Speaker 1: The time for a soccer down here, one v one
Speaker 1: and for this one we head to the CSRA and
Speaker 1: catch up with our man Merk. Yeah, how's it going,
Speaker 1: Mart McClellan, who is the director and Grand Exalted pooh
Speaker 1: Bah the Augusta Panthers and the UPSL.
Speaker 2: Thanks for dropping by. I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 3: Well, of course, it's honor for us, so we're just
Speaker 3: happy to get our name out there and get the
Speaker 3: ball rolling.
Speaker 2: So all right, let me go back to the beginning
Speaker 2: of this.
Speaker 1: I know that there are folks over there in the
Speaker 1: eastern sections of the state of Georgia that might be
Speaker 1: following the UPSL and maybe seeing activity going on currently.
Speaker 1: When it comes to the Augusta Panthers and you being
Speaker 1: Grand Exalted Poohba of everything Augusta Panthers, how far back
Speaker 1: are we talking when it came to the genesis of
Speaker 1: the idea to actually get it out onto the field.
Speaker 2: How long are we talking?
Speaker 3: So technically it's been a really long time. So when
Speaker 3: I was stationed here in the army, that's when I
Speaker 3: first had like the idea. So I was like slowd
Speaker 3: the getting back into soccer. Tried to play in high school,
Speaker 3: but there was a lot of opportunities down in my
Speaker 3: area of South Georgia, and so when I was here,
Speaker 3: I was kind of like just already the what whe
Speaker 3: was returning. We played like a little eleven v eleven tournament.
Speaker 3: It was like some uscaching guys came out, a few
Speaker 3: guys from a gust to blah blah blah blah blah, right,
Speaker 3: and it was fun and I was like, man, there's
Speaker 3: a lot of talent here. And so that was the
Speaker 3: first thought processes of it. And then I don't know,
Speaker 3: like four years later, so about six months ago, it's
Speaker 3: when I finally was like, let me make an actual
Speaker 3: a business and so made a nonprofit so state nonprofit.
Speaker 3: Right now we're not five o' one CE or anything
Speaker 3: yet hopefully soon it's in the process. And that was
Speaker 3: really it. I just put the made the Instagram, started
Speaker 3: posting in like they pick up group chats things like that,
Speaker 3: and just saw who grabbed on and who would be
Speaker 3: dedicated to PLOYMA. And so it's just been over six
Speaker 3: months now of just training, training, training and hopefully getting players.
Speaker 1: You know, so we're talking about five years where in
Speaker 1: South Georgia you did you grow up Georgia.
Speaker 3: It's the Columbus area, so north of it. I was
Speaker 3: in West Point, Georgia. Okay, yeah, so right on the
Speaker 3: border Georgia Alabama. Yeah, at that time when I was there.
Speaker 3: So I went to like a really small private school, right.
Speaker 3: So that was like one of the things that my
Speaker 3: late stepdad he wanted to make sure, you know, I
Speaker 3: got decent education because at the time, education there was
Speaker 3: probably I don't know how it looks now, but not
Speaker 3: the best. But yeah, So the school didn't really have
Speaker 3: a soctcare program, and there was a club for my
Speaker 3: freshman year I think it was called Troop Titans, I think,
Speaker 3: and that was the only time I got to play,
Speaker 3: and then started getting back into it once I join
Speaker 3: the army basically.
Speaker 1: And so you so you go from the western frontier
Speaker 1: to the eastern frontier here in the state of Georgia
Speaker 1: five years before a gust the panthers are where we
Speaker 1: are in the discussion. I know that now I do
Speaker 1: want to get into the nonprofit side of things a
Speaker 1: little later on. But what has it been like for
Speaker 1: you as the businessman, MRK trying to piece this together?
Speaker 1: Have you found out more about yourself that you didn't know.
Speaker 1: Did you find yourself that you learned, that you reinforced,
Speaker 1: What did you learn about yourself in this process?
Speaker 3: One thing, I don't know if I'm a good business
Speaker 3: man or not yet, so I'm definitely not. I guess
Speaker 3: like money driven, and so that's always been kind of hard,
Speaker 3: been the hardest thing for this. It's like, oh, well,
Speaker 3: where do these teams get money? Things like that, and
Speaker 3: so that's why I hang up on myself a lot,
Speaker 3: or like, oh man, I feel like I'm failing the
Speaker 3: guys things like that, because you know, at some point
Speaker 3: that's going to be important, right, being able to fund
Speaker 3: sies and things like that. But when it comes to business,
Speaker 3: I think I'm doing okay. I think I'm doing okay
Speaker 3: for somebody who The only thing I did before this
Speaker 3: was army, you know, just regular jobs like a normal person, right,
Speaker 3: And then I did start my own little I do
Speaker 3: residential design, so it's like three D rendering and stuff
Speaker 3: like that, and that's just been a hobby. And so
Speaker 3: that's usually how I do things is if I enjoy it,
Speaker 3: I'm going to pursue it. And so I guess that's
Speaker 3: how I work for business too, is if I enjoy
Speaker 3: something like soccer and nobody else is doing it, why
Speaker 3: not just start it?
Speaker 1: And yeah, why the UPSL What was the because there
Speaker 1: is a rather large alphabet soup when it comes out
Speaker 1: there these days.
Speaker 2: So what gravitated you?
Speaker 1: And the idea of the Augusta Panthers to the upsl
Speaker 1: over everything else.
Speaker 3: So part of it was it was one of the
Speaker 3: few that I knew, And so when I was looking
Speaker 3: at teams like I was looking back in coolingb this
Speaker 3: So I played with the indoors team there for a
Speaker 3: little bit and then when I was there they started,
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, Fountain City and so that was upso
Speaker 3: and so that was just in my head. And then
Speaker 3: when I started looking into the different leagues, so upso, MPSLO,
Speaker 3: well go a little higher like USO League two, things
Speaker 3: like that, or n SA Nation blah blah blah. A
Speaker 3: lot of it is the senses, and then also you know,
Speaker 3: you have to be more established sometimes for a lot
Speaker 3: of these other leagues. And so with Augusta not having
Speaker 3: anything like this for I don't know, like ten years,
Speaker 3: I thought that was the quickest way in. But also
Speaker 3: where I got the most feedback, and so When I
Speaker 3: reached out the Georgia Conference, people were pretty good at
Speaker 3: getting back to me.
Speaker 1: For those that don't know about the soccer footprint in
Speaker 1: the Augusta area, how would you describe what soccer means
Speaker 1: to that particular part of the state and hopping over
Speaker 1: the river and that section of North Augusta, South Carolina,
Speaker 1: and you know, all all the counties over there, how
Speaker 1: would you break that down?
Speaker 3: So it's kind of strange actually, So when you look
Speaker 3: at the club, so like we we're very closely with
Speaker 3: like US Arsenal, which is the oldest club here. So
Speaker 3: they've been around for I want to say forty plus years.
Speaker 3: If I'm remembering correctly. I'm sure they'll correct me later
Speaker 3: if I'm wrong. And so you have them, you have
Speaker 3: the Bulls and youth right, so club and sadly recently
Speaker 3: rush associates or a rush failed or is family I
Speaker 3: guess in the process of it. And so those were
Speaker 3: really all you had. But with that, they're mostly in
Speaker 3: one county, and so you're looking at Columbia County, which
Speaker 3: is where all the soccer fields are where everybody's playing.
Speaker 3: And then with that, though the whole Gusta area is
Speaker 3: like sometimes I say seven, sometimes I say six, but
Speaker 3: quite a few counties. So you like you said, you
Speaker 3: could potentially go all the way to Achin and say
Speaker 3: that's the CSRA, go all the way down to Burke
Speaker 3: County and that's the CSRA, and then go all the
Speaker 3: way to like Washington, things like that. So you have
Speaker 3: almost two hours driving left right up down. And when
Speaker 3: talking about soccer here, there's a lot of talent. There's
Speaker 3: a lot of young talent. So when you look at
Speaker 3: like the high school players, they're pretty good. When you
Speaker 3: look at the club players, pretty good. They go to
Speaker 3: national tournaments, win games. Arsenal proved that, you know, they're
Speaker 3: worth investing in. I think how many months ago was that,
Speaker 3: We'll say three, I can't remember. But Atlanta United saw
Speaker 3: it as a good opportunity to build a field there
Speaker 3: because of how much talent is there. And so when
Speaker 3: you talk about the area that's around, you have Tormented
Speaker 3: down south who's doing great. Body of mine used to
Speaker 3: play there or retired there, work in their office now
Speaker 3: he's don't know if I can say yeah, a potentially
Speaker 3: at Atlanta United, and then just up north very close
Speaker 3: you have Soda City doing really well, so hopefully what's
Speaker 3: that tomorrow they'll be playing, I'll be tuning in on that.
Speaker 3: It's just a pocketive space that hasn't been taking advantage
Speaker 3: of it all. And that's part of the nonprofit side
Speaker 3: is that I think I see why there's a lot
Speaker 3: of gaps when it comes like the infrastructure just not
Speaker 3: feels available basically, and so making many pitches with the
Speaker 3: US Soccer fotivation would be or foundation whatever would be
Speaker 3: really cool at some point and just slowly building it.
Speaker 3: And so that's also the motivation for doing the nonprofit
Speaker 3: instead of like for profit business, because I want to
Speaker 3: make sure the founder of what we're doing here sustains
Speaker 3: and supports, you know, healthy lifestyle for the future.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, when you mentioned the nonprofit side, Okay, since
Speaker 1: you've opened that door, what is the genesis of that idea?
Speaker 1: Because a lot of folks will sit there and it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to have my business make money, or at
Speaker 1: least I want it to be zero based or what
Speaker 1: have you. What was the idea behind the specifically the
Speaker 1: nonprofit and the directions that you wanted to go to
Speaker 1: leave that legacy and be a legacy product.
Speaker 3: Basically, for so, I don't know how many teams have
Speaker 3: done it. I know a few upsls do do that,
Speaker 3: but I don't know what their their goals are when
Speaker 3: it comes to like size. But my goal was just
Speaker 3: to show number one is just the word itsel if
Speaker 3: nonprofit shows that there's no hopefully no ill intention, right,
Speaker 3: and so I want the focus to always be Augusta.
Speaker 3: And so the reason that we're here, the reason that
Speaker 3: we're playing soccer, the reason that we're developing is for us.
Speaker 3: That it's not for you know, just to eventually go
Speaker 3: to another city or whatever right across state lines things
Speaker 3: like that. It's to support the whole area. And so
Speaker 3: you know, money's cool, everyone lovesn't so on and so
Speaker 3: forth right. It gets you good food, nice houses, nice cars.
Speaker 3: But the most important thing is that sometimes we do
Speaker 3: have to reset and take care of people first. And
Speaker 3: that was a big part of the team.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, what's the feedback been like when you sit
Speaker 1: there and it's like, well, well I want to do
Speaker 1: it this way and I want it to be a
Speaker 1: nonprofit as opposed to Okay, well that's that's not what
Speaker 1: I would have pictured. What's the feedback been like when
Speaker 1: you said you wanted to go down that road versus
Speaker 1: the traditional franchise road.
Speaker 3: Nothing yet. I think since we're so new and we
Speaker 3: haven't had too many deep conversations with you know, like
Speaker 3: even investors or things like that, we haven't really had
Speaker 3: too much complaints about it. The main thing is to
Speaker 3: players right now, and they're just happy that they can
Speaker 3: see that I'm invested into them. I work my regular
Speaker 3: job and then basically do this full time as well,
Speaker 3: maybe more, and so I think right now really nothing
Speaker 3: no feedback of well why did you do that? Why not? Yeah,
Speaker 3: I haven't had any any weird responses yet. I'll say that.
Speaker 1: Okay, Mark Llewellen, a grand exalted pooh bah, jack of
Speaker 1: all trades and master of everything with Augusta Panthers in
Speaker 1: the UPSL hanging out with us for a one v one,
Speaker 1: and you know you mentioned having to basically burn the candle.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to say burn the candle at both
Speaker 1: ends because it sounds like you're just trying to figure
Speaker 1: out wherever you can carve a hole to the wick
Speaker 1: and sit there and you know, expose the wick and
Speaker 1: burn it here. Exposed the wick and burn it here
Speaker 1: candle on both ends all that kind of stuff. How
Speaker 1: what's the staffing situation, Like, is this a battle of
Speaker 1: one or what are we talking about here?
Speaker 3: So very first few months yes lately though, know, so
Speaker 3: there's a lot of people here that I really want
Speaker 3: to see this happen. And I always have to remind
Speaker 3: the players. I'm like, hey, like, yeah, you know, it's
Speaker 3: all for you. Everything is supporting you, all this kind
Speaker 3: of things, but nobody's paid, and so it's a really
Speaker 3: good blessing that we do have people supporting. So we
Speaker 3: have basically a media staff at this point, and so
Speaker 3: we work with WRDW, so we paid them to help
Speaker 3: like with the marketing side. With that, we also have
Speaker 3: a volunteer that does basically the same kind of route
Speaker 3: and so we have a nice lady named Alexis who
Speaker 3: works a WRDW but also volunteers with us. We have
Speaker 3: a photographer named Juan Juan Blaze. He's awesome, He comes
Speaker 3: out as much as he can. He's the one that
Speaker 3: gets us all our great pictures on Instagram everything. And
Speaker 3: then with that players as well. So we have one
Speaker 3: player namely Eden. He's done in States girls, so he
Speaker 3: travels up two hours all the time. Yeah, but he
Speaker 3: also likes to report design and things like that, and
Speaker 3: so he helped make I would say, like some of
Speaker 3: our better posts right now, because the rest are me
Speaker 3: and it's not too great, but he made like the
Speaker 3: cool video with the Bellahouse downtown stuff like that, and
Speaker 3: so just from that media standpoint, we get a lot
Speaker 3: of support already. But yeah, so outside of that, we
Speaker 3: have a coach too, and so he's also volunteering his
Speaker 3: time to just give the players hopefully a higher level
Speaker 3: of coaching than what I can provide by myself for sure.
Speaker 3: And yeah, so he was with the Green Gold Triumph
Speaker 3: for like five years, not as like a head coach,
Speaker 3: but you know within the organization and so have in
Speaker 3: the background and even just like contacts in general and experience.
Speaker 3: That's the main thing. He has, like forty plus years
Speaker 3: of experience with soccer across the southeast, so from Atlanta
Speaker 3: all the way up to Greenville, and so you know,
Speaker 3: in a way he's kind of home. So it's nice. Yeah,
Speaker 3: we're getting a lot more supportive.
Speaker 1: I was going to ask, what's it like for people
Speaker 1: to embrace the idea of what you want to do
Speaker 1: knowing that you're going to have to travel two hours
Speaker 1: each way. If you want to play, you're going to
Speaker 1: have to figure out the carve out some time if
Speaker 1: you need to get team practice done, you know you've
Speaker 1: got to do this, and the financials aren't there, but
Speaker 1: you have people who are seeing the development and what
Speaker 1: it can be there.
Speaker 2: Tougusta, what's it like to see that kind of faith
Speaker 2: in people.
Speaker 3: It's crazy. I didn't know what to anticipate. I didn't expect,
Speaker 3: you know, like our first season, to have guys traveling
Speaker 3: from so far away part of it. You know, we're
Speaker 3: a new team, and so it's a good opportunity. And
Speaker 3: so I think that's a lot of it is that
Speaker 3: for this area specifically, you haven't had anything so long,
Speaker 3: and for a lot of these guys it's yes, it's
Speaker 3: the first opportunity. For some guys, like the young guys
Speaker 3: we have sixteen year old, seventeen year olds, whatever. But
Speaker 3: for the guys that are twenty four to twenty five,
Speaker 3: this is an opportunity, a second chance that they didn't
Speaker 3: think would ever be here. And so I think just
Speaker 3: reminding him that that, hey, if you want it, you
Speaker 3: can you can do it. You know, I was traveling
Speaker 3: from Augusted Combs when I was playing indoor and I
Speaker 3: told him, you know, sure I was technically paid or whatever,
Speaker 3: but it didn't cover the gas, you know. And so
Speaker 3: it was just something that I enjoy. I love soccer's
Speaker 3: I'd rather be playing than anything else. Right, So if
Speaker 3: this is something that you want to pursue, then you
Speaker 3: have to dedicate time. It has to be a full
Speaker 3: time job and you just can't give up on yourself
Speaker 3: because that's how how does that translate to life?
Speaker 1: And so yeah, four days away from the opener against
Speaker 1: u m AFC at Russell County High School, does it
Speaker 1: seem like it's four days away from match wake one?
Speaker 3: I have no idea. I'm so time has been like
Speaker 3: an illusion for me right now. But yeah, I mean
Speaker 3: I'm excited for it. I really just want to see
Speaker 3: the guys play. For me, it's it's like the first accomplishment,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, It's the first step on
Speaker 3: the ladder. Yeah, I just I just want to see
Speaker 3: the guys plan and really give them that first Hey
Speaker 3: we made it, you know, we're doing the right thing,
Speaker 3: and yeah, give them the opportunity to prove themselves.
Speaker 1: What are the expectations on the field for the Augusta
Speaker 1: For the Augusta Panthers and Augusta Soccer team, what are
Speaker 1: the expectations on the field.
Speaker 3: Well, always want to win, right but realistically it's the
Speaker 3: first season, and so I'm trying not to have really
Speaker 3: any I'm trying to just be super open minded. Let
Speaker 3: it be the most important thing for me is that
Speaker 3: on the field the players just get better. So every
Speaker 3: game I want them to just get better every game.
Speaker 3: So as they're playing with each other, they've been training,
Speaker 3: but it's not the same as Hey, we're playing in
Speaker 3: the UK so semi professional game. It's intense potentially some
Speaker 3: of these fans are hundreds of people, right and so
Speaker 3: being able to feel the environment, adjust to it and
Speaker 3: then thriving it is the goal. And so I want
Speaker 3: to see these guys really just become who they can
Speaker 3: be on the field.
Speaker 1: So ten matches on the calendar, starting up on the
Speaker 1: twenty third against UMAFC at Russell County High. Then you
Speaker 1: get a home match agust Soccer Park, Field nine. Is
Speaker 1: Augusta Soccer Park ready for this.
Speaker 3: I think? So? I hope so yeah, I would say
Speaker 3: so and it's only going to get better, and so
Speaker 3: they're letting us use Feel nine, which is the one
Speaker 3: that Atlanta United made. And so when you look at it, it's
Speaker 3: still very new. Still gonna put stand level it out
Speaker 3: a little bit better, things like that. But the foundation's
Speaker 3: perfect and there's a lot of seating if you can
Speaker 3: bring your own chair, right, Yeah, I think the potential
Speaker 3: there is crazy, very high. There's a lot of seating
Speaker 3: and most importantly, very beautiful view to watch, beautiful game.
Speaker 1: All right, So if you would please, if you cut
Speaker 1: the promo for me, for anybody that wants to see
Speaker 1: what's going on there with Augusta Soccer Team and the
Speaker 1: Augusta Panthers in the upsl Where do they go? The
Speaker 1: social media is the websites. How do they stay in touch?
Speaker 1: How do they become informed? And how do they stay
Speaker 1: informed of let me hear it?
Speaker 3: All right? So I try my best, all right. So
Speaker 3: on our website, it's a Gustosoccer team dot com. When
Speaker 3: you go on there, you can there's links to everything
Speaker 3: in there at some point, but the easiest way is
Speaker 3: going to the bottom. You can sign up for the
Speaker 3: email and you can always get I always sending out
Speaker 3: email updates, so you always get an email for ticket sales,
Speaker 3: so on and so forth. But within the website you
Speaker 3: have the details for games players, a nonprofit side, our store,
Speaker 3: all that kind of stuff. So the website is a
Speaker 3: good start. The next best thing probably Instagram. That's where
Speaker 3: we've been the most active right now, and so that's
Speaker 3: also a gust of Soccer team, So if you look
Speaker 3: it up, you'll find us, and we do have a Facebook.
Speaker 3: I think it comes up as a guest as Soccer
Speaker 3: Panthers when you look it up. And then we also
Speaker 3: have a YouTube. We do have YouTube. I forgot about that,
Speaker 3: So we have a gust of Soccer Team YouTube and
Speaker 3: I'm going to start hopefully launching it on there. It
Speaker 3: may not look super good, but at least we get
Speaker 3: something started right away.
Speaker 1: So absolutely well Mark, congratulations on getting to this stage.
Speaker 1: The ten game regular season and Division one coming up,
Speaker 1: starting on the twenty third with a road game at
Speaker 1: Russell County, then the twenty ninth against the Revs, and
Speaker 1: then on the road to FC Atlanta on January. Every
Speaker 1: March April fifth, and it goes from there. Good luck
Speaker 1: with the venture. Great for being able to catch up
Speaker 1: with you because I know things are super busy, but
Speaker 1: it's thank you, thank you for the education. It will
Speaker 1: be keeping an eye on you and don't be a stranger.
Speaker 1: Will catch up soon, my friend.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, thank you.
Speaker 2: All right, it's time to roll the close once again.
Speaker 1: Augusta Soccer Team Augusta Panthers you PSL. They're getting ready
Speaker 1: for match Week one.