Stoppage Time: Surprising Growth and Soccer's Impact in Northwest Arkansas
Jun 06, 2024
USL Arkansas
Ever wondered how a region can transform almost overnight? As a former New Yorker, Randy Wilburn shares his own experiences navigating the surprising growth in northwest Arkansas. From getting used to a more relaxed driving culture to discovering hidden beach getaways inland, this episode of Pitch to Pro unfolds the region's dynamic evolution. We highlight monumental changes like the rise of a professional soccer team, a new medical school, and a flourishing culinary scene. Randy's son's passion for travel soccer and his wife's Trinidadian heritage have deepened his love for the sport, revealing the powerful community bonds it can create.
In the second chapter, we dive into the bright future of youth soccer in northwest Arkansas. Young athletes are now presented with opportunities that past generations could only dream of. Through new initiatives, these soccer enthusiasts gain unprecedented access to resources that help mold their skills and character. Soccer's unifying power is spotlighted, illustrating how it bridges gaps and fosters a strong sense of community. Make sure to tune in next Thursday for another exciting episode, where we continue examining soccer's ever-growing impact in Arkansas and beyond.
Ever wondered how a region can transform almost overnight? As a former New Yorker, Randy Wilburn shares his own experiences navigating the surprising growth in northwest Arkansas. From getting used to a more relaxed driving culture to discovering hidden beach getaways inland, this episode of Pitch to Pro unfolds the region's dynamic evolution. We highlight monumental changes like the rise of a professional soccer team, a new medical school, and a flourishing culinary scene. Randy's son's passion for travel soccer and his wife's Trinidadian heritage have deepened his love for the sport, revealing the powerful community bonds it can create.
In the second chapter, we dive into the bright future of youth soccer in northwest Arkansas. Young athletes are now presented with opportunities that past generations could only dream of. Through new initiatives, these soccer enthusiasts gain unprecedented access to resources that help mold their skills and character. Soccer's unifying power is spotlighted, illustrating how it bridges gaps and fosters a strong sense of community. Make sure to tune in next Thursday for another exciting episode, where we continue examining soccer's ever-growing impact in Arkansas and beyond.
Speaker 1:
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 2:
And I've actually talked to several people that are like lifetime residents here and they're actually a little salty because the area grew beyond them. Yeah, too fast. Yeah, because you know the longest time. You know, you, you live in the south. It's like, oh well, people like the slower cadence and I always have to check myself because, you know, the new yorker in me is like I'm I'm always when I drive. I'm always driving like I'm like 10 steps ahead. Nobody here drives that way and I get it, and so I've had to kind of ratchet back that.
Speaker 2:
But but it's coming for everybody here and we have to embrace it. They struggled, they have struggled with it in Atlanta and some other parts of the country where we've seen just an inordinate amount of growth. But I think from a placemaking perspective, we can be really thoughtful here about how we want this place to be in the next 10 or 15 years, and so as we start adding new things like USL, like a professional soccer team, like all of the different organizations that are bringing an office here, like a brand new medical school I mean we've got James Beard nominated restaurant chefs yeah, I mean we've got a little bit of everything we do. So, yes, while we might be in the heartland and we may be really far from the West Coast or the West Coast or the East.
Speaker 2:
Coast. The bottom line is that northwest Arkansas is is really ready to explode.
Speaker 3:
I know the beach bum in me is the one growing up in Maryland.
Speaker 2:
It's the only thing I miss. I mean, you know going to Oceanside, or you know going down, you know Jersey Boy, you know going to Belmar and some of these other places. That's the only thing I do miss. But I have to say I've done the one mile swim around Beaver Lake Dam twice with Swim Oz. Shout out to those guys there you go and there are a lot of opportunities for you to, to get out and get into some bodies of water. And then, if all, if all else fails, we've got non-stop flights to the west coast. We do. We have non-stop flights to the east coast and we've got really cheap flights to florida. Yeah, we do.
Speaker 2:
And I can drive from my house to destin, because I got a heavy foot in about 10 and a half hours so I can get to the beach in less than a day's time. Like I can wake up super early in the morning and hit the, hit the beach before I get dinner in the afternoon, yeah, so, yeah, I mean so it's not that bad if you really want to do it, because people say, oh, I just want to have the beach. Then I start asking well, how often do you go to the beach? Because I have friends that live in LA Exactly and they don't go.
Speaker 3:
They rarely ever go, yep, yep. So I 100% agree with you and you can still get there. It just may not be with the same frequency, but if you use it and if you even knew what you had when you were there, so I agree with you. That's my one thing, absolutely.
Speaker 3:
But, you get there, you figure it out and get out on the lake so get your fix. So I know you weren't a soccer guy growing up but have kind of dabbled and become one through your kids and just as an adult and everything going on.
Speaker 2:
I mean I didn't know much about it. I really didn't. I mean I I mean I knew about it but I didn't, I didn't grow into understanding it. And I think once, like my youngest is 13, he's been playing travel soccer at a pretty high level since he was like eight or nine and he was like one of those kids. Where he went to they had Oliver Soccer, which they do like a rec league, and he played rec league and people were like where is this kid, what is he doing? It's not fair. He's scoring all these goals. So eventually we took him out of there pretty quickly. We took him to the Comets, which is a local team, and then we ended up at FC Arkansas. Shout out to Steve Oliver and Logan LeMaster and all the great coaches there, aaron Kaiser.
Speaker 2:
But you know, I just I really enjoy soccer. I love it for the aspect of the team sport. That it is Because, like my son and his teammates, those kids are inseparable. Yeah, they're all phenomenal athletes for their age range, but they're also really nice, well-rounded kids. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. And soccer instills in them that level of, you know, desire to compete. But they're not jerks, right? And that's the other thing that I like and I've seen that across the board. And, yeah, you're always going to have your folks in every in every snow. But, yes, soccer has really become. You know, I've gotten into the Premier League, la Liga. I have my favorite teams. I'm a huge Christian Pulisic fan. We took them to the CONCACAF Gold Cup when it was up at Sporting KC.
Speaker 2:
And I'll share this little story, which I think you'll find interesting. My connection to soccer is really through my wife, who's from Trinidad. So my wife's uncle, his name is Everald Cummings, and Everald Cummings is kind of to Trinidad what Pele is to Brazil, from a soccer player. And the crazy thing is, so that's my wife's uncle. So I kind of feel like my son has it in his blood. And I was in the athletic dorm, I hung out with all of the soccer players that was the year that we lost in the national championship against IU. But Shaka Hislop, who was a goalie for Manchester United, who was also from Trinidad, who was coached by my wife's uncle, so it's that circle of life, that connection. He's now on ESPN, he is on ESPN, he's that that circle of life, that connection.
Speaker 3:
He's now on espn. He is on espn.
Speaker 2:
He's a good friend of mine, um, but I mean you know so, so that, yeah, I mean I soccer, I have a, I have a real affinity for the sport and and the thing that I appreciate more so than anything. And the only regret that I have is that I wished and this is where USL soccer comes in is, is and the team is that I wish that I had had access to an academy for my son from an early age, cause I do believe he could have been, he could have done that, but I just wasn't. I mean, he's just too young and I wasn't traveling back and forth, that kind of stuff. But what people don't realize here in the United States is that, as serious as football is, or AAU, basketball and all that, when you go to like in Germany, there's an academy everywhere and these kids, I mean they get put into a program, they get exposed to soccer and in most of those programs those parents don't pay for those kids to go. No, they go and the coaches tell the parents hey, just be quiet, we'll take care of it. Yeah, and you go.
Speaker 2:
Here in the united states everybody wants to say it everything, and that creates challenges. But, uh, I would love to see us get to more of that academy style portion of growth and training in soccer, because I think it would do a huge. It would. It would really serve us well in the country and in this country, United States, and I think that it's possible.
Speaker 2:
But we need more situations like what you guys are about to do here in northwest Arkansas. So I think what you guys are going to do is going to be a tremendous difference. I'm really, really excited, and it may not reach my son at 13 right now, but some of these younger kids that are just being born here in northwest Arkansas I'm telling the parents now who want to get their kids involved with soccer you're going to have access to something that a lot of these kids, a lot of great soccer players that have come through this area, never had access to. So I think it's important for people to recognize and realize that, and then I just think you know, obviously, just what soccer brings together.
Speaker 1:
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 USL Arkansas, Available on YouTube, Instagram and everywhere you get your podcasts.
