I heard the magic noise. And so as we're going through everything opening kickoff, we can, you know, we can continue opening kickoff by talking to our resident mogul and training because it is year two, not year one, but your two of the expedition known as Rhode Island FC, and so this is where we bring in Michael Parkhurst and our friends of Beyond Goals Entering's up.
Dude, good morning John.
You're I am in a hotel room and making Georgia, Sir. I am doing the the high school basketball Championships. And so what I do is I start my day doing SDH and then at like eleven oh five, slam the computer shut, throw on the dress clothes, and drive to the arena and I'm there for like the next ten
or eleven hours. So yeah, so it's running around, babe, that's a I'm not as busy as you by any stretch of the imagination, but nevertheless running around so as you can see the palatial the imitation, palatial upbringing and background that we have here in the hotel here making joy. Yes, absolutely true. You're you're sporting your Demon Deacons gear as I see this morning, and uh, you know you're getting
ready for the weekend. But this is also a very very busy slash important, oh my god important weekend for you as a resident mogul and training. It is season two of Rhode Island FC.
Yes, well it's season two of our USL go round. But we've got a week one bye, so are our season doesn't get kicked up till next week?
Rat farts, I was gonna we'll then find we'll discuss it a week early, since the next time I see you the season will have already begun. So actually there's Kismut and Karmi here with this discussion. So as as things have gone on, how many folks have wandered up to you who are our I f C faithful and have grabbed you by those demon deacons lapels there on that warm up Jack and said, hey, what are you going to do for an on core man? And that
reminds me. I need to get my Eastern Conference championship year. That reminds me, So what do you gotta do for an on core man?
Good question, TVD. We'll see. Hopefully we can have a better start to the season. We'll start there, you know, because everybody remembers the run that we made. But you know, the first half of the season, we had about thirty five ties in our first ten games, correct, set that record in USL. I'm going to try not to repeat that, but we do start off with the first eight weeks of the season. We've got two buys and six away games as we wait for our stadium to be complete.
So it's not going to be the easiest of starts, that's for sure. But so we proved last year we can win on the road. So you know, we'll see there's some teams in the East that got better. I mean, shoot, every team tries to get better, right, but to like Birmingham for sure down there got a lot better. They signed two top players for the USL championship anyway, So yeah, it's it's you know, we'll have our work cutoff for for sure.
Well.
And at the same time, I mean, you guys didn't sit on your laurels. I mean it was it was funny the way that it kind of worked its way out in the media where it had been long discussed that Maxi Rodriguez, what was you know, heading your heading your way and I mean you're in the collective Rhode Island FC and it's like, yeah, he's heading over there, but it's like he's still in the roster for Detroit City. It's like, well, wait a minute, how is this possible?
He's still in the roster for Detroit City. And then literally the simultaneous news releases come out Maxi Rodriguez and Detroit City part ways.
Maxi Rodriguez signs with Rhode Island f C. How does this happen? How does this How is this simultaneous news releasing happening?
Yeah? I mean we had signed him before the season was over, right, because you know, free agents can sign you know, six months prior, as most of us know, and so we had signed them and so yeah, it just becomes like the league optics, So the league kind of controls a here's signing day.
Uh.
And obviously you usually try and let the other teams say goodbye first before you announce, you know, just try and be nice about things.
So there it is.
Oh, yeah, there's there.
It is.
What's it been like, what's it been like to see all of this come together there at Tidewater Land.
Yeah, it's been pretty crazy. Uh, pretty crazy just to see from when did I start with this project four years ago? Wow, yeah, four years ago just to I mean, there's just been endless speed bumps and headaches and naysayers and just doubts and things, and there was a million reason is why this couldn't, wouldn't shouldn't happen. And yet the stadium is up, the guys are training in it. It's not fully open yet, but yeah, we are on target here for our opener, and yeah, it's going to
be pretty crazy. We expect obviously a full house on May third, and yeah, it'll be a pretty sweet day, that's for sure, because I know how much work a lot of people have put into making this day come about. And I think that we've got still a lot of people to convince up in Rhode Island that this is going to be the place to be, and you know, it's going to be a really welcoming place and a place that a lot of kids growing up in island are going to make a lot of good memories over
their childhood. And so we're excited for that.
Does it seem like it's been four years ago when you started with all this stuff to today? Does it seem like it's been that long or does it seem like it's been a snap of the finger.
In general, time is flying by, it's crazy. But when I think about this project in particular there, yes, it's it's felt like four years just because of so many hoops, so much drama, so much political red tape and headaches and yeah this I think a lot of people on this project have aged more than four years in these so in life in general has flown by. I can't believe it's been five seasons since I've retired, but yes, four years on this project seems about right.
I'm going to reserve the question about being five years since you've retired and whether or not you feel like you still have some minutes in you If somebody ever gave you call and you sit there your heads back, you're cackling. You're like, no way, bro, that is not happening.
No way, no way.
Uh.
You mentioned and so this is where I want to get in to start discussing things about mentoring with you. This morning, you mentioned that it's been four years that you've been engaged in the process there at Rhode Island. So how much growth do you get to experience on
a yearly basis with your mentees? I mean, do you have mentees that have been with you and Greg since day one, that you've been able to mentor all the way through a process and have been with them for you know, six months, a year longer or is it more just kind of like one season for a mentee and then they kind of go their own way. Do you get the chance to mentor someone continually through their process.
Some of them? Yeah, I just had one not too long ago where it was the first time I had connected with them, and probably like sixty eight months or so. But we I mean, I've worked with him a lot in the past and probably since he was about twelve, and now he's about to start as freshman season, and I was like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe you're in high school. This is crazy. Yes, and to Abby's question, yes, my oldest is in high school as well, and yeah,
she's a freshman. So yeah, it's it's unbelievable, but that is It is really cool sometimes to see the growth of players over a longer period of time and see where their journey has led them. So there is definitely a bunch that we've mentored from over the course of like three years or so, you know, and obviously a bunch of new.
Ones when you mentor over time is it you know, okay, well we have our baseline of stuff that we need to discuss, whether it's on the field, off for both, and then as it goes is it fine tuning? Is it finding other things to mentor them over what's the is it you got you go down a road and then over time are there more? You know, are there stop signs and off roads and things like that, or is it just kind of tweaking and fine tuning that individual on the field and all?
Yeah, I think the fine tuning and I think that reminders, right, and no matter what level we get to, right, some of the things are still the same. Just reminders of like what we can control and what we can't, and you know, what's important and what's not and how do we come over and how do we view things that are coming up? Right, like a freshman going into high school right now, all of a sudden, you might not be a starter. You're planning against kids that are four
years older than you. Right, how do you approach these types of things? How do you have conversations with seniors on your team? You know, how do you act in the locker room? Like all these little things that's new. So I think there's always new obstacles and new things that will be occurring, and it's just kind of reminders of how to get through those, how to deal with those things, and how to put your best foot forward.
How much of a reminder is it for you and Greg about how to handle growth processes for young athletes, because it seems like it's at one point it seems like it could be a refresher course for you about how to reset with these individuals. But at the same time it opens those other windows about Okay, they're giving me this issue that I get to tackle for the
first time, or this issue. So how much of it, you know, is a learning experience for you and for Greg about handling other mentees that may not necessarily be the one you're talking to.
Yeah, it's it's always growth. I mean, I spoke to a family yesterday whose daughter is involved with these national team stuff and not quite getting the level of training she needs at her club team, you know, because she's in a small town and and just that dynamic, Right, what do you do when you know you've got an elite athlete yet they're not on an elite team and you want them to continue, right, you know. So it's just there's so many different journeys. There's so many different
aspects to it. And yeah, it's cool for me to hear about everybody's journey because you know, it's one of the things we talk about, how everyone's journey is different. But when I get to like hear how these journeys start, right, because we just hear usually at the end, like oh, what was your journey to become a professional, right, But I'm hearing all these journeys as they're going through it here at at a young age, and of course you don't know who's going to go on to play even
in college, but you never know. So yeah, it's it's super interesting and it allows me to grow too and open my knowledge as well. Like we all know, youth soccer is just ever changing in the land scape and what's going on. But it's good for me to stay up to date as well, like some of these times these parents are teaching me about what they're going through in these leagues and who's who and what goes on, and you know, so it's just ever learning for.
Sure, and I want to at a future time, I want to bookmark the whole thing about parents teaching you about these things. But you mentioned something that I thought
was really interesting. Where you have mentees in smaller towns that are that aren't near you know, the big metropolitan areas, I guess by comparison, and the troubles I would imagine for them are geographical in addition to all of the other issues that they're facing, because if they are a fantastic student athlete in a town that is detached away from larger operational bases, like you can't just you know, turn a corner and go to a you can't you can't go to like top Hat, you can't go to
e CNL, you can't go to someplace right around the corner. For those in big cities, I would imagine that the issues and the conversations might be a little different because someone's in a smaller town that's detached from all of that, where they have to travel, you know, ninety minutes to do something one way. I mean that seems like it's a different conversation entirely at times.
Oh totally. And this family travels three hours one way for training and they only go once a week because of the distance. But yeah, that's that's crazy. As a parent of youth athletes, that's insane, right, I'm like, oh god, this game is an hour away or this game is forty minutes away on a weekday, you know, and yeah, some families are making that type of dedication, and so yeah,
how do you how do you continue to grow? Because what they realized was when they went to this national team camp was, you know, the level at the camp obviously was high, and the coaching was really good, and and then it makes you like look at what your own situation is and like, shoot, I'm not getting anywhere near that here. And I always say like, well, the bright side is you're at that level without the coaching
right now, without the environment. So that's amazing, right, So you know, we just just just just we just discuss different options, right, Can you train up with other female teams? Can you train with boys and you know, go through that dynamic of playing, you know, with players that are
typically faster and stronger than you. So different options. And then one of the things I learned was about guest playing and tournaments and I need to find out more about that, but that is allowed in e CNL as far as guests playing with a team in showcases and things, so there's different options.
Well, and that was since you mentioned these different options, I was going to ask how you close the distance of that three hours and I didn't know that the idea of you know, playing up makes sense and something like that, but also crossing over and if you're if you're a female playing with you know, if you're a female, you're playing you can play with males. You play with the boy athletes that are out there if you're on
the girls side of things. So I guess part of the mentoring in that aspect is trying to you're troubleshooting in a way, but it's a different kind of trouble shooting where it's an off the field trouble shooting trying to help so the on the field troubleshooting can get advanced, So you're you're having to do things a little differently and you're having to go on the field and off when it comes to these things.
No, yeah, for sure, And that's what mentorship's about, right, It's it's holistically and so many of these things off the field affect on the field performance, So yeah, for sure, And you know, and that's the way we enjoy it and that's what keeps it always fresh. And you know, of course, on the field, stuff is is more straightforward for us. It's it's easier because you know, game is
game basically, it's just different levels to it. But off the field, everything's so different and to each person and to each family. So that's it's interesting.
Friday free kick with our buddy Michael Parkhurst here at Beyond Goals Mentoring at MF Parkhurst on the two hundred and eighty character app at BG Mentoring on the two hundred and eighty character app at Beyond Goalsmenoring dot com. How are you getting adjusted to doing the video analysis and just talking into a camera and doing the self the self reporting and the self discussion. How are you at talking as the only person in the room. How is that evolving for you?
Pretty good?
That there.
It does happen frequently that I will go to record things and my dog will think that, oh, now is a great time to get up from her bed where she usually is right here next to me, all see and get up and PLoP down onto the hardwood right next to me. So there's just a massive thud right in the middle of my best continue on for now. I think people just need to know.
I see no issue with a thud and okay, so please, if you would, sir, please return the camera to your copilot's position and explain who your co pilot is.
This is Deacon obviously, no, yes, and she's our almost five year old COVID pup. You still call her a puppy even though she's five almost five, Golden Retriever, sweetest little girl out.
Yes, see, I imagine.
So let me see, let me see if I can, if I can gauge the morning for Deacon. So one or both of you, as the leaders in the Parkhurst household, you get up earlier than the other. One gets up earlier than the other. Deacon sees that as a sign to hey, it's time to go outside. Depending on the temperature, Deacon will do either one or two things. Deacon will want to go out on the long walk of the morning, or sit there and go h door gets open, front door,
back door, whatever Deacon goes. It's too blank and cold out here. I'm gonna do my thing, and I'm hopping back inside and I'm going back to bed now that I've awakened. To the rest of you, I'm going back to bed, Am I close?
You're not too far off. She always starts in bed with my son, and always in the middle of the night will come wake me up and I put her in the crate. This is a routine. She finds comfort in her crate. She won't put herself in the crate, but she will wake me up and she will go over to the crate and I have to lock the crate.
Huh.
So I have now started waking up in the morning, John, I used to sleep in a little bit, but now I wake up at six with the rest of with my wife and my daughter, and I go work out, and then I get her out of the crate at like six thirty six forty. And she always wants to go outside. It doesn't matter the temperature. The colder the better, unfortunately for me. Yeah, and then of course then she'll sleep for you know, thanks three hours.
The rest of the day, it's like, oh, it's lunchtime. It's time for me to get up and get lunch.
Sure lives a very very nice life, we tell her all the time. She's very lucky.
Oh.
Absolutely, the same way as well, Hey, the same way it is with the rowdy man in our place. I know I'm third in that house. It is the boss, it is the rowdy man, it is me. I know I'm third. I knew that going into the equation. So that's an easy one for me. So you mentioned changing routines with you getting up in the morning with the
deacon sitting there and it's like bruh, time to go out. Yeah, when it comes to talking to your your mentees about okay, what is your standard day, like you know, and then they may they may walk you through their day and you may sit there and say, okay, stop, you need to change this behavior. You may be successful, you may be your game may be great, you might be improving,
you might be on a path. But when they walk you through your their day, how much adjusting to maximize their potential do you go through in these kinds of situations where it's like, Okay, I see something that can be fixed here that can make you even better. How much day adjustment and lifestyle adjustments do you guys do off the field when you're talking with the mentees.
Yeah, not a whole lot, because we want them to want to make the adjustment right. We don't want to say, hey, you do this, right, But we more talk about, Okay, what routines and habits can you create? Right if you are struggling to sleep, or you're struggling to wake up in the morning, or you're eating habits aren't good, right, Okay, what could be some possibilities And we try and say, hey,
everyone's different. There's no set routine for that's going to fit everyone the same, right, but okay, can you do X y Z, you know after before bedtime? Can you do this in the morning? Can you you know, getting a routine of this or that? And we're just trying to give them options and ideas of like, hey, find a routine, like these things help. Doing these things over and over again, your body just gets used to it
and it can be so helpful. So we really try not to say, hey, you need to be doing this versus hey, think about these different options and what they could do for you.
How well does today's men tea take care of themselves? Because I know that when in the days of black and white television back in the late sixteen hundreds, when I was young, you literally could eat anything it would burn off. You could you could have you know, you could have chili dogs, you could go out and you could play for your team. Everything's fine, it burns off
and then you're okay. How much lifestyle adjustments and consultation do you guys have, Because we've all lived through it, you know, it's like, okay, metabolism changes when you're thirty. Then you have to start paying attention to things. How much lifestyle adjustments do you sit there and encourage It's like, okay, well you might need to work on this a little bit.
Not sitting there and saying cut the chili dogs out basically yeah, but how much adjustment do you sit there do you notice It's like, okay, you could be better if you did this.
What about lifestyle adjustments and things like that.
Yeah, it's definitely something we talk about. I think that in general, athletes are way more knowledgeable and in tune to nutrition than we were when we were young. And I think that some of it is because parents these days are way more in tune to the nutritional side
of things than our parents were. So I think that in general they're in a better starting place, you know, And so we always try and say start with sixty forty, seventy thirty right where you're at least focusing on what you're putting in your body, and so's it's something we definitely speak about, but general I think that they're doing a pretty good job at a younger age of being cognizant, and we never like, hey, yeah, is chick fil a good for you?
Now?
Is it amazing taste? Yes? So if you want to eat Chick fil A, go ahead and eat Chick fil A, right, but okay, maybe eat something healthier the next meal, you know. So it's like such a balance, like with everything, what is.
This balance that you talk about? Come on now, I mean no, it's we're all supposed to be like John Belushi in the Olympics eating the chocolate donuts. That's how we're supposed to win. Everything is making sure that we are ready for the cathlon eating chocolate donuts.
That's how this works.
Man, Gosh, you'd still be playing if that was the case, if it was like chocolate donuts and everything.
Oh, just to answer a couple of questions here in the chat, Harry, Yes, our Tidewater Stadium is ten thousand seats right now, but we did build it with the knowledge that we might go D one in the future, so it can be increased to five extra five thousand pretty easily.
If that needs to be the case down the line, Blue Sky, I think I haven't account to Blue Sky. I haven't made the switch yet, even though I need to at some point.
I'm on both.
Yeah, I need to at some point. The other one just keeps sucking me back in somehow. I think that was it.
Okay, So at Lanta United, you know, obviously I have to you discuss it Land United before you get out of here. Lanta United is hosting Red Bulls this weekend, and we know what Red Bulls brings to the table. They're going they're going to try to pressure out of the building, create short fields. They don't care about possession. The ball has cooties. You know, it's like, we don't want it. We just want it only a short period of time. We're going to be clinical. We're going to
try and finish. It's going to be pressure, pressure, pressure from as many as five coming at the back line of Atlanta United. How different of an animal is facing Red Bulls versus everybody else?
Different so much so that you know you need to adjust. You do when a team is that good at pressing and honestly and Honestly, I don't know the Red Bulls this year how good they are at pressing, if it's changed, But in years past the risk rarely outweighed the reward in that you could break the press three out at ten times, five out of ten times, even if even seven out of ten times, but that it might only
create one or two chances. If they win the ball three times out of those ten, they are getting three chances. So it's very different against the Red Bulls. And you know they to your point, don't really want the ball, which I always found like, okay, let them have the ball, to turn the around, let them have the ball, don't press them and then counter attack. So yeah, it's it is different, it's challenging, but yeah, it'll be exciting hopefully,
Crazy John. When I was watching the game last week, I thought Zaha was terrible.
Yeah, he was mad.
Edwards had Zaha in his in his hip pocket for the first and.
Even the second half, like people were like, oh, you know, the assist wasn't an assist. You know, it was a blocked shot or a bad shot. It doesn't count in my book. And the goal it was a very good He had one good touch all game and it was the goal, right. He took it very well, but he did not create anything, honestly. If I'm a Charlotte fan and I was thinking about tweeting this, but I was like, he was so bad that I'd be nervous, like because I didn't think he moved well. And I like Zaha,
like I thought that was a great signing. I was like, man, this guy's gonna crush it. I don't know if it was jet Lag. I don't know if it was the turf or what, but I thought he looked terrible and that was kudos to Edwards as well. But man, we'll see. I mean, I know he plays in Miami this weekend on grass, so if he doesn't look much better, and it's it's crazy because everyone says, oh, golden assists, you know, see it's all over MLS sooccer dot com, and I'm like,
dude was brutal. Yeah, but that's soccer, isn't it. I mean the other way to look at it is, oh, he was brutal, yet he had a gold and assist, so wait till he's good.
Mm hmm. Yeah.
So if he's brutal and had a gen and a then you know, hey, wait wait until he figures everything out at the bouncy house and Charlotte with that trampoline turf that they have there. Yeah, so what do you what are your So May the sixth is the opening at Tidewater Landing May third, May third, Thank you? All right, I'm writing this down and I'm trying to see if what our schedules may be.
So yes, I'm already planning it. So yeah.
So yeah, we look when somebody floats me a picture of what Tidewater Landing looks like, and it's this gorgeous thing. And you know, we got to figure out what's going on with United and the twos on May third. But yes, okay, it is in pencil, or it's in green sharpie pen but I've written the date down. As always, my friend,
it's great to see you. It's great to find out what's going on, especially with what's going on with beyond Goals and you being a mogul and training and Rhode Island f C and all the topics, all the things. I think is Deacon still sleeping, hasn't moved. That's what I figured, all right, So maybe you can sneak out of the room and then the second you sneak out of the room, Deacon's gonna sit there and go, broh, where'd you go get back here? So please have a
safe weekend with Deacon and everybody. Enjoy your watching and your viewing habits, and you know we'll catch up with you soon. It's great to see you, great to get all the updates and find out what's going on with you on the Freddy Free Kick with mentoring and with your Rhode Island f C.
Be safe, my friend, have a good weekend.
Thanks Jean, good to talk to you. Enjoy the basketball today, yeah,