Ep. 13 - The Beautiful Game's Role in Nurturing Growth and Unity - with Irvin Camacho

From the vibrant streets of Salinas, California, to the burgeoning communities of Northwest Arkansas, Irvin Camacho's journey is a masterclass in bravery and the pursuit of betterment. Embark with us on an intimate exploration of his story—a tale of family, determination, and the transformative power of setting down roots in a place that offers both refuge from the hustle and a chance to thrive. Irvin's heartfelt narrative reveals how natural beauty and community development weave together to create a backdrop for personal growth and collective progress.

When the subject of soccer comes up, you can feel the energy surge. Northwest Arkansas is rapidly becoming a hotbed for the sport, and this episode delves into the factors that are kicking things to the next level. From the influence of the 1994 World Cup to the anticipated frenzy of future global events, we discuss how the demographic diversity and local champions of the game are nurturing its success. Irvin shares insights into the local women’s teams’ achievements and how soccer is much more than a game—it’s a catalyst for connecting people and igniting passions.

As our conversation turns towards the heart of community engagement, Irvin illuminates the critical role of advocacy and support for immigrants and the underrepresented in Northwest Arkansas. We touch upon the creation of educational initiatives, the significance of local politics, and the challenges that communities face, from mental health to housing security. Through candid stories and reflections on local soccer's influence, we uncover the profound impact that community involvement and personal storytelling can have in shaping a more inclusive, spirited, and cohesive society.

Transcript

Wes Harris: 0:04

Pitch to Pro is the official podcast of USL Arkansas. 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.

Wes Harris: 0:42

Pitch to Pro Podcast is proudly sponsored by PodcastVideoscom. Podcastvideoscom is Northwest Arkansas's premier podcast recording studio, equipped with industry-leading equipment. The recording studio and services save you time, money and hassle. They are dedicated to helping you create, record and publish high-quality podcasts for your audience. Be sure to check them out today at PodcastVideoscom. Hello everybody and welcome back to the Pitch to Pro Podcast. My name is Wes Harris. I am your host, managing director for USL Arkansas, northwest Arkansas's professional soccer club playing in the United Soccer League. We have a really special conversation for you guys today with my incredible guest, mr Irvin Camacho. Thank you so much for coming on the show, man.

Irvin Camacho: 1:26

Thank you so much for the invite. I've been watching the podcast on YouTube and I'm glad that I'm a guest now, so I'm here. So thank you so much for the invitation.

Wes Harris: 1:34

Well, that means a lot coming from this guy and we'll get into why but podcast expert over here. So I appreciate you Before we jump into all the stuff that you do, because you're such a great active community member here in Northwest Arkansas and you do so many great things beyond what people probably know you for, which is the District 3 podcast, and we'll talk about that. But first I want to just kind of learn more about you, irvin, and did you grow up here? Are you from NWA? If not, you've obviously been in the area for a long time. So talk a little bit about you and kind of how you came to Northwest Arkansas.

Irvin Camacho: 2:07

Yeah, so I was born in Salinas, california, which is like the north part of California, and my parents worked in the fields over there so anything you could think of, like lettuce, onion, every field. They worked there for a few years and they weren't getting paid enough. The wages were really low. We were living in like housing authority apartments and we needed better opportunities. So my dad just we sold everything that we had. We got into his cars I think it was like a black Camaro, I believe and we just drove over here.

Irvin Camacho: 2:45

We had a family over here in Arkansas and that was back in like 2002. And we heard about the poultry industry and we heard that they were paying more here. There was more opportunity, more college opportunities and also less gangs, because where I was raised there was a lot of gangs in my neighborhood and my dad just didn't want me to ever be involved with any of them. So we just took that big risk and came over here and we loved it and stayed. Some of my jobs have actually wanted me to move to a different state and I don't want to leave. Yeah, I love it here, I want to build here, I want to be part of what makes Arkansas better in the future, and that's why I'm really excited about this project.

Wes Harris: 3:23

Well, hold on to that excitement. We'll talk about it and we share in that excitement, obviously, but that's awesome as well. That's a great story, man, and just I want to give kudos to your parents for having the courage and wherewithal to kind of do that. And that takes a lot of courage and is scary, and thankfully you guys had a little bit of family here, but that takes a lot to kind of pick up and move. I know what that was like, moving here, knowing nobody, and I had a job and I knew what I was doing, had a place to live and all of that kind of stuff. So I can't imagine man.

Irvin Camacho: 3:55

Well, back then, I mean, we were not happy about moving because we were leaving all our friends, family, our very close family was over there and the family that we had over here we weren't really close with. But we became close with them, right, sure. But looking at it now, I got to go back to where I lived a few years back and I was so glad my dad made the move, just because things have stayed the same, the schools haven't grown. I love my family. So hopefully I don't take it as a shot when you're talking about the city.

Irvin Camacho: 4:27

But over here there's been a lot of growth In every little town Springdale, Rogers we see the growth here in Rogers and Benville, but in my town things just kind of stood still when I left, and so I'm really grateful that my dad took that big risk and we came over here with nothing and we were able to build something. Yeah Well, thanks Dad.

Wes Harris: 4:51

Well, that's awesome, man. That's just such an awesome story. I love it. And you guys have kind of chosen to stay a little bit right. So if you came over here in 2002, it's a little more than 20 years in the area. So, um, watch you next videos, bye, bye, bye. Talked to me. I mean you talked about the growth and kind of like why you're happy you stayed. But like what else about NWA? Why do you love the area? I mean, if you guys have chosen to stay, this is now home for you. What do you love about NWA, man? I love the nature.

Irvin Camacho: 5:17

Yeah, I love the people here that a lot. And it's just. You know, sometimes you wanna disconnect from whatever, from either being your job, whether it being whatever you're involved with in the community. Sometimes you just wanna go, you know, hike somewhere and just be by yourself or be with your wife or your partner, and we have the availability to do that here, like we can literally just drive down 30 minutes and find a good trail where we can disconnect. And then the people here are good.

Irvin Camacho: 5:43

You know the people want the best for this state and doesn't matter like what your political views are. At the end of the day we really do want the best for the state and I feel that and I wanna be part of the betterment of our state and that's why I feel like I'm attached to this state, because I wanna be part of the process. But then I also just love the people and love the diversity. I'm from, I live in Springdale, so Springdale is probably one of the most diverse places is in our area. You know we have a big Marshall East population over there, big Latino population as well, and when you go to downtown Springdale you see the diversity, you know, you see the Marshall East stores. You see the Mexican taquerias or restaurants, and there's like a French restaurant now in downtown Springdale as well. So it's very diverse and I love that and I don't see myself distancing myself from that.

Wes Harris: 6:36

Yeah, no, I love that. And you kind of hit on a lot of the things that we heard and one of the things that obviously we've talked about doing. But just being out and about the community doing a ton of community listening sessions, and we did two in Spanish, one in Rogers, one in Springdale. You have a little bit of a little bit, but we needed, we brought in a translator, so that's all on. So and it was, you know, meeting them where they were at, and I think that that's important too and in terms of connecting there. So, and we did one in Marshall East as well. I heard about that, I heard about these communities, so and they're just so excited too. Those were honestly my favorite sessions and just because the passion there and for the sport is so different than other communities.

Irvin Camacho: 7:22

You see, I have a friend his name is Matthew, which I would like to connect you with him one day. He's Marshall East, okay, but he was raised in California and he was raised around Latino kids, okay, so he's a big Barcelona fan, which I'm a great fan of, so whatever, but he is in love, you know, in love with the soccer culture, in love with Messi, and you wouldn't think, you know, that the Marshall East community would also have some sort of relationship with soccer, but they're especially the young folks. They do have a relationship. So I'm excited to see, you know, what their contributions will be.

Wes Harris: 7:52

Well, and the other cool thing about the Marshall East real quick for those that don't know and I think we talked about this on other episodes but we have the largest population density of Marshall East folks here in Northwest Arkansas, in mostly in Springdale, but outside of the Marshall Islands anywhere in the world. There's over 15,000 Marshall East in Northwest Arkansas and so they've kind of made this home away from home and they are the last UN country to have a FIFA sanctioned national team. Oh wow. And so this is starting. This is starting, and it's people on the ground here in Northwest Arkansas that are helping to lead that charge. Oh wow, I did not, yeah. So it's super cool to have this other kind of soccer project as well, kind of bring in our communities together all at the same time. So it's really really cool and interesting, do you?

Irvin Camacho: 8:51

feel like the stars are aligning With all this.

Wes Harris: 8:55

I tell you what it is. The people talk about a perfect storm, and a lot of times in a negative way, and for this it's absolutely in a positive way. I think people always ask me kind of like, why Northwest Arkansas, why soccer, why now? And it's right time, right people, right sport and right market, and I think it's a perfect storm of all four of those things. You have Northwest Arkansas and the trajectory that we're going. We have over 60% of our population is not from here, if they're from all over the world and soccer is the world's game right, and so, whether they're soccer fans or not, they are used to a lot of the time coming from bigger markets where they've had professional sports options, and so they're used to that, and so you have that. You have increasing diversity in this area and what does soccer mean in those communities? So it's great. There you have the right time.

Wes Harris: 9:52

The slate of global soccer coming to the United States, starting this summer with Copa America, is absolutely unprecedented and I think, in global soccer history, with Copa American 24, fifa World Cup 2025, fifa World Cup in 2026, potentially the women's World Cup in 27 or 31 and then LA Olympics in 2028. Insane, insane. There's never really been a run like that. The closest, I think, has been Brazil in 2014. And so you have that. And last time the World Cup was here, in 1994, the most attended World Cup in the entire history of the competition, by the way is gonna absolutely was the springboard of our professional soccer landscape and what it has become today, and I think it's gonna have an even bigger effect after 2026, especially for this area and this region, you mean look at the difference now.

Irvin Camacho: 10:41

I mean we look at the social media. Yep, there was no social media back in 1994.

Wes Harris: 10:45

Exactly, exactly 100%. Like technology is changed not even the sport to your point, technology and everything else about how we're connected has changed, and so you have all of those factors. Then you have Warren Smith and Chris and others on our project that have just our local, a fantastic blend of local NWA people that have called this home, know about the area but also have the experience in professional sports to help cultivate that and build a world-class organization. And then the market again just NWA and the growth of what we're doing as a community together. And I think it's just like this to your point, the stars aligning on all fronts. And then on top of that now you have the Marshallese national team coming to fruition. So it's just every day we are feeling even more encouraged by the reactions that we're getting, but also just ancillary things that are also happening around our sport Now had division one sanctioning for the USL Super League, so our women's team is gonna be playing at the highest level of professional women's soccer in the United States.

Wes Harris: 11:57

It's incredible. Right here in Northwest Arkansas you have already a strong foundation with the University of Arkansas women's team top 10 team in the country, like Colby's been doing that a fantastic job there.

Irvin Camacho: 12:08

I feel like every time I see Twitter and I see like they're playing, they're always winning.

Wes Harris: 12:12

Yeah, and they score a lot of goals, so it's a lot of fun. But, yeah, man, I think the stars are aligning to your point and it's just been a really, really cool time to be a part of it. It's perfect. So, yeah, I do think so. But let's talk. You know I love NWA. I've lived here twice, I've called it home. Now two of my kids are born here. You know, talk a little bit.

Wes Harris: 12:36

You touched on it a little bit in terms of being a part of the process and being, you know, part of the work that's being done to help make our state a better place and our community a better place, and you do a lot. So I'll leave it up to you on what you want to talk about in terms of the work that you do, but talk a little bit about how you're involved in the community and ways that people can get involved, because I think that's something that I think soccer also does and is special is it gives people a vehicle to be a part of their community in ways that potentially others don't. Or they're people that are looking for a way to get involved in their community and they don't know how, and this is maybe a platform that allows that to kind of springboard again for them.

Irvin Camacho: 13:21

But talk a little bit about what you do, man, definitely so I got the opportunity, I think about a year and a half ago, to speak at the University of Arkansas and it was kind of like I had to teach a lesson and my lesson was you know how to find what you're passionate about in the community and get involved. I feel like there's different avenues for that. People are passionate about animal rights. People are passionate about immigrant rights. Me specifically, I started getting involved in the community because there was a need Back in high school I think it was 2010, late 2009,. There wasn't a lot of advocacy for immigrants here in Northwest Arkansas, just for whatever different situations immigrants might find themselves in resources. So a lot of us who were 18, 19, 20, we all got together and just started organizing, started creating educational forums, know your rights forums, providing resources to the community and pretty much creating a blueprint on how to organize immigrants in our area. So through that time, you know, we've not only had forums, we've taught people about voting as well, the importance on that. We've registered people to vote and then we've also I'm not sure if you've ever heard of DACA.

Irvin Camacho: 14:34

For those that don't know, daca is different action for childhood arrivals, which is a work permit that allows young and documented people to work here legally in the country If they've been here for quite a few years already and they have to pay $495 every time that they apply for that permit. That's not affordable for a lot of people. So we've been able to fundraise in our community and every year I do a scholarship and we're able to give. You know, this year we gave 17 scholarships, full scholarships, so people didn't have to pay anything for the renewal fee. And you know that goes a long way for some people it does. You know, sometimes we forget, you know, because either we're successful or we start making good money that $495 is a lot of money. But when you take that away, that worry from someone, you can make a big difference in someone's life. So I created the Arkansas DACA scholarship a few years back.

Irvin Camacho: 15:24

I'm doing that every year and I'm just still trying to stay active. So not only do I do my own things, but I'm also trying to like show up for other communities. That's great. I know the Marshallese community is going through some things right now and I've been trying to show up for them and trying to be a good ally.

Irvin Camacho: 15:39

But I try to do that with as many communities as I can and I won't go too much in depth as to like everything that I do, but I also serve on the board of the ACLU of Arkansas and I ran for office back in 2015 when I was 24 years old Wow, so I've been very, very involved in the community and I've been able to build great relationships because of that and I feel like through those relationships, we'd be able to create, you know, beautiful projects and I've been able to get involved with beautiful projects like this one. You know, I remember I reached out to Chris and after he came on our podcast and I was like, anyway, any way that I can get involved, if y'all need anything, please let me know, because I'm really really passionate about soccer and the fact that it's coming here like it makes my eyes light up and I'm really excited about what the future may hold. So well, don't worry, we'll be reaching out for sure, thank you, don't worry, I appreciate it.

Irvin Camacho: 16:31

I appreciate it, but I hope I answered your question. I don't know how much in depth to go into, but, um, no, that's kind of where it starts for me, no and that's great.

Wes Harris: 16:39

I think being involved is in your community, where you live, work, play and you know, and there's different levels right for people to get involved, but I think it's awesome when people can come together and have this common goal. They may disagree on how we get there, but we can at least come to the table and say how do we make our community a better place?

Irvin Camacho: 17:00

Yeah.

Wes Harris: 17:01

And, at the end of the day, I don't think anybody can get, you know, not on board with that mission, right, yeah, and so we can. Then we can just, okay, how do we figure it out together? And so I think that those conversations are really important and to remember that we're all in this together and we all live and right next door to each other and we're all part of the same community, and that's what's so special, I think, about this place.

Irvin Camacho: 17:24

There's much more things that bring us together than put them separate. 100%.

Wes Harris: 17:28

Despite what the media would have you believe. Yeah, right.

Irvin Camacho: 17:31

So when we sit down, you know, like because of my job, my current job right now, I speak with a lot of leadership of like churches and nonprofits, and you'd be surprised how many people are going through mental health. Oh my God, it doesn't matter if it's in a church that doesn't have a lot of funds, to the most bougiest church you can find in Bentonville. Yeah, you know, mental health is an issue for everyone.

Irvin Camacho: 17:52

And so is housing and security as well. So I've realized that when you sit down and you have a conversation with someone, it's better than having a conversation through social media. Yeah, in my opinion. Yeah, absolutely no keyboard warriors.

Wes Harris: 18:07

Well, talk. I mean, we talked a little bit about media and but talk a little bit about District 3 and how that kind of came about and what you're doing there. How do you, what are you guys looking to do? I mean almost 300 episodes that you guys are coming up on now, so obviously been doing it a while. So talk a little bit about that man.

Irvin Camacho: 18:22

Yeah, I started back in 2019. It was, I think it was right before COVID began. Yeah, whenever I started and I was recording and a studio on Dixon in college and we had cameras, but it was just really badly shot and, yeah, the lights were really bad too. We didn't have the best audio, but we wanted to do something. We knew that there was a space needed for Latino staff conversations about things that were happening in the community and to speak on it unfiltered, because a lot of the times when you're on the radio gotta be careful what you say you also have commercials that come in, so you're limited as to how much you can talk.

Irvin Camacho: 18:57

But in this podcast it's we talk for an hour and nonstop there's about things that are affecting our community and then also highlighting people that are doing good work in our community. Yeah, so we started back then and if you listen from like the first episode to like the most recent one, you'll definitely see the quality and audio has gotten way, way better, because now we record in a professional studio, a KUAF here in Fayetteville. That's awesome, and we just recorded episode 235. Wow, yeah it's.

Irvin Camacho: 19:28

We've had a lot of conversations with you know, politicians, people that are artists in the NWA, people that are working for nonprofits, that are doing good work. So, and through that, we've been able to build so many relationships. I've been able to meet so many cool people and I have an excuse to like, if I want to have a conversation with someone that I've, you know, wanted to connect with, I can say, hey, want to come to the podcast, let's sit down and let's talk, and then the relationship like it blossoms from there, yeah, and it's such a different medium to kind of come in and have a chat and discussion but also a story tell.

Wes Harris: 20:02

Yeah, and it's catching on even more every day. Yeah, you know it's mainstream now, but it's still on the very early side of mainstream. There is pretty few podcasts in Arkansas Very few it is, you know. So I mean it's getting there but you know, I think adoption still has a way to go. But it's a fun medium. I've had fun with this and you know, getting back into it. I did it way back in the day when podcasting was just beginning. But to come back to it has been fun. So congrats on 235 episodes. I know you guys do a lot of good work there with that one and shedding light on some cool stories and people doing good work in the community. So that's awesome, thank you.

Wes Harris: 20:40

So we talked a little bit about this man, but like one of the cool things about Northwest Arkansas at least you know, for me and what we've heard people say frankly from from you know from listening sessions, so it's not just me, but is the increasing diversity that we have in Northwest Arkansas as more people are learning about the area and, you know, choosing to come here either for work, to live, and you know there's a balance of kind of the people that may feel like it's getting too big, too fast if you grew up here or have been here for a long time, and so there is that balance that you know we always want to be mindful of.

Wes Harris: 21:16

But as we continue to grow, we're not just growing in population size, we're growing in diversity, which I think is important, Diversity of thought especially, even like that's. It's not just about you know people from different parts of the world, it's about bringing differences of thought, because for me, I'm a consummate learner and I always enjoy learning new things in different perspectives and hearing about people and their stories, and so try new foods like they all, all those different things. So talk a little bit about your experience there and what excites you about that.

Irvin Camacho: 21:50

I think we all have our complaints right when it comes to the city getting too big, because I know that way. We're in traffic sometimes we're like man and more people are gonna come, they're gonna. It's gonna be even more difficult to get home from work, so I get that completely. But overall, diversity is a beautiful thing and I think it benefits everyone. I mean there's data that shows that, for example, with businesses having diversity of thought, you tend to be more successful. You tend to thrive more when you have diversity of thought, whether it being, you know, ethnicity, gender, whatever, like. There's always a positive to that.

Irvin Camacho: 22:24

But for me, I'm always been a big proponent of it. I've always been a big advocate for embracing diversity and understanding that learning from other cultures will make us better, will help us well, even maybe it'll push us to even learn a different language. You know, for me, for example, I've been trying to learn Marshallese. That's kind of been my goal. One, because I wanna be able to communicate better with my Marshallese brothers and sisters. But two, this community specifically is Springdale, where you're gonna need Marshallese in the future. You're gonna need to be able to communicate with a lot of these folks that not only are coming in but are growing up through our school system and I've always kind of wanted to push myself.

Irvin Camacho: 23:07

The only reason why I haven't learned yet is because it's very rare when you can find someone that teaches you, and that's why I haven't had the ability and you can't really find it on any kind of app or any. But I really can't find all the other languages right. But I really can't think of any kind of negative as to the fact that people wanna come here, because I'm excited to see what else we're able to build in this area. You know what I mean. That comes more opportunity, right. I mean look at this project and who knows if we'd be here if it wasn't because of the diversity of this area? Who knows what that would look like Exactly? And I think that I think about other areas and maybe not just Rogers and Benville, but like what that will mean for Springdale, for Lowell, for Fayetteville, for West Fork, all these different areas that will feel the diversity and will feel the effect of it in a positive way.

Wes Harris: 24:00

Yeah. No, I think you brought up some awesome points, ben, that's so it's refreshing to hear and I think you're hit a lot of those points spot on. So talk. You talked about the project and what this is gonna do, so let's shift into the fun part of the conversation. Not that the other part wasn't, but be at a soccer guy, this is the fun part. So talk to me a little bit about you know your experience with soccer or football, and how did you? I'm assuming you're a fan, but how did you become a fan? How did you kind of get introduced to the sport? And then we'll kind of take it from you.

Irvin Camacho: 24:36

Sure thing, man. My first memory, and the reason why I became a soccer fan, was the FIFA World Cup final 1998. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, and seeing Zinedine Zidane score those two headers in that final against Brazil. Did I bring some trauma to you or something you know you did?

Wes Harris: 24:56

Zizou is one of my favorite players of all time, and when he headbutted Mararazzi, that was heartbreaking for me because they ended up losing the final to. Oh yeah, well, that was 0-6, but the 98 when they won. But yeah, in 2006,. That was heartbreaking because that was his last World Cup and to see him go out like that was hard. I was watching that and so, anyway, I interrupted you.

Irvin Camacho: 25:20

I'm sorry, no, it's okay. So I didn't get to watch it live. My uncle recorded it back in the day when you could record with like a VHS tape, so he recorded it and every time I would go to his house I would watch it. I was very mesmerized by that game because I remember you know the head. I think it was like a header.

Irvin Camacho: 25:38

What was the final score? 3-0 or 3-1? For God might've been 3-0. I believe it was 3-0 because it was like Zinedine Zidane head quarter kick goal and then a second one, also corner kick goal. And then the third one was in the last minute Emmanuel Petit, yep, and he was like it was like they didn't need to score another goal, but he scored, like last minute, which made it even more dramatic. And ever since then I was just very mesmerized by Zinedine Zidane and that's why I became a Real Madrid fan because of him. My dad was a big Pumas, a Real Madrid fan, so I root for both teams. My teams are Pumas and Real Madrid. Okay, I'd cut to that and you and Chris will get along. Oh, because he's a big Luca Mudrick, mudrick, yeah.

Wes Harris: 26:25

And Vision Connection.

Irvin Camacho: 26:26

Yes, he's about to retire soon. He is, he is. It is sad, but the I've been able to experience, you know, like this great run from Real Madrid, right? Is it how many champions they think they've won? Like was it four or five Champions Leagues in these past decade? I believe it's been incredible. Yeah, so for me, as I started getting like really involved with watching Real Madrid and everything, I've had more good memories and bad. So sometimes, when, like, real Madrid loses, I forget what that feels like.

Wes Harris: 26:55

Yeah, I mean, it's like what you gotta be humble to me.

Irvin Camacho: 26:59

I know, but it's very rare when Real Madrid loses. But when we lose I am like what is this Like? What is this feeling? I don't feel good about it.

Irvin Camacho: 27:05

But I also, you know, I played soccer in the youth league here when I was like 11 through like 14. And that was a lot of fun and that was pretty good and I was like the top scorer of the league when I was playing in the Sharp Shooters. Doesn't it remember all Springdale Sharp Shooters? There you go. It was a blue uniform, nice, and I didn't get to play in high school because I started working and just because, like, there was a need in my life, you know, we needed to pay bills and stuff. But I remember I almost went and tried out. I was there already, but then I was like I needed to find a job and I ended up working at this one place.

Irvin Camacho: 27:44

But you know, springdale, they've won two championships in the past. You know, was it like maybe the past a little over a decade? So I'm excited to see, you know, this talent that comes out. There's a lot of talent in North West Arkansas the Runeale, fayetteville, bentonville. There's a lot of, even people from like like Van Buren yeah, fort Smith. I'm excited to see you know if that talent makes its way over here eventually. You know, and then and what that can become. But yeah, I've become a fan. I've gotten to go watch Remedri play in Dallas, go see the Mexican national team. Haven't seen the US national team yet, okay, but I would love that. And the goal is this year to go see Remedri play at the Bernabéu. Oh, wow, that'd be awesome. So hopefully we make that happen.

Wes Harris: 28:27

So I've been there, not for a match, but I've been there, did the stadium tour and it's impressive. I've not been there since it was a few years ago, but my brother-in-law, like he took a trip to Spain two years ago.

Irvin Camacho: 28:41

He doesn't like soccer, he hates soccer. And then he was. Then he, he FaceTimed me and he's like guess where I'm at? Oh no, I what. So I got, I didn't even appreciate it. He had to burn about and he's like what is it? He was in the stadium and he was like looking around. He's like, oh, what's so special about this? I'm like, if you, if you only knew. But he brought me a little Remedri key chain. So I appreciate that. But it's my turn to show up and be there and hopefully watch a game. I would love to be there when a game.

Wes Harris: 29:08

I would have loved to have been there for a game. Unfortunately it was off season so but it was. It was impressive. It was impressive. You just now.

Irvin Camacho: 29:17

It's now that they've. They've done the Rehulery model in there. They have, they have. I mean they have one of the coolest. Taylor Swift is playing there in a few months.

Wes Harris: 29:23

She is, she is, they're going to do some NFL games there. It's going to be really cool. So well, that's awesome. I love. I love hearing people's stories about how they got into the sport and FIFA too. Do you play FIFA? I do, I did, I did. I don't do it anymore because I got kids.

Irvin Camacho: 29:39

But yes, it's hard to.

Wes Harris: 29:40

I'm guessing with kids it's probably hard to even it's hard because you're just your, your focus is on them and their activities. And then when you unplug for the night, I just you know, because if, if you're a partner or a spouse or whatever your situation is, if, if you have that, that's kind of some of the only alone time that you get to get is when they go to bed and then you maybe have an hour, and so I don't know, my, my, my brother-in-law and my and my sister get it done and he, a lot of times he'll play it like one, two in the morning. But people need to sleep. I need my sleep. I can't, I can't do that. So but he was, he was a much bigger gamer than I did. But when I was growing up, I mean when I was in college, connecting with friends that you know I wasn't at the same school with, that was kind of how we stayed connected was. You know, you go online and you play some FIFA and talk to each other and catch up all over a game, and so I did that into my early twenties and stuff.

Wes Harris: 30:33

But yeah, with kids now it's a lot of coaching and their activities and that kind of thing. So I'm getting ready here. In a couple of weeks. I will be on a soccer field coaching six days a week. Oh, really, where we're at. So I coach up at Sporting Sporting Arkansas. So this just from from where we live and and proximity and also culture that they're driving there with Scott and what he's done with the club, and just seemed like a good fit for us and so we've loved it.

Wes Harris: 30:57

And so my oldest is about to be eight, so he's on the 2016 boys oh wow. And so we have four teams that I help coach and about 32 kids and it's awesome. So I was just there last night. And then my middle one is not quite ready yet for like a age group team playing other squads. So there she's in their pre-academy program. So I help with that. I help with that as well. And then my little little one she's at. It's actually a program I think they're based out of Rodgers or Spring the Happy Feet, I guess. Now it's called they've rebranded I apologize Feet First. So FC Horizons puts that on. So the owners of Tribe appear at Rainbow.

Irvin Camacho: 31:43

And Walden Off topic, but on topic. Yeah, did Chris tell me that you're a Liverpool fan? I am.

Wes Harris: 31:49

So we've had battles at the Champions League finals yeah, yeah, yeah. And mostly you guys get the better of us.

Irvin Camacho: 31:56

Do you ever have like flashbacks of Zacherius, uh-huh.

Wes Harris: 32:00

Of Loris Karius. Yes, I do that game.

Irvin Camacho: 32:02

That game.

Wes Harris: 32:03

I wanna forget that game Really, really hard. I have flashbacks of Karius' Blunder in the first five minutes, and then I also have flashbacks of Bale's. That was just incredible, by the way, which I think you have to give credit where credit's due. What do you think Bale? That was just the nail in the freaking coffin and it was just like the way that he did it and the fashion he did. It was just like so in your face.

Irvin Camacho: 32:24

It was just like I was just like. Which one did you find more appealing the bicycle kick of Gareth Bale versus Liverpool or Cristiano Ronaldo versus Juventus? Which one did you like more?

Wes Harris: 32:37

Even though I hated it at the time, I liked Bale's.

Irvin Camacho: 32:41

I think, even though Cristiano says that his was the best, I think Bale's was the best.

Wes Harris: 32:44

It was so pretty, so pretty and just the form perfection, like just everything, the way it developed. I knew it as soon as I saw the ball come in the air. I saw him twisting and he was getting ready to go on a position. I was like oh no. And then it was just like this slam home into the corner. It was unreal.

Irvin Camacho: 33:02

Just that first goal, though. The Gareth Bale first goal, I don't get it. I guess Carrius was just not in the state, just was not there, you know, a mental slip. And did he? I think he got removed right, he wasn't the goalkeeper the next season.

Wes Harris: 33:15

Yeah, no he man.

Irvin Camacho: 33:17

After that it was y'all won a Champions League.

Wes Harris: 33:20

We did, we did, we did. Yeah, not the next year, but I think the year after. So then maybe you all might get Javi.

Irvin Camacho: 33:26

Alonso as your new coach. We're getting there. We're getting there.

Wes Harris: 33:30

I would hate to be the guy that has to follow Jurgen Klopp, but I do. You know, I think Javi Alonso's got one of the. He's one of the most impressive coaches not just young coaches, but impressive coaches in Europe and what he's doing at Leveg, You're at the top of the league right now, right? Oh, my God, yeah, he is, and Liverpool is, and Bayer-Leveg Kuzan is, and they just beat Bayer.

Irvin Camacho: 33:48

Munich. I'm glad someone's finally taken that trophy away from Bayer.

Wes Harris: 33:53

The competitiveness of the other five leagues is starting to improve, which is a good thing, so at least in my opinion. So I think it's boring to watch. You know the whole super league concept, like it's boring to watch the same teams and compete for the same things over and over and over and over. So well, I might be for your team. Thank you, yeah, it's. I'm still in my morning process. I've not quite come to acceptance yet. So Jurgen Klopp is leaving at the end of the season. For people that don't know, he's probably one of my favorite coaches of all time for Liverpool. He's the one that restored us to glory. But you know, that's what soccer means to you and me. Talk a little bit, because it's special and it's different. Talk a little bit about what soccer or football means to the Latinx community.

Irvin Camacho: 34:38

It means a lot. I mean, if you look at, for example, next level soccer arena, you know what I'm saying. I do, I play there, so we also have I'm also part of a pro-resilient company, okay, and we actually have our shows at the next level arena, but like in a little back room. Oh, that's too funny. So we're there a lot and I used to do voter registration there as well, at the next level arena.

Irvin Camacho: 34:59

And you know, you see people that come directly from work to go play. Like this is like their outlet, you know, and they sometimes they come with their kids. Some of their kids are screaming. Sometimes it's like a family event. Sometimes there's some fights that happen here and there, you know, cause people get really passionate about it. People really, really care about the sport and they care about winning, you know, and they care about their team. Yeah, you know, I've one of my friends used to run local, like it was like fundraising, fundraiser tournaments, soccer tournaments, and there was this one time where, like, the ref didn't show up and I was forced to ref.

Irvin Camacho: 35:32

Oh, wow, and it was a team. It was a team, like mainly comprised of Mexicans versus a team mainly comprised of Salvadorians. Oh boy and anytime that I would call a wrong play, like they had come and yell in my face and like I felt like they wanted to, you know, be violent with me. But I didn't take it that way cause I'm like they're just really passionate about the game. It was passionate. And if they're passionate, and then on social media I see how passionate they are about the teams that they support.

Irvin Camacho: 36:00

You know, america, chivas, chivas Like there's just such a big rivalry there and people you know buy their shirts, try to go to all the games that they can go to. So, seeing all those different things, through my experiences, I've realized what the sport means to people. Yeah, and even when this project was announced, I saw the amount of shares that it got and the people that were like, oh, we finally got something for us. Yeah, you know. And what that means to a community, I think, is what that means to this community is really special and I bet you feel that you've seen it. Yeah.

Wes Harris: 36:35

Well, that's what we felt in some of those listening sessions, right, that we did with that community in particular, and God, it was that, the passion that was there, and you know people trying to get me on the hook, saying that we're going to have players that are from their communities and my son wants to play for you and this and that, and that was tough. That was tough because you know it's disingenuous of me to just say that, yes, 100% that we're going to have, will we create the pathway and the opportunities that those players don't currently have to be able to build a pathway to pro? 100%. Do I think that the talent is here? Yeah, because there's been talent from here exported to professional organizations already. So, yes, it's here. I can't sit here and tell you, though, I'm not the coach, I'm not the GM or sporting director, so, but we're going to do something. That's the intent is to provide that pathway that we don't currently have here. So, keep the talent and then WA.

Irvin Camacho: 37:30

So I recently learned that not talking about WA, but Arkansas that the goalkeeper for the Japanese national team is from Leroc.

Wes Harris: 37:39

It's wild, right, wild, it's wild. So it's so cool to see for me, as again, a soccer guy living in Arkansas. So you know, you talked to just a little bit about it. But talk to you, talk to us and we'll end on this a little bit. Here is, you know, talk about our project. What is this going to mean to Northwest Arkansas? And that can be from any lens you want to take it, but why does this mean something a little bit different for our community? Why does it excite you and why do you think the community is getting around it.

Irvin Camacho: 38:13

Yeah, so I mean, like I said, we have a lot of diversity in this area, right, and that's a beautiful thing on its own, and a lot of the times we want to support teams. We'll go to Kansas City, mm-hmm. We'll go to Dallas, houston, you know, and that's okay, but we would love to have something at home, yeah, something that is ours, something that we identify with and that we're proud of in our community, and I believe that we're able to do that with this project. Yeah, we're going to be able to do that, you know, to have not only a men's team but a women's team too, because there's a lot of fans that are fans of women's soccer, uh-huh, and they'll root for the Arkansas Razorback Absolutely Fulton L team.

Irvin Camacho: 38:53

But as a whole, you know, as a whole Arkansas, as a whole community, as a Northwest Arkansas we're just the Ozarks in general we want to have representation and we want to be able to go to something that's less than 30, 40 minutes away from our home, exactly, and this is going to be built in our backyard. Yep, pretty much Yep, and we get to be a part of the initial stages of it. We get to be there at the first game you know we get to learn about whichever player comes into the area and really be behind them. You know, and you know, I got a lot of inspiration you know, just about soccer from watching Ted Lasso Mm-hmm, and it got me to be able to translate to other people that are not soccer fans what soccer can mean to a community. Didn't that show do such a good job of that? Yeah, my wife hates soccer, but she loves that show.

Wes Harris: 39:46

It's so people knock it because I think of how it started and the character that he played on.

Wes Harris: 39:53

You know some of the NBC, you know bits or whatever, and maybe what people's perception of it is. But like, just as a drama, I mean it's a comedy but the character arcs of that are some of the most beautifully written that I've ever seen in terms of a show. And I'm obviously biased because I love the show and I've watched it, but I talk it up all the time. But I just had friends to your point like this is not gonna be for me and I said just sit and watch. And they come back and they're like that's one of my favorite shows of all time Me too, and they're non-soccer people. But then they watch it and they're like, wow, I get it now, like you know, and they do such a great job, not just from the character building but to your point on helping people understand a little bit about what is community-based grass root soccer meat and I'm still on your Thunderman, but I just get jazzed about it, I think you'd go on.

Irvin Camacho: 40:43

You added to what I was saying.

Irvin Camacho: 40:44

I think I've, you know, I've showed Ted Lasso to multiple people that don't watch soccer, my wife included, and they loved it, and because they learned about every character's individual story.

Irvin Camacho: 40:54

You know what, if we can do that here for the project here and we highlight, you know, all these different players that are coming in, what their story is like, so people can connect, and I think people are gonna show up, people are gonna support it and I think it's gonna be a beautiful thing for the culture and just for soccer in general. Yeah, you know, because I've been, I've played here locally, I've gone to bars here to watch games and stuff, and I've always been envious of other areas around the country that have a soccer culture. Yeah, and I'm slowly starting to see happen not only beyond the soccer fields but like in the community in general. Yeah, so for me, whenever I see this project, I'm like okay, this is a big thing that's really gonna pop off the culture in our area. Yeah, so that's why I'm excited about it. I'm just I feel like there's so many endless possibilities of what this can become and the effect that this can have for soccer in Arkansas.

Wes Harris: 41:45

It's gonna be great and the impact that we can have off the field is truly what gets I mean me, except I'm a soccer nerd. I love, you know right, the stuff on the field and I love that. That's gonna be great. Can't wait but also the impact and what this can mean for the community through the power of sport and storytelling and impact and all those different things. So well, irvin. Thank you so much, man, for coming on. I think we've had just I've had so much fun. We could just sit here and talk, for we could have our own show man, so we should. We will be sure to have you back on, but really, really appreciate you and your insights and your passion and your support and for our listeners. Thank you guys, so much for listening. Again, go find us at Pitch to Pro on all platforms, all wherever you listen, and find your podcasts at USLRConsol on all platforms and go check out the website and sign up. Don't miss any news Until next time. Northwest Arkansas cheers.