Pitch to Pro
Pitch to Pro is the official podcast of Ozark United FC. This will be our platform to tell our story about the club and the special place that we call home, Northwest Arkansas. This is a journey. We want to bring you along for the ride. We'll share what's going on behind the curtain, help educate the community at large about soccer, Our league, and give updates on the progress of the club along the way.
Together, we'll explore and unpack our journey to professional soccer, the magic that is NWA, our community, and talk all things soccer from on the pitch to behind the scenes, telling the story of our club.
Pitch to Pro
Stoppage Time Special: What Makes a Real Soccer Community?
Pressure reveals culture. When a match started sliding the wrong way, we broke down the split-second coaching choice that changes everything: speak and control, or listen and trust. What followed was a raw look at accountability on the field, no finger-pointing, just honest self-checks, sharper communication, and a team that chose ownership over excuses. We talk through what calm leadership actually looks like, the subtle cues that guide better decisions, and why restraint can be the most powerful move a coach makes.
From there, we zoom out to the bigger picture shaping the region’s game. With Ozark United FC entering the scene, recruiting gets a genuine lift: international prospects see a real soccer community, local players feel a tangible pathway, and the standards around training, recovery, and mentality rise. We dive into how a pro presence changes the calculus for athletes and coaches, creating more touchpoints with high-level play, opening doors for standout talents, and building a pipeline where college, academy, and pro connect instead of competing.
What excites us most is the community impact. A pro club becomes a weekly ritual, a place where families, alumni, and young players connect with the sport at a higher level. We share how collaboration across youth programs, colleges, and the new club can spark coaching exchanges, joint events, and elevated expectations that benefit everyone. If you care about team culture, player development, and building a real pathway to the pros, this highlight delivers practical insights and a hopeful roadmap for what’s ahead. Subscribe, share with a teammate or coach, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway: what moment shifted your view on culture?
Welcome to the Stoppage Time edition of the Pitch to Pro Podcast. This is a highlight reel of some of the best moments from the show so far, and every other week we will be bringing you a special five to seven minute segment featuring the best stories, tales, and moments of the podcast.
SPEAKER_00:You're right. Culture is one of the most important things, if not the most important thing, especially within athletics. Yeah. Um, and performance. Uh there's, I mean, you've your master's just in organizational uh business and and everything. So I don't need to tell you. You could probably sit here and and and give a dissertation on the important side. Uh, but it's also just you hear about it, uh, about like what's important to you as an employee in the business world. Almost always top three is going to be culture or number one, right? So uh just kudos to you, and I I think it's great. Um, and then also in the game, in the moment that you you uh just mentioned how like how hard was that? Because I'm like I'm a coach too, but not at your level. But how hard was it for you to just shut your mouth and let them figure it out? Because I know you were dying inside.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. Um it also comes to my personality, like very, very calm down most of the time. Um I it was it was hard. Like I wanted to make subs right away. I thought about I thought about I'm gonna make five subs, I'm gonna make a statement. Yeah, you know. Um, but I saw them being very upset, yeah, not with each other, but at themselves.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:They were like, How is this happening? Why is this happening? Why am I playing so bad? Yeah. Right. So I saw that reaction, kind of like that fire. That recognition. And what I liked was they were not blaming each other. They were like, Why are we playing so bad? Like, you know, so again, the that culture of unity, right? Is it's not uh putting fingers or like blaming each other. It's just like, man, we need to figure it out. Trying to pick each other up. Yeah. So I saw that and I'm like, okay, they'll be fine. So I was I was upset, I was frustrated, but I was confident that they were gonna do something.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and you also recognized those cues, yeah, right? You were smart enough to recognize the the reaction and reading body language and that the fact that they're not pointing fingers, right? And so I think that that's also just really important to is being able to pick up on those cues, yeah, right, and and have that, you know, help drive decision making. So yeah, uh that's a great, great example and awesome result, right? Like it could have gone a different way. Oh, yeah, but for sure. Um, no, that's awesome. So, you know, we've got a little bit of time left. Talk a little bit about OZFC uh and our project and kind of what does that mean uh for JBU soccer, if anything, like what does that mean to have you know pro soccer coming into this space, into the area? I would say that's big for recruiting.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, uh that's big for recruiting, not just because there is a funnel with um boys soccer now with you know the academy. Um and but I think some international players that are coming from professional academies, they're like, oh, there's gonna be a pro team in the area. That's fun. Like I wanna be part, like even though they don't see themselves I'm gonna play for that team, they're like, oh, there's a soccer community. Yeah. Um and that I think that'll be very good and important for us in the future. Um, I think Osard United will help us not just creating that final for local, good, talented players, but at the same time recruiting some big international uh impact players for the program just because they see there's a pro club in the area. There is like, oh, people like soccer there, you know. I can go watch games, professional level games. Um, so I think recruiting is gonna be huge.
SPEAKER_00:And then you see opportunity, right? Like the opportunity. There's Ryan Williams, former JBU player, played in the USL, near Mexico United, Charlotte Eagles. Like, yeah, you know, does every player get an opportunity? No, no, but you know, it at least provides local opportunity, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Right? Yeah, and yeah, you never know, right? Um, and we have I would say two, three incredible players that could be playing on a professional level. Yeah. Um, so it's yeah, I think it encouraged it pushed them to, you know, to work hard. Yeah. Um, and then just for the community in general, I think just similar is just so good for the community, whether you love the sport or not, it's just so good. It brings belonging and unity.
SPEAKER_00:I love that. It brings everybody together. It's my favorite thing about the sport. Um, well, man, I I I love that uh perspective. And, you know, I think that there's also just all kinds of collaboration collaboration opportunities like on the coaching side, like all kinds of things that, you know, I'm excited to work with the youth organizations, but also the collegiate organizations in the area. I mean, you know, NWAC's developing their soccer programs. I think there's great opportunities there with you guys, obviously U of A. Uh, Colby may not need it, may not need our help. But uh, you know, I mean, we're bringing pro women's soccer here too, yeah. So, I mean, that really strong program. I mean, there's plenty of, you know, former U of A players playing in the USL Super League and in the NWSL.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you for joining us for this stoppage time special of the Pitch to Pro podcast. If you've enjoyed the conversation, you can click watch the full episode here. Be sure to tune in next Thursday for a new episode of the Pitch to Pro podcast, the official podcast of Ozark United FC. Available on YouTube, Instagram, and everywhere you get your podcasts.