Episode 008:
Experience Matters with Eric Newton: Coach Jimmy George on Anderson’s First Professional Soccer Club – 008

Welcome to Experience Matters with Eric Newton. Today I have Jimmy George, our guest on the podcast. Thanks for being here, Jimmy. Thank you, Eric. I’m looking forward to it and blessed to be here. Yeah. It’s a, we go, we go way back. Way back. We go way back. Think back to the Trinity days, right? Absolutely. Trinity Soccer Club. I was telling somebody the other day, didn’t Pierce, didn’t Pierce Torme? Absolutely. Yeah. He was one of our coaches. I remember that.

gone through a lot of different, a lot of different folks during that time. But yeah, that was when Pierce was just getting ready, was just getting through playing at Clemson and looking for, I guess his pathway and he’s done well for himself. Yeah. I’ll always, I always tell people, I never will forget how I used to, when we would stretch and he would, uh, he’d say, all right, cross your legs and he’d start counting and say, all right, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. It’s like the fastest count, you know,

So I’d switch legs one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. You do that Well, man, like I just, that stuck out in my head. I couldn’t remember that, you know, too many of the practices, but I remember that. Um, but yeah. So Jimmy was a really good, really good soccer player. played it. Hannah, right? Graduate in ’95, ’95. Yeah. We’re the same age, but I think you played on a team, the team you’re a ’77. I was. Yes, I always got moved up to the ’76 ’76 team because I was born in the end of ’76. But you know, you played with like a bunch of bunch of my classmates, much of my teammates at Daniel. So did. Yeah. And always had really good, really good team. did. I was best friends with David Fisk at the time in high school. So actually him and I spent a lot of time together because I was just in a little tight group. One of your boys was one of mine. Yeah. Yep. So there was like, I think there was probably like half Hannah and half Daniel kids, Corey Larell. there was just a sprinkle of Seneca kids in there. Yeah. Yeah. That’s right. That’s right. Which always had really, really good teams. You’re a great player way better than I ever was. I just had more opportunity at the time. Yeah. That was fun. I, that was a really good, good time in my life. And I know in yours too. so it’s been really cool seeing you get that. I mean, that club evolved every time. Tell everybody about, obviously I can’t even remember. know, I knew it was Trinity when we played and then tell everybody like it’s, based, was based, it’s based in Anderson, but it’s, it’s evolved into, guess it’s evolved into the Clint. What’s now the Clemson Anderson. Well, that first started off, it was Trinity. Just like you said, Trinity soccer club. Actually the person that started that was Tony Stevens. was assistant coach at Clemson. Yeah. and then it went to South Carolina strikers and Abraham had a large, pull in that, and then it went to DSA strikers. and then DSA is what really transformed, DSA, GSA and St. Giles. That’s what formed CISA at the time. So that’s how everything formed and two guys, Glenn English and another guy, Rob Miller formed. They had one in Anderson and one in Clemson and they merged together and made Clemson Anderson Soccer Alliance, which is CASA now. And I’m fortunate enough to have been there for 10 years now. So I’ve just been blessed with that opportunity. Yeah. And Jimmy does a great job with that, that program. had two girls that are, that were in there in that program were developed and did a fantastic job with them. Two great players. Yeah. And we really appreciate all you did. And, and he actually, you, you actually coached both Grayson and Davis and are part of the reason why they’ve developed into the players that they are today. So we’re very appreciative of You got two outstanding young ladies, not only good soccer players, but you got two young, really good young kids. I appreciate that. Yeah. So tell everybody about like kind of how the program works. Like I know you’ve got the kind of the rec division and then you’ve got the more elite division, the- Yeah. Competitive division. Well, just tell everybody about how that that’s structured and everything. Absolutely. Actually, this year we’re starting off to have a partnership with the Clemson Y. So we’re going to incorporate our rec department with the Clemson Y and be able to put a professional coach with them to have them play into YMCA and just gain some experience. But we start off in ages six to eight in the rec division. And then we have our junior academy, which starts from U-9 to U-12.

And then it gets into the U11 select division from U13. And so we have multitudinal levels of play from open division, which is, you know, a little bit more above rec all the way up to premier, which is the highest level of play in South Carolina. It’s not ECNL obviously. then how many, how many kids do you have come through the program every year? We have 430 players right now.

I mean, it’s been continually growing. I guess about nine years ago, we had about 250 players. When I took over, we had a large dip where we were trying to find our way. My goal was to try to give it more of a club feel, more exposure feel to give our kids more opportunity. Cause that’s really what I want. That’s what I’m here for. I want to do this for. And that’s why I made DCSC was for just pure opportunity to give our kids.

every chance they need to be able to achieve their dream here in Anderson, Clemson and Seneca and the upstate area. That’s the period. And your facilities over there at the Michelin fields behind Sandy Springs. Yes, sir. That’s our main complex is that Michelin athletic complex on Vasquebel Road. We do play at the Anderson Civic Center as well.

And we are obviously going to be using nettles here in the future because we’re just growing out of our complex. Right. Yeah. And that’s a good centralized location for Clemson Anderson. It’s real easy to get in and out of and everything. Even though Pendleton’s really growing, there’s a lot of growth over there now. It’s exploded. Exploded. Yeah. That whole 187 intersection there with Clemson Boulevard is just blown up.

It won’t be three, a very long and that high school is really nice. It’s really nice. Yeah. Yeah. They’re doing a really good job with their sports facility as well. Building it out there next to the golf course. looks nice. mean, those kids are blessed. Yeah, they really are. all right. Yeah. So, give us a little background of yourself. Like how, like, I mean, I know, but tell everybody. absolutely. Well,

I was born and raised in Anderson, South Carolina. I played soccer since I was five years old, played baseball as well. My kid, my parents gave me a choice at 12 to have a decision between baseball and soccer. I chose soccer, which I was a better baseball player at the time. just because I love the game. I graduated T. Hannah High School. I went on to play at Charleston Southern University. Mike Estes recruited me when he was an assistant at Clemson and then got his Charleston Southern job. It was either December 95 or

January of 96, I remember it very well that he came in and then Laura, wife was pregnant with Fad and he came in resigned as the coach my freshman year and Sean Docking took over, which he’s now the coach at Coastal Carolina. Bluntly sophomore year, I got into a lot of off the field extracurricular activity and blew my whole career.

It cost me my college career, cost me my college education, which then brought me back home and started doing construction with my dad. And honestly, really Eric brought me to God placed me into putting into youth life because of the pathways that happens to me. So everything happens for a reason. I don’t talk about it a lot. You probably didn’t even know, but drugs and alcohol are the reason why it cost me my collegiate career.

You know, I want to be here to be able to give that message to kids and to be able to provide them that you can, you know, fall into a bad path because, man, I didn’t do nothing in high school. I was cut dry clean and didn’t do nothing. Didn’t do nothing. My freshman year, I remember my freshman year, people would ask me to go out. I didn’t do nothing. But then just gave in, you know, peer pressure and that’s

know, what happened. I started doing construction when my dad did that for about 14 years. Estes actually came back into my life, called me and said, hey, we had a, he was coaching at Cassie at the time. He said, hey, we just had a coach quit and we don’t have a coach for a U12 boys team. Would you do it? I said, heck yeah. I was like, I want to do it. So I went over there, didn’t have no balls, have no cons, didn’t have no pennies.

I remember the first game I coached against Philip Boyer and he doesn’t know this at the time, but I’m so into the game, Eric, you know, midfield, you’re supposed to stop. Next thing you know, I’m standing there now next to his bench still coaching. And he goes, what are you doing? And I’m like, man, I’m so sorry. And that was, that was my first game. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen the team. We didn’t know how to practice. That was my first introduction to CASA was I walked out there and coached a game.

Didn’t know the kids, but my memory is pretty sharp. So I knew the kids by the end and just fell in love with coaching. From there, I coached a really good U14 team and I guess they were testing me to see what I was capable of. So I did that and started coaching high school at Westside. I did that for eight years, which really changed my life. They introduced me to the Hispanic culture. I knew nothing about Hispanics. They’re nothing about.

anything about other than what I had been introduced to. And man, they just changed everything towards me. They gave me life. They gave me purpose because I was working with my dad. I didn’t really have a say. I was just mainly a worker and they gave me like a voice. And I came home and I was like, man, I really want to do this and really want to take up the coaching and started taking it serious. And again, grace of God, got a phone call. They wanted me to be the junior Academy director at CASA.

junior academy director. I was like, I either want to do it all or I don’t want to do it. And luckily I got it. And that was 10 years ago. And we have built a club that I’m proud of that we’re not where we need to be yet. We still have a long way to go to give our youth and our community what they deserve, but we’re close. So that’s kind of the background story of where we are today. And from that of

built this ECFC thing going to the UPSL semi-pro team in the area. have big dreams and hopes for that, not to only carry it to one team, but to carry it to two teams, carry it to a women’s team. So we’re just gonna see how it goes from there, just one at a time. So for those of us that may not know as much about that league, can you explain like kind of what that league is about, and how it’s structured and then how it relates to like…

you know, all the way up to the MLS. Absolutely. UPSL is a fourth division U.S. soccer league. So it is a semi-pro. The players do not get paid. They do get stipend. So for example, they would get fed. They may get some type of gas money or something to that nature, but it’s fourth division. The way it’s structured now with the way USL is operating things and the way they’re manipulating and promotion and relegation. It’s a possibility of that getting higher, but

This was started in 2011. It started with 20 teams. It’s grown to over 500. Oh, wow. It’s gained a lot of traction. My best friend started the team in Columbia, Soda City FC. I can’t remember how long ago it was, but I laughed at him. I was like, man, what are you doing? He’s like, dude, I’m telling you, this is the future. Well, they just got three wins, two national championships. He’s doing good for himself. It took me three years to pull the trigger on it.

But it’s just about opportunity. Eric, it’s from the age of 16 to 36. And it has two divisions. It has a premier division and division one. We’re going to start in division one. We’re going to mainly incorporate our U-19 boys in the club in it and give them opportunity to counter ECNL, to counter all the other higher levels of play because they’re going to be playing men. The games are going to be fully live streamed on YouTube.

I mean, it’s endless the opportunities that they can get. But the goal this year is to form a team to get promoted into the premier division for us to have two men teams, to have a top team and then have a, I’m going to call it a, not a reserve team, I’m going to call it a developmental team because it’s going to be mainly for high school players to get to play against middle-aged men. It’s where they can show colleges that they can compete against physically.

You know, right now in the US soccer, the mark is, is they can go get an English guy or a Spanish guy from Spain or England at 22 years old. And it’s hard for an American kid to compete against that at 18. So they’re getting a kid that’s 40 years, newly developed, fully developed, and they’re not willing to risk their financial commitment on an American kid, excuse me, a foreign kid, older, more developed for cheaper.

So we want to give the American kid a more often opportunity to show themselves against older competition. So there can’t be a gray area of why they can’t play at whatever university they choose to play at. Well, I I was going to go in a different direction, but since you brought that up, it’s real interesting. Something I think about quite often is like you’re seeing a lot of the European countries, like the way they develop their players.

And really, I mean, it’s, you’re seeing it in soccer and in basketball. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s really different. They, it’s, and you correct me if I’m wrong, but from what I read and what I see, and at least at the developmental level, they’re, they’re, they’re more focused on, training and less on games. And like, we seem to be here in the United States, we seem to be focused more on, on games. And do you see that? So it’s interesting that you brought that up about, having this league that

these players can go into where they’re playing, where they’re playing older guys and guys that have had that type of training. But like, how do you see that? Am I wrong in that? And what I’m seeing is like, do you think the reason we’ve been behind relative to the rest of the world, United States, is because of the type of training that we historically have done here? do you think it’s because we…

are we have so many different sports, know, basketball, baseball, you know, all these different sports. And so there’s a, you’re, spreading, you’re spreading our best athletes then. think, I think both of those are correct, but I’ll tell you what I really think. And I could be completely wrong. All our kids right now, everything has to be specialized or organized. And when we were coming up, how often did you go out in the yard and play?

All the time. Yeah. Pick up basketball. Yeah. Pick up soccer. Yeah. That’s what European countries are doing. They’re going out and playing backyard street soccer, backyard soccer, cage soccer, whatever it all the time. And our kids aren’t doing it because man, my coach only trains Monday, Tuesdays and Thursdays. And I’m only going to practice Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. And then you have like your kids.

They have a specialized trainer. They can’t get enough of it, but they just don’t have enough of those. Right. I mean, they’re just few and far between. That’s my opinion. I just think that they’re playing more and you are right that they’re, they’re, they’re doing, when you say practice, I don’t even know if it’s practice as much as it is free play. Right. You know, I mean, the structure of practice, I feel like us as coaches need to just let the kids play more and coach less. I’m guilty of that.

I’m a joystick coach at a younger age because I have an idea and I want that idea. I want them to be able to portray that idea. And I feel like that the only way our kids, they have to be shown everything. And everybody has a different mythology. That’s just mine. But to answer your question, I just feel like they’re just playing more. Our kids are sitting on video games too much and cell phones too much and just not taking their craft serious. Yeah.

Yeah, it’s, but I will say this, that I think the way I like the way you coach, it’s kind of the hard nose, like tough love, you know, really tell them like it is. I love it. My girls love it and they responded well to it. And, and I do think, and this is just my opinion. I think that the feedback early on is really important because I think there, there, there are some coaches that are two hands off. You’re just like, I think.

You know, and it’s simple things when they’re young, you know, it’s just like, Hey, you can’t lift your foot when you throw the ball in, you know, or Hey, throw the ball down the line or, or, you know, make a run or whatever the case might be, or Hey, look at your positioning, you know, look at your shape, you know, and it’s things that, you know, cause obviously when they’re young, they, all, you everybody tries to gather together and, know, and I, I know. so I think, I think that from that, from.

From that standpoint, I think you do a fantastic job with that. And of course you, I think you just, you get it. you, you, figure, also figure out your players. You see how, what their personalities are and you try to coach the players and you’re not trying to coach them all the same. And I think that’s, I think that’s why you’ve had a lot of success. Part of the, one of the many reasons you’ve had a lot of success. Anyway, that I was just curious as to, know, what’s your, what’s your thoughts were on.

And I didn’t even plan on going in that direction with it, but what your thoughts were on how the differences are in how the kids are developed here versus how they’re developed in other countries. All comes down to technicality. We don’t coach enough of it in America. American soccer is power, pace, speed. Right. And it’s not that way in foreign countries. It’s more technicality, you know, and as they grow, like

exactly

Yeah. And guess, and occasionally you have to just say, snap out of it. Of course, of course. mean, they’re still kids and obviously, you know, they’re going to be, they’re going to sleepwalk on you at times. Yeah. So absolutely. Yeah. Well, I think it’s, I think it’s really cool what you’re doing for the community and what you’ve done at CASA. So, and I know you, touched on it, but I do want a little more clarity on how, like, and I’m, shame on me for not knowing the leagues.

from MLS down, you said it was his fourth tier. Can you explain to the people that would listen to this podcast, like, okay, you got MLS and then how that works and then compare it to like, you know, it’s not really comparable, but like Premier League or something like, something else like that. Well, nothing’s going to compare. I know, but. Well, obviously MLS is the highest division in US soccer. Then they have USL, I think championship is what it is.

Uh, then it goes down and how many teams, what are there like 30 teams in MLS? Something like that. I’m not sure exactly to be a hundred percent with you, uh, Eric, uh, cause I don’t even know exactly how many teams are in us. So a championship that the triumph and the battery. I think you, I think actually the batteries in the championship, usl one is, uh, the triumph and then it goes down. they’re like, there’d be like third, third of it. Yeah. Yes, sir. That would be the last division that you get paid in.

They also have another league called NISA, which is like national something soccer and it’s in a professional association as well. But USL is trying to buy out everybody and force, in my opinion, MLS to do promotion relegation, which will never happen because the owners have way too much money invested in MLS to make that happen. Could you imagine? The lowest.

So explain what that is. So the lowest performing team would be relegated down. Right. Right. So the best ones in the, the, it’s kind of like what they do in the, in the European league. Absolutely. It’s the same exact thing. take the bottom three teams, you know, pushed him down or bottom two teams, whatever they come up with. And then the top two teams from the other division would go up. The problem is the market in America just can’t, can’t handle that like it can in Europe and other areas like that.

But that’s where UPSL would fall underneath that. And mainly Eric, a lot of the UPSL was built on players not getting college opportunity A, gap years B, just kids wanting to play in their community. D would be like, kids that are at the have played pro, still wanting to play at a high level, but at end of their career. Right.

You know, and just wanting just to stay in the game, just dabble their toe in it. And that’s where UPSL has come in. It’s like, we’re utilizing it for, like I said, college and gap year. mean, excuse me, high school and gap year. This season in the spring, we’re using 10 college players and we have roughly about 26 community players. Now that roster sounds large, but the problem is in the college players can’t play until like May.

So we have to start the whole first half of the season with our community players per se, which were our mostly, we have three high school kids, are mostly gap year kids, kids that went to college and played college, but don’t like school, didn’t do well in school, or just bluntly kids that couldn’t afford college period and that are working a job and want to play soccer at a good level. If God’s willing to be seen in

You know, I have, we were talking about a kid a minute ago, Daniel Cockfoo. He’s Venezuelan. He played for the U-17 gold cup team, which is on concaffa, which is a big deal. He’s 20. He’s good. Can’t speak a lick of English, but he’s really good. So who knows what opportunity he may get just by John Doe watching him on YouTube. They may be, you know, let’s just say we’re

Successful, which I hope we are. You’re going to have people to take a look at us. I mean, we had one team out of Columbia recruit one of our players off Instagram. Wow. Yeah. So, so I guess now with NIL it’s you can, mean, colleges could recruit some of these guys, right? Absolutely. Cause I mean, they’re getting, I guess you have to, it’s a stipend, but, now that college, mean,

college athletes can get paid. now they could actually recruit. Maybe that’s the best thing for them. Maybe they didn’t do well in school and they needed a gap year and they just want to keep playing and developing. And so they go play in this league and then, you know, some colleges may start recruiting those kinds of players to come to their programs. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. We’ll have two of those players. They will get signed after the season. I bet on it because they’re two really good players. They were overlooked.

maybe not had the best academics. don’t really know because I haven’t spoken to them about that, but they just fell through the cracks. They played at one club and then they left that club and went to another club and they went, they left their last year. And when they kids do that, you might not have the same exposure. It’s well, not even exposure, Eric, it’s just, you know, support because having, you know, going

And having exposure, but not having a coach drive that behind the exposure is worthless. If there’s not a coach saying, Hey, there’s this kid named Eric Newton that is really good. I need you to come take a look at him. I came and take a look at him. Why? No, I need you to come really take a look at him. This is his grades. He’s going to do this in school. You actually happen to have that. He’s not looking to come play this first year. mean, whatever it may be, but not enough people are doing that.

They’re just come watch my team. There’s Eric Newton. Go talk to Eric. Right. Well, that brings up an interesting question. Well, one more point to that. Like maybe some of these athletes, some of these foreign countries that, that, that, you know, that don’t go play for some of these private schools in the United States, you know, some of those, those, those there, there’s some really good players out there that you just never hear about. And they might be able to come play for this league. but you just made me think of something. So

What are y’all going to do or is it part of the mission and goal of the club to, I guess you could apply to a CASA too, to promote some of these players and help them? What are y’all planning to do as far as that’s concerned, like developing these players and to get them to the next level? Is it part of your mission and goal to promote them?

to get them some exposure that they may not otherwise be getting. So they could, if it’s a CASA player, play at the college level, if it’s, or really in either league. I’m kind of taking that off of my best friend’s model. Like he partnered with Flower City, which is a professional club. And what he did was he partnered with them to where when he has John Doe, that’s really good, he’s taking them to these trials.

and letting them play in these professional environments. He actually had two of them picked up within these last three years. That’s the goal. If we have a kid that’s aged out of being able to play in colleges, just to give them opportunity. It is far-fetched. I’m not sitting here saying it’s not, it’s going to be 10, 15 a season. It’s going to be maybe one a year, two a year. Realistically, know, giving kids

college opportunities is going to be easy. That’s going to be real easy because I can just say, Eric, you’re the coach of Bluefield State. I’m like, hey, Eric, go punch up YouTube. Watch this. Take a look at number six there. He’s a junior playing against 23 year old men. take your own, what do you think? And then…

The way things are working now, they’re able to bring these kids into their establishment and let them train with their teams. That’s huge. Yeah. Because that gives them where the how they fit in. Because not only are they good players, it’s how they fit in with their program. And for me, Eric, I like building relationships with the coaches to give the kids opportunity. That’s how Ezra got down there. was just called the draw. So it’s calling down there and.

saying, we have the player. came and watched him in Florida and then offered him to come down and then he put on a show. And hopefully Ezra will be our first pro player come out of CASA. That would be awesome. That would be awesome. mean, he earns it. He deserves it. Our community deserves it, to be honest with you. He is a true Clemson kid. It’s kind of awesome, Yeah. Just to watch him perform and do his thing and represent our area.

What year is he going to be a senior? Third year captain, senior. So he, yeah, he played it. He played at Daniel. He played at Daniel and it just like, I mean, just like you want it. You’ve got the local area teams that are all benefiting from, from CASA. Is it a little bittersweet when I know you being, you coached at Hanna or you did coach at Hanna. coach at Hanna now. You coach at Hanna now. Yeah. And then you coached at Westside. I did. Yeah.

And so, there’s, there’s probably a little bit of rivalry between those and Daniel Lake, but seeing, you know, with Daniel winning three, you know, state championships in a row. know that’s better, probably better. You love it from the standpoint of, these are a lot of my players. They are. Yeah. the first year they won and there was a lot of my kids on there because with the year they lost, there was nine of them on there. It’s not really bittersweet. I’ll tell you why. mean,

I coached Thomas Isaguirre since he was in the seventh grade. I’ve known him since he was, I love that boy. He’s a great guy. So to see him have success is awesome. mean, I’m old man. mean, success for me is watching kids go to school. I don’t need jewelry, championships, trophies, all those games, games dust, you know what mean? Relationships, them going to college, them getting a degree, them being something. I mean, look at Rayn. Yeah. I mean, that’s the thing.

Young men and women. He’s awesome. And let’s not forget about the women. yeah. Girls. Yeah. I got a soft spot for the, for the, for the girls too. I am having four daughters and, well, the goal is to have a girls team and, and the same regard. mean, obviously it’s easier to do the boys at the beginning because there’s more participation as you say, but now I’m bringing a girls team here. I’m bringing a women’s team here.

I there’s nothing more that would grow the game more than to have young girls go watch young women. Right. Yeah. That’s what has to happen there. You know that. yeah. That’s the only way it’s going to Yeah. You know, hopefully with the World Cup, that was the timing of everything. We can get everything timed up properly with the World Cup coming and it gains that traction. Yeah. support that, you know, that we’re getting is going to work out. Right. Yeah. It’s been fun. I actually…

I mean, obviously, I grew up playing sports and you know, it was all boy. And like you said, just always out in the yard playing. And that was my training. mean, we didn’t have personal trainers like you do now, but you know, growing up all boy and never really thought a ton about, you know, women’s sports. But I, you know, I have really grown to love.

women’s sports. I actually, if I’m being honest, I like, I’ve gotten to where I like watching women’s sports more. It’s more pure. It’s pure. It’s pure. Like the basketball is pure. The soccer is pure. I mean, the girls are in a lot of ways more skilled. I mean, it’s like you, you, you watch basketball and you can see, you can see somebody that can dunk. mean, that’s not, I mean, there’s a gazillion guys that can dunk now. I mean, that’s not, but like when you see these girls that are doing the moves and, they’re

Jacking threes and doing all these things is way more exciting. mean, softball is fun to watch and women’s soccer. mean, I love watching the women’s World Cup. It’s it’s and the collegiate soccer and I mean, all the women’s sports are a lot of fun for me now to watch. a lot more pure. I’d rather coach women than boys because you can tell them exactly what you want. And it ain’t it ain’t gray.

they’re going to do was actually what you say. But I’ll tell you two things changed my life to make me a better coach. One was being in the Latino culture. The other one was coaching my O2 girls. I’ve never coached girls before. Had an O2 girls team. It was actually my first month as director as a CASA. Had one of my coaches call out. He was an AU coach. He called out. He was getting a job somewhere else.

fell in love with these girls. came home, I was like, Ruthie, I’m going to coach the girls next season. She’s like, you’re crazy. They’re going, but Eric, they changed my life. I was way rough around the edges before I coached these way more than I am now. That’s crazy. But they grounded me and they man like we loved each other and it was so awesome. Like we got along well, we were successful and man, they played such a great brand because they

They trusted me. But when I first took that team, they hated each other. I was like…

But that growth by me as a coach and the way those girls brought me in, I don’t know if I would be where I am now if it wasn’t for those kids and those girls. Because I was a boys coach only, you know, because I curse and I’m loud and I am rough around the edges. Just I’m a country kid, you know, and I don’t have a big education. So I am rough around the edges. That’s just me.

I’m a grinder. You’re genuine. I am. I’m a grinder. You know, that’s what I call myself. was just like, you know, they, don’t you ask for help? I’m like, I just, I don’t know. I didn’t know. But those girls, you’re exactly right. I would rather watch a girls game if they know what’s, know, obviously it’s a good girls game because it’s so pure when they’re playing the game, the way it’s supposed to be played. there’s, there is attitude.

So that’s, it’s, could be some sassiness and there’s going to be a little drama at times, you’re exactly right. There’s nothing like it. And if you don’t give it an opportunity, you won’t, you won’t enjoy it. Right. You know, when I was in college, girls softballs will open my eyes for that. would watch girls softball in college a lot, just because that was the only women’s team that was really good at it. And that’s what drew my interest in women’s sports as well. So it was cool. Yeah.

I know you have four girls. I’m sure you, you know, you’re in your neck deep in it. am very much so between the basketball and the soccer and the dance. mean, we’re, we’re traveling every weekend. We’re all over the place. So, but it’s fun. I know it’s going to fly by, you know, fly by it. Grayson, you know, she just, made the varsity soccer team, ninth grader. So that was, that was, that was exciting. She, she, she was playing JV basketball. So she.

She got started a little late, but that girl trains religiously. mean, she, she, she, she’s a grinder. She’s a grinder. got a grinder and you got a bulldog. Yeah, that’s right. So, but, she, she jumped right in and, know, she had to her way in, you know, they were down in Charleston this past weekend playing in that, that tournament. And it’s been fun. It’s going to, it’s going to be fun to watch over the next few years. all right. So tell, tell everybody about back to the back to city FC. So.

Tell everybody about like, I know you probably have some sponsorship opportunities and we do like kind of timing of, of when, when you plan to kick season off, like where the facilities are going to be, like where you’re to be training, where, where the games are going to be played. Can’t tell you where the games are going to be played yet. All right. It’s a secret. It is a secret. it going to be cool? It is going to be cool. We’re super blessed to be able to have our own stadium.

Oh, wow. And we’re going to bring. Is it going to be a new stadium or is it going to be a refurbished stadium? We’re going to bring something back to life. You’re going bring something back to life. And we’re going to bring some back to life in Anderson that has sentimental value to me because I grew up playing on those fields. Did I play on those fields too? Probably did. Okay. It’s not Equinox. All right. It’s a full stadium. It’ll seat about three to five thousand.

But we’re training now. We’re training Monday, Wednesday, Friday, some. We’re more or less doing simulated games on Fridays just to see what we have. Our first scrimmage is March 16th. We’re going to play travel down to Columbia College. We’re going to probably play two games down there because we, like I said, have enough to take two teams because I wanted to make sure with kids having jobs, being in college, et cetera, high school, I wanted us to make sure we didn’t have any issues. And we’ll play Clemson’s club team. And then our season kicks off April 5th.

As I was coming in, pulling in, as I was telling you before we came on air, I got the schedule, like draft, the draft one of the schedule, so I didn’t have a chance to look at it. So I don’t know if April 5th is home or away, hoping it’s home because Ezra is playing Clemson, spring game, Carl Charleson’s spring game, Clemson at seven that night. I really want to watch that. Yeah. So I’m hoping it’s that here that is here. OK, so for everybody to go check that out. I’m hoping I get a chance to check that game out as well.

Hopefully April 5th, we’ll be kicking everything off and getting everything started. It’s a 10 to 12 game schedule. We’ll have about five, depending on the size of the conference, we’ll either have 10 or 12 games that are maybe five or six at home. Depending on how we do, it’ll run into July playoffs. So it’s exciting. Starts April, finishes middle to end of June, playoffs start July. So we’re going to pub it up and our main sponsor is Circle K.

Super excited about that. They’re going to be our title sponsor. We’re going to do a lot of things to book the pub, our players there at their facility on in Anderson looking for a couple more sponsors for on our practice shirt. Obviously three or four more sponsors to go on our field. Like what we’re trying to resemble is if you’ll look on a European game, they’ll have these like a frame shaped signs that go down the sideline of it. And we’re looking.

to add two or three or four or more of those signs that go on the side of those. And it’ll be a year sponsorship. They’ll be there through the spring into the fall. That’s pretty much it. Super blessed. have Estes Mechanical as a sponsor, Circle K as a sponsor. Obviously the city of Anderson is a sponsor. So super excited. If anybody’s looking for sponsorship opportunities, who do they need to reach out to? Yeah, just contact me, Jay George at Casa Prod dot club or.

864-844-2259. Hit me up and work out a deal with you on that. But we’d love to have you. That’s great. And then I know you can’t tell us where the venue is quite yet. Sounds like it’s going to be reuse of an old facility. It is. And that’s really exciting. And are you going to create a game day experience like a lot of venues are doing? you going to have other activities and maybe talk a little bit about what those activities? Absolutely. I’ll tell you what we want to do, Eric, is we want to

acknowledge our community. So what we may do is come in and be like, acknowledge the whole Daniel soccer program, boys, girls, and have them come out there talk about what they’ve done, acknowledge them, and then have the Clemson ret come out and play at halftime. But we’re going to do, you’re going have like food trucks and a hundred percent. Yeah. Like beer garden. hundred percent. Yeah. We’re going to school, but I’d like to do what I haven’t done. This is the perfect opportunity to pitch this would be.

We’re looking for somebody to have a local one beer, specialized seasonal beer. And that’s the only beer we want to period. And that way it’d be like Eric Newton beer. We’re going to sell just Eric Newton beer. That’d be cool, I think. We are going to partner with Mainz, Rainz on Main and Downtown Anderson. That’ll be our after game festivities where we’ll feed the players. We’ll you know, where you can hang out with the guys.

all the after parties per se. Yeah. Very cool. Is there anything else you wanted to tell the audience? we’re blessed to have the opportunity. Super excited about this. You know, like I said, the first years we’re going to be trial and things we’re going to be getting in the community a lot. know, whether it be doing things at the Y, doing things through local churches, wheels on wheels, whatever it takes to get our guys out in the exposure to

bring awareness and to our community and through the game. Well, that’s exciting. I have one last question. Yeah. Where are you going to put Rayn on the field? Rayn is, I told him right now he is our starting right back, but he has a month to lose that Eric. He has a month to lose. He has a month to lose that. he’s been, we’ve had what three sessions so far. He’s done really well. You know, he hasn’t lost anything. I think he got some karma the other night because Rayn’s a blade.

And what I mean the blade is he will crack you. Yeah, I can see that. And I think he got cracked the other night pretty good. And that was a little karma to him that he has a little graffiti to show for that. that goes back to like, I remember like Rayn was on the second team I ever coached at Cassidy. Everybody hated training with Rayn because he would ball, the ball would be gone and here comes Rayn. Bam. So, you know,

It’s exciting to have him back. I’m super blessed. Obviously, Rayn is our captain, one of our three captains. It’s kind of like full circle for me, Eric. It’s good, as you know, as you got to see him, there’s not many, there’s not many better young men than that kid. He’s great. Stands for all the right things and just blessed to be around him and call him family, to be honest with you, Eric, just like I’m sure you are. Yeah, it’s, it’s, he’s, he’s been a pleasure to have. He, obviously we met him through CASA. He helped coach.

the, my girls and he went out of his way to, to get to know us. And, know, I think the first time I really spent any time with him, he said, Hey, I’m, want to go to a Clemson game with y’all. And so we took him to the Clemson game and tailgated with us. we get the more we got to know Rayn, the more and more I liked him and could really see the, how good of a, good of a guy is. And then, you know, went through schoolwork, did intern with us. he’s a go getter.

good. Everybody comes from a very good family. Yeah. Very good family. For sure. I mean, like me and his dad didn’t hit off one that year, but, Hey, mean, you know, it’s a thing, but I think his dad knows I love his son and it’s awesome to have full circle, man. Yeah. And I’m happy to have him, on board here at our organization. And he’s been great so far. And he’s still learning. He’s still learning the ropes, but we’re trying.

I’ve got them knee deep in stuff right now and I’m impressed with them more and more every day. It’s hard to find people to work in general, but it’s hard to find people that are willing to get in the trenches and do whatever it takes. And you trust. And you trust and you want to learn. And loyal. Loyal and everything. but hey, I know you’re a busy man and I you got like going on and I really appreciate you taking the time to come. It’s my pleasure.

podcasts and everything. And so let’s do it again sometime. I’d love to. I’d to hear maybe in, you know, after, after season or maybe if not sooner, you know, maybe during season. I’d love to bring one of my guys with me so you can kind of interview. Yeah. We have a bunch of interesting guys on the team. That was just one of the guys that told you about Venezuela. We have a bunch of interesting guys from different countries that have got some cool experiences that I think it’d be neat for your audience to hear from. Maybe we could do one of the podcasts in Spanish. You know, I speak fluent fluently, so I can speak. would be awesome. All right. Hey, we appreciate it. Thank you very much. right. Thanks for being on. This is another Experience Matters with Eric Newton and Jimmy George.