NextPod Soccer Podcast for September 13

Duane and James discuss the end of the League1 Ontario season with the voice of the league, Pierce Lang. They then look ahead to 2024, with a chat with Connor Vande Weghe, who is the Sporting Director at the newest League2 Ontario side, Sudbury Cyclones.

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Welcome to Next Pod, your weeklylook at North American soccer prospects and less.
Next Broke campl and beyond. Theseare your hosts, Dwayne Roldan and
James Grossi. Hey, welcome toNext Pod. That was a big aggressive

(00:31):
opening there for me. Hope everyonedidn't have their ear earbuds turned up too
high. Hi, y'all doing It'sDwayne here joining me on the line as
always is James GROSSI. How youand James Dwayne, Dwayne, I'll always
lovely to hear your voice. Ialways make a snide remark about how wild
and crazy the week has been forCanadian soccer, but you know, this

(00:52):
week's actually been relatively quiet. There'sthere's no international friendlies for the men's schedule
during this September, in a nationalbreak, which is wild and crazy Canadian
soccer in a different way to theone that I'm usually talking about. I
was on a call with bank presmoon is she and asked her squad for
the upcoming friendlies for the winmen's nationalteam at the end of the month.

(01:14):
Sorry not finally is the upcoming Olympicqualifiers. I believe it against the Jamaicans
later on this month two huge matches, but other than that, it's it's
been relatively quiet. So so excitedto sit down with you and talk about
some some some soccer that maybe notenough people are keeping their eyes on,
giving the quality of the game thatI was able to take in but two

(01:36):
weeks ago. Now, yeah,fair enough to Tipsy's not flying into Miami
to cover the No, okay,Gipsy plays Messy Messy FC on Wednesday.
That could be interesting, but wewon't talk too much about that. We
won't talk at all about that.In fact, James is refriendally wanted tear
a final that we told you lastweek. We're going to hold off on
going deep in it. We havePier slaying back today, I too goap

(02:00):
on it. So we're going todo that interview just immediately after after James
and I talk a little bit moreabout the goings on in Canadian soccer.
What's a bit of quier a weekand it's been a bit of a quieter
week. As James said, youknow, we're watching the end of twenty
one minutes in the camp out prettyclosely, so what's happened there. We'll
do a little update there and thenwe'll talk to years. Yeah, it's

(02:21):
been uh, you know, wetalked about it on the show I think
last when when I had Charlie on. It must have been a month and
a half ago now, and wesort of promised that we'd be keeping a
close one and seeing how York did. They were the team that we're looking
the most likely of being in sometrouble and they've stepped up their game a
little bit and somebody else has fallenoff the pace a little bit. So

(02:43):
there's two teams that are heading intothis final full month of the season with
some question monks hanging over them.But before we get to those slackers down
at the bottom of the standing,so we'll talk about the teams up at
the top. And you know,Pacific I joined Vancouver and Valor as the
first three teams to pass that twothousand minute mark. That's what the requirement
is. You got you gotta respectfor Vancouver. IFC has done this year,

(03:07):
they have forty four hundred minutes orunder twenty one players already this season.
They are bottom of the standings.It's hard not to see some correlation
between those two. But just givingthat many minutes to that many young kids
is the kind of thing that thatyou hope would would stand the team good
for the future. I'm not surethat's the same, but you might have

(03:28):
lost my grammar a little bit therefor a second. But excellent work by
Apson got me out there with Vancouverto to unno some young talents and give
them their first minutes in the professionalgame. Llor is close on their here
with thirty five hundred minutes ish,I'm just sort of rounding these numbers up.
Nobody's exactly on the double zeros atthe end, and Pacific or just

(03:49):
reaching that twenty one hundred minute markwith the latest results this past weekend,
So those three are free and clear, no worries for them. They can
qualify for the playoffs if they makethe playoff. Of course, Vancouver and
Valley at the bottom of the standingsand look unlikely to do so. Athletical,
Ottawa, Forage and Cavalry are allwell on track to get there.
Over these last four or five matches, Athletical are sitting at eighteen hundred minutes

(04:14):
and six eighteen hundred and sixty oneminutes, so they clearly took the lessons
of a little scare that they hadlast season. Seriously, and I've made
sure to get those minutes in wherethey can to not put themselves in danger.
Forge of struggled a little bit tohit the heights that they usually hit
when it comes to young players atsixteen hundred and twenty nine minutes so far,
but they have some games left tocross that mark and Bobby will have

(04:38):
to factor that in. And Cavalryare all just above fifteen hundred minutes at
this point, so a little bitof work to do for all three of
those sides. Ottawa's basically there,Foraging Cavalry we'll take some doing, but
both but Forage has four matches remainingwell, Ottawa and Cavalry each have five,
so nothing too frightening there, andit's at the bottom of things get

(04:59):
really interesting. York United head intothe final full month of the season.
As I mentioned, pretty much everyteam will have at least one game in
October, but that's that's a worryfor a later day. York nnety need
a little over five hundred minutes intheir four remaining matches. They're one of
those teams that only has four gamesleft. They came out of this past

(05:20):
weekend at fourteen hundred and eighty sevenminutes on the season and a red character
to know Batman on the weekend.Will It's just another hiccup for for Martin
Ashon company to navigate as they tryto get over this line while also battling
for a playoff spot. Yeah,should a decently do Asario starting all four

(05:41):
matches, he'll lead up three hundredand sixty of those remaining five hundred minutes
that they need, So they'll justneed about one hundred and sixty over four
games from some other players. It'llbe tight. It'll take some doing,
but between a Batman who stepped upand played a good role as a starter
in the last couple of weeks providea spree. He's been a solid piece

(06:01):
off the bench for Martin Nash NewYork United in recent weeks, and Carson
Bushman Gorman as well as has beentaking his first steps in the league and
picking up some of those minutes.So I think we all fat six weeks
ago that York We're going to bethe only team that was really in trouble
of not reaching that market. Andthey've made some serious effort in the intervening
time to clear up dot ground andto put themselves in good stead going forward.

(06:27):
Halifax, on the other hand,I've dipped below York. Yeah,
exactly fourteen hundred minutes or U twentyone playing time, So they need six
hundred minutes from their five remaining games. And one of the one of the
tricky things for Patrise guys are outthere with HFX is has been he hasn't
been able to find We talked aboutthis previously, but you either need one

(06:49):
or two guys who are going toeat up the majority of those minutes,
or you need a good core offour or five guys who are going to
get a smattering of minutes. AndThomas Eraldo Antiago I've seen the majority of
those minutes, but it hasn't beenenough to put them in a situation where
they don't need to think about thatgoing into a really crucial part of the

(07:09):
season. I did some back ofthe envelope math before we spoke today.
I think seven combined starts from thosetwo and going to full ninety over the
remaining five matches will get them overthe line. So it's still eminently doable
without having to sign a sixteen yearold to start all five of the remaining
games, but leave a lot tochance, as we've seen with red cards

(07:30):
and injuries and all the unexpected thingsthat come along with playing a soccer game.
And just to make it a littlebit more interesting, this might be
the most fascinating end to a CPLseason we've ever seen in the league's five
years. Second place to sixth placeare separated by just four points, and
there are three teams battling for thelast two spots who are separated by just
a single point heading into these lastfour or five matches of the season.

(07:55):
So if you're a coach and you'retrying to get your team over that line,
the last thing you want to dois be trying to keep tracking how
many under twenty one minutes you've gotten. So that's that's the price that you
pay when you don't get this sortedout earlier in the year. You know
you nailed it, and look,can't belt one to be a league that
had parody in it. Uh,certainly if they've reached that this year,

(08:18):
Uh, there's blanket over the top. Half obviously have Valor and Vancouver.
Vancouver is doing its own thing thisyear, Valories and struggling since they've got
in the league. That's that's anissue. But those two teams are kind
of out of it unless somehow bothteams at the bottom of mister their penalty.
They're got penalty penalized for not gettingthe under twenty one minutes and be
the only way I can think thosetwo teams are one of those two teams

(08:39):
are then in the playoffs. Butbut it is very interesting and the end
of twenty one minutes are absolutely gonnaplay a factor. If you're gonna need
to play these guys, you're gonnaneed to make sure that you know players
have a bad day that you've started, he's going to twenty one minute player,
You're gonna have to keep him inright like that, the choices you
make if you don't get those minutesearly, and it sort of underlines how
important it is to pay it's attentionto that early on in the season,

(09:01):
so you're not playing with it downthe stretch. But it should make fun
for the for the on chair neutralout there, which which we both are,
so we'll be an entertaining end ofthis year. I will believe that
the championship team the micro wait playwill be helped by a team not wearing
orange. When I see it happenbecause that's how this league looks out.
But this year, maybe maybe morethan others, seems like it hasn't saying

(09:24):
that, you know, of coursewhen you're the Purple Team one, but
that I'm getting off track track here, you know what I'm talking about?
Anyway, all right, let's getback on track teams, how how about
we do that? Should we getback on track? Yes? That sounds
like a like an elegant solution forfor this this year radio program and show
podcast. Yeah, yeah, Iten thousand hours. Man, I've done

(09:46):
this podcast in a long time now, two thousand. It was my first
podcast. You can tell them professionalanyway. Pierce Pierce Lang, He's gonna
join his He's gonna talk with theLeague one on Chario final, the League
one season, what to expect kindof heading in the off season, all
kinds of cool stuff like that.I'm gonna do that right after this quick
little break and welcome back to thenext pot. Dwayne Rowlands on the line

(10:22):
has always joined me, is PierceLane? Pierce, how are you doing?
I am absolutely fantastic, well restedafter a long League one Ontario season
here now and just getting ready tocool off. For the next little bit
till the next season starts up.Yeah, it went by in a flash

(10:43):
from from my perspective, but Iimagine when you're right there every day,
it does seem pretty long. Andyou certainly saw saw a lot of League
one Ontario games this year, includingthe final which took place two weeks ago.
Now, Pierce tell us about thatfinal. Wasn't everything that that I've
tizes? How good that this leaguecan be? Oh, I don't think
you could ask for much more thanwhat we got. There had early goals

(11:07):
and then tight drama. You hadposts, crossbars another posts, I want
to say, missed opportunities. Ithad a little bit of everything for the
neutral and certainly purelation for the SimcokeCounty Rovers went on to win that one
for two and under disappointment for Scrisopi, who almost led the league from top

(11:33):
to tail really and came up justshort in the final against a very,
let's be realistic, a very verygood Simcoke County Rovers squad, fair enough
in it. Well, for thosethat haven't had a chance to watch a
lot of league want to tell uswhy Simcoke County Rovers are champions? Well,
what made that team special. Ohgosh, there's a lot to it,

(11:54):
really. I think it is theprofessional atmosphere that those players are a
part of. It certainly plays abig role in that. I spoke to
Jason Becker the ahead of the semifinaland he was just talking about how he
was able to build his roster forthat team with League One players that were

(12:15):
willing to put in the work andcome to training every day and put themselves
into that sort of a professional trainingatmosphere where they were training more regularly than
what you'd probably see most every otherteam in this league doing. I think
that was the big thing. Andthen, certainly when you go front to
back, those players that they broughtin that they targeted and wanted to get

(12:41):
a job out of, did theirjob. Man like the run they were
on to finish the season, toknock Von out of seconds and take that
buy into the first round and thengo out and beat Von who beat them
in the last last year. Itwas a perfect season for them. Really,

(13:01):
you couldn't ask for much more.They did almost everything you possibly could
to get themselves into that position.Now, for me, that brings up
a conversation of should we see theleague regular season champion entered into the Canadian
Championship as well as the league finalchampion. That's the conversation to be had,

(13:24):
but maybe a chat for another day. Oh. I really like that
idea, sort of the regular seasonchamps, sort of the supporters Shield champions,
if we're gonna go in that direction, and then the Cup champions as
well the playoff champions. I likethat idea that whatever we can do to
get some more teams involved in thatcompetition and fill it out even more.

(13:46):
I think we've all seen how it'sexpanded and grown over the past decade or
so and how amazing massment. Soyeah, I'm all for that, Pierce.
I was. I was lucky enoughto be able to make it up
to the Ontario so percent. Itake that game in in person. Before
I get into that, I shouldsay two amazing crests for these two teams.

(14:07):
I mean some coo round Simcoe Countywith the maple leaf and the moose
I believe is spectacular and Scrisoppi's gotthat little bit of a Brazilian flavor to
there is the strong letter and inthe crest there. But what an atmosphere
for our final match. I wasn'tquite sure what to expect as I was
heading up there. We ended upmyself and my my friend Duncan Duncan Fletcher

(14:31):
ended up sitting in the the SincoKenny Rovers supporters section sort of inadvertently,
And the place was packed, Theplace was loud, everybody was engaged.
Everybody was brewing and whistling and cheeringand jeering and and all that sort of
stuff. And you know, acouple of smoke bombs at the end.
I'm sure that wasn't That wasn't appreciatedby everybody that was at the stadium on

(14:54):
the day, But what an atmosphere. I just wanted to get your your
reflection, you know, two weekson of what that says about like the
league and just what that says aboutwhat a night doubt of following these League
one Ontario teams has the potential tobe for for communities. To your point
about the smoke, did it notlook cool? Ill like realistically that I've

(15:18):
got a video, but on myphone, I was like, oh,
that's fun. But we see thatall the time, Like the when the
Woodbridge women won the championship a coupleof years back, they had the smoke
bopped up to. I think it'sjust a matter of making sure there's no
flares on the field is the bigthing and dealing with that. But no,
as far as the crowd goes likeSimcoe travels well, I know that

(15:39):
much like even when they were playingI caught them against the Blue Devils that
shared and I want to say thesecond last game, second or third last
game in the regular season for BlueDevils, and they had a huge crowd
that came down and the for thewomen's team as well, they had a

(16:03):
match it shared in that the BlueDevil's played host to and again they had
traveling support. They had their littlecapital out there leading the chance and the
cheering. I shouldn't say a little. I couldn't be disrespectful there, but
that person they're leading the leading thecharge, and then Scrissoppie were well represented

(16:25):
too. I think it's just indicativeof what we've come to expect from these
League one Ontario Finals. I thinkthis match itself is certainly a bit more
competitive for whatever reason. Just butit's like you're asking me to talk about
what this product is day and dayout, and I absolutely love it.

(16:45):
I don't think there's anything better thanbeing able to go out and watch them
kid who grew up down the streetfrom you or works in your grocery store
part time while they're chasing their dreamout there scoring goals. So I think
it's it is it is a signof things to come. Hopefully people catch
the fever, you know what I'msaying. I mean, look, the

(17:07):
CHL model is where they're going towards, and we hope that one day we
can get a get a passionate supportlike we see in a lot of small
towns in Canada for for hockey.Well doing that was the intention from the
start, was it not with theEastern Report, was to build this league
out and the professional soccer sporting atmosphereto be based off of that CHL model.

(17:29):
And we're kind of seeing that nowright with the Atlantic series and then
the Alberta series and everything we've seengoing on with the expansion into BC and
then the taking over of the PLSQLike it's it's just dominoes that are being
finally being toppled that have been setup for a while, right, And
for newer listeners it might not knowwhat the Eastern Report is. Pars reference

(17:52):
there it was a document that alot of work went into that suggested that
the way forward in this country wouldbe to create regional petitions and to build
upon them. As Pierced has saidit, but more than a decade ago
now make me feel old to saythat, But certainly a lot of what
was reported at that time has cometo fruition. Slowly, but surely.
We did start the pro league aboveit, and that wasn't necessarily what we

(18:15):
recommended, but we have it there. I'm gonna cheer it on and hope
it continues to grow, and theycertainly do draw from the great performances and
the great players that we find inLeague Ontario, League on NBC in League
one came back and hopefully League onePrairie and League one Maritime soon. Pierce,
speaking of those great players, I'mgonna make this a bit of an
open ended question for you. Yousee as much League one Ontario as anyone

(18:37):
out there in this country. Anymoments that really stand out for you this
year? Any players that really jumpedout for you this year? What are
your highlights? Players that you reallythink deserved to be mentioned? As a
final wrap up right now, justgonna put it out there you can take
whatever highlight you want and go withit. Oh gosh, at lea setting

(19:00):
we have for success great any oneparticular moment, I like, I look
back to the start of the yearand we watched a cracker of a game
between the Vanassouri team that was preparingto play against Montreal in the Canadian Championship

(19:22):
a few weeks down the road,and how they were playing North Toronto,
who were just an upstart team lookingto continue the season they'd had previously,
and we we opened up the seasonwith an absolute banger between two quality teams
and it just kind of laid thefoundation for the rest of the season.
To be honest and like, ashar as players, so there's so many

(19:48):
guys who could do a job atanother level. And that's the thing,
right, Like, if if you'reasking me who's going to be a flat
out star in the future at thenext level like coming up, it's it's
hard to say, right, Likeif he'd asked me in twenty seventeen if
Maxi Ferrari was going to be likea standout player at York United year and

(20:10):
year out, I don't think Iwould have agreed. But like we're talking
about in some cases guys who areseventeen, eighteen, nineteen years old,
right, Like I think if youlook at someone like I mentioned him two
episodes ago when I was on Camilobaskin Salos, he had four goals this
year in pretty limited time. Buthe's already signed on with Halifax. I

(20:33):
think he's got a bright future infront of him out Marrow Louley from Scrisappi's
a player who's got the potential tobe up there. But like, who's
to say, like Ajahalli who waswith Simcoe County Rovers on this championship winning
side, who's been with York United, doesn't deserve another look somewhere else.
Maybe he just wasn't the right fitat York. And there's just a ton
of guys throughout the league who who'vebeen up with one team or another to

(21:00):
look from a Canadian Premier League team, but maybe would fit into a better
into another system a little bit better. There's like I think, you've just
got so many guys who are justI think more experienced than what maybe the
Canadian Premier League coaching staffs are lookingfor because they're more often than not trying

(21:23):
to bring in a younger player who'sgoing to take maybe a developmental contract and
see if they can get something outof them down the line as a sell
on. Whereas I think there's justso many guys in the league now who
could play up, but they justmaybe aren't willing to take the money that

(21:44):
the Canadian Premier League would be offeringper se if that opportunity even a road.
But I don't think there's maybe guysgetting those looks that should be just
because of their age. Perhaps,Yeah, it's trickier. I'm I've half
convinced myself that that when it comesto who makes the jump and who doesn't

(22:06):
make the jump, so much ofit comes down to having that opportunity,
the opportunity coming at the right time, and it being the right situation,
the right fit for each individual player, and getting getting all of those little
things right is is pretty rare,so so hopefully guys like Eja, the
guy who I watched a bit withhim at the TFC Academy back in the

(22:26):
day and kept a close eye withthat York does get those opportunities to advance
his career. I was quite impressedwith with Orlandis Benetus with some cook Candy
rovers I thought a fantastic player starfinal well, and the thing is,
like you think back to I mentionedthis in the semi final broadcast. He's
one of the Him and oh gosh, I can't think of the Olive Portal.

(22:51):
Helejandro Oliva Portal are two of theplayers who left the Cuban side defected
ahead of the men's game against Cubain twenty nineteen, and in talking to
Jason Beckford, like they're going tobe in that Canadian Championship if one Soccer
doesn't do a story, like afull on five minute feature about these two

(23:14):
guys, They've they've missed the boat, they jumped, the shark shut to
the station down because it's a storythat like none other in the country right
now. And for them to performat the level they did and you saw
it, you're talking to it rightnow. The quality that he brings to
the to the game. He wasan absolute game changer in that tunnel.
Yeah, he was the best playeron the pitch. And you know,

(23:37):
the second most important guy on thatstadium was that the fan leading the Cuban
cheer sectionco County rovers fan. Iwas I was quite funded out of that
something something a little bit different tothat to the crowd that night, I
thoroughly enjoyed it and yeah, whata player, What a player, And
it was my first chance to seehim play live. I'd caught a little
bit of him on video. ButI was like, man, this guy

(24:00):
could do a job at the CPL. This guy could do a job in
MLS. It's it's rare that that, you know, young domestic Ish players
get that chance to be attacking playersin in MLS. But but he had
some talent and man, he dictatedthat game on both sides of the ball.
I'm I'm curious. So League oneOntario final end of the season,

(24:26):
everyone celebrates, commiserates, What doesthe offseason look like for these teams?
I was hoping you could sort ofgive us a sense of of how the
teams go about their off season workand what happens for the players. Now,
you know, we had a Daneand I had had a winderful conversation
with with Connor van der Way,who was the sporting director. I believe
was his title of the upcoming subburyside that's going to be joining League League

(24:49):
one Ontario. I think it's Leagueto Ontario and still catching myself up on
the proper ranking of the names andwhatnot. And there's a lot of work
that goes on behind the scenes oncethe once the final whistle was blown and
everybody's preparing for that twenty twenty fourseason, never mind the fact that we're
going to have that multi division promotionrelegation thing coming up as well. So

(25:11):
I was hoping you can give usa sense of what the next four or
five six months look like for theplayers and these teams chilling out, max
and relax and all cool for themost part. To steal the famous quote
from Will Smith and the Fresh Princeof bel Air, Yeah, most most
of them are going to go backto participating in neither their youth sports or

(25:38):
OUBLEA in our case more often thannot season because luckily this year the League
one campaign ended before September started,so there isn't going to be that crossover
that we've always struggled with in yearspast. And then for a lot of
the guys, if they're out ofschool like they've I can point to Carlo

(26:02):
de Fao from Gristapi who had afantastic final, or Matt Montero over at
Alliance. They're both returning to McMathUniversity as assistant coaches this year, so
you see a lot of that guysgoing and getting involved in coaching or in
some instances, to coaching within whateveracademies they are a part of. Like

(26:23):
I know shak Low who featured inthe Blue Levels playoffs run here is a
coach within their academy who's played fora couple teams in the past within League
One that I can't think about thetop of my head. But yeah,
for the most part, they're gonnaspend the next couple of months just kind
of training on their own or withtheir schools or with whoever else they're involved

(26:45):
with. And then usually it's aboutJanuary where the real keeners start getting back
into it. And then you havesome instances where some teams don't even start
training until about two weeks before theseason starts, but that usually plays out
in their position in the standings aswell, but not always the Burlington there,
for example, our team that onlystarted training two weeks before their first

(27:08):
game this year, and they stillmanaged to finish in fifth place, I
believe. So yeah, it's ait's all, it's all pretty dependent.
But for the next couple of months. It's usually pretty quiet, all right,
Pierce, Pierce Lang, We neverwant you to be quiet. We
enjoy having you on. We thankyou for your assistance in covering League one
Ontario throughout this season, and Iimagine we'll have you back again soon enough.

(27:33):
Pierce, thanks again and welcome back. Thanks Ken Pierce as always for
joining us. James, We've talkeda lot of League One in this this

(27:57):
season, this first year of ourpodcast, uh for for good reason.
It's just a very important level ofthe game, and I'll miss it now
that the season's gone. The season'sa bit too short. We had Dinawani.
He said that that was his onlyregret about the whole levels. It's
just too short of season. ButI don't know what the answer is there.
However, you know, it's good, good at and it sounded like

(28:18):
it was a great time up thereat the Interior Soccer Center for that final
games. Yeah, I'm still kindof buzzing. I I wasn't quite sure
what to expects when I headed upthere, and it was just an awesome
night out and it was the kindof thing that that now that we have
League one BC and League one Quebecand League one Alberta and one Maritimes and

(28:41):
hopefully all League one Prairie in thenear future. It was the kind of
scene that I'm desperate to see repeatedall across the country in pens of different
cities and hundreds of different cities ifwe can get to that level, And
it's such an important level for notjust for the development of the players,
but I think also for for fansto feel like the team that they're watching

(29:03):
is a part of their community andrepresents them. And I thought that what
Pierce said about you know now thatguy that you were cheering on is going
back to his job and you'll seehim in the neighborhood. I think that's
such a valuable story to this gamethat you and I are both love and
love to cover. And so yeah, I'm just I'm just super excited that
we had another great season, andyou know, the future is looking incredibly

(29:26):
great. I'm excited for for whatpromotion and relegation will bring to the landscape,
how teams will The teams are alwayslooking for angles to improve themselves and
put themselves in a position to succeed, so I'm curious to see how that's
going to play. It I'm curiousto see how player movement's going to be
affected in this offseason in terms ofsome of the some of the players who

(29:49):
might be seeing their team playing inin the League one Championship, do they
move up to a Premiership side,because that's that's the a mere level,
you know. So I think it'sgoing to be a fascinating off season and
I think it's just going to geteven better as we go forward. We're
gonna we're gonna have a lot ofexciting soccer, and I encourage everybody to

(30:11):
pick your local club and find outwhen they're see when their home openers,
and make some plans to get outthere, because yeah, it was it
was a lot of fun to bein the stands and to see everybody having
a good time and in front ofan absolutely well game of soccer. If
you're one of those you're all focusedfolks out there that sometimes looks down their
nose at the local version of thegame, I'll say this, if you

(30:33):
go anywhere over there and talk toand a quote quote authentic football fan,
they will often support their neighborhood teamand have a big team as well that
they support. So you know,if you want to be quote unquote authentic
support your local team, your neighborhoodteam, I should say, and your

(30:53):
local team and your European team.If you want to. There's nothing wrong
do it. Do it however youwant. There's no wrong way to support
to sport. I support one ofthe biggest clubs in the world, and
I also talk about League Ontario allthe time, right, so it's it's
it's all good there speaking of sporting, your your local team, your neighborhood
team. There's an interesting development upin Sunbury, a community that's located in

(31:15):
four hours north of Toronto, aboutmaybe sixty seventy thousand people up there.
It's got a university. It's notreally thought of as a soccer hopbed.
But we had Connor Vanderway on.Connor's a young man, a very impressive
young man that's going to be leadingup the technical side of the Submary Cyclones

(31:36):
as they enter on Terior League twonext year in that new sort of experiment
of letting teams in at the lowerlevel and trying to see them come up.
We had Connor on an interview earlier. It was a great love chat.
He's going to join us after thisquick break to talk about what the
Submary Cyclones plan is and sort ofhow we league to Ontario will help them

(31:56):
get where they want to be.And welcome back. Joining us on us
on the line from Sunbury is Connorvander Way. Connor is the sporting director

(32:20):
of the new league going Ontario team. That's the Sunbury Cyclones. They're going
to start play in the new Leaguetwo up there. Connor, thanks for
joining us. Thanks very much forhaving me. It's a pleasure and I
was really excited when I saw thisnews come through because as someone who was
at in the beginning, I waswith the league in the beginning a couple
of years, and I know howGTA centric it is. So to see

(32:43):
a club come in outside of theGTA and even outside of the Golden Horseshoe
into you know, the gateway intoNorthern Ontario there, that's exciting to me
because it's showing the sport is growingand there's there's the potential for more of
this to take place in parts ofthe province that are a little bit on
or served when it comes from theelite level. So that's just the same.

(33:04):
I was excited, but I wantto get a little bit more information
about what you guys are all about. Can you can you give us just
a sort of a background of aquick p LDR on what your club is
right now? Yeah, so rightnow, I suppose that the club is
is the concept of of bringing elitesoccer, like he said to you know,
othern Ontario to Northeastern Ontario, andjust like you would do. There

(33:27):
was cool to watch Stonco coming tothe league and in the very area and
could expand north. And after theycame in that was that was certainly a
sign that that there was the possibilityof a Northeastern Ontario team coming into the
league. And so really what weare in context is is the idea of

(33:47):
that North says Ontario, Sudbury andspecific should have the opportunity to compete at
the highest level in UH at highspro level in Ontario and bring elite,
high performance atmosphere in the game toour community. So cornor you know,

(34:08):
every club it say, it startsout with with some conversations and an idea
and then it's the long road oftaking it from those conversations to actually bringing
it into a reality. I washoping you could you could take us back
to those early days and tell uswhat that was like at the beginning,
and then walk us through the processof how you guys have gone about to
establishing this club. Yeah, doyou want the long version of the story,

(34:30):
because I could go back quite awhile if you want me to do
as as deep as you feel likegoing away, So I'll try to keep
it quick. But essentially, Ithink I'm obviously very happy that I get
to be involved with the idea comingto life right now. But the idea,

(34:51):
at least for me, started justafter I finished playing. I was
at I was a goalkeeper for LaurentUniversity and in the summers I kind of
had a void where I didn't knowwhat where was the best place for me
to play in order to prepare forfor the university season. And then I'm
from Sudbury, so you know,heading into the VTA was an option to
try to find a spot under theLeague one franchise or South South by similar

(35:17):
The other option was to go tothe two of Weston and thunder Bay and
anyway. So that was sort ofthe first time that I had the idea
where I thought that myself, itwould be nice if we could have a
program like this in Sudbury and thenafter that what ended up happening in twenty
nineteen, I just said to shootingemails of the league and just suggest the
idea and say, oh well whatwould this take. From there, I

(35:40):
was able to change some information,just basic information that I could start to
look into the viability of the team. Now. It kind of sat dead
for a couple of years there untilthe expansion process was announced. The twenty
twenty fourth mention process was announced theleague two. So around October twenty two
of this last year, that waswhen when we sort of started standing on

(36:05):
our feet in terms of we havethis idea, we have the support and
obviously the ownership group a s WUSCwhich which owns a number of sports franchised
in Subury, and it is obviouslya really really strong ownership group that we
have. We're very lucky to havethem behind us. They also they stood
with us and said that we love, we love the idea. We want

(36:25):
to go through the process with youof applying and and just see what happens.
And now you know, we getto April, we've submitted our documentation
and now we wait and of coursea couple of weeks back we we we
were approved. So it's for meas as somebody who sort of thought about,
why don't we have something in theelementary like this. It's been a

(36:47):
long time, but the whole processof the expansion in the last year or
so was fairly quick and very detailedand just extremely happy we were able to
get the teams here. Well wewell we we always look to see,
you know, former players stay involvedin the game after their playing career,
and especially when they can do itlocally and bring things up in their community.

(37:09):
That's great. The name the Cyclones, I know it has a bit
of a historical element to it inSubbury. Can you can you tell us
about the idea to go with thatname and what that name means in the
community. Yeah, so I thinkthe name, the name itself is kind
of gone quiet over over you probablysay the last twenty thirty years. Of

(37:34):
course it was. It was thelong time, and there was a ProAm
team in Subury was was called thisevery Cyclones. It's competed in the late
seventies and folded in the early eighties. And so when we started to bring
the idea to light, I'm sureyou guys know how hard it is to
find a brand and something to associatewith. And so for us that you

(37:57):
you think to do was to digup something in our past, and that's
in the community. And there's alot of people in the community still to
have connected as the Cycle, whetherit's that these helps who played or coached
or with the team, or ortheir their parents or their grandparents who just
in the past couple of weeks havebeen able to go and say, Hey,
the Cyclones are coming back and didyou know I used to play for

(38:19):
them? Did you know that thisteam was did this? Did you know
that all these things about our communitythat kind of went glide over the over
the past, over the past twentyyears. So it's been cool to be
able to bring that name back andconnect with some people who are associated with
it, and for for the ownershipgroup and for us as the people who
who are organizing this U this newfranchise, it really was a great way

(38:44):
to connect back with the community andbring forward a name that would excite people.
Connor, I kind of a twopart question here for those that might
not be familiar with sub bareas inmarket. Can you tell us a little
bit about what the soccer scene isup there, you know how popular it
is. You have like you know, bars pack to kind of the morning
to watch the Premier League, youknow, with the Canada games, big,

(39:06):
big talking points. And to followup on that a little bit further,
what has been the initial reaction tothe news of the team coming into
League one Ontario League to Ontario nextyear. Yeah, so the first part
that we just was the the communityand the interesting soccer. Of course,

(39:27):
the game has been growing all acrossCanada and said reason no difference, So
I would say some what I wasgoing through the process. I'm twenty five
now, so even let's just takeyou know, ten, ten or eight
years ago is when I was comingthrough the youth teams. I think there
was a little bit less interest inthe game at that point, just in

(39:47):
the community, but just as itis across the nation, right, everything's
been growing, the interesting soccer andthat reason no different. And the local
youth clubs have been seen a bigboom and I've been involved with with a
Greater Severy Soccer Club, which isthe largest youth club in the city of
Sudbury. But I've seen also justthe big growth of clubs and other cities

(40:08):
in the North face of Saint Marieand the popularity of the game and youth
has never been stronger. It's atthe point where you know, there is
a desire for players to ask,well, what more is there for me
to do in this game? What'sthe next step? I can play in
youth and locally in subury, andI can join my competitive team in Subury

(40:31):
and and but where is this goingto put me at the end of the
day, with what do I getout of this? And I think that's
where the where the cyclones in theExpanish Atiltyue two really comes in. Because
for the for the youth community thatthat's that's playing the game, the parents
are looking for the next steps,the players are looking for the next steps,

(40:52):
and and I think this is thisis a great way to connect them
to something in their own backyard that'sprovides that elite soccer that they're looking for.
And and so I guess you knowthe second part of the question in
terms of just how the how thecommunity is going to react So far that

(41:12):
the news is it's been very positivefrom what from what we've gotten. People
are excited about the opportunity, right. I think a lot of people who've
been involved in the game here inSubbury have seen the issues that happened with
just the geography of where we areright we have to travel into Toronto to
play games in the GTA to playmajority of competitive games, and at the

(41:34):
same time, teams in the GCtravel off ask to play and so we
kind of get to break down abit of a barrier in terms of the
elite game where we can we cannow have the opportunity at that men's level
to get into a high performance environmentand really compete with the best in the
province. So the community sports beengreat so far and I'm just I'm extremely

(41:58):
incited to see with us all thosekind I'm interested in to look ahead and
do a bit of you know,you can tell us a little bit of
what you're going to do on yourjob and a sporting director, how do
you envision the building of this firstroster? Are you going to primarily stay
local and and look at some verykids, maybe expand that out and you
know, draw into other communities closerto you that that maybe rivals otherwise,

(42:21):
but in this particular case might getbehind a team that that's in that part
of the province. Laurentian stuff summerstudents. How do you figure the roster
will get built out? Yeah,I think you know. I listened to
your guys initial chat about the Cyclonesa few weeks back, and you guys
had had pretty much spot on rightthe design and the league at this point.

(42:43):
To split into those three divisions andoffer the league to the championship in
the Premier that certainly will pause andcreate the talent into the top and almost
it makes it easier for us tobecoming and compete right away. And so
from that perspective of looking at that, knowing that that kind of plays in
our favor. Of course, Iwant to leverage the local community as much

(43:04):
as I can, and like yousaid, other other communities that are nearby,
just like they said, might otherwisebe you know, our our our
enemies on the field. But interms of this expansion in Century representing Northeast
Ontario, you know, we're lookingto the likes of using lawrencing players,
using niphtent players, using former lawnsIntent or other NTLAA players who who formerly

(43:31):
competed there and are now hanging aroundthe separate community. So really it's it's
it's that is what I what I'dlike to to sort of start this team
ask and I know that will beable to compete with it with a good
core of local players and adding ina mixture of those from those from directions,

(43:52):
those from al Goma, which isin the suit and uh, and
just seeing seeing the the products that'sa Northeastnsario can put on the field by
relying on Nontheast of talent would bea very cool experiment for me to take
on. And of course at theend of the day that the goal is
to win games and getting honored anduh, and so I'll be doing what

(44:13):
I have to be to get thewin games to make for an entertaining team
on the field, and and sowhatever a juments I make the aking or
a good probct not goal, youknow, I'll take them ontom so excellent,
Yeah, Connor. Since since thedays when the CPL was first coming
on the scene, one of theone of the things we've been saying over

(44:35):
and over again is just you know, we need as many points in this
country where we're collecting and coalescing thebest talent in those regions and getting them
together and putting them on a teamand having them play against other such assemblies
as much as we can to pushthe game forward in this country. And
you know, another side that weneed is as many pathways as possible for
young players to push, push throughthe levels and push into the professional ranks.

(44:59):
You guys, as mentioned in thepress release set that a youth academy
was in the plans and down theroad a woman's team as well. Are
there sort of timelines you have inmind for that and paint us the picture
of what you want that to looklike as as it gets going. Okay,
yeah, I won't be able toproviding timeline right now on it,
just just because of the nature ofWe're in our early beginning and we got

(45:20):
a lot of a lot of thingsto iron out in terms of our rocks,
all the bland going for. Butof course the women team and the
youth Academy are integral to the successiveof the organization of the average Cyclones.
I'd say, I mean the waythat we wanted to look. I don't

(45:42):
think that there would be any reasonfor it to look much different from what
you would see in in in theGTA, in some of those top clubs
that are competing right at the top. I mean of the Lead one pyramid
where we can have a very stronghind of performance academy that eats directly into
our League one program. And withthe local, local structure and the local

(46:05):
scene of soccer, there's a lotof through the age groups that are coming
up, and with this announcement,I can't see a reason why those players
would would lose any interest in improvingits soccer players and really making a goal
for them to compete for the Cyclonesfirst team. And so I just think
with with the in terms of theyouth academy, it's going to be an

(46:29):
adult piece to the Cyclones, tothe soccer scene in normally notheaster Ontario,
and it's exciting to think what theopportunities can open up for players coming through
the ranks. And as far asthe women's team goes, of course,
we want to offer women's program becauseat the end of the day, we
actually you know, look at lookat the players that are on the women's

(46:49):
nash right now that are from thesebry Colo the Cash yet alstrs recently retired,
but we've had two players that cameout of this every region and competed
for the women Africking. So there'sa lot of reasons for us to offer
women's program, and we're going toget there. I kind of goes on,
we hope to build the interest inthe women's game here and and be

(47:14):
able to offer that women's program andcompete again on the women's side at the
high level in on Carrio. Excellent, excellent, And yeah, we respect
you're not wanting to put a dayon. There are no timelines, more
often than not become obstacles more thanthey can be helpful. Yeah, you
guys are stepping into a new erahere here in League one Ontario with promotion

(47:35):
and relegation, with the various divisions. How much of an appetizing prospect was
that for you guys to know that, you know, if you find success
on the field, that'll be rewardedby advancing through the divisions. And and
I sort of asked you the futurecast that did in the last one,
but I wouldn't mind I hope youdon't mind me doing it again to ask
you, like, what the futurelooks like for this club? Where do
you want to see this club inten years, twenty years, thirty years,

(47:58):
What do you want it to be? Okay, So I mean I'll
enter you're the first part for thesecond part. First, what we want
for for for the club is competingvery high however we can be. Of
course, there's going to be thepillars that we create here over the next

(48:20):
couple of lug School we design,design the value of the club and really
what we want to be in thecommunity. Of course, we want to
competed in the highest levels, butthere's also going to be a part of
that that says well, and justlike you alluded to a semury based club,
we want to represent severy players andso to say that, you know,

(48:40):
we could go out and get thetwenty best players from anywhere that we
wanted to in Canada, put themon the field and and and win and
get promoted year one, get promotedagain year two, and then win the
Premier Division year three. That soundsgreat, But we'll also take a consideration
the fact that we want to beable to get our local players involved and

(49:01):
open opportunities for them to develop andreach the next levels. Where does that
be getting into a Trouppo secondary programor playing a professional one days help you
know, in terms of of whatwe want the club to be going in
the future, it really is.We're going to balance the aspect of winning
and the goal of winning the wholepyramid of player we've won Ontario. We've

(49:24):
also to balance to to offering opportunitiesfor local players and spotlighting what we have
to offer here. And as faras the promotion relegation goes, I mean,
everybody hits washed off on the rack, so I said, what see
that group as the owner and sothe parochtion allegation was I think with a

(49:45):
big selling point to our owners.And it's kind of a fun having to
look at where we can say,well, let's start here, let's see
what we can do. Let's getthis thing off the ground. And if
we're good and we're rolling, we'rejust going to keep getting better. We're
gonna we're gonna have more opportunities inhigher levels and so on and so on,
and really established ourselves. So Ithink that promotion relegationcy has been terminable

(50:08):
sort of fresh coming into the intothe system with its huge benefits, and
it is going to be a hugeben in the forest going forward because we'll
be able to just like you said, come in at the least two levels,
some keep right off the back,win promotion and continue building this team

(50:28):
up until we are righted to topicalmeed Connor hopefully and twenty five years when
I'm doing my final podcast, becausegod knows, I'll still be podcasting twenty
five years from now. It mightbe the culled to me different by them,
But that's hope that the Cyclone's nameis as well known as the Wolves
in Sunbury and that it has thatkind of reach beyond. But but work

(50:49):
to do before that. But it'sexciting that you're going to get going.
Connor Vanderrett, thank you for joiningus today and best luck this season.
Thank you very much. Thanks againto Connor for taking the time out of

(51:15):
his day to join us to day. James, I like, I enjoyed
that interview. I thought that hesounded and they sound like they know what
they're doing and that they have theright kind of attitude heading into this.
What were your thoughts on on thesub recyclones and and the interview today?
Yeah, I mean we'll start offwith Connor. I guess, you know,
twenty five is making me feel veryold and unaccomplished and just a very

(51:39):
you know, impressive young man.And there was pretty much everything he said
I liked like, even even whenyou know it's it's our job to sort
of try and get people the labelthings and put timelines on things, and
you know, it was I wasthe one who asked the question of Jason
Hernandez when when they announced that BobBradley was leaving that that and when did

(52:00):
they want to have a coach inplace by and they said, you know,
by the end of the leagues Cupthat would be ideal, and it
didn't quite work out that way.And so timelines are they can be handy,
but they're also they can also bea liability and they can also be
a detrimental things. So I respectedthat that he didn't want to play that
game with me, But you know, everything that he said was was pretty

(52:21):
much what I would want to hearin that situation. I really liked that
he wanted to find that balance betweenhaving local representation but also competing and for
the club to be pushing to advanceup and down the levels. So just
really impressed with what they have goingon up there, and I'm really excited
to see how it goes. Itwas interesting to hear the successive Simical County

(52:43):
and Barry I think played a rolein their belief that it was workable as
the GTA. For those listeners thatare outside of Ontario, Jeff is going
to make you gigg off here inWestern Canada. But in Ontario, these
are significant differences and distance. Itis part of me Barry would be about
an hour north of tron and wellit depends on traffic, but by as
the crow fry flies, as theysaid, but North Bay is considerably higher

(53:07):
than that. It's or Subbury partmay Subrady is considerably further than that,
but four hours at the Toronto.So this is a big challenge for them.
I've already and slipped North Bay therewas because I have it in my
mind that this is what they reallyneed next is they need a North Bay.
They need at Timmans. They needa you know, other Perry Sound
who knows other teams up that wayto join it, to join them and

(53:30):
to create maybe a little bit ofa rivalry up there. And the hope
is for me, is I've saida few times in the last few weeks,
is that the D two level givesthese clubs the opportunity to find their
level and in subburious case it mightbe Division one. It might be League
one Ontario in a couple of years, but maybe some of those other smaller
communities in the north might not havethat ability to consistently compete there, but

(53:52):
they could get into a League two, and then you would assume that there
would be some kind of open cupcompetition in this league, and suddenly it's
sort of integrates altogether, and youhave a system that matches a lot of
what we see in the rest ofthe world. Finally, and the opportunity
to get to higher levels. Soso I think it's a It sounded very
promising, And then back up whatyou say, but about the young man
at twenty five running the club andbeing as articulate as he was is I

(54:15):
can't even say the word articulate apparentlytoday. So so hats off to him,
and hats off to Sudbury forgetting thisjob and jumping into the League two
situation. And I look forward toto learning who else is going to fill
out that level of the pyramid nextyear, and hopefully we see a few
more cities outside of the GTA join. I'm looking straight at the city I'm

(54:37):
from to Belville. If you're listening, get off, get off your bomb
and make it happen. James,Uh, you let me know. You
have something else to say, solet me know what it say. Yeah,
yeah, I just wanted to callback to something that I think I
mentioned a couple of weeks ago onhere, was that you know, when
you look at the map of Canadaand you put the soccer club crests across

(54:59):
the country, we have so manyblank spaces that need to be filled in
with club crests. And the hopeis that that you stick that Cyclones crest
up there in northeast Ontario, anda couple of years later, maybe that
inspires another club down the road toopen up, and another club down the
road, and before you know it, that network and that level club starts
to fill out. And I thinkthat's I think that's what we want to

(55:23):
see happen with these levels of thegame and build those ties, build those
strengths, create some density for thisgame of ours instead of having it,
you know, just be the threeMLS academies that are sort of where the
professional players are coming out of.Not that that's the case for anybody who's
listening and worries that I'm forgetting abouteverything, but we just want to see

(55:45):
that happen, and so yeah,I'm excited for another club. I hope
that they're the first of many asas this project continues, and I go
your sentiments about a League one Cup, the more more interesting competitions we can
have, the more that teams thatpotential rivals who may be playing in different

(56:07):
divisions have a chance to be drawnagainst each other, and we create those.
Really, there's really unique moments thatmake this game so wonderful. The
better. Yeah, well you mentionedsort of every everyone finds their place.
This is like kind of my obsessionon this show really is you know,
Sudbury's place might be the League oneOntario and North they might join and be

(56:29):
a similar level. But then youlook at the little communities around them.
They have clubs, they have haveprograms, and their goal might not be
to get to even a League two, but it might be to get a
player to those teams. And havingthat opportunity, that that chance to see
those teams in actually close to theirhome community, maybe go up watch a
game, aspired to be part ofit. That that's huge. I mean,

(56:50):
the HL is an overused comparison becauseit is such a high our level
in terms of the finances behind it, but when you're talking about the inspirational
side of it, it's a resolutelywhat we're looking to create here. I
grew up in Belville, Ontario,and there wasn't a kid I played with
a minor hockey there that didn't dreamof being a bowl Maybe they rest in
peace one day, right, becausethat was the team, right, And

(57:13):
you hope that the Cyclones can playthat role for a soccer player in Subbury
in the future that you dream ofplaying there, and then from there you
keep moving up that pyramid because nodream is too big if you do it
incrementally. And that's kind of whatI'm getting at here. So so I
congratulate Subury Cyclings. We're getting thisin congratulate League Ontario Dinner, Rozzie and
everyone involved with that for getting tothe point ten years in that they have

(57:36):
program and they have these divisions.It's a remarkable accomplishment. We saw it
this past weekend with the Canadian you'rewith their championship crown. We're going to
talk a bit about that more whenwe come back. Until then, we
thank you for we think Coroner again. Import of third