October 9, 2025 • 40 mins
Two goals down in 11 minutes, then a 4–2 lead before halftime, what kind of locker room creates that kind of turnaround on the field? We sat down with JBU head coach Samuel Estrada to explore the answer, starting where his game began: street soccer in San Salvador. Samuel’s path from El Salvador youth international to Northwest Arkansas coach reveals why decision speed beats raw speed, how small-sided chaos teaches real game intelligence, and why joy and freedom in pickup are the fuel for long-term development.
We dig into the gritty parts of the college game, adapting to pace, building strength and endurance, and learning to control tempo as a midfielder who values rhythm over headlines. Samuel shares the moment he said yes to an interim role, lost only one match, and earned the job by leading differently: inviting input, delegating responsibility, and turning standards into a lived culture. The result is a program with a clear mission, to transform lives and compete at the highest level, plus measurable wins like Top 25 recognition and a 90%+ retention rate that proves players feel they belong.
The conversation widens to Northwest Arkansas: a region growing fast without losing warmth, a campus and town that welcome international students, and a soccer ecosystem on the rise. With Ozark United FC targeting professional men’s and women’s pathways, recruiting gets stronger, the local game gets richer, and Saturday nights gain a new heartbeat. Samuel outlines JBU’s road map: win the conference in the near term, aim at a national championship in the long term, and keep stacking small, daily standards that compound into big outcomes.
If you care about player development, program culture, or the future of soccer in NWA, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share with a teammate who holds you accountable, and leave a review telling us your best pickup lesson. Your stories help us grow the game together.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:04):
Pitch to Pro is the official podcast of Ozark United
FC.
This will be our platform totell our story about the club
and the special place that wecall home Northwest Arkansas.
This is a journey.
We want to bring you along forthe ride.
We'll share what's going onbehind the curtain, help educate
the community at large aboutsoccer, our league, and give
(00:25):
updates on the progress of theclub along the way.
Together we'll explore andunpack our journey to
professional soccer, the magicthat is NWA, our community, and
talk all things soccer from onthe pitch to behind the scenes,
telling the story of our club.
Pitch to Pro Podcast is proudlysponsored by Podcastvideos.com.
(00:46):
Podcastvideos.com is NorthwestArkansas's premier podcast
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They are dedicated to helpingyou create, record, and publish
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SPEAKER_03 (01:07):
Hello, everybody.
Welcome back to the Pitch thePro Podcast.
I'm your host, Wes Harris,managing director for Ozark
United FC, Northwest Arkansas'sprofessional soccer club playing
in the United Soccer League.
I'm really excited to welcometoday's guest onto the show, Mr.
Samuel Estrada, head coach ofmen's soccer at John Brown
University.
(01:27):
Samuel, thank you for joining metoday, man.
SPEAKER_00 (01:29):
No, thank you for the invite.
And I am looking forward toshare with the soccer community
and with you as well.
SPEAKER_03 (01:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
So I always ask people, youknow, before we dive into your
role and what you're doing atJBU, uh, give us a little bit
about you, your background, uh,how you found the game, um, and
you know, let's start there.
SPEAKER_00 (01:50):
Yeah, so I am originally from San Salvador, El
Salvador.
I was born and raised there.
Um, you know, it's it's a verysmall country, but it's a soccer
country, right?
Um, so it wasn't hard for me tofall in love uh with soccer.
I play since I have you knowmemories.
(02:10):
Um I play on close to my house.
I was probably there from 3 to 7p.m.
just playing with friends, pickup uh kind of like street
soccer.
Um and yeah, just growing up, Iwatch soccer every day.
Um, and you know, it's somethingI shared with my dad as well.
Um so yeah, born and raised inEl Salvador, and then when I was
(02:33):
18, I moved to NorthwestArkansas because of college.
Okay.
Um in El Salvador, I got theprivilege to uh compete at
national team level.
I was in national team camps.
Um I play a couple of CONCACAFtournaments, and also I got the
opportunity to play for under 17in the second team of Alianza
(02:53):
Football Club, which is one ofthe strongest professional clubs
in El Salvador.
So yeah, that's a little bitabout my background.
SPEAKER_03 (03:01):
That's a pretty impressive background.
Yeah.
I mean, that's what we're Imean, you talked about it.
Um, and it's just so prevalentin, you know, other parts of the
world, especially Central SouthAmerica, is this street
football.
Yeah.
And it's something that we'relacking in the US and access to
the game, right?
(03:22):
And uh just playing pickup.
Like there's so much of this.
I don't want to knock anybody,but all of this individual
one-on-one training.
And you know, yes, you can buildyour skill set, you're getting
touches and they have a purpose.
But the best thing for they dida study, I think, at Liverpool
Academy, the players that madeit to the first team versus uh
(03:42):
the ones that didn't, the mostcommon link between them was
that the amount of pickup soccerthat they played was the most
crucial ingredient.
And it's because that is whereyou develop your creativity,
your skill set, you're havingthe most fun, yeah, which is
where your skills start toflourish and you have permission
to do that.
SPEAKER_00 (04:01):
Yeah, and I and also I will add, like in pickup,
you're making decisions, right?
You're making decisions uh thewhole time you're playing,
especially when you're I play3v3, 4v4 for years, right?
Almost every day.
So yeah, the creativity, thefun, uh, but also I'm just
making the soccer decisionsevery second almost.
(04:24):
So that's how I think how yougrow as well.
SPEAKER_03 (04:27):
Well, would love from a uh you know, a player of
your caliber and coach of yourcaliber's perspective, but I've
always thought and heard and andshared in this perspective that
like what separates greatplayers from good ones and how
how do you really develop as aplayer?
It's all about soccer is a gameof decision making.
Yeah.
Anybody can develop thetechnical skills.
(04:48):
Yeah.
What separates players is theability to make good decisions
and quickly the speed at whichthey can make those decisions.
And execute, obviously.
SPEAKER_00 (04:59):
Yeah, and I mean, uh one of my favorite teams right
now is Barcelona, right?
And and since they like ourlittle kids, they're just
they're just playing everyone onthe same page, everyone making
the right decisions, even ifthey're getting pressed or not,
it doesn't change.
Right.
So yeah, the decision making, Iwould say, I would say is the
(05:20):
most important thing uh on agreat player.
Um and when I'm recruiting myplayers, the first thing I see
is how quick they makedecisions, if they're like one
or two steps ahead of everyoneelse.
So the mental speed, right?
Um, the athleticism, we can workit here, right?
The just the pace um and and andthe strength physically, we can
(05:43):
always work it.
Um even the technical skills,you can always work it, but the
decision making is the I wouldsay is the most crucial.
SPEAKER_03 (05:51):
And that's the hardest to coach.
Yes.
Yes, it's the hardest to coach.
And you learn it by playing.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (05:57):
Yeah.
And and I would say um it's inan early age, right?
You need to develop that in theearly age.
It's very hard to coach thatwhenever you are 18, 17, 16,
right?
It's almost impossible to say,uh, but it depends on the
player.
But I would say, yeah, that'sthat's by far the most
important.
SPEAKER_03 (06:17):
Yeah.
Well, I love that.
We could do a whole otherpodcast on on development of
players, and and uh maybe we'llhave you back on to do that.
But you know, you came to NWAfor college, so uh tell us more
about that.
I mean, uh at JBU to playsoccer, right?
SPEAKER_00 (06:34):
Yes, I came to John Brown in 2017.
I graduated in 2021, so I hadfour seasons of college soccer.
Um, and man, it was different,right?
I was I was not used to one, theculture, the language, uh, the
culture of the team.
And I would say it was at thebeginning, it was hard,
(06:56):
especially because you're faraway from family, from what you
were used to.
Um, but just the community, um,not just the John Brown
community, but the silentsprings community was so
welcoming.
Uh, it was warm.
So uh that made it easier forme.
Um during my four years at JBUum we won the conference, the
(07:18):
Sooner Athletic Conference, um,the regular season and also the
tournament, the playoffs in2019.
And that was the last time wewere uh ranked in the top 25.
Um, but I would say, you know,my my favorite part about being
here is just the community andthe friendships that I made um,
(07:39):
you know, from 2017 till now.
That's that's just the bestpart.
Yeah.
And it has so much value for me.
It's become a home away from me.
Yes.
Yes, it has.
Yeah, it's been easy too.
SPEAKER_03 (07:50):
Yeah.
That's great.
And I mean, I think that that'sa very common kind of theme.
I mean, I not from here now callthis place home.
You know, two of my three kidswere born here.
Yeah.
Um, you know, and collectively,I'm a boomerang.
I was here, I left, and one andcame back.
So uh, you know, we've been herealmost uh a little over 11 years
now, collectively.
(08:10):
Yeah, my wife even longer.
But yeah, um, you know, I thinkthat that happens to a lot of
people.
You're you're like, where am Igoing?
And then, oh my God, I'm neverleaving, you know.
SPEAKER_00 (08:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (08:21):
Uh so it's just it's a special place.
So I always love, you know,talking about how did you come
to NWA?
And and then the next questionis you've been here a decent
amount now, so eight years.
SPEAKER_00 (08:32):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (08:33):
So how have you seen NWA change since you've been
here?
Like what do you notice?
SPEAKER_00 (08:38):
Yeah, and you know, and and I'm just gonna add this.
Um, I'm coming from a it's abig, it's a big city, San
Salvador, maybe not in the sizeof um, you know, kilometers and
and and stuff like that, but injust people, it's just
overpopulated in San Salvador.
We have more than one millionand you know, in such a small
(08:59):
space.
And then I come here and it'sjust kind of like the country,
yeah.
Um, and it's just not like a bigcity.
So that was it was interestinghow that with time, I just
appreciate now the peacefulness,but also the amenities that are
here.
There are so many benefits ofbeing in Northwest Arkansas.
(09:19):
Um, so yeah, I've been seeing itgrow so much.
Um not only on you know all theconstructions and um things that
are developing, um, but alsojust on the numbers of people.
I mean, it's funny when peoplesay that now there's traffic,
but I've because I've seen worsetraffic.
(09:40):
Oh yeah.
But still, I I I start feelinglike the grow in numbers in the
community in Northwest Arkansasin general.
Um and just um, you know, withmy wife, we we love to go out
during the weekends, and there'smore stuff to do, right?
Every year, I think there's moreand more and more things to do.
Um, and also I think the peoplethat are moving to Northwest
(10:02):
Arkansas are most of the time agood fit.
So there's just the community isgrowing in all aspects.
Um, and and I like to see that.
SPEAKER_03 (10:10):
Yeah, that's great.
SPEAKER_00 (10:12):
And you guys recently moved to Springdale,
right?
Yeah, we we live in Springdalenow and we love it just because
the proximity to everything,it's it's we're in the center,
right?
So we love that too.
SPEAKER_03 (10:23):
Yeah, that's awesome.
And uh easy jumping on 412 forwork.
Yeah, 20 minute drive.
You don't mind it.
Yeah, no, that's great.
So tell people a little bitabout you know JBU.
I think you know, it's and youcan talk about this too, is
Salem Springs, I think.
Um, and it's it's not a slightagainst uh the community there.
(10:45):
It's a wonderful community thatI think it often gets kind of
forgotten about.
Yeah.
Um, and you know, versus uh thecorridor, as I know the Salem
Springs people uh and residentscall, you know, the the main
other four that are closer tothe highway here.
But tell folks a little bitabout that community, about JBU
um and you know what's going onin JBU.
SPEAKER_00 (11:07):
Yeah, yeah.
You know, Silent Springs isobviously a smaller community
than you know the big fourSpring The Rogers, Bentonville,
and Fayville.
Um but there is a lot of peoplemoving to Silent Springs to work
in the corridor.
So there's a lot of developmentgoing on there.
Um we it's funny because we justgot a Chili's and an olive
(11:31):
garden in Silent Springs, andthose are the hot spots.
You know, it's it's it's funnyto see that.
Um, but yeah, it's growing.
And then I would say part of thecore and the heart of Silent
Springs is John Brown.
Um there is a lot of uhcollaboration between the town
and JBU.
(11:51):
Uh this weekend is homecoming.
Um, and we have a homegrownfestival downtown Silent
Springs.
So there's always thatcollaboration going on between
the town and the university.
Um and I think that speaks aboutJBU, right?
We we are all about thecommunity.
Uh we are all about welcomingneighbors, welcoming anyone on
(12:13):
campus.
Um, and yeah, I mean, it's wehave about, I would say, 1,300
students on campus now.
Uh, so it's a smaller school.
But um it just it just feelslike there is a lot of good
things going on there justbecause of the type of student
that we are receiving everyyear.
(12:34):
Uh we had just two uhrecord-breaking um incoming
classes.
Okay.
Uh so the university is growing,um, and I think it's growing on
the right direction.
SPEAKER_03 (12:45):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (12:45):
Um and I think it has a correlation between
Northwest, like betweenNorthwest Arkansas growth and
our growth.
Yeah.
Right.
Um, so there's a lot of goodthings.
Um, and yeah, JBU is, you know,our leadership.
Um, it's involving a lot ofNorthwest Arkansas um projects.
So it's it's it's nice to seethe collaboration between JBU
(13:08):
and not just Silent Springs, butall over Northwest Arkansas.
SPEAKER_03 (13:11):
Yeah.
No, that's great.
And it's a you know, it's adifferent type.
But I went to a small school aswell.
Um, we were at the time 4,500 uhundergrad uh and then another
you know 2,000 grad students uhin Philadelphia, but uh so
different than Silom.
But um you know, if you ever geta chance to go to JBU, one, it's
(13:36):
a gorgeous campus.
Yeah.
Um but two, I think it's veryevident um feeling the pride uh
from the community about JBU andJBU about the community.
Yes.
Um you can really feel that andsense that just in engaging with
people in conversation.
SPEAKER_00 (13:55):
And yeah, it's very evident.
Yeah, and I think that's why,you know, we have a lot of
international students incampus.
And if you ask them the firstcouple of weeks, it's as an
international student, it's veryhard, right, to be far away from
home.
But they're just like, I feelwelcome here.
I feel like I belong here,right?
And and not only areinternational students, but our
(14:18):
domestic students that arecoming from all over the
country, you know, and they'recoming from states that are very
different to Arkansas, and theyjust love it.
Uh so yeah, there is there's alot of uh pride in being at JBU
in Northwest Arkansas and and oncampus.
SPEAKER_03 (14:35):
Yeah, that's great.
So let's talk a little bitabout, I mean, your history at
JBU.
So you came for college and thenyou stayed.
Yeah.
So we talked a little bit aboutyou as a player, uh, but talk
about like what was it, youknow, go a little bit deeper.
What was it like uh playing, youknow, at JBU and and that
experience as a player?
SPEAKER_00 (14:54):
Yeah, um, you know, my first thought that that comes
to mind is I am, I think myselfand others too think of me as a
very technical player, um, gooddecision making, but man, I'm
slow.
And in El Salvador, in ElSalvador, um, you know, my
technical ability and mydecision-making ability was
(15:17):
enough.
Yeah.
Right?
When you come to college soccer,it's just a different pace.
Um, so soccer-wise, my freshmansophomore year, I would say just
physically, I was not ready.
Um, something that uh the JBUsoccer program is about is that
development stage, right?
And I think we think long term,when we bring players, right,
(15:40):
how can we develop them in thefirst two years, just so the
third and the fourth year we cansee all the fruit.
Um, and I think that's whathappened with me.
Uh the first two years, I didplay quite a bit for being a
freshman and a or in asophomore.
Um, but my focus was on, okay,can I get faster?
Can I get endurance in?
(16:01):
Can I become stronger?
Yeah.
You know, so that was my mainfocus, and that was the coach's
focus on me.
Sometimes they used to send meto track and field practices.
Uh but you know, it's funnybecause back at the time I was a
little frustrated, but now I'mlike, man, that helped me so
much.
Um, and just at that time, I wasprobably at my peak physically.
(16:24):
Yeah.
Right.
Um, so my junior year, which itwas the most successful year JBU
has had in terms of soccer in along time, um, I was at my peak
physically and just mentally,right?
I think I have matured a lotthroughout those uh first two
years.
Yeah.
And not just me, but myteammates as well.
Right.
(16:44):
So um I think that piece wasvery important for me.
And also just adapting to theculture and what the team needs.
But being an ideal team playerwas is important, right?
And everyone was on the samepage.
Yeah.
Uh so that's something we take alot of pride on that everyone is
on the same page in the program.
SPEAKER_03 (17:03):
Yeah, that's great.
You gotta have that cohesive,you know, unity and and all
rowing the boat in the samedirection.
SPEAKER_00 (17:09):
Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_03 (17:09):
Uh, and buy-in to the vision, right?
And being sold and committed anda part of that.
Um, it's funny you mentionedtrack and field.
My uh growing up in high school,I played high school soccer um
as well as college soccer, buthigh school soccer, it was
really funny because theycouldn't like tell you to go
(17:32):
play, you know, force you to goto track and field practices,
but uh it was always a topic oflike, hey, it wouldn't be a bad
idea in the offseason, yeah, youknow, to go run track or cross
country or something.
Um, you know, it was just it wasreally funny.
The but it it it's true, yeah,right?
(17:52):
I mean, you can look at umactually there's a really great
example of this.
Uh Anna Potato from theUniversity of Arkansas Women's
Program.
She did four years at you know,U of A college soccer, yeah, and
now she's there getting hermasters.
Yeah.
And she has obviously and andyou know, uh a desire to
continue to compete, but she'sused her eligibility on soccer.
SPEAKER_00 (18:15):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (18:16):
So now she's using you refresh in a different sport
if you're good enough to do it.
SPEAKER_00 (18:20):
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (18:20):
She's running women's track.
SPEAKER_00 (18:21):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (18:22):
And there's another player, and I really am sorry to
that player who's also a formersoccer player, and they did they
broke like the record or set arecord or something.
SPEAKER_00 (18:32):
Yes.
SPEAKER_03 (18:32):
Uh on the four by one hundred relay.
SPEAKER_00 (18:34):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (18:35):
And two of the play of two of the four were former
college soccer players.
SPEAKER_00 (18:39):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (18:39):
So it just great athletes.
Just goes to show you, right?
Yeah.
Um, and that, you know, justagain, a great example to it.
So shout out to Colby and andthe program at U of A for um
both recruiting and thendeveloping great athletes.
Yeah.
Uh obviously they have anincredible track program.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So uh I'm sure they had a littlesomething to do with that as
(19:02):
well.
But anyway, um, it also goes toshow the type of speed that is
in college soccer, to yourpoint.
You need that you just talkedabout.
Yes.
Um, so what position did youplay, by the way?
SPEAKER_00 (19:13):
I play as a midfielder.
Um, you know, I whenever I cameto John Brown, I thought myself
as a defensive midfielder, likethat technical midfielder that
will get the ball out.
But my coach at the time waslike, uh no, I need someone
bigger, taller, and faster andstronger.
I'm like, I understand.
So um I started playing thenumber eight position um without
(19:35):
being kind of like box to box,just controlling the tempo of
the game.
Um, so yeah, that was myposition, and and I had a lot of
fun doing it.
Um, I am someone who I don'tcrave goals or assists, you
know, I just crave like justcontrolling the tempo of the
game.
SPEAKER_03 (19:52):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (19:52):
Um I have fun doing that, just being involved and
helping the others, yeah, right,and everything they need.
So I had that mentality as aplayer all the time.
SPEAKER_03 (20:01):
That's awesome.
Uh then you so great playingcareer, great success in your
junior year, like we talkedabout.
Then you stayed at JBU.
Yeah.
You started going through yourmaster's program.
SPEAKER_02 (20:13):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (20:14):
And while you were doing that, what did you do?
SPEAKER_00 (20:16):
Yeah, so I was in um a recruiter, an admissions
counselor, and I kind of stillam involved in admissions.
Um I recruited internationalstudents.
That was that was my position,and I had a lot of fun.
I I got to travel all over theworld, Europe, Asia, South
America, Central America, uh,just very successful trips.
(20:37):
Um, so yeah, my goal was toincrease the international
population at JBU.
Yeah.
And thankfully, I I I helped Ihelped the university do that.
Um and yeah, I love to see myinternational students on campus
now.
About to graduate, some of them.
That's great.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (20:53):
Without making any enemies, uh, what was your
favorite country to travel toother than El Salvador and being
able to go home?
SPEAKER_00 (20:59):
No, I mean, you know, one of my most fun trips
was to Germany.
That's that's one of them.
Yeah, yeah.
We went to Black Forest.
It's gorgeous.
And it's this is just beautiful,beautiful weather, uh, very
peaceful town.
And but at the same time, I wentto uh Bangkok and also I went to
um Chiang Mai Thailand.
(21:21):
And at the time I went to ChiangMai, I stayed with a family who
has kids at John Brown, and theytook me to see some lantern
festival.
So it was just special, it wasjust magical.
Um, but I would say those are mytwo most special trips that I've
done.
Um, but it's also because of thepeople that I got to meet and
they and just the culture isjust beautiful.
SPEAKER_03 (21:42):
Yeah, when you can really meet locals and have them
immerse you in the culture, itreally just makes all the
difference versus just being atourist.
Yes.
Um there, I mean, obviouslythere's things to be said about
that, but when you can reallyimmerse yourself in the culture,
and there's nobody better to dothat when you can find some
local.
SPEAKER_00 (21:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Lots of learning.
SPEAKER_03 (21:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, I love that.
And so you did that for a whileand got your master's, and then
there was a coaching change, andthey asked you to kind of take
it on an interim basis, right?
SPEAKER_00 (22:10):
Yeah.
Uh yeah, that's kind of like acrazy story.
Uh, I was actually part of thecommittee to hire a new coach.
Yeah.
Um, and you know, for for veryparticular reasons, very, very
specific, some of them, the thecandidates couldn't make the
move to Silent Springs to jumparound.
Um, and the committee basicallyasked me, hey, could you do it?
(22:36):
My initial response was like, noway, no way I'm doing this.
Uh but you know, after after acouple of weeks of of reflection
and talking to mentors, talkingto my family, um, I was like,
man, this is a great privilege.
At my age, who who has beenasked to do this with this type
of program?
(22:56):
Um and I was like, you knowwhat, let's try it.
So I was an interim forbasically that first season.
And uh man, we just lost onegame.
So kind of like a crazy season.
Um, and uh yeah, it it was athere was a lot of growth
personally.
Um I just um learned so muchabout how to deal with others,
(23:20):
how to manage budget, how tomanage so many different things.
Um and yeah, I just find a lotof um growth and joy out of out
of the experience.
And also just it was interestingbecause a lot of the players
were close to me, were friends.
So that was an interestingcombination of like, oh it's a
(23:41):
tough dynamic.
Yeah, it's sometimes it was avery tough dynamic just because
I needed to make some toughdecisions.
But that's part of leadership,just making those decisions and
going.
SPEAKER_03 (23:51):
Well, and kudos to you for taking on that
challenge, uh, because that canbe very daunting um to kind of
jump into that and just kind oflike, all right, here you go.
But I think it's it speaks toyou know your character.
It also speaks to, you know,your mentality of, you know,
let's just figure it out andlet's go.
(24:11):
Yeah, we're all gonna learn andand develop together.
Yeah.
Um, and you know, back to that,kind of all in the same boat and
we're gonna help each other.
Yeah, right.
Yeah.
So uh and now you got thepermanent gig, right?
Yeah.
Now you're now that you're youlost one game and they said, all
right, you could take it.
SPEAKER_00 (24:29):
Yeah, I know, yeah.
It was fun.
And and and you know, it's funnythat you mentioned uh rowing on
everyone on the same boatbecause that's that's one of our
commitments, right?
Can we row in the same directionat the same pace, the 26 of us,
and including coaching staff?
Yeah.
Um, and that's been probably oneof the most valuable things that
we have done.
Um, is just rowing on the samedirection, all of us.
SPEAKER_03 (24:52):
What's maybe your uh one bit I'm I'm sure you have a
lot.
Um what would you say has beenyour biggest uh growth moment or
maybe not moment, but likeaspect about yourself that
you've learned or been able tocultivate from this experience?
SPEAKER_00 (25:12):
I think it's been collaborate with the team.
Um because I think when I thinkof like the head coach position,
it's just I think of like theprobably old school coach that
makes all the decisions, kind oflike very strong personality.
Um my personality is a littlebit more relaxed.
Um and I think something thatI've learned is when I involve
(25:38):
others, when I involve myleaders in the team, when I
involve uh things on like makingdecisions, at the end I'm
probably the one that has thelast word.
But I I I talk to people beforemaking a decision, right?
Um and it's just beeninteresting um just to learn
that I cannot take all theweight on my shoulders, right?
(26:00):
I need to be able to delegate.
And I I've been learning to justtalk to others.
Game planning.
I talk to some of like probablyfive players, and I say, Hey,
will you be down with this gameplan?
Um and they say, Yes, um, likelet's go with it.
Right.
So we are all on the same page,we are all like accountable.
Um so that's been that's been uha very interesting thing to
(26:24):
learn.
SPEAKER_03 (26:24):
And I think it's number one, um kudos to you
because it takes a lot of peoplemuch longer in their careers to
learn that as a leader,especially.
Um and it's one of the mostimportant lessons for effective
leadership.
Um, so kudos to you for beingable to learn that on your own
(26:48):
and jump into that and andrecognize that so quickly.
Yeah.
Uh but what I'm sure you foundit also did is when you involve
others in the decision-makingprocess, they feel accountable
and they're bought in much morethan being told what to do.
Exactly.
Even if they may agree with it,it's that much more feeling of
(27:09):
ownership and uh, you know, thatwe're in this together and I
help I helped be a part of this.
SPEAKER_00 (27:16):
Yes.
Right?
Yes.
Yeah, basically I see myself afacilitator.
Right.
I know I I had the last war andI manage a lot of different
things in the program, but atthe end of the day, it takes it
takes the 26, 27 of us.
Right.
Yeah.
Um, so it's it's it's been funlearning that.
SPEAKER_03 (27:34):
So talk about the soccer project at JBU.
What's it been like?
Uh, the journey for you and theteam.
Um, you know, we talked a littlebit about it.
You know, you guys recently, youknow, congratulations, uh,
ranked 25th in the NAIA for thefirst time since 2019 and only
the 10th time since 2000.
So uh a massive congratulationsto you, your staff, the players,
(27:56):
the you know, your supportstaff, the whole school.
I mean, just speaks to, again,the job you're doing and the
school is doing and youreverybody involved.
So talk a little bit a littlebit about your journey as a as a
team program.
SPEAKER_00 (28:09):
Yeah, yeah.
So I think um I have taken avery just organizational
leadership and business approachto this.
Um I think the program was goingon a good track, but I think
there's some clarity, sometransparency on some things.
(28:29):
So the first thing I did wasokay, let's make a mission and
vision statement and let's likemake it clear who we are as a
program.
Um and before every meeting,meeting presentation that I do
to the players is I remindedthem who we are, right?
And pretty much we are trying totransform and change lives, but
(28:51):
at the same time competing atthe highest level.
That's like our core mission,and that's who we are.
Um and so that was kind of likethe first thing that I did, and
I did them with the players umand with some alumni.
And then after that, we're like,okay, we're gonna set goals.
What are our goals for theseason?
Right.
And that was the first year.
Um, and we achieved three out ofthe four goals.
SPEAKER_02 (29:13):
That's great.
SPEAKER_00 (29:14):
Um, and then after that, we're like, okay, uh, what
are what are the ground rules?
You know, what are thestandards?
So um we set the standards alltogether.
Um, we agreed on them, and youknow, there is a standard.
If you don't fulfill this thestandard, this is the
punishment, right?
Yeah, you need to be heldaccountable.
(29:35):
So um all those little things uhhave made a big difference, I
would say.
That's awesome.
Um, and yeah, so you know,keeping the standards, keeping
everyone accountable, um, rowingin the same direction, um, and
just help each other, right?
That that's my main thing.
Hey, take care of each otherbecause at the end of the day, a
(29:56):
lot of you don't have yourfamilies close by.
So this is your Family, whetheryou like it or not, yeah, right.
Um, just learn to respect eachother and learn to work with
each other.
Um, so that's that's the cultureof the team.
That's great, that's the cultureof the program.
And I tell I tell my players theculture is the most important
thing.
This is gonna make us win, thisis gonna make us successful.
(30:17):
Um, and this is a very goodexample that happened on
Tuesday.
Uh, we were playing a game, wewere down 2-0 in the first 11
minutes, playing at home.
I didn't say a word.
I was upset.
I wanted to yell, but I didn'tsay a single word.
I'm like, let them figure itout.
(30:37):
Yeah.
20 minutes after 4-2, we werewinning.
Wow.
Right.
So I was upset, but at the sametime, I was so proud.
I'm like, yeah, you guys heldeach other accountable, you
figure it out together.
After we were 4-2, I'm like,okay, I'm gonna jump in and help
more.
Right.
So, but it's and I told him,like, that's the culture.
SPEAKER_03 (30:58):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (30:59):
I mean, we're not doing well, held each other
accountable, like lift yourheads, go to work.
Yeah, right, figure it out.
So I think that um just thatculture has been very powerful,
and I think that has taken us toyou know being the top 25, which
it's a big accomplishment forus, and we are proud of it.
(31:20):
And you know, we we're not done,right?
We're gonna continue working.
So, yeah, that's been probablythe the most fun thing to see,
just the results of a goodculture.
SPEAKER_03 (31:30):
That's fantastic, and I think again speaks to kind
of being able to recognize andkind of coming into a situation
and recognizing what maybe youguys do well, and then how do we
carry that forward?
But then also, where are someopportunities on how can we get
(31:53):
better together as a program andestablishing that mission,
vision, values, understandingwho we are, and then setting
standards and holding each otheraccountable.
I mean, that's you're right.
Culture is one of the mostimportant things, if not the
most important thing, especiallywithin athletics, yeah.
Um, and performance.
Uh, there's, I mean, you've yourmaster's just in organizational
(32:15):
uh business and and everything.
So I don't need to tell you.
You could probably sit here andand and give a dissertation on
the important side.
Uh, but it's also just you hearabout it, uh, about like what's
important to you as an employeein the business world.
Almost always top three is goingto be culture or number one,
right?
So uh just kudos to you, and I Ithink it's great.
(32:36):
Um, and then also in the game,in the moment that you you uh
just mentioned.
How like how hard was that?
Because I'm like I'm a coachtoo, but not at your level.
But how hard was it for you tojust shut your mouth and let
them figure it out?
Because I know you were dyinginside.
SPEAKER_00 (32:53):
Yeah, yeah.
Um it also comes to mypersonality, like very, very
calm down most of the time.
Um I it was it was hard.
Like I wanted to make subs rightaway.
I thought about I thought aboutI'm gonna make five subs, I'm
gonna make a statement.
Yeah, you know.
Um, but I saw them being veryupset, yeah, not with each
(33:17):
other, but at themselves.
SPEAKER_02 (33:19):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (33:19):
They were like, How is this happening?
Why is this happening?
Why am I playing so bad?
Yeah, right.
So I saw that reaction, kind oflike that fire, that
recognition.
And what I liked was they werenot blaming each other.
They were like, Why are weplaying so bad?
Like, you know, so again, thethat culture of unity, right?
Is it's not uh putting fingersor like blaming each other.
(33:43):
It's just like, man, we need tofigure it out.
Trying to pick each other up.
Yeah.
So I saw that and I'm like,okay, they'll be fine.
So I was I was upset, I wasfrustrated, but I was confident
that they were gonna dosomething.
SPEAKER_03 (33:56):
Well, and you also recognized those cues, yeah,
right?
You were smart enough torecognize the the reaction and
reading body language and thatthe fact that they're not
pointing fingers, right?
And so I think that that's alsojust really important to is
being able to pick up on thosecues, yeah, right, and and have
(34:19):
that, you know, help drivedecision making.
So yeah, uh that's a great,great example and awesome
result, right?
Like it could have gone adifferent way.
Oh, yeah, but for sure.
Um, no, that's awesome.
So, you know, we've got a littlebit of time left.
Talk a little bit about OZFC uhand our project and kind of what
does that mean uh for JBUsoccer, if anything, like what
(34:41):
does that mean to have you knowpro soccer coming into this
space, into the area?
SPEAKER_00 (34:44):
I would say that's big for recruiting.
Yeah, uh, that's big forrecruiting, not just because
there is a funnel with um boyssoccer now with you know the
academy.
Um and but I think someinternational players that are
coming from professionalacademies, they're like, oh,
(35:05):
there's gonna be a pro team inthe area.
That's fun.
Like, I want to be part, like,even though they don't see
themselves, I'm gonna play forthat team, they're like, oh,
there's a soccer community.
SPEAKER_01 (35:16):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (35:16):
Um, and that I think that'll be very good and
important for us in the future.
Um, I think Osir United willhelp us not just creating that
final for local, good, talentedplayers, but at the same time
recruiting some biginternational uh impact players
for the program, just becausethey see there's a pro club in
(35:38):
the area.
There's like, oh, people likesoccer there, you know.
I can go watch games,professional level games.
Um, so I think recruiting isgonna be huge.
SPEAKER_03 (35:48):
And then you see opportunity, right?
Like the opportunity.
There's Ryan Williams, formerJBU player, played in the USL,
New Mexico United, CharlotteEagles.
Like, yeah, you know, does everyplayer get an opportunity?
No, no, but you know, it atleast provides local
opportunity, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (36:03):
Right.
Yeah, and yeah, you never know,right?
Um, and we have, I would say,two, three incredible players
that could be playing on aprofessional level.
Yeah.
Um, so it's yeah, I think itencouraged it pushed them to,
you know, to work hard.
Yeah.
Um, and then just for thecommunity in general, I think
just similarly is just so goodfor the community, whether you
(36:26):
love the sport or not, it's justso good.
It brings belonging and unity.
SPEAKER_03 (36:30):
I love that.
It brings everybody together.
It's my favorite thing about thesport.
Um, well, man, I I I love thatuh perspective.
And, you know, I think thatthere's also just all kinds of
collaboration collaborationopportunities like on the
coaching side, like all kinds ofthings that, you know, I'm
excited to work with the youthorganizations, but also the
(36:50):
collegiate organizations in thearea.
I mean, you know, NWAC'sdeveloping their soccer
programs.
I think there's greatopportunities there with you
guys, obviously U of A.
Uh, Kobe may not need it, maynot need our help.
But uh, you know, I mean, we'rebringing pro women's soccer here
too, yeah.
So, I mean, that really strongprogram.
I mean, there's plenty of youknow, former U of A players
(37:12):
playing in the USL Super Leagueand in the NWSL.
SPEAKER_00 (37:15):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (37:15):
So um, just really excited about just what that
means and and being able to addto an already great and growing
soccer culture and andcommunity.
So yeah.
Well, man, what's next for JBUman soccer?
What are you like what what areyou guys shooting for?
What's what's next?
SPEAKER_00 (37:33):
Yeah, um, you know, and and and just as I share, our
core mission is transform lives,change lives, yeah, and also
company at the highest level.
I think our short-term goals iscan we win our conference um in
the next two, three years?
Um, and then the long term iswhy not like win a national
(37:53):
championship, um, which I thinka good program should have that
long-term goal.
Um, so those are our goals.
Um, we are having a lot ofsuccess on the changing lives
side.
I think we we have a over 90%retention rate of players, which
that's huge.
Massive, massive, yeah.
Um, so they are being, you know,they graduate from John Brown
(38:16):
and they're being good citizens,good parents, good husbands.
Um, so that's very good to see.
Um, and I think the soccer partis growing.
Yeah, we're just growing, we'rehaving good traction, good
momentum.
Um, so yeah, I mean, short termis can we win our conference and
can we be consistent with it?
Long term is can we get anational championship?
Um, so yeah, and then you know,continue to grow in
(38:40):
collaboration, um, getting morelocal players.
Um, that would be good for us.
And uh yeah, just hope for thebest and and continue a strong
culture.
SPEAKER_03 (38:50):
That's awesome, man.
And you guys, if people want tocome and watch games, you know,
uh get involved, how do they howdo they find you?
You guys have you said you hadhome coming this weekend?
SPEAKER_00 (38:58):
Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_03 (39:00):
Probably a big week uh game for you guys at home.
Yeah, yeah.
Uh so tell people like how canthey follow you guys and you
know, where can they find aschedule to come and watch the
matches because you guys havesome fantastic soccer on
display.
SPEAKER_00 (39:11):
Yeah, yeah.
So um our schedule is on our JBAthletics website.
You can you can go look ourschedule.
Uh, we have a lot of home gamescoming up.
This Saturday is at 4 30.
Uh we're playing a universitythat is coming from Texas and
it's homecoming.
So there's gonna be free food,um, lots of things going on.
There's like a familyenvironment, kind of like picnic
(39:33):
environment, which is very funin our community.
Um, and yeah, just our schedule.
We have an Instagram account aswell that you can follow just
for the results and games comingup.
Um, so yeah, you can you can gothere and and and come watch.
It's very fun.
I love that.
SPEAKER_03 (39:50):
Samuel, thank you so much for joining me today, man.
I think that'll do it for us onthis episode of Pitch the Pro.
Uh, we hope you enjoyed it.
Be sure to catch all of ourepisodes on pitchapro.com or
look for PitchAPPro on YouTube,Spotify, Apple, or wherever you
get your podcast for morecontent.
Uh, Samuel, again, just thankyou, man.
Yeah, no, thank you, Wes.
Until next time, cheers,Northwest Arkansas.
SPEAKER_02 (40:11):
Thanks for joining us on this episode of the Pitch
the Pro podcast.
Be sure to tune in again in twoweeks for the next installment
and check out the stoppage timeseries for a recap of today's
episode.
Be sure to find us at Pitch thePro on YouTube, Instagram, and
everywhere you get yourpodcasts.
Until next time, NorthwestArkansas, cheers.
Pitch to Pro is the official podcast of Ozark United
FC.
This will be our platform totell our story about the club
and the special place that wecall home Northwest Arkansas.
This is a journey.
We want to bring you along forthe ride.
We'll share what's going onbehind the curtain, help educate
the community at large aboutsoccer, our league, and give
(00:25):
updates on the progress of theclub along the way.
Together we'll explore andunpack our journey to
professional soccer, the magicthat is NWA, our community, and
talk all things soccer from onthe pitch to behind the scenes,
telling the story of our club.
Pitch to Pro Podcast is proudlysponsored by Podcastvideos.com.
(00:46):
Podcastvideos.com is NorthwestArkansas's premier podcast
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SPEAKER_03 (01:07):
Hello, everybody.
Welcome back to the Pitch thePro Podcast.
I'm your host, Wes Harris,managing director for Ozark
United FC, Northwest Arkansas'sprofessional soccer club playing
in the United Soccer League.
I'm really excited to welcometoday's guest onto the show, Mr.
Samuel Estrada, head coach ofmen's soccer at John Brown
University.
(01:27):
Samuel, thank you for joining metoday, man.
SPEAKER_00 (01:29):
No, thank you for the invite.
And I am looking forward toshare with the soccer community
and with you as well.
SPEAKER_03 (01:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
So I always ask people, youknow, before we dive into your
role and what you're doing atJBU, uh, give us a little bit
about you, your background, uh,how you found the game, um, and
you know, let's start there.
SPEAKER_00 (01:50):
Yeah, so I am originally from San Salvador, El
Salvador.
I was born and raised there.
Um, you know, it's it's a verysmall country, but it's a soccer
country, right?
Um, so it wasn't hard for me tofall in love uh with soccer.
I play since I have you knowmemories.
(02:10):
Um I play on close to my house.
I was probably there from 3 to 7p.m.
just playing with friends, pickup uh kind of like street
soccer.
Um and yeah, just growing up, Iwatch soccer every day.
Um, and you know, it's somethingI shared with my dad as well.
Um so yeah, born and raised inEl Salvador, and then when I was
(02:33):
18, I moved to NorthwestArkansas because of college.
Okay.
Um in El Salvador, I got theprivilege to uh compete at
national team level.
I was in national team camps.
Um I play a couple of CONCACAFtournaments, and also I got the
opportunity to play for under 17in the second team of Alianza
(02:53):
Football Club, which is one ofthe strongest professional clubs
in El Salvador.
So yeah, that's a little bitabout my background.
SPEAKER_03 (03:01):
That's a pretty impressive background.
Yeah.
I mean, that's what we're Imean, you talked about it.
Um, and it's just so prevalentin, you know, other parts of the
world, especially Central SouthAmerica, is this street
football.
Yeah.
And it's something that we'relacking in the US and access to
the game, right?
(03:22):
And uh just playing pickup.
Like there's so much of this.
I don't want to knock anybody,but all of this individual
one-on-one training.
And you know, yes, you can buildyour skill set, you're getting
touches and they have a purpose.
But the best thing for they dida study, I think, at Liverpool
Academy, the players that madeit to the first team versus uh
(03:42):
the ones that didn't, the mostcommon link between them was
that the amount of pickup soccerthat they played was the most
crucial ingredient.
And it's because that is whereyou develop your creativity,
your skill set, you're havingthe most fun, yeah, which is
where your skills start toflourish and you have permission
to do that.
SPEAKER_00 (04:01):
Yeah, and I and also I will add, like in pickup,
you're making decisions, right?
You're making decisions uh thewhole time you're playing,
especially when you're I play3v3, 4v4 for years, right?
Almost every day.
So yeah, the creativity, thefun, uh, but also I'm just
making the soccer decisionsevery second almost.
(04:24):
So that's how I think how yougrow as well.
SPEAKER_03 (04:27):
Well, would love from a uh you know, a player of
your caliber and coach of yourcaliber's perspective, but I've
always thought and heard and andshared in this perspective that
like what separates greatplayers from good ones and how
how do you really develop as aplayer?
It's all about soccer is a gameof decision making.
Yeah.
Anybody can develop thetechnical skills.
(04:48):
Yeah.
What separates players is theability to make good decisions
and quickly the speed at whichthey can make those decisions.
And execute, obviously.
SPEAKER_00 (04:59):
Yeah, and I mean, uh one of my favorite teams right
now is Barcelona, right?
And and since they like ourlittle kids, they're just
they're just playing everyone onthe same page, everyone making
the right decisions, even ifthey're getting pressed or not,
it doesn't change.
Right.
So yeah, the decision making, Iwould say, I would say is the
(05:20):
most important thing uh on agreat player.
Um and when I'm recruiting myplayers, the first thing I see
is how quick they makedecisions, if they're like one
or two steps ahead of everyoneelse.
So the mental speed, right?
Um, the athleticism, we can workit here, right?
The just the pace um and and andthe strength physically, we can
(05:43):
always work it.
Um even the technical skills,you can always work it, but the
decision making is the I wouldsay is the most crucial.
SPEAKER_03 (05:51):
And that's the hardest to coach.
Yes.
Yes, it's the hardest to coach.
And you learn it by playing.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (05:57):
Yeah.
And and I would say um it's inan early age, right?
You need to develop that in theearly age.
It's very hard to coach thatwhenever you are 18, 17, 16,
right?
It's almost impossible to say,uh, but it depends on the
player.
But I would say, yeah, that'sthat's by far the most
important.
SPEAKER_03 (06:17):
Yeah.
Well, I love that.
We could do a whole otherpodcast on on development of
players, and and uh maybe we'llhave you back on to do that.
But you know, you came to NWAfor college, so uh tell us more
about that.
I mean, uh at JBU to playsoccer, right?
SPEAKER_00 (06:34):
Yes, I came to John Brown in 2017.
I graduated in 2021, so I hadfour seasons of college soccer.
Um, and man, it was different,right?
I was I was not used to one, theculture, the language, uh, the
culture of the team.
And I would say it was at thebeginning, it was hard,
(06:56):
especially because you're faraway from family, from what you
were used to.
Um, but just the community, um,not just the John Brown
community, but the silentsprings community was so
welcoming.
Uh, it was warm.
So uh that made it easier forme.
Um during my four years at JBUum we won the conference, the
(07:18):
Sooner Athletic Conference, um,the regular season and also the
tournament, the playoffs in2019.
And that was the last time wewere uh ranked in the top 25.
Um, but I would say, you know,my my favorite part about being
here is just the community andthe friendships that I made um,
(07:39):
you know, from 2017 till now.
That's that's just the bestpart.
Yeah.
And it has so much value for me.
It's become a home away from me.
Yes.
Yes, it has.
Yeah, it's been easy too.
SPEAKER_03 (07:50):
Yeah.
That's great.
And I mean, I think that that'sa very common kind of theme.
I mean, I not from here now callthis place home.
You know, two of my three kidswere born here.
Yeah.
Um, you know, and collectively,I'm a boomerang.
I was here, I left, and one andcame back.
So uh, you know, we've been herealmost uh a little over 11 years
now, collectively.
(08:10):
Yeah, my wife even longer.
But yeah, um, you know, I thinkthat that happens to a lot of
people.
You're you're like, where am Igoing?
And then, oh my God, I'm neverleaving, you know.
SPEAKER_00 (08:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (08:21):
Uh so it's just it's a special place.
So I always love, you know,talking about how did you come
to NWA?
And and then the next questionis you've been here a decent
amount now, so eight years.
SPEAKER_00 (08:32):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (08:33):
So how have you seen NWA change since you've been
here?
Like what do you notice?
SPEAKER_00 (08:38):
Yeah, and you know, and and I'm just gonna add this.
Um, I'm coming from a it's abig, it's a big city, San
Salvador, maybe not in the sizeof um, you know, kilometers and
and and stuff like that, but injust people, it's just
overpopulated in San Salvador.
We have more than one millionand you know, in such a small
(08:59):
space.
And then I come here and it'sjust kind of like the country,
yeah.
Um, and it's just not like a bigcity.
So that was it was interestinghow that with time, I just
appreciate now the peacefulness,but also the amenities that are
here.
There are so many benefits ofbeing in Northwest Arkansas.
(09:19):
Um, so yeah, I've been seeing itgrow so much.
Um not only on you know all theconstructions and um things that
are developing, um, but alsojust on the numbers of people.
I mean, it's funny when peoplesay that now there's traffic,
but I've because I've seen worsetraffic.
(09:40):
Oh yeah.
But still, I I I start feelinglike the grow in numbers in the
community in Northwest Arkansasin general.
Um and just um, you know, withmy wife, we we love to go out
during the weekends, and there'smore stuff to do, right?
Every year, I think there's moreand more and more things to do.
Um, and also I think the peoplethat are moving to Northwest
(10:02):
Arkansas are most of the time agood fit.
So there's just the community isgrowing in all aspects.
Um, and and I like to see that.
SPEAKER_03 (10:10):
Yeah, that's great.
SPEAKER_00 (10:12):
And you guys recently moved to Springdale,
right?
Yeah, we we live in Springdalenow and we love it just because
the proximity to everything,it's it's we're in the center,
right?
So we love that too.
SPEAKER_03 (10:23):
Yeah, that's awesome.
And uh easy jumping on 412 forwork.
Yeah, 20 minute drive.
You don't mind it.
Yeah, no, that's great.
So tell people a little bitabout you know JBU.
I think you know, it's and youcan talk about this too, is
Salem Springs, I think.
Um, and it's it's not a slightagainst uh the community there.
(10:45):
It's a wonderful community thatI think it often gets kind of
forgotten about.
Yeah.
Um, and you know, versus uh thecorridor, as I know the Salem
Springs people uh and residentscall, you know, the the main
other four that are closer tothe highway here.
But tell folks a little bitabout that community, about JBU
um and you know what's going onin JBU.
SPEAKER_00 (11:07):
Yeah, yeah.
You know, Silent Springs isobviously a smaller community
than you know the big fourSpring The Rogers, Bentonville,
and Fayville.
Um but there is a lot of peoplemoving to Silent Springs to work
in the corridor.
So there's a lot of developmentgoing on there.
Um we it's funny because we justgot a Chili's and an olive
(11:31):
garden in Silent Springs, andthose are the hot spots.
You know, it's it's it's funnyto see that.
Um, but yeah, it's growing.
And then I would say part of thecore and the heart of Silent
Springs is John Brown.
Um there is a lot of uhcollaboration between the town
and JBU.
(11:51):
Uh this weekend is homecoming.
Um, and we have a homegrownfestival downtown Silent
Springs.
So there's always thatcollaboration going on between
the town and the university.
Um and I think that speaks aboutJBU, right?
We we are all about thecommunity.
Uh we are all about welcomingneighbors, welcoming anyone on
(12:13):
campus.
Um, and yeah, I mean, it's wehave about, I would say, 1,300
students on campus now.
Uh, so it's a smaller school.
But um it just it just feelslike there is a lot of good
things going on there justbecause of the type of student
that we are receiving everyyear.
(12:34):
Uh we had just two uhrecord-breaking um incoming
classes.
Okay.
Uh so the university is growing,um, and I think it's growing on
the right direction.
SPEAKER_03 (12:45):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (12:45):
Um and I think it has a correlation between
Northwest, like betweenNorthwest Arkansas growth and
our growth.
Yeah.
Right.
Um, so there's a lot of goodthings.
Um, and yeah, JBU is, you know,our leadership.
Um, it's involving a lot ofNorthwest Arkansas um projects.
So it's it's it's nice to seethe collaboration between JBU
(13:08):
and not just Silent Springs, butall over Northwest Arkansas.
SPEAKER_03 (13:11):
Yeah.
No, that's great.
And it's a you know, it's adifferent type.
But I went to a small school aswell.
Um, we were at the time 4,500 uhundergrad uh and then another
you know 2,000 grad students uhin Philadelphia, but uh so
different than Silom.
But um you know, if you ever geta chance to go to JBU, one, it's
(13:36):
a gorgeous campus.
Yeah.
Um but two, I think it's veryevident um feeling the pride uh
from the community about JBU andJBU about the community.
Yes.
Um you can really feel that andsense that just in engaging with
people in conversation.
SPEAKER_00 (13:55):
And yeah, it's very evident.
Yeah, and I think that's why,you know, we have a lot of
international students incampus.
And if you ask them the firstcouple of weeks, it's as an
international student, it's veryhard, right, to be far away from
home.
But they're just like, I feelwelcome here.
I feel like I belong here,right?
And and not only areinternational students, but our
(14:18):
domestic students that arecoming from all over the
country, you know, and they'recoming from states that are very
different to Arkansas, and theyjust love it.
Uh so yeah, there is there's alot of uh pride in being at JBU
in Northwest Arkansas and and oncampus.
SPEAKER_03 (14:35):
Yeah, that's great.
So let's talk a little bitabout, I mean, your history at
JBU.
So you came for college and thenyou stayed.
Yeah.
So we talked a little bit aboutyou as a player, uh, but talk
about like what was it, youknow, go a little bit deeper.
What was it like uh playing, youknow, at JBU and and that
experience as a player?
SPEAKER_00 (14:54):
Yeah, um, you know, my first thought that that comes
to mind is I am, I think myselfand others too think of me as a
very technical player, um, gooddecision making, but man, I'm
slow.
And in El Salvador, in ElSalvador, um, you know, my
technical ability and mydecision-making ability was
(15:17):
enough.
Yeah.
Right?
When you come to college soccer,it's just a different pace.
Um, so soccer-wise, my freshmansophomore year, I would say just
physically, I was not ready.
Um, something that uh the JBUsoccer program is about is that
development stage, right?
And I think we think long term,when we bring players, right,
(15:40):
how can we develop them in thefirst two years, just so the
third and the fourth year we cansee all the fruit.
Um, and I think that's whathappened with me.
Uh the first two years, I didplay quite a bit for being a
freshman and a or in asophomore.
Um, but my focus was on, okay,can I get faster?
Can I get endurance in?
(16:01):
Can I become stronger?
Yeah.
You know, so that was my mainfocus, and that was the coach's
focus on me.
Sometimes they used to send meto track and field practices.
Uh but you know, it's funnybecause back at the time I was a
little frustrated, but now I'mlike, man, that helped me so
much.
Um, and just at that time, I wasprobably at my peak physically.
(16:24):
Yeah.
Right.
Um, so my junior year, which itwas the most successful year JBU
has had in terms of soccer in along time, um, I was at my peak
physically and just mentally,right?
I think I have matured a lotthroughout those uh first two
years.
Yeah.
And not just me, but myteammates as well.
Right.
(16:44):
So um I think that piece wasvery important for me.
And also just adapting to theculture and what the team needs.
But being an ideal team playerwas is important, right?
And everyone was on the samepage.
Yeah.
Uh so that's something we take alot of pride on that everyone is
on the same page in the program.
SPEAKER_03 (17:03):
Yeah, that's great.
You gotta have that cohesive,you know, unity and and all
rowing the boat in the samedirection.
SPEAKER_00 (17:09):
Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_03 (17:09):
Uh, and buy-in to the vision, right?
And being sold and committed anda part of that.
Um, it's funny you mentionedtrack and field.
My uh growing up in high school,I played high school soccer um
as well as college soccer, buthigh school soccer, it was
really funny because theycouldn't like tell you to go
(17:32):
play, you know, force you to goto track and field practices,
but uh it was always a topic oflike, hey, it wouldn't be a bad
idea in the offseason, yeah, youknow, to go run track or cross
country or something.
Um, you know, it was just it wasreally funny.
The but it it it's true, yeah,right?
(17:52):
I mean, you can look at umactually there's a really great
example of this.
Uh Anna Potato from theUniversity of Arkansas Women's
Program.
She did four years at you know,U of A college soccer, yeah, and
now she's there getting hermasters.
Yeah.
And she has obviously and andyou know, uh a desire to
continue to compete, but she'sused her eligibility on soccer.
SPEAKER_00 (18:15):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (18:16):
So now she's using you refresh in a different sport
if you're good enough to do it.
SPEAKER_00 (18:20):
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (18:20):
She's running women's track.
SPEAKER_00 (18:21):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (18:22):
And there's another player, and I really am sorry to
that player who's also a formersoccer player, and they did they
broke like the record or set arecord or something.
SPEAKER_00 (18:32):
Yes.
SPEAKER_03 (18:32):
Uh on the four by one hundred relay.
SPEAKER_00 (18:34):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (18:35):
And two of the play of two of the four were former
college soccer players.
SPEAKER_00 (18:39):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (18:39):
So it just great athletes.
Just goes to show you, right?
Yeah.
Um, and that, you know, justagain, a great example to it.
So shout out to Colby and andthe program at U of A for um
both recruiting and thendeveloping great athletes.
Yeah.
Uh obviously they have anincredible track program.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So uh I'm sure they had a littlesomething to do with that as
(19:02):
well.
But anyway, um, it also goes toshow the type of speed that is
in college soccer, to yourpoint.
You need that you just talkedabout.
Yes.
Um, so what position did youplay, by the way?
SPEAKER_00 (19:13):
I play as a midfielder.
Um, you know, I whenever I cameto John Brown, I thought myself
as a defensive midfielder, likethat technical midfielder that
will get the ball out.
But my coach at the time waslike, uh no, I need someone
bigger, taller, and faster andstronger.
I'm like, I understand.
So um I started playing thenumber eight position um without
(19:35):
being kind of like box to box,just controlling the tempo of
the game.
Um, so yeah, that was myposition, and and I had a lot of
fun doing it.
Um, I am someone who I don'tcrave goals or assists, you
know, I just crave like justcontrolling the tempo of the
game.
SPEAKER_03 (19:52):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (19:52):
Um I have fun doing that, just being involved and
helping the others, yeah, right,and everything they need.
So I had that mentality as aplayer all the time.
SPEAKER_03 (20:01):
That's awesome.
Uh then you so great playingcareer, great success in your
junior year, like we talkedabout.
Then you stayed at JBU.
Yeah.
You started going through yourmaster's program.
SPEAKER_02 (20:13):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (20:14):
And while you were doing that, what did you do?
SPEAKER_00 (20:16):
Yeah, so I was in um a recruiter, an admissions
counselor, and I kind of stillam involved in admissions.
Um I recruited internationalstudents.
That was that was my position,and I had a lot of fun.
I I got to travel all over theworld, Europe, Asia, South
America, Central America, uh,just very successful trips.
(20:37):
Um, so yeah, my goal was toincrease the international
population at JBU.
Yeah.
And thankfully, I I I helped Ihelped the university do that.
Um and yeah, I love to see myinternational students on campus
now.
About to graduate, some of them.
That's great.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (20:53):
Without making any enemies, uh, what was your
favorite country to travel toother than El Salvador and being
able to go home?
SPEAKER_00 (20:59):
No, I mean, you know, one of my most fun trips
was to Germany.
That's that's one of them.
Yeah, yeah.
We went to Black Forest.
It's gorgeous.
And it's this is just beautiful,beautiful weather, uh, very
peaceful town.
And but at the same time, I wentto uh Bangkok and also I went to
um Chiang Mai Thailand.
(21:21):
And at the time I went to ChiangMai, I stayed with a family who
has kids at John Brown, and theytook me to see some lantern
festival.
So it was just special, it wasjust magical.
Um, but I would say those are mytwo most special trips that I've
done.
Um, but it's also because of thepeople that I got to meet and
they and just the culture isjust beautiful.
SPEAKER_03 (21:42):
Yeah, when you can really meet locals and have them
immerse you in the culture, itreally just makes all the
difference versus just being atourist.
Yes.
Um there, I mean, obviouslythere's things to be said about
that, but when you can reallyimmerse yourself in the culture,
and there's nobody better to dothat when you can find some
local.
SPEAKER_00 (21:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Lots of learning.
SPEAKER_03 (21:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, I love that.
And so you did that for a whileand got your master's, and then
there was a coaching change, andthey asked you to kind of take
it on an interim basis, right?
SPEAKER_00 (22:10):
Yeah.
Uh yeah, that's kind of like acrazy story.
Uh, I was actually part of thecommittee to hire a new coach.
Yeah.
Um, and you know, for for veryparticular reasons, very, very
specific, some of them, the thecandidates couldn't make the
move to Silent Springs to jumparound.
Um, and the committee basicallyasked me, hey, could you do it?
(22:36):
My initial response was like, noway, no way I'm doing this.
Uh but you know, after after acouple of weeks of of reflection
and talking to mentors, talkingto my family, um, I was like,
man, this is a great privilege.
At my age, who who has beenasked to do this with this type
of program?
(22:56):
Um and I was like, you knowwhat, let's try it.
So I was an interim forbasically that first season.
And uh man, we just lost onegame.
So kind of like a crazy season.
Um, and uh yeah, it it was athere was a lot of growth
personally.
Um I just um learned so muchabout how to deal with others,
(23:20):
how to manage budget, how tomanage so many different things.
Um and yeah, I just find a lotof um growth and joy out of out
of the experience.
And also just it was interestingbecause a lot of the players
were close to me, were friends.
So that was an interestingcombination of like, oh it's a
(23:41):
tough dynamic.
Yeah, it's sometimes it was avery tough dynamic just because
I needed to make some toughdecisions.
But that's part of leadership,just making those decisions and
going.
SPEAKER_03 (23:51):
Well, and kudos to you for taking on that
challenge, uh, because that canbe very daunting um to kind of
jump into that and just kind oflike, all right, here you go.
But I think it's it speaks toyou know your character.
It also speaks to, you know,your mentality of, you know,
let's just figure it out andlet's go.
(24:11):
Yeah, we're all gonna learn andand develop together.
Yeah.
Um, and you know, back to that,kind of all in the same boat and
we're gonna help each other.
Yeah, right.
Yeah.
So uh and now you got thepermanent gig, right?
Yeah.
Now you're now that you're youlost one game and they said, all
right, you could take it.
SPEAKER_00 (24:29):
Yeah, I know, yeah.
It was fun.
And and and you know, it's funnythat you mentioned uh rowing on
everyone on the same boatbecause that's that's one of our
commitments, right?
Can we row in the same directionat the same pace, the 26 of us,
and including coaching staff?
Yeah.
Um, and that's been probably oneof the most valuable things that
we have done.
Um, is just rowing on the samedirection, all of us.
SPEAKER_03 (24:52):
What's maybe your uh one bit I'm I'm sure you have a
lot.
Um what would you say has beenyour biggest uh growth moment or
maybe not moment, but likeaspect about yourself that
you've learned or been able tocultivate from this experience?
SPEAKER_00 (25:12):
I think it's been collaborate with the team.
Um because I think when I thinkof like the head coach position,
it's just I think of like theprobably old school coach that
makes all the decisions, kind oflike very strong personality.
Um my personality is a littlebit more relaxed.
Um and I think something thatI've learned is when I involve
(25:38):
others, when I involve myleaders in the team, when I
involve uh things on like makingdecisions, at the end I'm
probably the one that has thelast word.
But I I I talk to people beforemaking a decision, right?
Um and it's just beeninteresting um just to learn
that I cannot take all theweight on my shoulders, right?
(26:00):
I need to be able to delegate.
And I I've been learning to justtalk to others.
Game planning.
I talk to some of like probablyfive players, and I say, Hey,
will you be down with this gameplan?
Um and they say, Yes, um, likelet's go with it.
Right.
So we are all on the same page,we are all like accountable.
Um so that's been that's been uha very interesting thing to
(26:24):
learn.
SPEAKER_03 (26:24):
And I think it's number one, um kudos to you
because it takes a lot of peoplemuch longer in their careers to
learn that as a leader,especially.
Um and it's one of the mostimportant lessons for effective
leadership.
Um, so kudos to you for beingable to learn that on your own
(26:48):
and jump into that and andrecognize that so quickly.
Yeah.
Uh but what I'm sure you foundit also did is when you involve
others in the decision-makingprocess, they feel accountable
and they're bought in much morethan being told what to do.
Exactly.
Even if they may agree with it,it's that much more feeling of
(27:09):
ownership and uh, you know, thatwe're in this together and I
help I helped be a part of this.
SPEAKER_00 (27:16):
Yes.
Right?
Yes.
Yeah, basically I see myself afacilitator.
Right.
I know I I had the last war andI manage a lot of different
things in the program, but atthe end of the day, it takes it
takes the 26, 27 of us.
Right.
Yeah.
Um, so it's it's it's been funlearning that.
SPEAKER_03 (27:34):
So talk about the soccer project at JBU.
What's it been like?
Uh, the journey for you and theteam.
Um, you know, we talked a littlebit about it.
You know, you guys recently, youknow, congratulations, uh,
ranked 25th in the NAIA for thefirst time since 2019 and only
the 10th time since 2000.
So uh a massive congratulationsto you, your staff, the players,
(27:56):
the you know, your supportstaff, the whole school.
I mean, just speaks to, again,the job you're doing and the
school is doing and youreverybody involved.
So talk a little bit a littlebit about your journey as a as a
team program.
SPEAKER_00 (28:09):
Yeah, yeah.
So I think um I have taken avery just organizational
leadership and business approachto this.
Um I think the program was goingon a good track, but I think
there's some clarity, sometransparency on some things.
(28:29):
So the first thing I did wasokay, let's make a mission and
vision statement and let's likemake it clear who we are as a
program.
Um and before every meeting,meeting presentation that I do
to the players is I remindedthem who we are, right?
And pretty much we are trying totransform and change lives, but
(28:51):
at the same time competing atthe highest level.
That's like our core mission,and that's who we are.
Um and so that was kind of likethe first thing that I did, and
I did them with the players umand with some alumni.
And then after that, we're like,okay, we're gonna set goals.
What are our goals for theseason?
Right.
And that was the first year.
Um, and we achieved three out ofthe four goals.
SPEAKER_02 (29:13):
That's great.
SPEAKER_00 (29:14):
Um, and then after that, we're like, okay, uh, what
are what are the ground rules?
You know, what are thestandards?
So um we set the standards alltogether.
Um, we agreed on them, and youknow, there is a standard.
If you don't fulfill this thestandard, this is the
punishment, right?
Yeah, you need to be heldaccountable.
(29:35):
So um all those little things uhhave made a big difference, I
would say.
That's awesome.
Um, and yeah, so you know,keeping the standards, keeping
everyone accountable, um, rowingin the same direction, um, and
just help each other, right?
That that's my main thing.
Hey, take care of each otherbecause at the end of the day, a
(29:56):
lot of you don't have yourfamilies close by.
So this is your Family, whetheryou like it or not, yeah, right.
Um, just learn to respect eachother and learn to work with
each other.
Um, so that's that's the cultureof the team.
That's great, that's the cultureof the program.
And I tell I tell my players theculture is the most important
thing.
This is gonna make us win, thisis gonna make us successful.
(30:17):
Um, and this is a very goodexample that happened on
Tuesday.
Uh, we were playing a game, wewere down 2-0 in the first 11
minutes, playing at home.
I didn't say a word.
I was upset.
I wanted to yell, but I didn'tsay a single word.
I'm like, let them figure itout.
(30:37):
Yeah.
20 minutes after 4-2, we werewinning.
Wow.
Right.
So I was upset, but at the sametime, I was so proud.
I'm like, yeah, you guys heldeach other accountable, you
figure it out together.
After we were 4-2, I'm like,okay, I'm gonna jump in and help
more.
Right.
So, but it's and I told him,like, that's the culture.
SPEAKER_03 (30:58):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (30:59):
I mean, we're not doing well, held each other
accountable, like lift yourheads, go to work.
Yeah, right, figure it out.
So I think that um just thatculture has been very powerful,
and I think that has taken us toyou know being the top 25, which
it's a big accomplishment forus, and we are proud of it.
(31:20):
And you know, we we're not done,right?
We're gonna continue working.
So, yeah, that's been probablythe the most fun thing to see,
just the results of a goodculture.
SPEAKER_03 (31:30):
That's fantastic, and I think again speaks to kind
of being able to recognize andkind of coming into a situation
and recognizing what maybe youguys do well, and then how do we
carry that forward?
But then also, where are someopportunities on how can we get
(31:53):
better together as a program andestablishing that mission,
vision, values, understandingwho we are, and then setting
standards and holding each otheraccountable.
I mean, that's you're right.
Culture is one of the mostimportant things, if not the
most important thing, especiallywithin athletics, yeah.
Um, and performance.
Uh, there's, I mean, you've yourmaster's just in organizational
(32:15):
uh business and and everything.
So I don't need to tell you.
You could probably sit here andand and give a dissertation on
the important side.
Uh, but it's also just you hearabout it, uh, about like what's
important to you as an employeein the business world.
Almost always top three is goingto be culture or number one,
right?
So uh just kudos to you, and I Ithink it's great.
(32:36):
Um, and then also in the game,in the moment that you you uh
just mentioned.
How like how hard was that?
Because I'm like I'm a coachtoo, but not at your level.
But how hard was it for you tojust shut your mouth and let
them figure it out?
Because I know you were dyinginside.
SPEAKER_00 (32:53):
Yeah, yeah.
Um it also comes to mypersonality, like very, very
calm down most of the time.
Um I it was it was hard.
Like I wanted to make subs rightaway.
I thought about I thought aboutI'm gonna make five subs, I'm
gonna make a statement.
Yeah, you know.
Um, but I saw them being veryupset, yeah, not with each
(33:17):
other, but at themselves.
SPEAKER_02 (33:19):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (33:19):
They were like, How is this happening?
Why is this happening?
Why am I playing so bad?
Yeah, right.
So I saw that reaction, kind oflike that fire, that
recognition.
And what I liked was they werenot blaming each other.
They were like, Why are weplaying so bad?
Like, you know, so again, thethat culture of unity, right?
Is it's not uh putting fingersor like blaming each other.
(33:43):
It's just like, man, we need tofigure it out.
Trying to pick each other up.
Yeah.
So I saw that and I'm like,okay, they'll be fine.
So I was I was upset, I wasfrustrated, but I was confident
that they were gonna dosomething.
SPEAKER_03 (33:56):
Well, and you also recognized those cues, yeah,
right?
You were smart enough torecognize the the reaction and
reading body language and thatthe fact that they're not
pointing fingers, right?
And so I think that that's alsojust really important to is
being able to pick up on thosecues, yeah, right, and and have
(34:19):
that, you know, help drivedecision making.
So yeah, uh that's a great,great example and awesome
result, right?
Like it could have gone adifferent way.
Oh, yeah, but for sure.
Um, no, that's awesome.
So, you know, we've got a littlebit of time left.
Talk a little bit about OZFC uhand our project and kind of what
does that mean uh for JBUsoccer, if anything, like what
(34:41):
does that mean to have you knowpro soccer coming into this
space, into the area?
SPEAKER_00 (34:44):
I would say that's big for recruiting.
Yeah, uh, that's big forrecruiting, not just because
there is a funnel with um boyssoccer now with you know the
academy.
Um and but I think someinternational players that are
coming from professionalacademies, they're like, oh,
(35:05):
there's gonna be a pro team inthe area.
That's fun.
Like, I want to be part, like,even though they don't see
themselves, I'm gonna play forthat team, they're like, oh,
there's a soccer community.
SPEAKER_01 (35:16):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (35:16):
Um, and that I think that'll be very good and
important for us in the future.
Um, I think Osir United willhelp us not just creating that
final for local, good, talentedplayers, but at the same time
recruiting some biginternational uh impact players
for the program, just becausethey see there's a pro club in
(35:38):
the area.
There's like, oh, people likesoccer there, you know.
I can go watch games,professional level games.
Um, so I think recruiting isgonna be huge.
SPEAKER_03 (35:48):
And then you see opportunity, right?
Like the opportunity.
There's Ryan Williams, formerJBU player, played in the USL,
New Mexico United, CharlotteEagles.
Like, yeah, you know, does everyplayer get an opportunity?
No, no, but you know, it atleast provides local
opportunity, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (36:03):
Right.
Yeah, and yeah, you never know,right?
Um, and we have, I would say,two, three incredible players
that could be playing on aprofessional level.
Yeah.
Um, so it's yeah, I think itencouraged it pushed them to,
you know, to work hard.
Yeah.
Um, and then just for thecommunity in general, I think
just similarly is just so goodfor the community, whether you
(36:26):
love the sport or not, it's justso good.
It brings belonging and unity.
SPEAKER_03 (36:30):
I love that.
It brings everybody together.
It's my favorite thing about thesport.
Um, well, man, I I I love thatuh perspective.
And, you know, I think thatthere's also just all kinds of
collaboration collaborationopportunities like on the
coaching side, like all kinds ofthings that, you know, I'm
excited to work with the youthorganizations, but also the
(36:50):
collegiate organizations in thearea.
I mean, you know, NWAC'sdeveloping their soccer
programs.
I think there's greatopportunities there with you
guys, obviously U of A.
Uh, Kobe may not need it, maynot need our help.
But uh, you know, I mean, we'rebringing pro women's soccer here
too, yeah.
So, I mean, that really strongprogram.
I mean, there's plenty of youknow, former U of A players
(37:12):
playing in the USL Super Leagueand in the NWSL.
SPEAKER_00 (37:15):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (37:15):
So um, just really excited about just what that
means and and being able to addto an already great and growing
soccer culture and andcommunity.
So yeah.
Well, man, what's next for JBUman soccer?
What are you like what what areyou guys shooting for?
What's what's next?
SPEAKER_00 (37:33):
Yeah, um, you know, and and and just as I share, our
core mission is transform lives,change lives, yeah, and also
company at the highest level.
I think our short-term goals iscan we win our conference um in
the next two, three years?
Um, and then the long term iswhy not like win a national
(37:53):
championship, um, which I thinka good program should have that
long-term goal.
Um, so those are our goals.
Um, we are having a lot ofsuccess on the changing lives
side.
I think we we have a over 90%retention rate of players, which
that's huge.
Massive, massive, yeah.
Um, so they are being, you know,they graduate from John Brown
(38:16):
and they're being good citizens,good parents, good husbands.
Um, so that's very good to see.
Um, and I think the soccer partis growing.
Yeah, we're just growing, we'rehaving good traction, good
momentum.
Um, so yeah, I mean, short termis can we win our conference and
can we be consistent with it?
Long term is can we get anational championship?
Um, so yeah, and then you know,continue to grow in
(38:40):
collaboration, um, getting morelocal players.
Um, that would be good for us.
And uh yeah, just hope for thebest and and continue a strong
culture.
SPEAKER_03 (38:50):
That's awesome, man.
And you guys, if people want tocome and watch games, you know,
uh get involved, how do they howdo they find you?
You guys have you said you hadhome coming this weekend?
SPEAKER_00 (38:58):
Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_03 (39:00):
Probably a big week uh game for you guys at home.
Yeah, yeah.
Uh so tell people like how canthey follow you guys and you
know, where can they find aschedule to come and watch the
matches because you guys havesome fantastic soccer on
display.
SPEAKER_00 (39:11):
Yeah, yeah.
So um our schedule is on our JBAthletics website.
You can you can go look ourschedule.
Uh, we have a lot of home gamescoming up.
This Saturday is at 4 30.
Uh we're playing a universitythat is coming from Texas and
it's homecoming.
So there's gonna be free food,um, lots of things going on.
There's like a familyenvironment, kind of like picnic
(39:33):
environment, which is very funin our community.
Um, and yeah, just our schedule.
We have an Instagram account aswell that you can follow just
for the results and games comingup.
Um, so yeah, you can you can gothere and and and come watch.
It's very fun.
I love that.
SPEAKER_03 (39:50):
Samuel, thank you so much for joining me today, man.
I think that'll do it for us onthis episode of Pitch the Pro.
Uh, we hope you enjoyed it.
Be sure to catch all of ourepisodes on pitchapro.com or
look for PitchAPPro on YouTube,Spotify, Apple, or wherever you
get your podcast for morecontent.
Uh, Samuel, again, just thankyou, man.
Yeah, no, thank you, Wes.
Until next time, cheers,Northwest Arkansas.
SPEAKER_02 (40:11):
Thanks for joining us on this episode of the Pitch
the Pro podcast.
Be sure to tune in again in twoweeks for the next installment
and check out the stoppage timeseries for a recap of today's
episode.
Be sure to find us at Pitch thePro on YouTube, Instagram, and
everywhere you get yourpodcasts.
Until next time, NorthwestArkansas, cheers.
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