Speaker 1: Time for a soccer down here, one v one on
Speaker 1: our tour of the new folks in the NPSL as
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty five season will be here before we
Speaker 1: know it. Brian Grazier from PDA Hibernians, Technical Director, PDA
Speaker 1: Soccer dot org, Pdahebernians dot com. Brian, did I miss anything?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: He did not.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: Uh, first off, thanks for dropping by and letting everybody
Speaker 1: in on what's going on there at PDA Soccer now
Speaker 1: that the announcement is officially official and you're going to
Speaker 1: be a part of things in the NPSL. Has what's
Speaker 1: the vibe been like? What's the buzz? What has it
Speaker 1: been like there in the PDA community with this next
Speaker 1: step in the process there at PDA.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd say tons and tons of excitement. So we
Speaker 2: we actually we explored this idea even last year. We
Speaker 2: were a little late in application process and just maybe
Speaker 2: from an organizational standpoint of what it actually needed maybe
Speaker 2: to come to fruition. So you know, we kind of
Speaker 2: got everything organized after that and then we set out
Speaker 2: a target Okay, hey, this is a season that we
Speaker 2: can actually hopefully apply, get everything organized and ready to go,
Speaker 2: and then I think the you know, club has a
Speaker 2: full backing so with a certainly on the boys side.
Speaker 2: We have three different regions which are all excited. I
Speaker 2: do think it'll you know, our roster, you know that
Speaker 2: be after first year. Well, we'll definitely do some assessment
Speaker 2: and education process. We need to go out during the
Speaker 2: summertime and watch some games as well. But we're excited
Speaker 2: to give our our PDA players another platform that are
Speaker 2: playing in college. And then obviously we'll go outside in
Speaker 2: the community and search for non PDA players to fill
Speaker 2: out the roster and put out hopefully a really good
Speaker 2: roster and competition.
Speaker 1: When it comes to making a decision like this for
Speaker 1: the next step in a process, there are a lot
Speaker 1: of different leagues out there. There's the alphabet soup you
Speaker 1: pretty much can you know, turn in any direction and
Speaker 1: you know, flip a page in a book and there's
Speaker 1: a league out there. Yeah, it came to your vetting
Speaker 1: process and determining why the NPSL, why the NPSL over
Speaker 1: what might have been other discussions that folks may not
Speaker 1: have been privy to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's a that's a great question, you
Speaker 2: know from us, certainly in the Hibernian region. You know,
Speaker 2: it started. It first started a couple of years ago
Speaker 2: with now our region at being in existence six seven,
Speaker 2: eight seasons now, so we have you know, some more
Speaker 2: college players coming back and saying, hey, coach, where do
Speaker 2: we have a platform to still be active during the summertime.
Speaker 2: So we started exploring a couple of years ago, and
Speaker 2: as you said, there's a ton of different leagues and platforms.
Speaker 2: So we just started doing our research. We know, we
Speaker 2: went out to some games, we were on websites, we
Speaker 2: were talking to people and saying, hey, what's a real
Speaker 2: league that kind of sets with our philosophy and what
Speaker 2: we want to try to do and grow the game
Speaker 2: and community based. And then as we you know that
Speaker 2: our research even more, we thought the NPSL would be
Speaker 2: a perfect start for us.
Speaker 1: When you mentioned that you thought about it going in
Speaker 1: a couple of years, thought about for the twenty four season,
Speaker 1: getting ready for the twenty five. It's not around the corner.
Speaker 1: Even if it is around the corner, I know a
Speaker 1: lot of folks will sit there and say, yeah, the
Speaker 1: season's over there. You know, it's like May or whatever,
Speaker 1: and you know we're talking like you know, six seven
Speaker 1: months away, and while you do have some of the
Speaker 1: infrastructure in place that other startups may not. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: six or seven months away for game one and season one,
Speaker 1: but it's really not. So when it comes to assembling
Speaker 1: everything and going okay, yeah, it's right there, how do
Speaker 1: you remind folks that, yeah, twenty twenty five is technically
Speaker 1: only two months away in the calendar sense, and we're
Speaker 1: probably only six months away from playing. How do you,
Speaker 1: you know, make folks and remind them it's like, look, yeah,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five seasons over there, but it's going to
Speaker 1: be here before you know it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, So I mean for us, as you know,
Speaker 2: using social media right now, so we have it all
Speaker 2: penned still, you know, at the top of all of
Speaker 2: our social media accounts. And then you know, as we
Speaker 2: communicate with our club, we always have a club wide
Speaker 2: email that goes out once a month with monthly newsletters
Speaker 2: that you know that'll be at the at the top
Speaker 2: of how we support this this platform, and you know,
Speaker 2: how are we creative and using everybody within PDA to
Speaker 2: really kick start off the season on a good note.
Speaker 1: When it comes to the to do list, I always
Speaker 1: like to ask this question of the programs slash franchises
Speaker 1: that are starting in whatever league we're talking about, there's
Speaker 1: always a to do list, and you know, going in
Speaker 1: you've got your to do list to figure out your
Speaker 1: due diligence. Then you get in to the league and
Speaker 1: then you're like, okay, there's the to do the list
Speaker 1: to get ready for season one? Where is the to
Speaker 1: do list? Because you know, in an office, especially for me,
Speaker 1: it could be on the magnet, the magnet calendar and
Speaker 1: the fridge where you write down an idea at like
Speaker 1: three o'clock in the morning. Oh yeah, we've got to
Speaker 1: do this. You write it down, you file it away.
Speaker 1: Then you come back in the morning and go, what
Speaker 1: is it that I wrote down when I was getting
Speaker 1: that glass of water at three o'clock? You know, it
Speaker 1: could be on a Google doc. It could be you know,
Speaker 1: it could be in a you know, you could be
Speaker 1: on your phone like in the old days. You sit there,
Speaker 1: you pull the stylust out of your BlackBerry, you write
Speaker 1: down an idea, you jam the stylist back in and go.
Speaker 1: Could be in a notebook, could be a legal pad,
Speaker 1: could be on the banking calendar under the glass like
Speaker 1: we used to growing up could be on one of
Speaker 1: those big six foot by eight foot dry erase forwards.
Speaker 1: It's got a bunch of different colors and directions going on.
Speaker 1: Where is this to do list for PDA to get
Speaker 1: ready for the NPSL season? And what do you think
Speaker 1: the next thing that you can cross off of the
Speaker 1: list is as you're getting ready for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: It took a lot of those words right right out
Speaker 2: of my mouth. So I'm smiling when you're when you
Speaker 2: were saying all this, you know right now, Look, I'll
Speaker 2: be honest. We do have a Google doc and then
Speaker 2: we have a we call it Grow and Glow. Right,
Speaker 2: So we put all of our and there's an assembly
Speaker 2: of four to five people on there. That's that's the
Speaker 2: head coach, assistance, myself, some you know, Jerry McEwen. You know,
Speaker 2: we we have our basically our thoughts, right, this is
Speaker 2: what we're going to think. This is, you know, here's
Speaker 2: a thought process of what goes on. I would say
Speaker 2: right now, it's it's an overwhelming list of some ideas
Speaker 2: and then I always bring it back to is, you know, one,
Speaker 2: what what is going to be really important to us?
Speaker 2: And then what's realistic for year one, and then does
Speaker 2: the year two and year three the hopefully there'll be
Speaker 2: some different goals and what's realistic and achievable for us.
Speaker 2: So I think as we get closer to the season,
Speaker 2: and obviously the amount of conversations and prepping that we've
Speaker 2: already had, it is a lot, but I think that's
Speaker 2: really important to us. I think as you have an
Speaker 2: expansion side, there's oh my goodness, so many thoughts of
Speaker 2: what you can do, and then you know, what's going
Speaker 2: to be really important to us? What do we value
Speaker 2: the most? And then can we get that box at
Speaker 2: least halfway checked off, maybe not even fully checked off,
Speaker 2: And then where are the other eight thousand objectives come
Speaker 2: into it? Because that's kind of you know, where we're
Speaker 2: at with some things. And as you just said, year one,
Speaker 2: there's gonna be I think, as much as we want
Speaker 2: to be prepared and organized with everything, it's going to
Speaker 2: be a learning payer for us. And we have to
Speaker 2: have an open, you know, growth mindset to that and
Speaker 2: be be willing to you know, okay, have a really
Speaker 2: positive reflection and say, okay, this is what we thought,
Speaker 2: Oh this is maybe totally different now, you know, what
Speaker 2: I'm saying going on the road here, or to be
Speaker 2: honest with you, we don't know what conference we're going
Speaker 2: to be in, right, so you know, always very honest
Speaker 2: with that. We have an idea, but it's not you know,
Speaker 2: solidified yet. So I think we're gonna have to be
Speaker 2: an open and we have to be able to adapt
Speaker 2: in a positive way.
Speaker 1: So what are your expectations for year one on the
Speaker 1: field off the field, because I mean we always sit
Speaker 1: there and we look at expectations and you're thinking, yeah,
Speaker 1: wins and losses and titles, titles and things. But then
Speaker 1: there's always the infrastructure thoughts and expectations. There's always the
Speaker 1: roster expectations, the coaching expectations, the growth of the players expectations,
Speaker 1: butts in seats expectations. What are those expectations for PDA
Speaker 1: in year one in the NPSL.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think year one for us, I mean we're
Speaker 2: going to really dive into our roster and try to,
Speaker 2: I guess assimilate a brand that's you know, within our
Speaker 2: game model and principles as a club. Right, is it
Speaker 2: going to you know, be an exact replica of our
Speaker 2: seventeens at nineteens and sixteens. No, because it is a
Speaker 2: different league and a platform. But I do think there
Speaker 2: could be a consistent an approach with how we operate
Speaker 2: within the club. So I think that's going to be
Speaker 2: important to us, and I think obviously the roster does
Speaker 2: change year to year, but I think finding the right
Speaker 2: players who want to put on a PDA jersey, that
Speaker 2: understand our expectations as a staff and our objectives, and
Speaker 2: how do we build a competitive roster because we do
Speaker 2: want to come in and we want to compete and
Speaker 2: put on a good performance and exciting brand of soccer.
Speaker 2: That's important to PDA holistically on the boys and girls side.
Speaker 2: So I think for us is finding the right players,
Speaker 2: having the right dialogue and communication that fit our expectations
Speaker 2: and our goals, certainly year one, and then I think
Speaker 2: second part then would be, like we just said, the
Speaker 2: infrastructure and building community presence and how do we do that.
Speaker 2: I think will be a learning curve and it's certainly
Speaker 2: going to be a high value towards us. But I
Speaker 2: think first and foremost is getting the right players within
Speaker 2: our group, which we do have a solid base. We
Speaker 2: played in the last two seasons in under twenty three
Speaker 2: and some success. And we do have a number of,
Speaker 2: like I said, PDA players that are playing in college
Speaker 2: or are still going to continue this path, and hey,
Speaker 2: are they searching? I haven't latched onto a USL side yet.
Speaker 2: Can we can we be here and then have a
Speaker 2: good season. So I think we'd rather to explore and
Speaker 2: be open to all those different paths. But more importantly,
Speaker 2: it's it's getting the right players into our system. I
Speaker 2: think can be our first and foremost priority.
Speaker 1: How would you describe PDA soccer to someone from the
Speaker 1: outside that is blowing up your phone saying hey, I
Speaker 1: want to be a part of this, From from the
Speaker 1: fabric of the individual to the on air the on
Speaker 1: field presentation, how would you break down what PDA soccer is?
Speaker 1: And yes I did just use their quotes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Well, I think in general from our club perspective, right,
Speaker 2: it's a it's players development academy. So we do place
Speaker 2: a high intrinsic value on individual development. But then as
Speaker 2: as you climb that ladder through the club, it's it's
Speaker 2: how do you win games collectively? Out of an older
Speaker 2: age that's applicable, right, that's the sixteen seventeen and nineteen,
Speaker 2: I would say, you know, you hear coaches all the
Speaker 2: time say, you know, we want to put an attacking
Speaker 2: brand of soccer onto it. I think PDA that we
Speaker 2: do want to be attacking minded club, but we were
Speaker 2: also very mindful of what we require all of our
Speaker 2: players to make, you know, quality decisions on the field,
Speaker 2: and then what is the game giving us? So we're
Speaker 2: always you know, we're big into those decision making processes.
Speaker 2: So I think year one intil certainly this this club
Speaker 2: as we do. If we can oppose ourselves into the game,
Speaker 2: and that's that's excellent. But if not, then how do
Speaker 2: you solve this picture? How you solve these situations? Because
Speaker 2: this is now what the game is telling us. I
Speaker 2: think we have to be adaptive and we have to
Speaker 2: grow within the game.
Speaker 1: Has PDA's collective phone been blowing up since the announcement,
Speaker 1: whether it's from inside players with PDA experience that want
Speaker 1: to come back and circle back and or outside And
Speaker 1: do you have international dialing on your phone to where
Speaker 1: you're getting these odd WhatsApp numbers and things like that
Speaker 1: where you've got to trace it. What's the what's it
Speaker 1: been like for for the in reach.
Speaker 2: Instead of that, I think all above what you just said.
Speaker 2: So when we when we uh uh, you know, when
Speaker 2: everything went published and everything, I didn't I didn't really
Speaker 2: know what to expect that. You know, we had like
Speaker 2: an internal obviously text dialogue, say what's going to go on?
Speaker 2: I tell you, within whenever they published it at three o'clock,
Speaker 2: I'm telling you probably from the next twenty four hours.
Speaker 2: It was. It was there was a lot going on
Speaker 2: within the club, you know, even on the girls side,
Speaker 2: you know, other local clubs and you know, like Motown
Speaker 2: reaching out there's it was a it was a really
Speaker 2: good vibe. So yeah, I think all above with them.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, you mentioned justly surprised. Oh,
Speaker 1: I mean, hey, I mean that that that adds to
Speaker 1: that list of that six by eight dry erase board
Speaker 1: document that you got going in house. The fact that
Speaker 1: Motown reached out, I think that that's really cool, knowing
Speaker 1: the pedigree that Motown has established in the NPSL. They
Speaker 1: reach out, they knock on your druds like, yeah, come
Speaker 1: on in, bruh water's great. You know, well we'll see
Speaker 1: you soon enough. Basically, I guess, And that's what the
Speaker 1: phone call was.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it was great, exactly right. It was you know,
Speaker 2: short messages with that. But I told them and did
Speaker 2: they do a terrific job? Right? So it's you know
Speaker 2: what they do, their pedigree and how they go about
Speaker 2: everything from an infrastructure, roster coaching staff, it's excellent. So
Speaker 2: I think if anything, you know, it's a phone call
Speaker 2: to them and say hey, what works for you guys,
Speaker 2: what doesn't? And then how does it apply, you know,
Speaker 2: to us? And again what it comes down to, what's
Speaker 2: what's achievable for us? And then you know, for us
Speaker 2: is what can we be? Not if you go to
Speaker 2: three different categories? Can we be average here and spread
Speaker 2: our wings in too many places? Like? How can we
Speaker 2: be great? And what can we do to you know,
Speaker 2: get off to a really good start?
Speaker 1: How difficult is that to have all of those different
Speaker 1: categories and grade it from one to ten and try
Speaker 1: to figure out, okay, if we're a ten here, we
Speaker 1: try not to be a three here. Yeah, the best
Speaker 1: thing might be to just be like a six or
Speaker 1: a seven across the board instead of sitting there and going, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: we're a ten, but we're a three and then we're
Speaker 1: a four. But then we're not you know, how do
Speaker 1: you how do you make sure that you're as even
Speaker 1: keeled across the board in all those categories.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's surrounding yourself with with smarter people, right, No,
Speaker 2: but no, And honestly it's it's all of us a
Speaker 2: collection of efforts here and then look, I think the
Speaker 2: constant dialogue and sometimes yeah, there's other I guess differences
Speaker 2: of opinions and one hundred percent, And then how do
Speaker 2: we leave that? And then how do we come together
Speaker 2: and formulate an idea and say, Okay, this is what
Speaker 2: we're going to go and run with, and then also
Speaker 2: have an understanding of if it's If it's not going
Speaker 2: to work, then we have to again adjust and grow
Speaker 2: and reflect on it and say, okay, this is this
Speaker 2: wasn't working for us. We thought of what year one, year, two,
Speaker 2: year three, what's more obtainable given our environment, our resources,
Speaker 2: and what we now know from the league?
Speaker 1: Who's on your speed dial, who's on who's on PDA's
Speaker 1: speed dial. Now that you're into this next step, obviously
Speaker 1: I'm sure that Motown is on your speed dial. But
Speaker 1: when it comes to the speed dial, and I've got questions.
Speaker 1: You know how to do things a lot, but this
Speaker 1: whole franchise thing is a little different when it comes to,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to ask questions who who can you
Speaker 1: dial up? And you know they'll pick up the phone.
Speaker 2: Well, I think, you know, it's I guess maybe a
Speaker 2: little bit nerve racking or you know, uneasy, but I
Speaker 2: think that's a yeah, we are going into a more
Speaker 2: uncharted territory within our club, you know, so I think
Speaker 2: meaning on one another and then obviously some of the
Speaker 2: other teams that are in within the league we will
Speaker 2: get to know. You know, we have the annual meeting
Speaker 2: coming up at the end of October, so we're really
Speaker 2: excited about that as we meet new owners and directors there,
Speaker 2: and then you know, I think just having all those
Speaker 2: communications platforms will be helpful.
Speaker 1: All right, So what are the next markers that you
Speaker 1: have there? At PDA We mentioned the next thing that
Speaker 1: you can cross off the board. My guess is you're
Speaker 1: probably writing things down. You're probably adding two or three
Speaker 1: when you cross one off. What are some of the
Speaker 1: next markers that folks need to keep an eye out
Speaker 1: for when it comes to getting ready for the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think right now we have a good start
Speaker 2: with this our staff. We would like to maybe probably
Speaker 2: add a couple more staff members to our roster and
Speaker 2: technical technical staff, so that'll be coming up in the
Speaker 2: next month. We're already up to a good start just
Speaker 2: internally with all of our coaches, and then I do
Speaker 2: think we'll start building again what's achievable from an infrastructure standpoint,
Speaker 2: and I do think community outreach is going to be
Speaker 2: important to us, so we'll start hiring people starting within
Speaker 2: the club if we can about some ideas of how
Speaker 2: do we incorporate the community with certainly our home games
Speaker 2: and maximizing all those opportunities.
Speaker 1: Media Hibernian's director Brian Grazier is PDA now joins the
Speaker 1: NPSL coaching Staff's going to include Dan Keith and Scott
Speaker 1: Scott Loser. Did I get there?
Speaker 2: Scott Loser?
Speaker 1: Yep, closer And so it's gonna be all in New Jersey, Lawrenceville,
Speaker 1: New Jersey. The home venue mon Senior Walter E. Nolan
Speaker 1: Stadium on the campus of Notre Dame High in Lawrenceville,
Speaker 1: and you've got access to your own field, which I
Speaker 1: think is also key to all of this, especially with
Speaker 1: practice development, making sure that all of those different, you know,
Speaker 1: trapdoors that you might come across are attached. Here to
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, which is coming up right around the
Speaker 1: corner Facebook at PDA Soccer, Insta or Graham or ig
Speaker 1: as the hip kids say at PDA Boys and on
Speaker 1: the two hundred and eighty character app at PDA Soccer.
Speaker 1: As always, it's great to see you, Brian, thanks for
Speaker 1: dropping by his PDA Hibernians and the PDA folks. The
Speaker 1: Player Development Players Development Academy hoops into the NPSL in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. Thanks for dropping in, looking forward to
Speaker 1: the progress. Don't be as stranger will catch up with
Speaker 1: you soon, my friend Ah, Thank you so much