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Live at Project 9 Brewery with Wade Webber
90 Plays1 year ago
We came roaring back into the public feed with a live show that we recorded at Project 9 Brewery in the Maple Leaf neighborhood of Seattle. Jeremiah and Aaron do a bit of a season preview before turning it over to Sounders Director of Development Wade Webber, who regaled us with some stories about his fascinating journey to becoming a pro soccer player and told us about some of the top prospects working their way up the organization's depth chart.
Among other things, Webber told us about a conspicuous blank spot in his Wikipedia page, what he looks for in a karaoke song and some harrowing tales of training with the legendary Clive Charles.
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Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which became a reader-supported website on Aug. 21. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more: https://www.sounderatheart.com/about/
You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.
"Diversions" audio provided by Sounder at Heart subscriber Lars; find more of their music: https://despatchesfromseattle.com/
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to NOS Arietes. This episode of NOS Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of NOS Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounders supporters. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest.
00:00:28
Speaker
A.O. Shen! Let's go! What a save by Fry! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS Cup win! Here come three years through the middle to crown it the vehicle! And now they truly can't stop the celebrations. It's the Sounders' MLS Cup! Niko Liddo leaves out!
00:01:12
Speaker
Is that what you young people call twerking?
00:01:27
Speaker
But welcome to a live episode of Nos Adietes, sponsored by Full Full Wines.
Live Episode Overview
00:01:32
Speaker
And our subscribers were recording on February 20th, 2024 from Project Nyan Brewery in the Maple Leaf neighborhood of Seattle. I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shan. Joining me today is my co-host, Aaron Campo, and our engineer, Lickett. And later in the show, for those that weren't here, I guess I'm blowing it, is Wade Weber, the sounder's director of development.
00:01:55
Speaker
But thank you so much to coming out here. We're raising some money for the BF Day Elementary fifth grade science trip. So I appreciate everyone helping out with that.
Trivia and Community Engagement
00:02:08
Speaker
And I should say we had a trivia game earlier in the day.
00:02:14
Speaker
I want to give a shout out to I gotta find there the winning the Really the orcas and the angry orcas won the trivia game. So congratulations to them but yeah, we're doing We're doing a little talking about the we'll do a little kind of recap of preseason look a little bit ahead to the LA FC game on Saturday and anyway, Erin
Preseason Analysis
00:02:40
Speaker
Thanks for joining things. Thanks for being here and everything. This should be an interesting one. So the Sounders played like 500 minutes of preseason this year. Did you have any big takeaways? Do you feel like you learned anything? No. I mean, that's preseason, right? Yeah. I don't think I've ever learned anything from preseason. That usually becomes apparent in hindsight. Yeah. So I thought I'd get ahead of it this year and just... Yeah, no, that's fair.
00:03:09
Speaker
Yeah, I will say, so one of the things I looked up for an article that I wrote earlier today was I had this vague recollection of the Sounders having some bad preseason and then going on to having good seasons. Turns out in 2017, they went winless in preseason. In 2019, they went winless in preseason. In 2022, they went winless in preseason. In those three seasons, they went to MLS Cup, they won MLS Cup, and then they won CONCACAP Champions League.
00:03:36
Speaker
So I don't know that there is a whole lot to take away. And the starters did not, I should say they didn't go win this preseason, but they didn't necessarily look great. I want to say they outscored their opponents like nine to eight, something like that, but was a little bit more concerning if you are inclined to be concerned of preseason results was the, their starters went scoreless in their last two games. So over 180 minutes, the starters didn't score. I don't know. Does that raise any alarm bells at all for you?
00:04:05
Speaker
No, not really. I'm just going to keep saying no to every question. No, I mean, it's.
00:04:12
Speaker
I thought everyone looked pretty good. Yeah. I'm still skeptical of Raul until I see consistency. But I think that we saw last year down the stretch, he doesn't have to be the old Raul for the Sounders to be dangerous. So I'm just, you know, we'll see. I'm not too worried. I mean, I think the thing with Raul to me is that even when he even if he has lost a step, even if he is not quite the player that he was, he's going to score if he's healthy. Yeah. The question is, can he stay healthy?
00:04:41
Speaker
And on a similar note, you have Jordan Morris, who is likely going to be the starter until something goes wrong, presumably.
Player Highlights: Jordan Morris and Defense
00:04:51
Speaker
And I know there's a lot of people that are worried a little bit about his performance last year, but if you just look at the numbers, he was a top 10 forward by virtually any
00:05:01
Speaker
objective metric and that's like goals per 90 that's uh goals as a i mean is xg per 90 he actually uh scored more goals than he had xg which is a you know theoretically a sign that he's he was actually good at finishing uh although what stands out in our minds is of course the last game he had against lasc where he he doesn't finish a very clear opportunity uh and then this this preseason he had probably five one-on-one chances didn't finish any of them
00:05:32
Speaker
But then I go out to training and he's finishing everything. And I'm wondering, is this in his head that he's, is he more thinking about how he's not finishing in preseason games or is he not, that he is finishing in games? And frankly, does any of it matter? I don't, I don't really think it does. Uh, I know that the, the rebuttal to his numbers last season is, but a lot of that was front loaded or he's so streaky. Yeah. And that's just the reality of, of strikers.
00:05:58
Speaker
outside of the very, very, very, very top level of strikers in any league. And so I just, I don't think it's a huge concern. If anything, like getting it out of his system in preseason is a positive, right? So yeah, I think Jordan is the player he is at this point and that's a very good MLS player. That's, you know, he's been a very consistent, I think he said top 10 forward by pretty much every metric. We've been pretty spoiled where that seems like a problem. Yeah.
00:06:27
Speaker
I mean, I suppose that's fair. But if their defense continues to be the way that it was last year, which was, I'll remind everyone, they allowed the fewest goals in the league last year. They allowed the fewest XG in the league last year. They actually bolstered their defense in the offseason. They picked up Nathan, who is last healthy season. He was one of the best center backs in the league. They picked up John Bell, who is
00:06:51
Speaker
Probably not a starter, but is a decent backup as those things go. They didn't really lose anyone, any of their important players from their defense. They don't need to be a top 10 scoring team to be a very competitive team. No, definitely not. And they don't have to repeat the level of defensive performance last year that they had to be a competitive team either, which is good because they're probably not going to.
00:07:13
Speaker
I mean, that could be, that said, their defense has looked, for the most part, pretty good. They had the one game against Odensea BK that was not so good where they gave up, I guess, five goals in two games against them. But in the other, against the other three opponents, the defense looked pretty good.
00:07:31
Speaker
almost across the board. So I would say there's reason to think that their defense will be at least close to as good as they were last year. Yeah, I think so. Even if they don't put up the same numbers, I think it's the best defense in the league. Were you generally, you know, we haven't talked a lot during
00:07:48
Speaker
the offseason were you generally satisfied with the moves that they made this this offseason which were you know they they signed Pedro de la Vega they signed Danny Misofsky they brought Rodilio Rodriguez up from the Defiance and then they signed Nathan and John Bell yeah I think so I think that every real big hole on the roster has been has been plugged
00:08:11
Speaker
I would always like to see them do more, I think everyone would, but that's not always feasible with the salary cap being what it is, want to leave flexibility. I don't know how much more you can really ask for, given where the roster was. Were you at all surprised to see, like if you, a lot of the
00:08:29
Speaker
Preseason predictions are now coming out. MLS Soccer does the list that coaches love to make a big stink out of, but the Sounders were first on, I think, 12 of 17 ballots in the West, and then they were no lower than third on anyone's ballot. Does that feel right to you? Or does that make you nervous that there's almost too much belief in them from national abundance? Both, I think. It does feel right, I think.
00:08:57
Speaker
This is also a team that, if a lot of things go wrong, could end up being pretty bad. And that's true of every team, right? But with a roster that is maybe not as young as you would like in a lot of key areas, a fan in a few key areas, you know, things, the wheels could come off, right? But I feel pretty good about this team. I don't know that I'd pick them to finish first in the West, but they'd certainly be near the top.
00:09:22
Speaker
It's maybe a little doom and gloom to look at it this way, but if there's one player they can't afford to lose, who do you think that player is? Probably Joao Paulo. Yeah. That's probably who I would, I mean, even though Christian Roldan was the player they lost last year and that was very visible, I tend to agree with you that Joao Paulo feels like the hardest to replace player on the roster. It's almost always a midfielder. It's one of those two. Yeah. And is there, I guess,
00:09:54
Speaker
Do you have any more faith in their ability to overcome a potential Xiaopao? I bring it up because Xiaopao hasn't been training so far this week. I would say there's at least a decent chance he doesn't start on Saturday.
00:10:07
Speaker
Do you have any more faith that either Danny Leyva, Ovid Vargas, Josh Tenzio, that group can sort of combine to overcome his departure or is missing? Definitely a lot more than I would have had at this time last year. I mean, there's a drop off, right? But I don't think it's, especially for a game too, not as crippling as maybe it would be otherwise, but
00:10:31
Speaker
I definitely have concerns. I mean, I think you lose any of the top three players on this team and it's a pretty big downgrade unless somebody below them takes a big step forward.
00:10:41
Speaker
So I will say on the other play that we were talking about, Christian Roldan, the thing that gives me the most hope that they could afford to lose him is Pedro de la Vega, who I have only seen play in very limited time when, you know, this last weekend when he suited up for the Sounders. What's been your impression of de la Vega? I don't know if you probably didn't see that game much, but in terms of the highlights and in terms of what you've seen of it.
00:11:08
Speaker
I think he's a hugely exciting player that everybody should be patient with. It's always a tough adjustment, especially for a younger player. And I would hate to see people kind of losing their mind about him if he doesn't hit the ground running, but I'm super excited about him. This is what people have been asking for with bringing in younger players instead of players in the prime, which has sort of been what the Sounders have done in the past. And that might mean some growing pains, but I think it's ultimately going to end up being worth it.
00:11:37
Speaker
Yeah, I, for what it's worth I've seen in the, in the 35 or so minutes that he played against Sacramento. I thought he looked about as good as we could have hoped. He is a very dribbly player he's not afraid of.
00:11:52
Speaker
Coaches have said every time he touched the ball, he's looking at goal, he's looking to go towards goal. I would say, at least in the limited time that we saw him, that was the case when I've seen him out at training. That's very much the case. He looks to be, in some ways, almost on a different level in training, especially in small-sided games. He's got a lot of control. He's very aggressive. And he also does it with his big smile, and everyone seems to gravitate towards him. I think he's going to be a really fun player.
00:12:22
Speaker
And I can see why the Sounders were so sort of like zeroed in on signing. Yeah, for sure.
Key Players and Future Prospects
00:12:27
Speaker
For sure. I think that the initial impressions, which are very minimal at this point, obviously, they haven't played a game, have been nothing but positive. He seems happy to be here. He doesn't seem like.
00:12:38
Speaker
I mean, players are pretty good at the PR element of things, but he certainly is not given an impression of someone who thinks he's too good for the league, who sees this as like a short-term transitional thing, which is really all you can ask for. Yeah, I mean, I'll just bring it up as a point of contrast. Today, Evander, who is the big designated player that Portland broke all these transfer records for to sign last year,
00:13:04
Speaker
Today he was on he was doing some like official Availability and he said yeah, I kind of wish I had signed with woman and say last year. Yeah
00:13:15
Speaker
And it's like, I don't know if that's really what you want your $10 million DP saying a few days before the season starts. Yeah, not. It's not ideal. No. And so one of the things I recently read about De La Vega is that, you know, so he went to, he played for Linus, which is a well-known, but relatively smaller club in Argentina.
00:13:36
Speaker
And they have, they're sort of known for developing players and they have like a school, like an onsite school as part of what they do. And his dad apparently felt so strongly about making sure he got an education that he didn't let them go to school there. And he made him go to like the local public school.
00:13:54
Speaker
Which I thought was just kind of a neat thing that you don't hear a lot. You don't hear those types of stories a lot coming out of Argentina, especially for, at the time, he was a player that Man City was, you know, looking at that Real Madrid was looking at that supposedly had like a $12 million price tag on him. And his dad's like, no, I want you to go into the local public high school. Yeah, that's cool.
00:14:14
Speaker
And then in that same story, there was a bit about it. I don't know. I don't I think they didn't go into depth on this, but I thought it was an interesting thing that I guess he has older sisters and and and they have instilled certain progressive views in him as a result. But I thought it was another thing that was just kind of like, oh, that's a nice thing to hear about. It is. Yeah, especially well, never mind. I won't.
00:14:38
Speaker
But no, I think I think people are really going to like him. And of course, if you've seen this guy, his hair is absolutely glorious. And I know it's silly to talk about his hair, but it really is. If you see it just bounces and it has to. It's very nice. It's pretty amazing. It's been a while since we've had hair that good on this. No, it really has. And the centers were really kind of do.
00:15:00
Speaker
So all that said, Aaron, what are some of the teams in the West? You said you weren't quite sure if you would pick them to win the West. What are the teams that you are sort of like looking at as competition that you're a little bit more concerned about? Yeah, I mean, I think it's LAFC is the obvious one. Nobody else stands out to me. There are other good teams in the West. There are teams who look good, who are probably going to be terrible.
00:15:25
Speaker
There are teams who look terrible who are probably going to be okay. LAFC seems like the team that is in the conversation with the Sounders to me.
00:15:32
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I would agree with you there. I think that it's hard to ever pick against LAFC at this point. The Galaxy have spent a lot of money in this offseason. I'm not entirely sure that it's money well spent. They don't have a great track record of that, but they do have some new talent evaluators that are presumably gonna be doing a little bit better job of spending all that money. I don't know that they spent a lot on defense though, and that seems to be really where they've struggled the most in recent years is just not, I mean, they give up a ton of gold.
00:16:02
Speaker
Yeah. And I think that spending a lot of money on flashier attacking players and ignoring everything else is kind of their blueprint for the last 10 years. Right. So, you know, more of the same, but that's, that's fine. Yeah. Well, uh, I guess that's, that's pretty much that's what we have. I think, I think so. I'm losing my voice. So yeah. Well, uh, again, thank you to everyone for coming out today. Uh,
00:16:30
Speaker
If you're listening to this, we have another segment coming up with Wade Weber. I'll give you a peek behind the curtain. We actually already recorded that live. But people here know that. They'll have to listen to this too. Exactly.
Career Insights with Wade Weber
00:16:48
Speaker
Welcome back to Nos Arietes. We are here at Project 9 Brewing and joining me right now is the Sounders Director of Development, Wade Weber. Welcome back to the show. Thanks, Jeremiah. It's always a pleasure to be on your show.
00:17:03
Speaker
Well, yeah, this is at least the third or fourth time I think that you've been on. So I appreciate you doing this all these times. And you're welcome. Why do you keep doing it? I don't think we've covered the subject yet. I'm not sure what the subject is, but it's not yet covered. So we got to keep working.
00:17:21
Speaker
Right, exactly. One of these days, we'll figure out why we have you on. So you had pretty seemingly a significant title change. You were the Tacoma Defiance coach the last three seasons. Before that, you were a Tacoma Defiance assistant. And before that, you were an academy coach. You sort of been working your way up to this. Can you explain the new job and what attracted you to it?
00:17:48
Speaker
Yeah, I've had a few people ask me, did you want to do this? As if I was shoved aside so they could bring a better person in. I've reached an age, I'm 57 now, I think.
00:18:03
Speaker
Is it that old? Seven, yes, 57. And I don't want to do this for 30 more years. And I also don't think that my, I think I can do more than just stand on a sideline. So my interests
00:18:18
Speaker
broadened and the opportunity came. It's a new position. There used to be an academy director and so the director of development oversees both the academy and Defiance. The idea being that I can help develop the culture that we have with Defiance kind of across across both of those areas and I maybe this isn't news to anybody but in the beginning
00:18:42
Speaker
There were the sounders, right? And that's all there was. There was no Academy. There was no S2 or Defiance. So they were very much in silos for a long time.
00:18:55
Speaker
I give Schmetzer a lot of credit because he and I have a connection from years ago. His twin younger brothers, Walter and Andy Schmetzer, we're near Lake City. The Lake City Hawks and... So much as for how it used to be not so far from here. It certainly did used to be not far from here. And so Walter and Andy, his twin younger brothers are my age and we played against each other our entire youth. Walter Schmetzer Sr. was the coach of that team. Legend.
00:19:25
Speaker
And so Brian has been what has been great about sort of.
00:19:31
Speaker
Trust is a funny word, but he's expressed to me that he trusts me. So if I say, this guy, I'll go ahead and say it, is a tough kid, right? If I say that, he at least understands the math I'm using to come to that conclusion. So it was a good situation. I enjoyed being the Defiance Coach, but
00:19:57
Speaker
Every, I mean, talk about sameness. There is a sameness about like every minus four days, like four days prior to the game, the session you're looking for, for this amount of high speed running and this amount of axles D cells. And then there's the game. The game day is pretty much the same. You just maybe waking up in a hotel rather than waking up at home.
00:20:17
Speaker
And I was looking for something more than that. I just I wasn't bored because it's hard to be bored in a sport, right? It's exciting. But I just felt like also I felt like I was clogging the artery for some really talented younger coaches. We have a
00:20:36
Speaker
Assistant coach my assistant coach was Michael Morris. He's still the assistant coach for our new coach. And I think Michael's exceptional someday. Hopefully we see him continue to move up the up the ladder, but you know as long I could have sat in that seat probably and as long as I wanted.
00:20:55
Speaker
Because I didn't complain much and I understood the second team is it's a hard job You never get to pick your team every week They're saying you got to play these guys and guess what? You know that that guy's got 45 minutes and he's got 70. So your subs are already predetermined But I I was I was kind of cool with that, you know, it actually made my job easier. It's not my fault He made me take him out, you know
00:21:24
Speaker
And we did have the, I mean, in my three years as head coach, this is, I'm patting myself on the back, but we promoted 10 players to the first team in those three years, which two of them are not with the club anymore. Sam Adenerine, we traded to St. Louis. And I think there's something in the transfer that we actually get money every time he scores a goal. I think so. That's the only reason it would have made sense. Oh, it's been good.
00:21:52
Speaker
And, uh, Abdele Sisoko, AB Sisoko was out of contract and he's now, uh, signed with Memphis and Memphis. Yeah. He's playing in the USL, but the other eight are still there. And, uh, so it's a, it's a great run. Jackson Reagan, Josh Tenzio, Josh was prior Obed Vargas. Those were guys that in the last couple of years have come through defiance into the first team. And so I enjoyed that, but.
00:22:18
Speaker
have I answered your question? Yeah, I think you did. Have I covered the subject? Yeah, you've definitely covered that subject pretty well. You talked about how there is a real conflict sometimes between winning games and developing and yet
00:22:36
Speaker
part of development, at least within the Sounders, is winning games. That was, I think, one of the conflicts that happened during some of that U.S.L. Championship era where there wasn't quite as much winning as they wanted. Now that you're looking at it from a different angle, how do you go about balancing those things and how much directive are you giving to Aervé to say, look, we do have to perform on some level.
00:23:04
Speaker
Well, I'm not telling him that yet. Let's see how the results go. I think the most important thing is that you need to have a competitive team and that team has to have a couple of young first team prospects in it. And that doesn't mean every player is a first team prospect. And if you make that mistake, you wind up having a team of 18 year olds that just routinely lose badly and that's difficult to
00:23:33
Speaker
It's difficult to kind of pick a guy up at halftime. It's four nothing down and you want to give the rousing speech, but they've heard that speech for the last six games. And so they, they, they're not dumb and, and they, they want to, they want to be able to compete the first team competes. So it is about investment in the surrounding players, but identifying who the prospects are.
00:23:57
Speaker
And then once you know them, you play them and you keep playing them and they make mistakes and you bring them off the bench for a game and then you put them in again as a starter and committing to that.
00:24:08
Speaker
I just shared a, that's not a huge secret, I don't think, but that idea that it's a limited number and we target them. I'm really hoping that these players aren't listening to the pocket. No, no, no. Seriously, I don't think it's a surprise because they're always at the end of the year, the veterans are like, how come that so and so got
00:24:30
Speaker
25 starts and I got 18, you know, it's because he's 17 years old and he he's in the youth national team and he's on the way up and you're sort of plateauing. I'm not saying you're on the way down, but plateauing. The next ascent is around the corner.
00:24:50
Speaker
But yeah, what was the question? I don't know. It doesn't matter. I guess that you balance winning versus development. Yes. Yes. I think you answered. We want every game the second team plays to matter. And I mean like.
00:25:07
Speaker
You know, you don't know those games after you're eliminated from the playoffs already. There's six games left and you know, this game doesn't matter. You can win them all and it doesn't matter because you've already missed the playoffs. So I, again, something up a second pat on the back is every defiance game they played in my three years, even the last game of the U S L season game number 32 had we won at Phoenix.
00:25:31
Speaker
We would have qualified for the U.S.L. Championship playoffs, which would have been an amazing feat. And we tied. We tied Phoenix Rising, who won the championship last year. It was a great team. Now, that team had Jackson and Obed. Sam Adenarin was our leading scorer. We were a good U.S.L. team. But we also had a bunch of kids as well. Juan Alvarez played 21 games.
00:25:55
Speaker
I couldn't find him 21 games in the MLS next pro season the following year. And I think, were you winning at halftime of that game too? We were up 1-0. And we hit the bar when it was 1-1, but I won't say who that is because he's on the first team.
00:26:14
Speaker
So, you know, you have a absolutely fascinating career path, I think, and I would love for you to I'll give a little bit of a Wikipedia version of it. But if you get the thing, I'll start. You went to you went to federal, you grew up in federal way. You went to what? Thomas Jefferson? Is that right? Thomas Jefferson High School, home of the Raiders. And then you go to the University of Portland. Yes.
00:26:38
Speaker
And you have a good career there. You end up at the A-League Sounders. You play a few seasons with the Sounders. Am I correct so far? The gap to me is the most fascinating part of my stories. I graduated University of Portland Go Pilots in 1989. I would have gone to UW, but they didn't recruit me.
00:27:03
Speaker
So I settled for Portland and we, it was a wonderful, I know, I know.
00:27:11
Speaker
Clive Charles, who has been deified, sort of was my coach. He was not... I'm going down a religious path. It's a Catholic school, but he's Saint Clive now in Portland. They just revere him in the whole city. And he did wonderful things for soccer in Portland, but when I knew him, he was very much just a man
00:27:37
Speaker
a great, great, great guy, but made tons of mistakes, uh, acknowledge them. Uh, there was one and I don't want to go too far down. I know you're on a time crunch. There was a for you. He showed up for practice one morning with a napkin and that was the training session. He had his tea and toast in the morning and he had this new drill, a new drill and it's to teach defensive heading.
00:28:03
Speaker
So you need altitude on the header. You got to get up, you got to head it high. So he brought two goals facing each other, 10 yards apart. And he put two players between the goals and he got the balls ready on the side and he lobbed the ball up in between the two. And one has to try and head it over that goal while the other tries to head it over that goal.
00:28:25
Speaker
And if you do just a little imagination, what could go wrong? What could possibly go wrong? The very first ball, Paul Henningsen and Gary Osterheg went up and they hit heads so hard. And Gary's big slice of reside bleeding everywhere. Paul's concussed. Two of our three central defenders are basically out for the next game. So he takes the napkin, he crumbles it up and he just goes on and on.
00:28:56
Speaker
Yeah. It weren't so much better on the napkin. Yeah. So that was Clive. And when I graduated college, the Portland Timbers by name came back. Prior to that, it was FC Portland, just like we had FC Seattle. They had FC Portland. It was still amateur in 89. Casey Keller played for that team with me. He was our goalkeeper. I was a defender.
00:29:20
Speaker
We beat FC Seattle twice and qualified for the playoffs. I knocked the Timbers out of the playoffs with an own goal in overtime in San Diego. You can take the boy out of Federal Way, but you know.
00:29:39
Speaker
And then that next year, FC Seattle became the FC Seattle Storm. For those of a certain vintage, you remember that there was a soccer team called Seattle Storm, and it existed professionally for one year. 1990, the year I got married to Aaron, who's sitting over there in a shirt very similar in color to mine. And we didn't plan it.
00:30:05
Speaker
We got married in 90 and the shirts are you the marriage? She planned the marriage. Yeah, it was it was not a we it was a she And and so we got married and I signed my first professional contract for a thousand dollars a month for six months and
00:30:26
Speaker
And I was going to get married. So I said, can we stretch it? Can I go over the whole year? So I actually got it for 10 months for $600 a month. That was my first pro contract.
00:30:37
Speaker
And then that February, the February after that, in February 91, I played the season with the storm, February 91, the storm folded. And the Tacoma Stars were really nothing anymore. And I was 20, how old, 24. I was 24, married about a week after the team folded, she announced. It wasn't that, there was no social media. She's pregnant with our first child.
00:31:07
Speaker
So I have to get a real job, you know? And so I went back to Seattle University, got a master's in teaching, and soccer was done for me when I was 24. And I taught one year of world history at Sidrow Woolley High School. Sidrow Woolley, any of you, the town that I-5 missed, you know, you go up north and it's just north of Mount Vernon.
00:31:36
Speaker
Uh, and I got a call from, uh, someone I had been playing. There's a men's league team around here called FTI. Uh, some of you, if you play any men's league, you know about FTI, but I played for that team, uh, in just, you know, men's league, uh, not serious. We didn't practice. We just show up for games. And I got a call from one of the guys who said the sounders are coming back. This was December of 93. The sounders are coming back. Uh,
00:32:05
Speaker
Alan Hinton is going to be the coach. Scott Okey is going to be the owner. And I said, well, I got a kid teaching. I have a real job. I'm not going to try that thousand bucks a month thing. The only way I'll do it is if you pay me what I get paid teaching and you pay my insurance, if you can do those things, I'm back. And they did.
00:32:24
Speaker
So in between though, I played co-ed recreational soccer with my wife in Sidra Wooley for Lou Ankeny's septic services. That was the name of my team. So, you know, if you see on Wikipedia, they'll say previous team on a roster. When I signed for the Sounders, my previous team was Lou Ankeny's septic services.
00:32:53
Speaker
There you go. That to me is the most... It is. If it had been one more year, I'd have been too far gone. But as it was, I played three years in Seattle. We won two championships. I played three years in MLS. I tore my right ACL in 95 with the Sounders at the very end of the season. Dr. Morris, Jordan's dad, did my ACL. It's great. Disney is great.
00:33:16
Speaker
I tore my left ACL in 99 in Miami, the original Miami MLS team. And that's not so great. It was an inferior surgeon and a worse injury. So I retired from that at 30, 32, I think 32. So I've always posited that you are the only MLS player to have played co-rec soccer before MLS.
00:33:39
Speaker
Have you ever been able to confirm this? Have you ever met anyone that I've never met anyone that has that that story I I do have interesting like Garth Logger way and I were teammates in Dallas and in Miami and
00:33:55
Speaker
I'm going off on a tangent. No, go for it. We played Dungeons and Dragons, right? So I was his dungeon master and his character who was a barbarian, just a real dumb guy. And he played it dumb as well. And he is one of the smartest people I've ever met. Hopefully you can concur, Jeremiah. Sure, yeah.
00:34:19
Speaker
I mean, he made some odd career decisions. I just mean brain power. Oh, yeah. Duke undergrad, Georgetown Law School. And soccer was just something he did as a hobby on the side while he was doing all that stuff. Really, really bright guy. And I was his dungeon master. And he babysat our kids as well. And he had quite the name of the character. I've shared that with you? I think you've shared it. You've definitely shared it with me. I can share it with everyone now because Garth isn't here anymore. He's in Atlanta.
00:34:50
Speaker
Grodeus Pig Popper was his character's name. Yeah, I won't get into the details. Thank you, honey. I'm always more erudite with a couple of pints.
00:35:04
Speaker
I feel like we should at least talk a little bit about the organization that you're currently overseeing. Yes. Who are some players that are currently not on the first team that you are? Well, I'll actually line it up a little bit more easily. During preseason, three players who really stood out to me who are not first or that are players that you've had at various times, Stuart Hawkins,
00:35:28
Speaker
uh, Snyder Brunel and, uh, I don't know if you actually had Gallatin, is it Sandness? Sandness, yes. He's a Seattle kid. Yeah, he is a Seattle kid. And, uh, did you have, did he play for you last year?
00:35:41
Speaker
no he's yet to make an appearance he's a 2008 yeah he's 15 right yeah so what can you tell us about these three guys and if they're yeah uh stewart is uh is from the south end i think his family lives on fox island yes yes uh and he is a uh he's one of those that when he was
00:36:01
Speaker
13, he was, he was tiny. He was a little, just a little kid. And then he just kept growing. And now he's taller than me. Yeah. And he still needs his frame needs to expand. Like he's got to get stronger. And it's one of those things that will happen, especially with a gym, like the first team that now have it's, it's very impressive. It's pretty amazing. But he's super technical. He played on the U S U 17 world cup team in Indonesia.
00:36:28
Speaker
Um, last year, uh, really highly rated, uh, good passer can play with both feet, although his right footed needs to get better in the air. Um, that's, uh, I think Jackson Reagan needs to get, uh, better in the air. And I've been saying that I was just coaching 2017 with the academy. He's huge, but just cause you're big, that doesn't mean your timing and everything else is right.
00:36:51
Speaker
So, uh, and I, I'm friends with Jackson, so I hope I'm, this is not critical. I love the guy and I think he's a, he's a really good player, but Stu is, um, he's so young at that position, experiences, everything. So I expect Stuart to play.
00:37:07
Speaker
almost exclusively with defiance, I would love him to prove me wrong, but he needs the minutes and he's not going to play over Yymar or Jackson or any of the other central defenders they have. So that's I think Stewart's where he needs to be and we'll keep giving him the push. That's one thing I still do in my current role is I still work with the center backs. I'll do video with them and
00:37:31
Speaker
game breakdown and stuff like that Snyder Brunel is 2007 and he's We have a few young midfielders right and so that's the thing I'm when I think
00:37:45
Speaker
I try to put myself in Brian's shoes and what is he like and what does he need? And he probably doesn't need another teenage midfielder. He's got a couple and some are just barely out of their teens like Danny Leyva and Josh Tensio.
00:38:04
Speaker
So to Kidahara, we, Sota and I, his birthday is one day before mine. So we always exchange texts around our, our birthdays, but he just turned 21. So we're, we're really talking about a young group of guys, Obed, of course.
00:38:23
Speaker
Snider is another one of those. He's a 2007 can play pretty much anywhere in midfield. He's still just developing and I think he'll be more attention. Than Leyva in that he'll be a little more as his radius of operation will be wider. Maybe not as technically clean as Danny can be maybe a better athlete. He's good in the air good with both feet.
00:38:49
Speaker
And he's sixteen, you know, so who knows what his ceiling is. But he signed to the second team. Stewart is signed to the first team. Snyder is signed to the second team. And he was the first academy player to play a thousand minutes for the second team as as an amateur unsigned. Last year, he played a thousand minutes. He was one of the one of the three I targeted. Right. Right. So
00:39:15
Speaker
And Gallatin is, Brian loves it. Schmetz loves Gallatin Sandness. He's a great frame for a center back. He's a 2008. And again, it's weird talking about a 2008, like he's a prospect, but this kid is as loud a central defender as I have heard on the youth level. He's bossy.
00:39:40
Speaker
He in a good way, you know, like he's uh, he's what you want the organizer in the middle of the Your job is so easy as a center back if you just make sure everyone's where they're supposed to be Then you you're in the perfect spot anyway So you look great if they take care of all the business and all you're doing is cleaning up messes really that they make Right, so you're bailing teammates out, but you put him in the right spot. He does that and he's good with both feet and he's uh
00:40:06
Speaker
When I say good, like he works on his left to drive a ball. The the standard for that at the Academy level historically is Sam Rogers, who some of you would know, and he's in Norway right now. I coach Sam the same time I coach Jackson and Sam is the he was is two footed like most people say that say they're two footed. They're never it's you always have one that you're you're more dominant with,
00:40:35
Speaker
Gallatin could be that because he works on the left foot like Sam worked on his left foot Almost like obsessively, you know a hundred balls after practice Where he you paint a target on the wall and he just kicks and kicks and kicks and kicks not till he hits it He just keeps kicking and kicking and he'll hit the target and hit the target then miss it and hit it again It's not like a finish line because there's only one finish line in life
00:41:00
Speaker
Jeremiah, and that's death. So you just keep going.
00:41:09
Speaker
So he, I noticed that Gallatin is listed at like six foot one 50. That feels like a way under, like he, he seems enormous when I was, he's got like size 20 shoes. I don't, I, I, he's, he's probably six one ish. Okay. Um, and one 50 out of, you know, it's hard for me to tell cause I've, I've put on a few pounds and, and, uh,
00:41:34
Speaker
Yeah, my playing weight was 190 and he's not 190. So. Okay. Yeah. So somewhere between 150 and 190. Yes. Yeah. Anyone else that you're like really interested and intrigued by that is with Defiance or I suppose. Yeah. Georgia Monongo. Georgia is a winger.
00:41:57
Speaker
He's from Côte d'Ivoire, that's Ivory Coast. I don't know, I don't speak French.
Youth Talent Spotlight
00:42:03
Speaker
They just won the African Cup of Nations. He was very, very proud. He showed up from, he flew with the first team to Spain. He was in preseason in Spain with him, scored a goal, just like he did last preseason.
00:42:17
Speaker
Uh, and he is, um, you know, we, we have players train with the first team all the time and we watch a lot of first team training, but you know, Leo Chu is very quick. He is one of those that over 10 yards, he pretty much will beat anyone. Um, and Georgie is, I think he's even faster and slipperier. The question for him, and it's the question with so many good wings is what happens after you beat your man?
00:42:45
Speaker
That's where you make your money, really. Being fast is a genetic thing, being fast and skillful and smart and all that. Georgie is on the cusp. I really do think that if he can sort out just, he's got the move and then just pick between two options. There's probably 10 options you could pick from, limit yourself to two, choose the best of those two and you're gonna turn out good. And he's, yeah.
00:43:14
Speaker
He's the sort of guy that stands still and jumps and lands on his feet, does a flip, you know, either way. And it's not like he has to get his arms going. He just stands and he can flip. I've never seen anyone do it. He is like his shirts off. It's not the eight pack. He has he has all sorts. He's the most muscular guy I've ever seen. And his smile is bright. He's a lovely, lovely guy. He's one that we all report.
00:43:42
Speaker
came to us through the same people that got us Nuhu. It's an organization that scouts young talent, they work with a team in the Czech Republic or
00:43:53
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And they work with MLS teams. And so Georgie's from the same people, Leo Cullen and his group. So yeah, I think Georgie's a big prospect. And so he had an eye issue last year. Is that totally behind him or what's the, or what are we, what are we allowed to say about his eye issue? The eye issue is totally behind it.
00:44:14
Speaker
He's not wearing goggles. He was wearing goggles last year. He's not wearing goggles. And I noticed today he was the, of all the unsigned players, all the non first team signed players, he was the only one still training with the first team today. I don't know. As he will be tomorrow.
00:44:30
Speaker
So we'll take that take that for what it's worth, right? Yeah. Well, I think I've kept you plenty of time. You've been extremely, extremely I love the stories. You're probably the best way I had a whole thing. Actually, I do want to get I do have I want to bring this up.
Fun and Personal Tidbits
00:44:48
Speaker
You told me the other day that you sometimes karaoke to criminal by Fiona Apple. Yes. What is a what makes a good karaoke song?
00:44:59
Speaker
Well, it depends on the crowd. OK. I think karaoke is very crowd dependent because certain crowds, you have to sing a sweet Caroline type song or you get completely ignored. And some people, that's perfectly fine. If I'm singing karaoke, you don't want to be. Darn it. I want to be seen. I don't maybe want to be heard, but I told you, I am in a band.
00:45:26
Speaker
I play guitar and I sing and we played the Browns Point Salmon Bake in Northeast Tacoma a couple of years ago. It is one of those hobbies that I don't get to practice enough. We practice once a month, maybe, and I don't know the last show we played.
00:45:45
Speaker
I do like to get up in front of people and have a good time. So yes, Depeche Mode's policy of truth is one of those, like, if it's a crowd that's interested in an interesting song, I'm going for that. All right. Or I'll do Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen.
00:46:02
Speaker
because my voice kind of matches the boss. I can get gravelly. Yeah. Well, that seems like a good place to end this, Wade, so much. I wish you the best of luck, and I hope we see you around a lot. It's been great having you on again. Thank you, Jeremiah, and thanks to all of you for coming out.
00:46:28
Speaker
So thank you to Project Mine for hosting us. Thank you to everyone that came out. This is a great crowd. I was really worried that what kind of turnout we get. And so I really want to say thank you. And yeah, we'll see you next time, I guess.
00:47:41
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!