Transcript
Speaker: Wow, just wow.
Speaker: I've watched from afar for a few years now and I've been to a couple of games, watched Coach Tommy's team play.
Speaker: I've seen the 904 in action and to get to meet them today has been a phenomenal experience.
Speaker: I've been so impressed by just the level of support.
Speaker: You know, they are supporters, they're not just fans.
Speaker: They've been through so much and they deserve so much back in return.
Speaker: So what an opportunity to come here and try and provide some of that, yeah.
Speaker: Welcome to No Pyro No Podcast, Armada fancast where we talk about all things Jacksonville Armada.
Speaker: I'm your host, Daniel Dad Johnson, and with me on this episode we have Brian.
Speaker: Good evening.
Speaker: Ian.
Speaker: Hi everyone, this is E.R.
Speaker: I mean Ian.
Speaker: Oh, so we're on sad Ian this time.
Speaker: We have the veteran James.
Speaker: James, how are you?
Speaker: Good evening lads, how you doing?
Speaker: Doing well, doing well.
Speaker: And so with us today is the gentleman you heard at the front of the episode, Armada Women's Coach, David Goff.
Speaker: David, how are you today?
Speaker: I'm excellent.
Speaker: Thanks very much, guys.
Speaker: It's good to have you.
Speaker: So it was a great reception at the anniversary party for you on Sunday, yeah?
Speaker: Yeah, it was really special.
Speaker: It was great to get to meet so many people and chat, to share the stories and really made everything feel real.
Speaker: Yeah, there's no party like an Armada party for sure.
Speaker: Did you get baptized in a pyro?
Speaker: Did you leave before the smoke was broken out?
Speaker: I did, I did.
Speaker: I've seen the pyro at the games, but not on Sunday.
Speaker: Okay, you must have got that.
Speaker: That was a little bit later near the end of the festivities.
Speaker: So don't worry, you'll get to see plenty as the season goes on.
Speaker: All right, so we're going to dive in.
Speaker: And as they say with Marvel nowadays, they talk about people's origin stories.
Speaker: So let's get a little bit of what's the David Goff origin.
Speaker: Yeah, well, I mean, I'm originally from a small town, about 3,500 people called Abertriddy in South Wales.
Speaker: which is in the UK, for those of you that are not aware that England and Wales are two different countries.
Speaker: But yeah, I grew up in, you know, huge sporting heritage.
Speaker: Wales is a great sporting heritage as a country.
Speaker: And even though we're part of the British Olympic team, you know, we have a number of national teams in other sports like soccer and rugby.
Speaker: And, you know, you kind of grow up hand in hand with sports in the winters and, you know, you're playing football.
Speaker: soccer or rugby and in the summer you're playing cricket or tennis, especially the Wimbledon zone.
Speaker: It goes back to that old phrase, when there's a win, it's a great win for Great Britain and when it's a loss, it's a loss for Wales.
Speaker: Yeah, something like that.
Speaker: I mean, in recent years we've had fantastic players come through like Jess Fishlock and Gareth Bale and everyone's kind of started to understand a little bit that you can be two things, you can be British and you can be Welsh.
Speaker: So yeah, my story started off like that just
Speaker: kicking a ball around, loving competing and playing sports and really just went from there, to be honest.
Speaker: So tell us, how did you end up stateside?
Speaker: Yeah, well, long story short, I embarked on a coaching career quite early.
Speaker: I was a bang average player, I've got to be honest.
Speaker: I was once described as running with my parking brake on.
Speaker: So that tells you everything you need to know about me as a player.
Speaker: But I realised pretty early on I wasn't going to play for Wales.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: I was actually in a school session.
Speaker: It was a rugby session and a guy had come in to do a, you know, like a model session really.
Speaker: And he was wearing a Welsh rugby union tracksuit.
Speaker: And I looked at this guy, you know, and I'm thinking, wow, you know, this is, this is amazing.
Speaker: Like, who is this?
Speaker: What jobs this guy got?
Speaker: And, um, he was a rugby development officer.
Speaker: And I was like, they got one of them for football and they did.
Speaker: They, so that's basically, uh,
Speaker: how I got started in coaching early on.
Speaker: I volunteered my time.
Speaker: I was with the Football Association of Wales from around 17 years onwards, all through my undergraduate degree.
Speaker: And they took great care of me, got me through my coaching badges.
Speaker: And I embarked on this career where the next best thing to play, and I suppose, is coaching.
Speaker: And early on in my career, early 20s, I came out to the US with a company called Challenger Sports.
Speaker: There might be a few people who know who they are.
Speaker: And you basically traveled around the States doing soccer camps every week, you know, fun camps for kids and communities.
Speaker: And every Sunday you'd get in your car and drive off to another state and deliver another course.
Speaker: And you do this kind of all summer, you know, this is the days before the internet, by the way.
Speaker: So I'm dating myself a little bit.
Speaker: I used to have the old map quest, uh, things out printed out and you're trying to follow where you're going.
Speaker: And I remember getting, getting lost once on the way from Arkansas to Oklahoma and, uh,
Speaker: you know, you're trying to use the road signs like back in the day, but, uh, yeah, long story short, I was out here for a summer in 2004 doing that and, um, stayed in touch with some people over the years.
Speaker: It was very important for me.
Speaker: I want to go back to Britain and have those things I wanted to do in Britain.
Speaker: I wanted to work in professional football.
Speaker: I wanted to, you know, get ingrained in the culture of, of, of obviously what soccer is in the UK.
Speaker: Um, and after, you know, after a career of 10, 15 years, I had the opportunity to come to the United States again.
Speaker: And, uh,
Speaker: That's how I ended up over here in 2015.
Speaker: Because I spent the first 13 years of my life in Arkansas, I was interested to note in your bio that you spent some time as a Razorback.
Speaker: So first of all, to discuss to the other guys, I wanted to say woo pig suey.
Speaker: But secondly, how did you end up in Fayetteville?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, we had a great, we met some wonderful people in Arkansas, a very, very good friend of mine, ex-military man, Barry Schneitman, you know, took us under his wing, looked after us.
Speaker: We literally rocked up on a plane, you know, one day, stayed in a holiday inn for three days and then just figured it out from there.
Speaker: So that's where we basically, we went to Little Rock first.
Speaker: There was two clubs, youth clubs merging in Little Rock.
Speaker: They'd asked me to come and run.
Speaker: So I was there to kind of oversee that transition and
Speaker: help that soccer club.
Speaker: Unfortunately, the soccer club wasn't run very well.
Speaker: There wasn't much oversight and it ended up going bust.
Speaker: So we were kind of in this space after about a year and a bit where a bit of turmoil, you know, as is the way, unfortunately, in the game sometimes.
Speaker: But I was offered a job three hours up the road in Fayetteville at the University of Arkansas, which I grabbed with both hands.
Speaker: And that was my introduction to NCAA Women's College soccer as well.
Speaker: And we spent 18 months
Speaker: in Fayetteville, wonderful place to live.
Speaker: As you say, as a Razorback, seeing a completely different side of sport from the collegiate level in terms of the football and the baseball and the softball and just really being ingrained in what it means to be in collegiate sports was a fantastic start for me, really.
Speaker: Just on a side note, when I was living there, my parents were going to travel on vacation to Arkansas from Scotland.
Speaker: They went to the travel agents and they said that they wanted to go to Little Rock.
Speaker: And this big warning sign came up on the screen saying Little Rock is not one of our more popular tourist destinations.
Speaker: Well,
Speaker: I can understand that.
Speaker: It's certainly probably an area that people, you know, most people coming from abroad would go, you know, to Disneyland or the Grand Canyon or whatever first.
Speaker: But we were really lucky to go and spend some time there.
Speaker: And they've actually got their first Walmart there.
Speaker: Obviously, Arkansas is where Walmart originated.
Speaker: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker: Where we were was store number one.
Speaker: So we got to see a bit of the history of Walmart as well.
Speaker: So I wanted to know what brought you to Jacksonville in particular and is it your first time here in this area?
Speaker: Yeah, so no, we're here before the pandemic so we moved to, when I left the University of Arkansas we moved to Florida here, you know, to Jacksonville for the first time and you know Wales is a very small country but it's surrounded on three sides by
Speaker: by the ocean.
Speaker: So, you know, for us to be close to the ocean and close to the beach was a big thing.
Speaker: And obviously Arkansas being landlocked in eight hours in every direction didn't quite hit that mark.
Speaker: So yeah, we took the opportunity to come down to Florida, made Jacksonville our home, you know, came down here to St.
Speaker: Augustine.
Speaker: And really it's probably the place that, you know, me and the kids have felt more at home than anywhere else we've ever been.
Speaker: And I did take a little loan spell for a couple of years,
Speaker: to Norman, Oklahoma, just as the pandemic hit.
Speaker: So they sent me on loan there for a little while.
Speaker: And I was obviously very fortunate to work at OU for a couple of years in Moons College soccer there.
Speaker: But when that ended, it was a choice, really, of where else do we go.
Speaker: And there was only one place we wanted to be.
Speaker: So we came straight back and we've been back for six months.
Speaker: And as I say, we knew of the club and the armada and all the great work that was going on.
Speaker: And now with the men's team going pro and the women's team being announced, it's a great time to be here.
Speaker: It's a great time to be here indeed, David.
Speaker: And thank you for coming on first and foremost.
Speaker: Touching on Wales is such a beautiful country, but for a lot of Americans, they mostly know of Wrexham and the TV show.
Speaker: I'm not too far away from Cardiff, where you went to university in the pride of the West Country, Swindon to be exact, Swindon Town.
Speaker: If you've never heard of them, look them up.
Speaker: But I just wanted, since I'm an outsider similar to you, we have kind of an outside perspective as far as the US is concerned.
Speaker: But for those that don't know, can you please touch on what makes America so special for up and coming women players and also just touch on the collegiate level and how it kind of separates the US apart from other programs and countries as far as women's football goes?
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: I mean,
Speaker: Traditionally, the US has been probably the biggest superpower in women's football.
Speaker: The Title IX guidance that came out back in the 80s and 70s and 80s really set America on a different path than the rest of the world with equality and investment in women's sport.
Speaker: Obviously, the US Women's National Team, the 99ers, won the World Cup and that was really the explosion that took soccer into a lot of hearts of American people, not just
Speaker: men's supporters or women's supporters.
Speaker: It was the first time, obviously, on a national level that the US had won the Soccer World Cup.
Speaker: So that was the catalyst, really, for the next kind of 20, 22, 23 years that we've seen of growth and development on a national scale.
Speaker: There's been a professional league in one form or another for most of that time.
Speaker: The current iteration, the National Women's Soccer League, is in its, I think, eighth or ninth year.
Speaker: and going very, very strong.
Speaker: So, you know, it's a legitimate dream of any young female player in America to make it all the way through to professional players, to be a professional player.
Speaker: And I think two years ago, we had the first million-dollar female player in Trinity Rodman.
Speaker: So every, you know, four or five years, we've seen these new benchmarks and these new ceilings broken.
Speaker: And, you know, it truly is...
Speaker: a dream of a young seven-year-old girl kicking a ball around in America and she can actually see a path all the way through collegiate soccer, all the way to the women's national team.
Speaker: So that's not always the case in a lot of other more established soccer nations.
Speaker: Certainly wasn't the case in Wales in 2015 when I left.
Speaker: I remember a story.
Speaker: I was at the World Cup with England in 2015 preparing for the semifinal with Japan and I had a phone call from my daughter who was 13 at the time.
Speaker: She was in floods of tears, sadly.
Speaker: I was like, what's wrong?
Speaker: What's wrong, Levin?
Speaker: She said, they won't let me play football, Dad.
Speaker: I said, who?
Speaker: They said, in school.
Speaker: They said, girls don't play football.
Speaker: I took great delight in reminding her teacher that her dad was at the Women's World Cup preparing for the World Cup semifinal.
Speaker: But unfortunately, that was the view in Wales at the time in 2015.
Speaker: I mean, we're not going back even a decade.
Speaker: You know, that shows you the difference between perhaps some of the views on women's sport in different parts of the world.
Speaker: And I think probably people in America just have seen it one way since its inception and might not understand that women's soccer in Britain was banned up until kind of the late 70s, early 80s.
Speaker: Women weren't allowed to play at all, never mind have their own clubs or teams to play on.
Speaker: So, you know, to be in women's football is...
Speaker: to stand on the shoulders of hundreds of thousands of people who've worked in the shadows and fought to get a seat at the table.
Speaker: And what we're seeing now in the game is a fantastic doff of the cap to them.
Speaker: But as I say, it's not always been easy for people in the women's game.
Speaker: So it's great to see a country like America embrace it and do what they're doing with every level of the game, really, from kids all the way up to professional.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: That's incredible.
Speaker: I didn't have that understanding.
Speaker: That's the things you just kind of either don't know or just take for granted here.
Speaker: You know, one thing I want to ask you is for any potential player that would be interested in the women's team, what are the things that you would want to expect from your players?
Speaker: I think the most important thing, certainly for me and for the club, we want the team to represent the city of Jacksonville.
Speaker: We want it to represent the fans.
Speaker: We know that our fans have been through tough times.
Speaker: There's been ups, there's been downs, but they've never left our side.
Speaker: And I think with that comes a really strong bond.
Speaker: And I think it has to be more than just tactics or X's and O's, as we call it in the game.
Speaker: It's got to be more than just
Speaker: Whether we're playing four defenders at the back or three defenders at the back, it's got to be something more visceral.
Speaker: And I think for us, what we're talking to the players we're trying to recruit is we want to be excited and we want people to come to the ground and get off the edge of their seat when we attack.
Speaker: And we want to see our players throwing their body in front of shots and doing everything really to represent what our fans have done.
Speaker: The tough times our fans have been through when they could have
Speaker: They could have jacked it in or they could have walked away, but they stood firm and jumped in front of a ball that was going to hit them square in the face or whatever.
Speaker: We want our players to understand that these are things our fans want to see.
Speaker: So there's a special type of player we need to recruit.
Speaker: We're obviously recruiting those players.
Speaker: They have to be quality soccer players as well.
Speaker: but they really got to understand the importance of what it means to pull on that shirt and represent the Armada.
Speaker: So that's where we're going to start.
Speaker: Now, one of the things that I was personally curious about, knowing the range of your background, the depth of your background in coaching, what would you say is the difference, if any, in how you would coach a men's soccer team or a women's soccer team between those two?
Speaker: Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker: And
Speaker: It's one I've been asked a lot because the first 15 years of my career I spent in men's football, mainly in youth development, but also in collegiate sports and professional sports as well.
Speaker: I think for me, one of the most important parts of coaching either men or women is to build that rapport, build that strong rapport and build a trust.
Speaker: And you can only do that with a level of competency.
Speaker: At a certain level of the game, players want to know
Speaker: you know, what you know and how you can help them, especially on the men's side.
Speaker: But I think as well, you know, perhaps in the female game, it wouldn't be remiss of me to say that, you know, they want to know that you care first.
Speaker: They want to know that, you know, there's a level of psychological safety within the group where you're not going to put them on the spot and you're not going to disregard, you know, their feelings or they want to know why something is the way it is.
Speaker: And I think you're seeing that on the men's side now as well.
Speaker: Maybe back 20 years ago,
Speaker: the blokes would tend to just get on with it and, you know, I'll do whatever I'm told to do or I'll do whatever I want more than likely.
Speaker: But I think now there's a level of investment and I think that's just, you know, as generations change as well, people are more invested in why they're doing things, less likely just to do things because they're told.
Speaker: So I think for me, it's about developing that rapport and whether that's men's or women's, but making sure that, you know, the players understand that there's a level of competency,
Speaker: first and foremost, because without that, no one's going to follow the plan.
Speaker: But you could have the best plan in the world if people don't believe in you as a person and that you're going to live your values, then they're not going to follow that either.
Speaker: So it's definitely a balancing act for sure.
Speaker: And David, how do you keep your players motivated when times get tough?
Speaker: We all know when things are good, it looks easy, but when things do get tough and you're hitting a rough patch, do you have any kind of...
Speaker: routines or anything that you do to keep your players motivated during them tough times?
Speaker: Yeah, that's a really good question because I think sometimes we have a little bit of a romantic view on motivation that, you know, as players get higher up the levels, they almost become autonomous robots and they're just always motivated.
Speaker: And that's part of what being a professional is.
Speaker: And to a certain degree, I can understand the conventional wisdom, but at the same time, I think it's a human business and it's about connection.
Speaker: Everybody is, you know,
Speaker: you think about all the people, people listening and think about all the people, you know, everybody's after something different.
Speaker: Everybody's interested in something different.
Speaker: Everybody likes something different and dislikes something different.
Speaker: And I think for me, it's about tapping into, you know, those very kind of visceral reasons why people do what they do.
Speaker: And to be able to motivate high performers and sports men and women, you've really got to get behind the mask of, of what you see sometimes.
Speaker: And,
Speaker: sometimes it's a lot more complicated than just, I want to be a good footballer or I want to earn huge amounts of money or I want to win trophies.
Speaker: Sometimes there's a different kind of channel that you can tap into.
Speaker: And really, when adversity hits, that's when that is tested.
Speaker: Like you say, everybody can be good on a good day, but
Speaker: It's very, very difficult to perform at the highest level and perform week in, week out and train every day and recover every day and make difficult choices that probably the man and woman in the street doesn't even think about.
Speaker: If we want to go and have a beer or if we want to sit and have a Mexican meal or whatever at a restaurant, we just do it, don't we?
Speaker: But I think when you devote your life to high-performance sport, it can be very, very different.
Speaker: So this idea of motivation is very, very different as well.
Speaker: I think you have to be prepared to delay the onset of
Speaker: of success and gratification.
Speaker: And that's not something in the modern world that we're good at doing anymore, is it?
Speaker: Social media has taught us anything.
Speaker: It's instant gratification and immediate hit of dopamine because somebody's liked our post or, you know, we've liked something we've seen.
Speaker: So I think it is sometimes there's a dichotomy there between what it means to be an elite performer and, you know, living in the normal world like most of us do.
Speaker: But I think for me, it's when you get those
Speaker: moments of adversity and they will come.
Speaker: We will have them.
Speaker: It won't just be a simple, you know, we won't just start playing with this team and win every game and never concede a goal.
Speaker: There's going to be ups and downs.
Speaker: But I think once you've got past that initial phase, you then start to look into the idea of building momentum.
Speaker: And that's where, you know, that's where I'm looking at Section 904 and our fans and everybody who's going to come out and support us.
Speaker: Because once we get over that initial phase, whether it's,
Speaker: perfection and wins, wins, wins, or whether it's difficult, we'll get into that phase where we begin to build momentum and that's when we'll really know where we are and where we're going.
Speaker: So, that's an exciting process.
Speaker: It's an exciting process for the players.
Speaker: It's an exciting process for the staff.
Speaker: You know, and there's no guarantees.
Speaker: There's no guarantees in this game.
Speaker: We can have the best game plan.
Speaker: We can have the best players at times.
Speaker: You can still lose a game of football on any given day, a game of soccer on any given day.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: I think when you mix all that in, you know, and you add in all those moving parts, that's why we do what we do, I think.
Speaker: It's kind of like we had talked about previously off air.
Speaker: It's about everybody being on the bus, right, and being on that journey.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I've used this analogy a few times.
Speaker: I think I do like the idea of it being, you know, a bit like a journey.
Speaker: And it might be alien to a few people in, you know, in this part of the world because the transport –
Speaker: The transport mechanisms in Britain, you know, buses, trains, cars, you know, they're all kind of hand in hand.
Speaker: You jump on a bus as, you know, as easy as you jump on a plane really here in North America.
Speaker: So I like the idea of, you know, the bus going in the right direction and everybody being on it.
Speaker: Everybody's got a seat.
Speaker: You know, everybody's facing the right direction.
Speaker: We're all going in the same place.
Speaker: And ultimately, you know, sometimes the bus stops, a couple of people get off, a couple of new people get on.
Speaker: That is just the natural order of things.
Speaker: But,
Speaker: It's really important that everybody is on the bus and going in the right direction.
Speaker: And once you get that, you can achieve amazing things.
Speaker: And I wouldn't put a ceiling on it.
Speaker: I wouldn't say that we're setting a goal on we're going to go out and do this this season or we're going to go out and set a goal on.
Speaker: That's what success looks like.
Speaker: Success for this team and for this new
Speaker: women's team could mean a million things.
Speaker: It could be a lot of things.
Speaker: One thing I think it definitely means is we connect with the community, the community come out and support.
Speaker: And when people leave the stadium with their fans, with their friends or their fans or their fellow people, they go away with a smile on their face thinking, I want to come back and I want to see more of that.
Speaker: And if we've won, brilliant, that's what we're going to try and do.
Speaker: But we could do just as much of that, you know, draw in a game or tie in a game as well.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: You know, it's a very fine balance, but make no mistake, we're here to win.
Speaker: We want to win, but we want to entertain and we want people to feel like they're part of it as well.
Speaker: Nice one, David.
Speaker: And that's a really good analogy.
Speaker: But I think the listeners would like to know, can this bus go under 50 miles per hour?
Speaker: That's fantastic.
Speaker: You've actually...
Speaker: You actually touched on something there because that's actually my favorite movie of all time.
Speaker: I've got a lot of stick over the years for saying that it's the best movie ever made.
Speaker: So it definitely introduced us to Sandra Bullock and one of Keanu Reeves' better ones, I think, as well.
Speaker: So I'm all for that.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm all for that.
Speaker: Yeah, I'll show my age by saying I remember seeing that in the theater.
Speaker: I think twice.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think you show your age by saying theater instead of cinema, mate.
Speaker: Theater.
Speaker: Netflix and chill these days.
Speaker: Oh, my goodness.
Speaker: Oh, dear.
Speaker: So, David, in one of our recent episodes, Armada Club president Nathan Walser, he talked with us about the style of play being the Armada style.
Speaker: And I want to ask you, have you become familiar with that so far?
Speaker: And what could you tell us about?
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: I've been very fortunate.
Speaker: Obviously, I spent a little bit of time around Tommy Kay and anytime I get a chance to sit down and talk soccer with Tommy, I'm going to take that opportunity because he has a phenomenal mind for the game and just sees it in such a way that I think what he's done for me is helped me bring this idea of the Armada way to life.
Speaker: And of course, we have a play in DNA and we have a slideshow and we have
Speaker: You know, we have different ways of doing things, attacking, defending, transitioning, whatever it might be, right?
Speaker: But I think what Tommy's done for me is be able to bring it off the page and really, you know, inspire my way of thinking in terms of, it might look slightly different in terms of the men's and women's teams.
Speaker: We might have a different system.
Speaker: You know, we might not play exactly the same in terms of four at the back or three at the back or whatever it might be.
Speaker: But ultimately, the principles of play will remain the same.
Speaker: You know, there'll be strong attacking ethic.
Speaker: There'll be, you know, a huge counter-pressing element where we try to win the ball back as quick as we can, as high as we can up the pitch.
Speaker: And that's another reason why I think the fans will love what they see from both teams because, you know, that's the way the modern game is going.
Speaker: You know, fans want to be entertained.
Speaker: They want to see good soccer as well.
Speaker: And I think when you start to get some of these fast combination plays and, you know, one-touch plays,
Speaker: passes around the corner, crosses that flash across the box and people taking volleys out of the air instead of bringing it down.
Speaker: You know, these are our versions of home runs and slam dunks in other sports.
Speaker: So, you know, we might not be able to have the buzzer beater as such, but, you know, every time a corner comes in the box and it's headed away and, you know, it's about to fall on someone's foot, everybody knows that feeling of,
Speaker: hitting it out of the air and smashing it off the other side of the crossbar.
Speaker: We're going to be prioritising these kinds of moments and making sure that when they come, our players are prepared and trained and ready to take them.
Speaker: So there's a very exciting style.
Speaker: It's a very exciting, high-pressing way of playing soccer and all energy.
Speaker: It's become the modern way of playing and that's certainly going to be our style as well.
Speaker: That's certainly all I could ask for.
Speaker: And a team of Tommy K's.
Speaker: If only.
Speaker: So one last question I had for you was about for this inaugural women's team, could you tell us what schools you might have been in contact with so far to make up that team?
Speaker: Yeah, of course.
Speaker: I mean, recruitment's a huge part of this when you start a team, obviously.
Speaker: you're building a roster.
Speaker: I can't go into details on the individuals, obviously, at this time, but my background's in the Power Five.
Speaker: I've spent most of my time in the SEC, the Big 12, and in and around the Power Five schools.
Speaker: So I have a lot of good connections and a lot of friends working at those programmes, some of which I've reached out to and leaned upon for advice and support, but also to talk to about recruiting and
Speaker: I think the best programs in the country want their players in the best environments.
Speaker: They want to know that if the players are playing summer ball and, you know, they're in professional environments where they're being taken care of on and off the pitch.
Speaker: And obviously we at Armada provide that in terms of the holistic support around the player, whether it's chiropractic services, medical services, you know, prehab services, whatever the players need outside of the training lines they're going to get.
Speaker: So, you know, again, we're not putting a ceiling on that either, but
Speaker: I can give you the strategy.
Speaker: I can tell you what we're thinking as a club.
Speaker: We want to recruit a large base of the players from the local area.
Speaker: We want to attract all the top players from Jacksonville who have gone on and played soccer in college and maybe have left the area and the youth clubs.
Speaker: We have great youth clubs in this area, Prime, Ancient City, JFC.
Speaker: We have fantastic soccer here.
Speaker: And we have some of those players graduating from those clubs, going into big, big schools and top programmes.
Speaker: We want to bring them back home.
Speaker: We want to give them a stage where they can play in front of their extended family and friends.
Speaker: Maybe some people who haven't been able to see them play in college yet or be able to travel to see them play in their conference play.
Speaker: So I just love the idea of bringing them home and bringing them here and having everybody come out and having everybody behind our players and behind the team.
Speaker: So that's the strategy.
Speaker: That's what we're doing.
Speaker: And every day we're working hard to build that roster.
Speaker: And hopefully before too long, we'll be able to announce
Speaker: the first signings.
Speaker: So when exactly will the WPSL season start?
Speaker: Well, we're still waiting to have all that confirmed and there's obviously some information embargoes that the league set in terms of when that stuff comes out.
Speaker: So we're being very respectful of that process at the moment, but we know that we're preparing for a start in May and our season will run May, June with playoffs in July.
Speaker: So
Speaker: know there's a lot of planning going on behind the scenes at the moment we know we've only got uh you know probably in the region of maybe 12 12 weeks of competitive play so you know probably something like 60 60 to 64 training sessions with you know eight or nine games and when you break that down into various uh mesocycles and micro cycles of technical and tactical training it's not actually a lot of contact time so
Speaker: Every item is being looked at to try and draw out every little detail that we can so we hit the ground flying when the players do arrive in Jacksonville in early May.
Speaker: And rest assured, we're also making the final touches to our high-performance staff, which will be excellent.
Speaker: And then me and the staff will be working hard in the next month or two to put the meat on the bones for that stuff before the players even arrive.
Speaker: Good stuff.
Speaker: Good stuff.
Speaker: And a last question from me.
Speaker: I mean, we couldn't have somebody on from Wales without asking what you think about what's happening with Wrexham.
Speaker: And do you think there's anything that the Armada could learn from them, especially regarding how they're developing their women's team, community involvement and such like?
Speaker: Yeah, of course.
Speaker: I mean, what a great story.
Speaker: What a fantastic story.
Speaker: And
Speaker: I'm pretty sure everybody will have seen the Netflix documentary by now and if not, I would definitely encourage people to go out and find that because what this story has done is really shone a light on what community soccer can be and what soccer outside of the Premier League can be.
Speaker: It's so much more than the tactical side or the result on a Saturday.
Speaker: That's not to take away from the wins and losses, of course, because that's ultimately the aim of the game, but
Speaker: You know, what we see on the Netflix documentary is how much the game is ingrained in the local community, what it means to people.
Speaker: And we see that here in Jacksonville with our own fans.
Speaker: I saw it Sunday, straight up, what it means to people as I'm sitting in the car outside waiting to kind of come into the thing.
Speaker: I'm seeing groups of people, friends, just people who haven't seen each other for a while, just getting together, all wearing their gear and just bounding into this place where,
Speaker: they can't wait to be surrounded by, you know, two, 300 other people who all share this passion together.
Speaker: And what the Wrexham documentary has done is, is shine a light on, on all the different stories and the different individuals behind, you know, what it means to support a team.
Speaker: And hopefully, you know, hopefully that will long may that continue because, you know, the U S and the UK different, you know, the UK soccer has been around for almost 170 years.
Speaker: maybe not as long a heritage in the US, but the fandom here and the way people support their teams is on parity with some of those clubs in those lower leagues.
Speaker: And I think that's something that needs to be celebrated.
Speaker: It's something that needs to be kept.
Speaker: And it's what makes the game the game.
Speaker: It's why soccer is the most popular game in the world, why it's played in every country, why it's on the TV in every country.
Speaker: It isn't just because of the superstar players, it's because of the fans.
Speaker: soccer would be nothing without the fans.
Speaker: And we saw that in the pandemic.
Speaker: We saw empty stadiums and it wasn't the same.
Speaker: So yeah, really pleased for, for Wrexham as a club, really pleased for my home country in Wales as well.
Speaker: I know North Wales, the tourism has gone through the roof and now people from all around the world are trying to book flights to Wrexham, as you said earlier, because they want to go and see that where it, where it's happening for real.
Speaker: And, you know, that's only great for the country of Wales as well.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think with that, David, you're preaching to the choir here.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: you know, it's that, that love for, for lower league.
Speaker: It's not about, you know, being in the premier league or being at the, you know, at the highest level.
Speaker: Um, we, this is something that we as a group have lived right.
Speaker: With the, the ups and downs and the, the fortunes of the Armada.
Speaker: And that's the one thing I always try to tell people like, watch, welcome to Wrexham.
Speaker: This is what it's about, right?
Speaker: You can see it, you know, the community, um, involvement and just the passion.
Speaker: And so, um,
Speaker: And I don't think a lot of the American audience really
Speaker: you know, sort of gets that as far as, you know, you support your local team.
Speaker: It's not about, you know, well, yeah, I'm a fan of the Dallas Cowboys and, you know, and I like this team too.
Speaker: And I like that.
Speaker: You support your local team through thick and thin.
Speaker: And I think the, the welcome directs them series really shows that, you know, to the level that they had been at and what they're aspiring to.
Speaker: I hope they don't lose that magic as they continue to work their way up the, the league structure.
Speaker: And it is magic.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: It,
Speaker: What people have to understand as well is Wrexham is still a relatively small club in terms of the EPL, but still a big club in terms of professional sport and professional football in the UK.
Speaker: There's another, even below Wrexham where they are now, there's another six or seven levels of teams.
Speaker: And again, for me, this is why I'm so happy and feel so at home here already with the Armada because my upbringing was through the non-league, you know, the leagues that aren't yet professional.
Speaker: There's a phenomenal club in Wales called Merthyr Town.
Speaker: And I would encourage everybody to, again, go out and do even more digging and look at Merthyr Town because Merthyr actually played in European competition against Italian giants Atalanta.
Speaker: You know, they actually got qualified that far that they got to play against Atalanta after winning the Welsh Cup one year.
Speaker: So there's huge heritage in these non-league clubs and great support.
Speaker: in these non-league clubs.
Speaker: And that's exactly what I'm seeing here in the Armada.
Speaker: And it makes me feel right at home.
Speaker: It's brilliant.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's also a great series that I can recommend on YouTube called a bunch of amateurs, um, about, uh, dorking.
Speaker: Um, I can't remember the guys who's the owner and head coach.
Speaker: He's quite a character, but if you get a chance, uh,
Speaker: it's called a bunch of amateurs on YouTube and they, they do a series kind of almost like welcome to Wrexham.
Speaker: It's really good stuff, but it's, you know, they're, they're in the, the, the league, I think where Wrexham started and they're still there.
Speaker: I think when the series started, they were,
Speaker: they were playing, you know, the likes of Rexham and things like that.
Speaker: So that's really, if you have a few, you probably don't have a lot of time in your schedule, but that's another, another good one to look up.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So we're done with the hard hitting questions.
Speaker: We're going to get to our question of the season.
Speaker: What are your feelings on pineapple and pizza?
Speaker: Yes or no?
Speaker: Well, definitely pizza, probably too much pizza in my life to be honest, but don't dodge the question.
Speaker: Do I have to pick one or the other?
Speaker: Do I have to pick pineapple on the pizza?
Speaker: Oh, no, no, no.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So many other good things to put on it first.
Speaker: Good man.
Speaker: I want to hear your other good thing to put on it.
Speaker: I want to hear your other good thing to put on it.
Speaker: What do you like on your pizza?
Speaker: Well, probably just the typical, I suppose, the pepperoni and the meat lovers and whatever goes on there.
Speaker: That
Speaker: I actually let you in on a little secret.
Speaker: This is probably not going to put me in the best light, but in Wales, we don't really have a national dish.
Speaker: Our national dish is grilled cheese.
Speaker: So that's actually our official national dish.
Speaker: So I think when you grow up in Wales in the 90s, you know, man would make you sort of get two pieces of bread, chuck some butter on it and make a sandwich out of anything.
Speaker: And I've actually been known, and my man won't let me forget this, I've actually been known to eat a pizza sandwich once.
Speaker: So that's probably a first.
Speaker: But yeah, I'd like to say my nutritional advice and thing has got a little bit better over the years, but probably not.
Speaker: I'm a grilled cheese aficionado myself.
Speaker: One good thing I can recommend for you with leftover pizza, you mentioned the pizza sandwich.
Speaker: You cut the leftover pizza up into small pieces and serve it in an omelet.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: Pizza eggs.
Speaker: That's a fun thing.
Speaker: Never heard of that.
Speaker: That's good.
Speaker: Welcome to America.
Speaker: We cover all kinds of things here.
Speaker: We're not just a podcast about all things Jackson.
Speaker: Yeah, not just all things Jackson-Lormato.
Speaker: We do have content that we have to fill and things like that.
Speaker: Men of culture, I just say that.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: You never know what you're going to get here.
Speaker: I think I'll do an episode on best chili in the town.
Speaker: Yeah, we'll do that.
Speaker: We were doing, during the season last year, we were doing food reports, scran reports from all the different away venues.
Speaker: in the NPSL Sunshine Conference.
Speaker: So we'll see what this season brings.
Speaker: David, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker: I know you're a busy man, and hopefully we can have you back on soon.
Speaker: Thank you so much.
Speaker: I really appreciate you guys.
Speaker: You do a great job.
Speaker: I've listened to a couple of episodes and really appreciate you asking me on.
Speaker: All right, great.
Speaker: Like I said, we hope to have you back on soon.
Speaker: So that was Coach David Goff.
Speaker: So what do you guys have to say about that?
Speaker: I was pretty impressed.
Speaker: You know, I did some research on David, obviously, leading up into this episode.
Speaker: He's got a ton of experience, you know, at different levels.
Speaker: And so I'm hopeful that he's going to do good things for the women's team.
Speaker: I think women's soccer just in general is not easy.
Speaker: I've, you know, seen at least other local clubs and stuff like that.
Speaker: They don't exactly do well.
Speaker: But hopefully he can do something.
Speaker: Just listening to him has got me excited, as excited as I can be about this upcoming season.
Speaker: That's Ian's level of excitement.
Speaker: He's on the edge of his seat.
Speaker: Halfway in the bed.
Speaker: Halfway in the bed, yeah.
Speaker: He sat up in bed.
Speaker: I almost cracked a smile.
Speaker: Well, I think this is going to be something that Jacksonville hasn't seen before is women's soccer at this level.
Speaker: And, you know, if they're following the Armada way, they are going to treat those players, even though they may not be professionals, they're going to treat them as if they're in a professional program.
Speaker: So there's going to be high expectations of the players.
Speaker: And I think also there's going to be an expectation of what the Armada delivers.
Speaker: So I think that's what has set us apart from a lot of the –
Speaker: other clubs in the NPSL, at least in our areas, is how much we run it as a professional organization.
Speaker: Well, I'm just excited for this whole region and what it means for young women, young girls, because we've already been treated to a lot of talent that's come from the area, like Morgan, so much talent.
Speaker: And it's just another outlook for these women in the development of football.
Speaker: And it's just going to help the region.
Speaker: And what a treat for the young ladies too, playing in Jacksonville with our support, because we've got some of the most passionate fans in the bloody country.
Speaker: I don't care what anybody says.
Speaker: And I'm pretty sure that'll go on to form its own thing, but
Speaker: It's just an amazing time.
Speaker: And David seems like a solid bloke.
Speaker: So I'm excited all the way around.
Speaker: Are you as excited as Ian is, though?
Speaker: That's the question.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: It's pretty hard to beat.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: I want to thank you all for joining and thank everyone for listening.
Speaker: So we're going to close this one out, as we always do, with a Go Armada.
Speaker: Let's go, ladies.
Speaker: Vamos, ladies.
Speaker: Go on yourself, boys and girls in blue.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Take care, everyone.
Speaker: What?
Speaker: I'm a car!
Speaker: LAPD!
Speaker: There's a bomb on your boat!
