Hello everyone, My name is Madison Cruz. Welcome to another SDH network one V one. I am enjoyed with Real Lansing's FC's president Rufus Isaacs. Rufus. How are you doing today?
I'm doing great. It's great to talk to you.
Absolutely. One thing that I want to ask to especially for everyone listening, is how did Real Lansing FC start? For you guys.
Yeah, so this really started two or three years ago. It was the brainchild of our founder, Paul Chatfield, and Paul's a teacher in the Lanson School district. He's a passionate soccer fan and he wanted to see if he could give back to the community by starting this youth soccer team, youth soccer club, and he's been talking to a lot of the kids in his school. They're very passionate about soccer, and so he thought, well, maybe we can put a club together and started off with a
few teams. The first year, I think that was twenty twenty three. That went really well, and last year we put six teams into our local regional league and now we're planning for twenty twenty five. Once the snow gets out of here and we'll we'll have even more teams for this summer.
Oh gosh, yeah. I mean it's cold up here, you know, in Georgia, but I can't only imagine what it's like over there right now.
Honestly, we're playing everything indoors right now, and you should.
You gotta stay warm, You got to keep everything going, absolutely. But I want to ask to like, how did you build the club to where it is today? Because it is still a very very young club with what you guys have been able to do, But I mean, how have you been able to build it into what it is now?
Yeah? So you're right, we just started in the last year or two. I think there's been a lot of great passionate soccer fans that have come together around this idea. We you know, we we loved the idea of having a Lancing school district focused club. You know, this city has a lot of kids that really would love to play soccer, but they just kind of afford the costs
of entry to that. And so part of the vision for this is is to break down that pay to play model, try and do fundraising, bring the community together around this idea and then provide the opportunity for these kids. Many of whom love the game but don't have a structured way to haven't had a structured way to play it to be you know, to be training, practicing, learning the skills, and then playing to represent this club in the local leagues.
What were some of the challenges in building this because obviously it is very much community led in everything. What were some of the biggest challenges that you guys faced.
Well, yeah, I think part of it is just selling that vision to other people. Polls done an amazing job of bringing people together that, as I mentioned, had the same kind of idea or supported that idea. So that was the beginning was getting more than Paul, and you know, he put a huge amount of time in, but he brought a group together. We now have a board that's formed. You know, we're a nonprofit. Took some of the weight off his shoulders and brought new skills together and then
started recruiting coaches as well. So last year we had a group of coaches that ran the teams and we're building that. So that was that was just a challenge to bring the right people together, but I think we're there now. Of course, starting any operation like this, you need to have fundraising, so that's been a big focus as well, and the community has definitely stepped up and
helped us with that. We've got some great sponsors GoFundMe that's helped bring some funding in and then and then people, you know, people have been even with donations. Some of these some of these early games last summer we didn't have, you know, we didn't have soccer equipment, didn't have pleats and and shint guards for many of the players. So so that's been great too for people to help out in lots of different ways to make this work.
I think that feeds into my next question, what were some of the things that you guys did to get the community involved, because it seems like they all were just willing to go ahead and pitch in. And what's it also like having a community like that that is up there uplifting you guys and supporting you guys at every angle.
Yeah, it's it's amazing, it's and it's essential for us to succeed. So those partnerships have been fantastic. We we have a really great soccer community here in Lansing. There's there's just a lot of love for the game. There's the local Lancing Common FC, team that we'll talk about later. And there's a whole group of supporters that have come together around that club who all you know, stepped up
and helped us. So I think, yeah, I think being part of a community where that club's more on the adult side, so they're you know, semi pro players in their twenties, they have a different mission, but they really support what we've done, and I can see the value of having this youth team, and of course a lot
of the local schools they're really supportive as well. And then some of the other teams within that league that I mentioned that we play in, they've supported us too, and some even did their own fundraising and then donated that money to the club. So like one thing last summer, I went out to a game by this local Haslet the town's called Haslet Football Club, and their kids had done a fundraiser and brought brought a big, you know, big check together and we did the presentation at the
game where our two teams played each other. So yeah, it's been fantastic getting that support.
That's so cool. I just I can only imagine what it's like just to see something like that for you, like building it up and then seeing those communities in those clubs and those teams come together to help you guys and uplift each other. Because I think that's the beauty of this game, is that that can happen, and that's just so cool to hear. I just that's awesome.
But yeah, and then some of our players, just to add to that, some of our players have you know, they're relatively new Americans who come to this country with an absolute passion for the game, and they may still be learning, you know, learning about this country and learning about language and other things, but they're playing together on
a team with people from around the world. I think we've got something like fifteen different languages in our team, but these kids speak and so the language of soccer brings them all together and they can play and enjoy the game and still kind of feel that they're part of a community in that team as well as they you know, as they integrate into life in the US. So there's a lot of there's a lot of those connections that are happening because we're bringing people together around this idea.
I think that goes into this next thing. I mean, what does it mean to you guys to get the early Bird grant that you guys just received. I mean, what did it feel like when you got that news?
Oh, it was fantastic. We put one of the applications in and we didn't know, you know, we didn't know what would happen, didn't know if they'd select us, and we got that email. And I even want to promote the idea here because this is the this is the Early Bird Coffee and it's from this Strange Matter coffee firm that's here, a coffee company that's here in Lansing, and they've partnered with Lanson Common FC for a number
of years. They've sold coffee at the stadium and they have they have a long standing connection, been great supporters of that club. And the way it works now is that if you buy a copy of that Early Bird Coffee Strange Matter, which you can get online too, so even if you're in Georgia somewhere else you could you could order it. A part of that proceeds goes to
this Early Bird fund. And then when they get to five hundred and seventeen dollars, which seems like a weird number, but that's our local area code, so five one seven. Once you get to that number, they donate that money to one of these organizations that they've selected. So we're looking forward to people buying lots of coffee getting to that five one seven number and then we'll get the
check from them. So it's a great partnership. It's it's a whole bunch of different people that love soccer working together here in the community. And ye know, proud to be that one of the first to get that to get that funding this year.
How will that grant help you guys continue to grow everything that you guys are doing up at Real Lansing.
Yeah, so I think that we're not sure exactly when the check will come in, so that might affect exactly what we do for it. But yeah, we have we have an order out for new kids for this for this season for the players, so that will probably help
us cover some of those costs. And we want the players all to be in in our colors this summer as we as we get out on the pitch, so I think we'll probably go for that as we prepare for the Capital Area Soccer League matches probably starting up in April or May.
What does it mean to have the support of the semi professional club Lansing Common FC helping you guys continue to grow the youth game as well up in Lansing.
Yeah, it's so important. I think a lot of our players look up to that team. It's it's their local team, and they in their first year, some of them had a practice jersey that had the Lancing Common logo on there, so they're starting to make that connection and that this is a you know, the team that the bigger kids might move up into if they're if they're really good after they after they leave high school. So it's creating
that connection between between the clubs. But then also we're hoping we can get some of our players to those games this summer. They'll be on summer break, but our
club has talked about trying to get them there. They could potentially be you know, uh on the on the touch line, helping with things, and yeah, I think it's a great way to connect the youth with the older players and and also just just show their families that there's there's a you know, there's a there's a soccer positive, family friendly activity that they can do during the summertime
that their kids will probably love to go to. So yeah, I think that the connection is great and we've got a lot of similarities in our in our missions.
So Landing for for just me as well up s L m P s L.
Well, we had a team but that folded and out of the ashes of that team that was called Ignite. Out of the ashes of that team came Lancing Common FC and we're part of that team's part of the Midwest Premier League. So midst Premier League has been expanding
a lot written in recent years. And even though we're in the center of the of the state here in Lansing, that team plays in the Western division of Michigan, and Michigan's got a lot of clubs and east and western side of the state, and so that club plays teams from like Grand Rapids, Holland, some down into northern Indiana. And so yeah, that's that's that's a summertime activity for a lot of us that love soccer in this area.
Just two more questions for you. I mean, what are some of the things that you guys do at the youth level with real Lansing to help get those kids involved. What are some of the events you guys do, and you know, what are some things you guys are doing to help grow the game and teach them then get them ready when they want to go play professionally when they go on to go to the semi pro team as well.
Right, So one thing that this team has, that this club has that I think may not be immediately apparent, is we really focus on the academic side with these students as well. As I said, our founder and a group of the people involved in the club, our teachers, their educators, and so there's a tutoring part of this as well, where the kids would be in school and then go to tutoring and then come out to play
soccer on the pitches out there at the school. So it's been a great motivator to some of those children that they need to do the tutoring, get that done before they get to go out and kick the ball around.
So will love it. Who's part of our board. He's really focusing on the tutoring side, and that's obviously something where if if they want to succeed and go on in their careers playing soccer, they're also going to have to have that academic site to be able to get into a college or you get a fellowship to be able to do that. So or a scholarship to be able to do that. So yeah, that's that's part of
what we're doing. And then we're just working now on a sort of soccer curriculum that the coaches will work on together so that those kids have a fairly consistent development of their of their soccer skills as they you know, we started at the U ten and then you know, as they progress through, they'll be adding more and more skills as they as they advance in the teams.
My last question for you, Rufus, is there a specific moment that comes to your mind when you think of real Lansing and a moment that just for you makes it all worth it where you know that you guys are doing the right thing. I know it's still a little early, but is there is there a moment for you that sticks out like that.
There's a lot, but I think one that comes to mind is is I was helping to coach a team last summer U twelve team and they started off, you know, very disorganized. We had, you know, teaching people how to do throw ins and you know, got to have the got to have those two feet on the ground because they hadn't done organized soccer before and you know, hadn't hadn't had a referee, hadn't had things you know, timed
and all those things. So so to see that team develop under Aaron Chatfield who was the coach, was was amazing. And then to see them get to the point where things that they were taught in the midweek training actually showed up on the field on Saturday and worked and they scored. It was just just amazing to see that excitement that they have when when they see it all come together, and yeah, they just had a lot of fun.
And I've got to visit areas around the city that maybe they hadn't visited before, So just seeing the teams gel and bond together was just great.
Absolutely Well, Rufus, I just want to say thank you so much again for your time. It was amazing getting to learn more about Real Lansing FC and what you guys are doing over there, because I think it's so important, especially with growing the game here in the US with everything, it's so important what you guys are doing, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys do in the future. I'm going to definitely be following.
Fantastic. Yeah, we've got the Instagram the Facebook, the X We've got a website if you want to learn more about the club, so just look for rail Lancing FC online and learn more about the club. And if you're interested, I have questions, please get in touch.