Good Bernie, good Mornie, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome
in his time. Now for our community connection right here on K one,
the one you trust. And today we have miss Drew up Brodovich, the
chairman. How are we doing here, Berica? How are you doing today?
Doing good? Sir? Thank you for having me. Well, this
is great. You're with the Bartlesville Buffaloes and that is a a semi pro
soccer team. Correct, yes, that is correct. You will be funded
soccer club in Barnsville, Oklahoma. Uh huh. It is an amateur soccer
club that competes or will be competing in the UPSL League, which is an
amateur national amateur United Premier Soccer league that consists of a little over four hundred
teams nationally that is broken down into regions and then further into conferences. And
we will be starting our season next Saturday, April sixth. My goodness sake,
this is pretty exciting. And of course you play a pretty good schedule.
How long did your season last? Yeah, so the season is going
to start the first week of April and last at least the regular season is
going to last mid June and then late June. We get the conference playoffs,
which we hope that we're going to be part of. Oh, you'll
be there and moving into July the regional conference and then the national Championship or
the Final four is going to be in August. Tell us a little bit
about the team and its mission and competition, just a few things that folks
really would like to know. Yeah, so this idea of forming a club
in Bardos will have really been on our minds for a couple of years now.
With the four of us that have established the organization are all Oklahoma Western
alumnis that came from overseas, and you know, being removed from playing the
game for a couple of years really not necessarily took a toll on us,
but we really wanted to go back into it and finally built our own careers,
establish our families within the Bartersweoll community. And this was a perfect timing
for us to go on this endeavor and start something cool, hopefully for the
community. And you, now I have a question for you. You believe
that you were at Wesleyan right now, right, You've got a beautiful facility
there for soccer, wonderful. You even had some of the tournaments I guess
a couple of years ago held out there at Wesley. But now just right
up the road over here at the Daniels Park. That's a beautiful setup.
It will you be playing there? Where would you be playing? So our
practices are going to be at Oklahoma Western Fields. We have a good relationship
obviously with the leadership at Oklahoma Esseleyan being alumnis, so we're going to be
practicing there, but all of our games are going to be at the Custer
Stadium. A wow at the high school under the lights there you go,
Yes, sir, the high school leadership has been very kind and generous to
us to allow us to play there, and shout out to their leadership.
We really appreciate that and we can't wait to start. Well, this is
great now. The mission is basically to kind of regroup, get healthy,
and have fun and have spirited competition, isn't it? Yes, sir,
and I think primarily we would like to build just a little better landscape of
opportunities for younger generations when it comes to you know, high schoolers aspiring to
play collegiately or maybe college players aspiring to play professionally, you know, just
to have the avenue in Barta as well to be able to compete at a
little higher level than what they're used to. You know, we come,
like I mentioned, from overseas, from soccer culture, and you know in
the neighborhoods you get to play against people that are twice your age against you
know, your dad, your grandpa, and you know their friends, and
just the camaraderie you know, that is built throughout those opportunities and just I
think really the toughness and the opportunity for development in playing against older people,
you know, at a faster pace. It allows really a huge opportunity and
we would love to be able to provide that for kids here in bartiswaw wow,
this is going to be a great opportunity. And you call yourself the
Bartlesviill Buffaloes, which is pretty dark cool. So I'm looking at this.
I understand that you're holding some clinics. Is this for all ages or for
just the children or it is for ages five to sixteen? Now if you
are a little under five, you absolutely can you know, swing by and
you know, have fun. But we are trying to do the clinics.
Each weekend when we have our games, we will play our games I think
on three Saturdays and two Sundays, but all of our clinics are going to
be on Saturdays. Okay. We have been partnering with Washington County Soccer Club.
They can allow us to kind of chime in onto their fields, and
the slot for all of our clinics are going to be eleven thirty to twelve
thirty on Saturdays. And I believe the first Saturday we're doing is the April
sixth, Oh Wow, which is going to be yes, sir, next
Saturday. And our first home game is going to be April sixth at five
point thirty at the Custer Stateium. Wow. This is great that you're getting
out there and you're telling folks about it. Folks are welcome to come out
and watch, aren't they. Absolutely, it'd be great if you had an
audience. Yes, I mean, and I think that's the whole purpose of
just engaging the community to see if you know, how many people are going
to show up to watch soccer. And I think especially for the kidos and
you know that are considering playing at a higher level, just by watching soccer,
you can also develop a lot and you know, even if you're you
know, maybe not up to the port in a current situation that you want
to play and commit to the team. Just by coming out and watching in
itself is going to hopefully provide a great value to you know, them as
individuals in their development. Now, I was telling you off the year that
my familiarity with soccer became like front and center. When I went to college.
I was a baseball player. But one of my friends, one of
my classmates from another class he was from from Europe. He says, you
ought to try this football And I said, well, I don't think they
have that in physical education. He said, no, no, no real
football. He met soccer and I tried it. I'm going to tell you,
wow, got in shape in a hurry, had to to keep up
with it. That's a fast game, it really is, and it's an
endurance if nothing else too. Absolutely, absolutely, I mean he can be
it. Really. It depends also on what level you play, you know,
in the pace that you play with. But every sport obviously has a
skill set its skill sets, absolutely, especially when it comes to fitness as
well. But now as an adult, I watch it on TV and I
really enjoy it and I kind of pulled for a team every now and then.
I really don't know the teams except for the ones in the United Kingdom,
but the World teams not all that familiar with them. But you find
yourself watching a game with two teams you don't have any knowledge of, and
suddenly you're pulling for one or the other because it started to get exciting.
And I think the World Cup has a lot to do with that and the
highlight that has been put on that on TV and media as well, certainly,
And like we mentioned off air, I mean the momentum that has you
know, that soccer has had for you a few decades now in the United
States is huge, and especially now with huge competitions being played at the United
in the United States across the United States and a lot of these huge European
stars coming into the game here to you know, show their talents, and
you know, it's been a huge, I think, huge momentum for US
soccer and hopefully we can be a small part of it as well. Well.
I think he came to the right place. You can't go past the
soccer fields on the weekend here in this town without just seeing it shoulder to
shoulder, moms and dads and kids and just trying to find a good spot
to see the game and trying to find a place to park. And it
just really looks like a nice fun out for everyone, not only the participants
but also the spectators. They get a kick out of it. There did
they get a kick out of it. But it's it's really good. It's
really good. Now, do you have a Facebook page or maybe a a
website where folks can learn more about you? We do have Facebook page,
Instagram page, and a website as well, all over the place. We
tried to be. You know, the the website is f bars will uh
dot com, se barterswell dot com. And you know what, I forgot
our Facebook page? Well just put it into Google. It'll be there.
It'll be there. And but yeah, we'll try to be you know,
many places as we can be, especially in you know, today's social media
environment. And uh, but yeah, I mean, if you're interested in
playing, if you're interested in just coming and supporting, obviously everybody's invited.
Uh you know you said you may possibly be trying out as well. I
have pounds first, but yeah, sure, but yeah, it is,
it is truly for everybody. Doesn't really matter the age as long as you're
over fifteen, you can be part of the team and we would love to
have you. Like I said, it brings at least a little bit of
value to you to play against more experienced players that have you know, some
of our players have played professionally overseas. I bet they could, And you
know, it's just I think it's a great opportunity for younger generations. And
you know, I think ultimately we joke around, but ultimately, ultimately,
if we can build this and being able to sustain it, hopefully we can
get to play with our kids someday. That would be awesome. That would
really be awesome, and I hope that day comes. Hopefully. I'd like
to see it. Yeah, I really would, because you start seeing that
kind of handed down generation to generation. It's a beautiful thing. It is.
It absolutely is. And you also mentioned, I mean, the culture
of soccer hasn't been you know, for very long compared to especially European cultures
and countries there. And I think maybe if you that gets down the road,
you know, United States can be or soccer can be truly infiltrated into
the culture of every community in the United States. I'll give it. I
give it five to ten years, and it'll be everywhere because I know how
prevalent it is here in Oklahoma, and I know how it is in the
Midwest. There are still a few places it hasn't caught on, but it
will, but it will. I want to thank you for being with us
today. This is good. Thank you very much. We appreciate you having
us here. And you know, if, like I said, if you
don't have anything to do on Saturdays, hey, gedually come out and watch.
You know, if you can't be an athlete, you can still be
an athletic supporter. There you go, take care. Thank you very much.
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