Welcome man, It's time for another Soccer down Here one the one. I'm Jason Longshore, and Tonight we kick off our coverage of the twenty twenty five Georgia high school soccer season. The SDH Network will be live in Decatur for the Bulldogs of Decatur High School hosting North Atlanta Girls match kicksoff at six pm, the boys kickoff at eight pm. You can listen as always at soccerdown here dot mixler, m i xlr dot com. You can also listen by clicking the listen button soccer down here dot net.
That'll take you right to the page with the Mixler app ready to roll for you. Wednesday through Saturday, it's going to be very busy on the SDH Network as we cover the twenty twenty five Creek Cup, the first edition of this tournament that I think is going to have a lot of legs in the Georgia high school
soccer seeing. Kelly Bowler, the head coach at Johns Creek, caught up with us to talk about bringing this event together, why it's been such a passion of his, and what to expect in the first edition of the Creek Cup. Here's my conversation from late last week with Kelly Bowler of Johns Creek High School. We've talked about the Creek Cup for a little while. It's come together for its first edition this year. How difficult was it to bring everything together for the twenty twenty five Creek Cup.
So it's been about over a year's worth of work. I started emailing teams I think a year ago December about being in a Creek Cup the next year because schedules were made so far in advance. Now with all the lacrosse teams and everything else, you have to move so fast on the schedules. The I mean it is. We've We've met probably twice a month every month, me and my Creek Cup committee, which is made up of a lot of my soccer board members of the parents.
And when I pitched the idea to them, they were like, this is awesome, but we need to do it right if we're going to do it, you know, and we need to like make it a big thing. And so we went out and started hunting for sponsors. I was hunting for all the teams. I had a lot of teams like balk at me at first because they didn't want to pay, you know, a fee to come play
you know, two games, you know, and so. But then once it started to take off, it kind of grew legs of its own and and and like now I've had teams asking me can they get into it. I just had a team email me last week and saying, hey, do you have any openings in your Creek Cup for next week? And I'm like like no, but it. It has taken a ton of work. And I mean, we've
got everything, food trucks. I've emailed every college in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, North Florida, like just trying to get colleges to come. We've got, you know, fifteen schools coming. I want to make it an op I want to make it an event that high school soccer can be proud of. And it's been a long time since we've had a tournament here in Atlanta. Used to have to go to Alabama to do the best the Stavia Hills or go to the gold Shores one to get a tournament experience
like that. And I think Atlanta, being such a big soccer mecca, should have a tournament like this.
So yeah, we're really happy to be part of this and provide commentary for all the games throughout the tournament. Hopefully that adds to that exposure component. You know, this is a big deal and a big time for high school soccer in Georgia. I've been doing state championship games since twenty seventeen. I feel like the level jumps a lot every single year. And last year across the board, boys, girls, every single classification.
It was a great season.
Mm and it was it's and you called my game a few years ago. I remember listening to your voice back when I had to go back and watch through our our painful loss to Dalton. So so the it is like high school soccer has taken on a whole new level. When I started at Chattahoochie back in two thousand and five, you know, most of the soccer teams were coached by offensive coordinators on a football team, or you know, some somehow they were getting a football coach
into the school to do double duty. They'd be a football coach and a soccer coach, and they wouldn't really know anything about soccer. And so a lot of kids either didn't play for their high school team or they you know, they were they weren't very good or they weren't very organized because they were pretty you know, poorly coached. But now you look around and every high school around us is either a former club coach, a former player, you know, or is a current club coach. You know,
Like we've got Walton coming in. Bruce Wade is a coach at NASA, you know, and he's a successful one. You know, River Ridge won the state championship last year. Phil Thomas is, you know, a really good coach at NASA. You know, Like you've got all these club coaches that are now involved in high school soccer and realize that because Atlanta is so good at soccer and there's such a depth of talent that the high school it like, you don't you don't see teams playing like direct soccer anymore.
Everybody's trying to keep the ball, everybody's trying to play the right way, and it's it's it's very competitive, and it's gotten like more and more competitive as I have gotten older and more experienced. It was. It has changed a ton.
So yeah, and it's statewide too. That's what's so cool about it. I remember you doing a state championship game and Breeman came in and they're running a really well organized pressing system, and I'm like, pressing in high school. I haven't seen this before. It is amazing, and it's just taken on so much debt.
And I invited Bremen to the to the Greek Cup they're boys and girls, because they were both super successful in the last couple of years, and so I was trying to get them to come, and he was flirting
with the idea of coming. So, you know, in some of the smaller classification schools, I get not wanting to jump into something like this because it's going to be, you know, some tough matchups, but also wanted to get teams in there that like they might dominate their division and and could especially with now the new format for power rankings for the one through three a's. That's part
of the reason Lagrange is coming. The coach Pulliam at Lagrange, he's a former college coach and he built a national change. I think he won a national championship if I'm correct, when he was in college or as a college coach. And he's built that Lagrange program from kind of the
ground up. They were really not a great program. He's gone in there turned them, you know, entirely around, and he is, you know, like they he wanted to play in a tournament like this to up his power rankings because he's playing neutral on a neutral field against teams up a classification and our successful teams, and that's going to help him when it comes to making the playoffs as an at large team or whatever, so or getting a better seat.
Yeah, for kind of our our kickoff to high school in twenty twenty five, explain that aspect of it, the power rankings, and how that's different than previous years.
So I wish I knew more about it because they're not doing it in my classification.
Like I'm trying to learn myself.
Yeah, I've kind of like I've kind of like, okay, I'll learn this when it comes. But I do know that in classifications one through three A that you know, they're going to base seeding. They did it in football this year, right, you know, And and what they're trying to do is get a more accurate seting of teams going into the playoffs. And like this is one hundred
percent true. You know, when we went to the final four two years ago, our first round game was against Lanear and Lanier won their region going away like they smoked their region and then we were the four seed coming out of our region. But our region was the toughest region in the state. So when we had to go play linear, that was almost like a state final,
you know, or a state semi final level game. And what they're trying to do is make sure that those games happen later on in the playoffs and you get a more true elite, a more true final four, a more true championship game than somebody kind of coasting through with like an easier bracket and not getting and having
like easier seeds to go up against. So they're trying to create that by using power rankings, your difficulty of schedule, your record where you play teams as well, because if you play a home heavy schedule, it's going to hurt you. So they want you to travel, play difficult games, see how you do on the road, that kind of stuff. And as I understand it, they're also not necessarily they're they're flirting with the idea of not necessarily giving every
region for playoff bits. Okay, you know, like where they're and that's as far as I understand, I may be taking on that. But the idea is to have some at large bids for some of those regions that are stacked.
Yeah, we saw it last year.
There were some really tough matchups late in the season to determine who's going to get to continue on yep.
And I mean there's been years, several years in a row where I finished as the fifth place team in our region and we should have been a playoff team, you know, like we should like, but our region was so hard that somebody had to be left out. I can't say how many times we've gotten into March or mid March and the top ten has been full of teams from our region, five or six teams, and I'm like, well, two of these teams are one of these teams can't
go to the playoffs because there's only four spots. But I think these at large bids, if they do implement those at large bids, that's where you're going to be able to get these teams in there, and they deserve a shot. Because you lose a game in PKS in region, that costs you a playoff appearance against another stacked team, you know, that's that's not a real, you know, fair way. And necessarily to determine you know, the best playoff teams coming out of a region.
So you mentioned with with Creek Cup and bringing it together, how important it was to have something like this in the metro Atlanta area. What does it do in your mind for the teams that are going to take part in this early in the season, the first weekend of the first week and weekend of the season, what does it do to help them be a playoff team and be a competitive team at the end.
Well, I mean to put you against challenging teams, and it puts you in a like a playing for a trophy environment like our kids, you know, even coming out of club. And this is I love club. I used to coach club all the time. But if you're an e CNL or ECRL player, which a lot of the teams that are coming in are stacked with right my program is stacked with it, Walton, Sequoia, Campbell, you know, they all are loaded with team with players that play at this level. At that level, they don't get to
play for trophies anymore. You know, they're playing for a league title and that's about it. But when they go to these showcases, they're not playing anything. They're not playing tournaments, you know, and so the kids kind of miss out on that getting to play for a trophy thing. It's different, and it is and and when you when there's a something at stake, you know it, it definitely is different.
And that's a more playoff environment, you know. And so we're trying to recreate a little bit of like a little you know, semi final final for everybody against tough teams, against good opponents. And when you look at the brackets, and the brackets are pretty stacked with teams that are successful. I mean, my bracket has doth In in it, which was I think in the Elite eight or Final four
last year. In Alabama, you've got Tucker, who won their region last year and pretty much dominates their region almost every year. You know, Murray County is somebody that's trying to build a program up. Then you go to that Walton, Sequoia, Campbell, and North Atlanta bracket. North Atlanta's who knocked me out of the playoffs and the Elite eight last year, they won their region. Walton won their region, Sequoia was second
in their region to the state champion River Ridge. You know, like so these these teams are like these brackets are stacked, and like I want. I wanted to recreate a very competitive environment that right out of the gate, you could test your players, You could throw them in there, see what you've got, see what you have putting it, put them in front of college coaches. Play for a trophy, you know, give them something to play for that matters these non region games. And most of us play a
lot of non region games. Right we have six region games, but we play eighteen game schedule, so that means there's twelve games in there that are like they count and they're important because they're you know, they go to your schedule and their record. And as a soccer player, everybody wants to win everything that they do. If you're a high level soccer player, you want to win all the time, whether it's a drill or a non region game or
an exhibition game like tonight. But the it just puts a little bit more at stake when you're playing for a trophy and you're playing for something, you know, And so I wanted to create that. And the last time I knew of an Atlanta tournament of this size was back when I started at Chattahoochie. Chattahoochi and Brookwood were like co hosting like an Adidas Cup or something like that. At the that was a high school tournament and then we haven't had one for a long time, and I
wanted to bring that back to the Atlanta area. Has always been a goal of mine. And admittedly I didn't want to stick my neck out for a long time, you know, because like it can blow up in your face if it's handled in correctly. So I wanted to make sure I had the right people around me, and I wanted to make sure that we were ready to put on an event like this. And I also was more concerned at the time with building my program to where I wanted it to be, but now it's comfortably
where I want it to be on a consistent basis. Now, I felt like it was something we could do and my players are super excited about it, you know, and it puts my program at the forefront of Georgia soccer for a week and it's a really good thing to, you know, bring the attention to my program, which I think we're doing a great job running.
So and you guys have been able to bring a lot of great sponsors on board with us too.
Right, Yes, So, Emory Sports Medicine is our keynote sponsor. There, our key sponsor, Our our team doctor is doctor Janthy. He's one of the head people for Emery Sports Medicine and he he was all about this, he was all over it. He wanted to do it. Not only did he provide us a sponsor ship check, he is providing all the trainers for free, which I mean.
Like that's a huge expense.
Yeah, that we would be paying that he's covering. So we're super excited about them. We've got Toka, which up here, I mean ninety percent of my soccer players go to Toka, you know, once or twice a week just to work on skills, work on first touch like that kind of stuff. Then we have Football Vita, which is a clothing a soccer clothing company that's coming in.
Yeah. They're great, they're great friends of us at SDH.
Yeah. So we've got We've just got tons and tons of sponsors. And I wish I could name them all they're like, but there's so many of them that I would forget. I'm afraid I'm gonna forget some of them.
But we will be naming them on all the.
Every we're reading about them every day and like we we are so excited about it. We've got three food trucks coming to be there and they are giving us a share of their sales. Like this is like this has turned into a massive event where and Tokia is going to have a soccer experience at our stadium, nice
in the grass field over to the side. So it's just going to be a really cool event, I think with college coaches in the stands, and yeah, want of the talk of the Taco mac is providing the food for the hospitality room for those college coaches and the high school coaches that are coming over, the colleagues and our announcers.
Yes, yes, exactly, that's what I'm talking about.
The college coaches is a big part of it, and I kind of want to touch on that before we go. You know, I do a lot of high school game or high school games every season. I do a lot of college games every season, and you mentioned getting those players ready for that kind of atmosphere. I think high school across the board, and this tournament specifically, it helps these guys get ready and women get ready to play at the college level in front of crowds, dealing with pressure.
This is a huge opportunity for both sides of it, whether it's the kids and the families to play and be seen, but it's also a huge opportunity for those college coaches to come down and see a whole lot of programs in a short period of time.
Yeah, I mean, you get it on if you come on. If the college coaches come on Saturday for our finals, right for the for the final day, if you come to Johnswree High School, they're going to get six games of high school soccer, of high level programs, all on a row of kids that they would go to a
showcase to see any day of the week. But now maybe these kids are off of their e C and L teams and now they're on a high school team where they're even more counted on or more relied upon, and now they can shine because they're not subbing off halfway through the game. You know, these ECNL teams and these ECL teams, I go watch. I've got some of the top players in the state, you know, at certain
positions in my program, and I go watch them. I went to their showcase in South Carolina to surprise them and watch them play up there. And here my players are playing the first twenty five minutes and then coming off the field, and I'm like, you know, sure college can watch you in those twenty five minutes, and most college coaches can probably tell you how interested they are in that player in those twenty five minutes. But now if you're put in a position where maybe you're an
outside back. We had a we had our one of our star players last year was an outside back for NASA and then for US he was our attacking mid. You called I think you guys called his game. I think you were the announcer for the game last year against Carrollton. Yeah, it was Julian sa Here. Yeah, he I remember he played outside back for his club team, but for US he played attacking mid and was, you know,
an All state player. You know, so they're going to get to move to positions where they're more relied upon, where they're more central to everything, and it's going to be you know, it's it's an opportunity to see players in a different environment, and it's important to be that kids get recruited. I send college emails all the time. I've put people in college that had no idea that they had even had the opportunity to do so and so. I think it's really important and I want to get
more colleges. I was hoping for even more schools than we currently have, but I'm super excited that we have, you know, eight boys programs and three girls programs coming to come up here and watch. Most of them are pretty local, but you know, they you know, it's an opportunity for some of these kids. It'll be an opportunity that they might not have gotten otherwise.
Yeah, and it's awesome that all these games are going to be streamed. You can watch them on the different schools John's Creek and Northview's websites where the games will be streamed on their sites. You'll have our commentary provided by the SDH Network, and hopefully some college coaches tune into that as well. If they can't make it out in person, they'll be able to see a lot of great soccer in a short period of time. Creek Cup
twenty twenty five. It starts on Wednesday. It runs through Saturday. Every team's going to play two games at both John's Creek and Northview. If you're in the area, come out and see some of this high level soccer. And if you can't get out there. You can listen to us on our mixer app, and you can watch on the school websites. It's going to be amazing. We're really happy to be a media partner this. Thank you so much Kelly for having us on, thank you.
For broadcasting it, and thank you for having me as a guest. I appreciate it.