The time for a soccer down here, one v one and for this one we head to the CSRA and catch up with our man Merk. Yeah, how's it going, Mart McClellan, who is the director and Grand Exalted pooh Bah the Augusta Panthers and the UPSL.
Thanks for dropping by. I really appreciate your time.
Well, of course, it's honor for us, so we're just happy to get our name out there and get the ball rolling.
So all right, let me go back to the beginning of this.
I know that there are folks over there in the eastern sections of the state of Georgia that might be following the UPSL and maybe seeing activity going on currently. When it comes to the Augusta Panthers and you being Grand Exalted Poohba of everything Augusta Panthers, how far back are we talking when it came to the genesis of the idea to actually get it out onto the field.
How long are we talking?
So technically it's been a really long time. So when I was stationed here in the army, that's when I first had like the idea. So I was like slowd the getting back into soccer. Tried to play in high school, but there was a lot of opportunities down in my area of South Georgia, and so when I was here, I was kind of like just already the what whe was returning. We played like a little eleven v eleven tournament.
It was like some uscaching guys came out, a few guys from a gust to blah blah blah blah blah, right, and it was fun and I was like, man, there's a lot of talent here. And so that was the first thought processes of it. And then I don't know, like four years later, so about six months ago, it's when I finally was like, let me make an actual a business and so made a nonprofit so state nonprofit. Right now we're not five o' one CE or anything yet hopefully soon it's in the process. And that was
really it. I just put the made the Instagram, started posting in like they pick up group chats things like that, and just saw who grabbed on and who would be dedicated to PLOYMA. And so it's just been over six months now of just training, training, training and hopefully getting players.
You know, so we're talking about five years where in South Georgia you did you grow up Georgia.
It's the Columbus area, so north of it. I was in West Point, Georgia. Okay, yeah, so right on the border Georgia Alabama. Yeah, at that time when I was there. So I went to like a really small private school, right. So that was like one of the things that my late stepdad he wanted to make sure, you know, I got decent education because at the time, education there was probably I don't know how it looks now, but not
the best. But yeah, So the school didn't really have a soctcare program, and there was a club for my freshman year I think it was called Troop Titans, I think, and that was the only time I got to play, and then started getting back into it once I join the army basically.
And so you so you go from the western frontier to the eastern frontier here in the state of Georgia five years before a gust the panthers are where we are in the discussion. I know that now I do want to get into the nonprofit side of things a little later on. But what has it been like for you as the businessman, MRK trying to piece this together? Have you found out more about yourself that you didn't know.
Did you find yourself that you learned, that you reinforced, What did you learn about yourself in this process?
One thing, I don't know if I'm a good business man or not yet, so I'm definitely not. I guess like money driven, and so that's always been kind of hard, been the hardest thing for this. It's like, oh, well, where do these teams get money? Things like that, and so that's why I hang up on myself a lot, or like, oh man, I feel like I'm failing the guys things like that, because you know, at some point that's going to be important, right, being able to fund
sies and things like that. But when it comes to business, I think I'm doing okay. I think I'm doing okay for somebody who The only thing I did before this was army, you know, just regular jobs like a normal person, right, And then I did start my own little I do residential design, so it's like three D rendering and stuff like that, and that's just been a hobby. And so that's usually how I do things is if I enjoy it,
I'm going to pursue it. And so I guess that's how I work for business too, is if I enjoy something like soccer and nobody else is doing it, why not just start it?
And yeah, why the UPSL What was the because there is a rather large alphabet soup when it comes out there these days.
So what gravitated you?
And the idea of the Augusta Panthers to the upsl over everything else.
So part of it was it was one of the few that I knew, And so when I was looking at teams like I was looking back in coolingb this So I played with the indoors team there for a little bit and then when I was there they started, Oh my goodness, Fountain City and so that was upso and so that was just in my head. And then when I started looking into the different leagues, so upso, MPSLO, well go a little higher like USO League two, things
like that, or n SA Nation blah blah blah. A lot of it is the senses, and then also you know, you have to be more established sometimes for a lot of these other leagues. And so with Augusta not having anything like this for I don't know, like ten years, I thought that was the quickest way in. But also where I got the most feedback, and so When I reached out the Georgia Conference, people were pretty good at getting back to me.
For those that don't know about the soccer footprint in the Augusta area, how would you describe what soccer means to that particular part of the state and hopping over the river and that section of North Augusta, South Carolina, and you know, all all the counties over there, how would you break that down?
So it's kind of strange actually, So when you look at the club, so like we we're very closely with like US Arsenal, which is the oldest club here. So they've been around for I want to say forty plus years. If I'm remembering correctly. I'm sure they'll correct me later if I'm wrong. And so you have them, you have the Bulls and youth right, so club and sadly recently rush associates or a rush failed or is family I guess in the process of it. And so those were
really all you had. But with that, they're mostly in one county, and so you're looking at Columbia County, which is where all the soccer fields are where everybody's playing. And then with that, though the whole Gusta area is like sometimes I say seven, sometimes I say six, but quite a few counties. So you like you said, you could potentially go all the way to Achin and say that's the CSRA, go all the way down to Burke County and that's the CSRA, and then go all the
way to like Washington, things like that. So you have almost two hours driving left right up down. And when talking about soccer here, there's a lot of talent. There's a lot of young talent. So when you look at like the high school players, they're pretty good. When you look at the club players, pretty good. They go to national tournaments, win games. Arsenal proved that, you know, they're worth investing in. I think how many months ago was that,
We'll say three, I can't remember. But Atlanta United saw it as a good opportunity to build a field there because of how much talent is there. And so when you talk about the area that's around, you have Tormented
down south who's doing great. Body of mine used to play there or retired there, work in their office now he's don't know if I can say yeah, a potentially at Atlanta United, and then just up north very close you have Soda City doing really well, so hopefully what's that tomorrow they'll be playing, I'll be tuning in on that. It's just a pocketive space that hasn't been taking advantage
of it all. And that's part of the nonprofit side is that I think I see why there's a lot of gaps when it comes like the infrastructure just not feels available basically, and so making many pitches with the US Soccer fotivation would be or foundation whatever would be really cool at some point and just slowly building it.
And so that's also the motivation for doing the nonprofit instead of like for profit business, because I want to make sure the founder of what we're doing here sustains and supports, you know, healthy lifestyle for the future.
So, yeah, when you mentioned the nonprofit side, Okay, since you've opened that door, what is the genesis of that idea? Because a lot of folks will sit there and it's like, yeah, I want to have my business make money, or at least I want it to be zero based or what have you. What was the idea behind the specifically the nonprofit and the directions that you wanted to go to leave that legacy and be a legacy product.
Basically, for so, I don't know how many teams have done it. I know a few upsls do do that, but I don't know what their their goals are when it comes to like size. But my goal was just to show number one is just the word itsel if nonprofit shows that there's no hopefully no ill intention, right, and so I want the focus to always be Augusta. And so the reason that we're here, the reason that we're playing soccer, the reason that we're developing is for us.
That it's not for you know, just to eventually go to another city or whatever right across state lines things like that. It's to support the whole area. And so you know, money's cool, everyone lovesn't so on and so forth right. It gets you good food, nice houses, nice cars. But the most important thing is that sometimes we do have to reset and take care of people first. And that was a big part of the team.
So, yeah, what's the feedback been like when you sit there and it's like, well, well I want to do it this way and I want it to be a nonprofit as opposed to Okay, well that's that's not what I would have pictured. What's the feedback been like when you said you wanted to go down that road versus the traditional franchise road.
Nothing yet. I think since we're so new and we haven't had too many deep conversations with you know, like even investors or things like that, we haven't really had too much complaints about it. The main thing is to players right now, and they're just happy that they can see that I'm invested into them. I work my regular job and then basically do this full time as well, maybe more, and so I think right now really nothing no feedback of well why did you do that? Why not? Yeah,
I haven't had any any weird responses yet. I'll say that.
Okay, Mark Llewellen, a grand exalted pooh bah, jack of all trades and master of everything with Augusta Panthers in the UPSL hanging out with us for a one v one, and you know you mentioned having to basically burn the candle. I'm not going to say burn the candle at both ends because it sounds like you're just trying to figure out wherever you can carve a hole to the wick and sit there and you know, expose the wick and burn it here. Exposed the wick and burn it here
candle on both ends all that kind of stuff. How what's the staffing situation, Like, is this a battle of one or what are we talking about here?
So very first few months yes lately though, know, so there's a lot of people here that I really want to see this happen. And I always have to remind the players. I'm like, hey, like, yeah, you know, it's all for you. Everything is supporting you, all this kind of things, but nobody's paid, and so it's a really good blessing that we do have people supporting. So we have basically a media staff at this point, and so we work with WRDW, so we paid them to help
like with the marketing side. With that, we also have a volunteer that does basically the same kind of route and so we have a nice lady named Alexis who works a WRDW but also volunteers with us. We have a photographer named Juan Juan Blaze. He's awesome, He comes out as much as he can. He's the one that gets us all our great pictures on Instagram everything. And then with that players as well. So we have one player namely Eden. He's done in States girls, so he
travels up two hours all the time. Yeah, but he also likes to report design and things like that, and so he helped make I would say, like some of our better posts right now, because the rest are me and it's not too great, but he made like the cool video with the Bellahouse downtown stuff like that, and so just from that media standpoint, we get a lot
of support already. But yeah, so outside of that, we have a coach too, and so he's also volunteering his time to just give the players hopefully a higher level of coaching than what I can provide by myself for sure. And yeah, so he was with the Green Gold Triumph for like five years, not as like a head coach, but you know within the organization and so have in the background and even just like contacts in general and experience.
That's the main thing. He has, like forty plus years of experience with soccer across the southeast, so from Atlanta all the way up to Greenville, and so you know, in a way he's kind of home. So it's nice. Yeah, we're getting a lot more supportive.
I was going to ask, what's it like for people to embrace the idea of what you want to do knowing that you're going to have to travel two hours each way. If you want to play, you're going to have to figure out the carve out some time if you need to get team practice done, you know you've got to do this, and the financials aren't there, but you have people who are seeing the development and what it can be there.
Tougusta, what's it like to see that kind of faith in people.
It's crazy. I didn't know what to anticipate. I didn't expect, you know, like our first season, to have guys traveling from so far away part of it. You know, we're a new team, and so it's a good opportunity. And so I think that's a lot of it is that for this area specifically, you haven't had anything so long, and for a lot of these guys it's yes, it's the first opportunity. For some guys, like the young guys
we have sixteen year old, seventeen year olds, whatever. But for the guys that are twenty four to twenty five, this is an opportunity, a second chance that they didn't think would ever be here. And so I think just reminding him that that, hey, if you want it, you can you can do it. You know, I was traveling from Augusted Combs when I was playing indoor and I told him, you know, sure I was technically paid or whatever, but it didn't cover the gas, you know. And so
it was just something that I enjoy. I love soccer's I'd rather be playing than anything else. Right, So if this is something that you want to pursue, then you have to dedicate time. It has to be a full time job and you just can't give up on yourself because that's how how does that translate to life?
And so yeah, four days away from the opener against u m AFC at Russell County High School, does it seem like it's four days away from match wake one?
I have no idea. I'm so time has been like an illusion for me right now. But yeah, I mean I'm excited for it. I really just want to see the guys play. For me, it's it's like the first accomplishment, you know what I mean, It's the first step on the ladder. Yeah, I just I just want to see the guys plan and really give them that first Hey we made it, you know, we're doing the right thing, and yeah, give them the opportunity to prove themselves.
What are the expectations on the field for the Augusta For the Augusta Panthers and Augusta Soccer team, what are the expectations on the field.
Well, always want to win, right but realistically it's the first season, and so I'm trying not to have really any I'm trying to just be super open minded. Let it be the most important thing for me is that on the field the players just get better. So every game I want them to just get better every game. So as they're playing with each other, they've been training, but it's not the same as Hey, we're playing in
the UK so semi professional game. It's intense potentially some of these fans are hundreds of people, right and so being able to feel the environment, adjust to it and then thriving it is the goal. And so I want to see these guys really just become who they can be on the field.
So ten matches on the calendar, starting up on the twenty third against UMAFC at Russell County High. Then you get a home match agust Soccer Park, Field nine. Is Augusta Soccer Park ready for this.
I think? So? I hope so yeah, I would say so and it's only going to get better, and so they're letting us use Feel nine, which is the one that Atlanta United made. And so when you look at it, it's still very new. Still gonna put stand level it out a little bit better, things like that. But the foundation's perfect and there's a lot of seating if you can bring your own chair, right, Yeah, I think the potential
there is crazy, very high. There's a lot of seating and most importantly, very beautiful view to watch, beautiful game.
All right, So if you would please, if you cut the promo for me, for anybody that wants to see what's going on there with Augusta Soccer Team and the Augusta Panthers in the upsl Where do they go? The social media is the websites. How do they stay in touch? How do they become informed? And how do they stay informed of let me hear it?
All right? So I try my best, all right. So on our website, it's a Gustosoccer team dot com. When you go on there, you can there's links to everything in there at some point, but the easiest way is going to the bottom. You can sign up for the email and you can always get I always sending out email updates, so you always get an email for ticket sales, so on and so forth. But within the website you have the details for games players, a nonprofit side, our store,
all that kind of stuff. So the website is a good start. The next best thing probably Instagram. That's where we've been the most active right now, and so that's also a gust of Soccer team, So if you look it up, you'll find us, and we do have a Facebook. I think it comes up as a guest as Soccer Panthers when you look it up. And then we also have a YouTube. We do have YouTube. I forgot about that, So we have a gust of Soccer Team YouTube and
I'm going to start hopefully launching it on there. It may not look super good, but at least we get something started right away.
So absolutely well Mark, congratulations on getting to this stage. The ten game regular season and Division one coming up, starting on the twenty third with a road game at Russell County, then the twenty ninth against the Revs, and then on the road to FC Atlanta on January. Every March April fifth, and it goes from there. Good luck with the venture. Great for being able to catch up with you because I know things are super busy, but
it's thank you, thank you for the education. It will be keeping an eye on you and don't be a stranger. Will catch up soon, my friend.
Absolutely, thank you.
All right, it's time to roll the close once again.
Augusta Soccer Team Augusta Panthers you PSL. They're getting ready for match Week one.