and so that's important as well, because you have to understand where is this all going, and so you keep your membership and your staff aware and able to plan for what's coming.
Speaker 5:Boom.
Speaker 4:Boom.
Speaker 5:There it is.
Speaker 4:Simple stuff, no problem.
Speaker 5:There it is. It only took you 20 plus years, 20 years 20 years to figure it out.
Speaker 4:Well, yeah, it is, and I've yeah, like anything else, yes, I've learned a lot along the way. So you got to make a few mistakes to learn a lot, right, sure, Sure do.
Speaker 1:Sure do do. Boom is right. What a visit, with jay howell, richmond, united, truly breaking down how to build the ideal soccer club. Well done, jay howell, well done christian and doug. We're not done, though. We still have bracken's brain buster, and we'll get to that, after this message, game ourselves.
Speaker 2:Our goal at Soccercom is to inspire you to play better, cheer louder and have more fun. Visit Soccercom today to check out our unmatched selection of gear, expert advice and stories of greatness at every level of the game.
Speaker 5:All right, christian, you ready for Bracken Brain Busters today? I think I'm ready, you're ready. I don't know if Jay's ready, I'm ready, let's go, I'm ready, you're ready. I don't know if Jay's ready, I'm ready, let's go. I'm going to say the next time you hear from us, we'll be at the BCNL Symposium. That is going to be an amazing event in Las Vegas. We talked to our internal person, laura Hubbert, who is running setting that up and doing everything to plan for that. She said 850 people.
Speaker 3:And counting, and counting.
Speaker 5:And that said 850 people and counting and counting and counting some additional here today. You know, sometimes deadlines for registration are optional gray, I don't know, we'll figure it out as we go. That'll be as historical for us because we, we, that'll be the biggest symposium we've ever had. We've got some great people, we've talked this. So a thought from that perspective having Jay Yuan, who has been here since absolutely the very beginning, and before the beginning you were here for the prequel, I was, I was, I was, and Christian as well. And then you know, dean and Jacob, obviously not as long, but probably have unique stories. Give me your best ECNL story. Give me your best ECNL story.
Speaker 4:I can tell you. I'll tell you a quick funny story.
Speaker 5:Okay, I love it. I love a funny story Okay.
Speaker 4:No, it wasn't ECNL, it was a prequel story. Okay, on the first day in Raleigh, north Carolina, at WRAL Soccer Complex of the Red Bull first event that we ever had for the boys, 30 minutes into the first game of Concord Fire, and I believe they might be playing I'm trying to think who they'd be playing, maybe Magic at that time. I'm trying to think it was. It was a big game.
Speaker 5:Chicago Magic Red bull 17.
Speaker 4:that's yeah, yeah, macco, so I think it is 17s, right, or you know, red bull, 17s, I think, and I we can, we can reference, we can get them on the call. But a greg blasting game have you ever heard of greg blasting game? A greg blasting game comes running over to my field, that I'm on and says Jay, I have been thrown out of my game and I have no other coaches here and I have to coach or they're going to call the game. You need to come over and do something. In quotes, remember that you're going to do something.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:So I went over and I talked to Greg.
Speaker 3:Greg's not going to like this story.
Speaker 4:Greg's not going to like the story, but it's true, it's true, it's a true story. Okay, I'm not sure if it might not have been Chicago, but we'll say it was a big game for him. So I went over and I talked to the referee crew and I got the referee crew to agree that, as a Red Bull director, I could sit on the Concord bench and manage his team without doing anything and manage his team without doing anything. Greg was allowed to sit next to me, but he was not allowed to coach, so he could whisper in my ear what was going on. I expressed that this was a showcase. It was a showcase. It wasn't like a league, it was a showcase.
Speaker 3:For the record, this would not be allowed today this is completely unallowed.
Speaker 4:Okay, I'm just saying it shouldn't have been allowed there. I don't know how it happened, but they allowed us to go through. I'm not sure of the result. I was just trying to get through the game without any more hardship and everything else. But that's an early on Red Bull 17 story there with Greg Blaston game and that's really how Greg Blaston game and I became friends through that bonding moment there on the bench having another man whisper in your ear for you know 90 minutes.
Speaker 5:We'll do that he gave?
Speaker 4:he gave great tactical advice and good subs. That's all I remember christian.
Speaker 5:How many times have you been? Have you heard the statement? Hey, the referees just kicked me out of the game. I need you to come over and do something about this I will happily say less now.
Speaker 3:We have never we have never for the record done something. We have always deferred to the authority of the independent referees for the record. But yes, that used to be a question that came up a lot okay, just like, uh, just like uh, asking to have red cards reviewed, which is also something we will never do, is get into the business of red card appeals.
Speaker 5:That is a fact. Well, Jay, you gave us. You gave us a good story, Prequel, prequel story. All right, let's go to Jacob. Shorter history with the league. Give me your best ECNL story, Jacob.
Speaker 6:Yeah, two tours makes it a little interesting, but I think both of mine come from my first tour with the ECNL. Story, jacob, yeah, two tours makes it a little interesting, but I think both of mine come from my first tour with the ECNL. The best moment for me was at Boys, south Carolina, when one of the kids nailed a PK in stoppage time which resulted in, I believe, the first field storming that the ECNL has ever had at a national selection game. And then that kind of set the tradition of now, after every game their fans always storm the field.
Speaker 3:But the best story I've seen Also not encouraged for the record.
Speaker 6:And that was in Greenville Jacob. It was in Greenville.
Speaker 4:I was there. My son was playing in that game. It was awesome.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it was really cool and we had a few different people I think I may have been near the goal and so we got footage of, like the the fans point of view storming the field and then we got the broadcast view of it as well and kind of stitch it all together and I think sports center may have retweeted us. I don't remember for sure, but I think it was. It was a really cool kind of social moment that we had. It was it was mad.
Speaker 4:That was a Darryl Russell and Andy Coverstone. Yeah, that was great. That was great.
Speaker 6:I think the best story for the ECNL, though, was Santiago Castaneda. He was a kid who really didn't have too much college prospects before ECNL Florida for a national selection game he played in the game, was named the player of the game at that selection game game, and then from there got a bunch of college scholarships, um, and then he decided, instead of going to college, to turn pro, and now he's playing in uh to bundesliga, and I think it's a great kind of showcase of the cnl player pathway and really shows what uh what can happen when kids get invested in, and it kind of really speaks to everything we've talked about today. So I think those two um stories are really good, but in terms of uh, all right, that's two stories.
Speaker 3:That's two stories I know you're doing it.
Speaker 5:I got a good.
Speaker 6:I got a great funny story in between the two tours. I had received multiple text messages and phone calls from coaches asking me if I can rescind red cards because they found my phone number on some former ECNL press release and I had to tell them multiple times that I can't do anything about it because I'm not there anymore.
Speaker 4:And Jacob, I said I bet I'm just saying I know we're recording, but I bet part of that message to you was and I have video.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, yes.
Speaker 5:At least one of them said I have video.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah.
Speaker 5:Well, jacob obviously missed us so much he came back for a second tour, so we appreciate that. All right, mr Dean Linkey, give me your best ECNL story.
Speaker 1:Well, obviously I really enjoyed being a part of the team and being integrated in the broadcast thing, but the story that stands out for me is we all, of course and Jay, you'll even nod your head as well, I think. I know Doug will we always seek the approval of Mr Lavers, and I told Christian Lavers when we went out to lunch that I would bring him Continental Tire if he could just hang on for a little over a year. And I proudly did deliver Continental Tire and excited about continuing to deliver a Continental tire. So without question, that's my favorite ECNL story.
Speaker 5:Official tire of the ECNL. That's right and we appreciate it as well. Dean, that's true. He did not mention his wife in that, which is, first, does she have Continental tires on her car? Of course she does, she better.
Speaker 3:And they were serviced. Of course she does she better. And they were serviced by Discount Tire.
Speaker 5:She better Christian. What do you got? I'm going to bring it down a level here.
Speaker 3:We've had a number of them. By the way, first ever I don't even know if we called it AGM at the time Seattle 2010, 11, 12, somewhere in there. Prior to the playoffs right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the day prior to the playoffs we were at the I believe it was the Hilton Bellevue and we went downstairs to go into the room and there was no room and we had nothing printed. And Jason Dewhurst, his wife Sarah I think his young son might've even helped it was we have 30 minutes to set up a new room and get everything printed and collated before like a hundred people showed up and we looked like a complete group of buffoons for not having a room properly reserved. That was the beginning of the AGMs, and now we're going into Vegas here with, as you said, I think we'll hit 900 plus over two days. It's a far cry from not having a room 100 people with collating, printed agendas, but there was mass panic at that point.
Speaker 5:I do remember Sarah and Jason's kids were there helping out. Chloe was there, and that was great. All right, well, I will wrap it up and I will always remind everybody that if you have a question or want to float a topic for the podcast, you can send it to info at theecnlcom. We'd love to hear from you. We try to answer your questions. Obviously, we answered your question today in a very long format, so we did a good job. My story I always tell people the story because it just always sticks with me. First ever ecnl event, I asked christian if we should get t-shirts and he's like yeah, I guess. So I ordered these t-shirts and 300 of them and I had them sent to my house and then I realized and we were going to college station Jay, I don't know if you guys participated- it snowed and rained.
Speaker 5:College station was terrible, the weather was terrible, and so I had these 300 t-shirts and I'm like holy cow, how am I going to get these t-shirts down to college station? So I gave my U17 team was going. I gave each player 25 t-shirts to put in their bag and take down to the event and then, when we got there, I collected all the t-shirts and I gave them to Pat O'Toole, because Pat O'Toole had a guy who was going to sell them. And then at the end I went to Pat and I said, pat, you know how'd we do? And he's like we sold every t-shirt and he gave me a shoebox full of money and then I gave it to christian and said, good, you know, good luck with this. So a lot of interesting things we did at the beginning when we have improved dramatically.
Speaker 4:Yes, sitting on benches for red cards, shoeboxes of money for t-shirts and not having anywhere to meet when you call a meeting yes, we've come a long way so and they said it couldn't be done.
Speaker 5:They said there's a will, there's a way they said we could never get along, we would never get along, it'll never work out.
Speaker 3:You guys will never figure it out okay, I think maybe past is prologue and we should just continue doing this, despite anybody else in their comments today.
Speaker 4:I think we shall, we shall I think we shall well, I appreciate you guys having me on here that was awesome.
Speaker 1:indeed, it was thanks to jay howe, as well as christian doug and jacob. I also want to thank our producer, colin thrash, and all the great people at the ecNL the ECNL Girls, Commissioner Ralph Richards. The ECNL Boys, Commissioner Jason Cutney, Andrea Blaine Fink. Laura, you know who you are. All of you are great and we thank you for all you do, and we especially thank the members of the ECNL. My name is Dean Linke and we'll see you in a couple of weeks for another edition of Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast. Thank you for listening to Breaking the Line the ECNL podcast and remember, if you have a question that you want answered on Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast, email us at info at the ECNL dot com.