Special Episode – USL1’s Sarasota Paradise Founder and CEO Marcus Walfridson

On today’s episode, I speak with Marcus Walfridson from the Sarasota Paradise of USL1. We talk about their move from USL2 to USL1. He describes the differences in recruiting players to both teams. We chat about how players can move abroad if they’re successful. Learn more about USL1’s Sarasota Paradise.

Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I’m lucky enough to be joined by Mr. Marcus Walfridson of the Sarasota Paradise USL one team. Welcome coach, or you’re not coach. I guess I, I, I’m so used to saying welcome coach. ’cause I mostly interview coaches, but you, you are, what is your exact title these days?

Marcus: So first of all, my, my A license actually expired a couple years ago. I did not renew it. 

Matt: Okay. 

Marcus: But I have been the coach. That’s fine. Um, but yeah, my, my title now I go by founder and CEO. 

Matt: Okay. That, that’s what I thought. And, and you know, in the, in the soccer world, you’re talking to somebody that’s just almost always coach.

Right. Uh, so, well Marcus and I have known each other, I’d say, what, three or four years since you’ve, uh, you announced that you were. Creating this Sarasota Paradise team and, and you know, you partnered with our local club and uh, and then, and then we saw each other at the convention and, and it’s, you know, this is funny for me because, so Sara, the Bradenton Sarasota areas had a USL two [00:01:00] team for a couple of decades, and mostly it was at IMG and I was actually the.

The GM of that team for a few years when I was at IMG, and then it went away and it became something else and it went away and it became something else. And now, uh, it’s the Sarasota Paradise and we’re excited that, uh, that, that you’ve, you’ve got the Reign. So I mean, when you look at, well, like I said, it used to be called the PDL and then it became SL two.

So what kinda, what, what drove you to get into, into the SL two ranks and, and be here in Paradise? 

Marcus: Well, that’s a great question, Matt, and I think. Um, it’s a, we’re, we’re an interesting community, right? In general. So, uh, a lot of sports, lot of soccer history, and then the pinnacle has kind of been missing, right?

So that’s kind of what drove me here to begin with. Um, and that’s, you know, also the path to pro Finally capping off the path to Pro this year by, by the League One debut. Uh, but, uh, the reason why we started lead two. It was actually a very simple one, uh, [00:02:00] because there was no venue we could play professional soccer at, uh, in cso.

So that was the real reason. Um, and then as it happened, I think it’s also a very interesting platform to kind of learn the reins a little bit on the, like off the field for me, because on the field, uh, you know, like I said, I have a license I coached in the, in the Women’s Champion League quarter of finals.

So I, I know a little bit about that stuff. But the off the field thing was a good, uh, good process for me personally to go through. Um, and also for us to kind of build our brand a little bit and kind of get that grassroots fee feeling and the community kind of feeling going. And it’s also a good story, right?

Like all the good clubs, like you start here and you build, you build and you build. And now our professional team, all of a sudden, and uh, you know, we still have a lot to, to do, uh, and grow into, but, uh. That was the reason why we started lead two. It’s just, uh, no venue and then, uh, good, good place to kind learn and, and build a brand.

Matt: Okay. Well, I [00:03:00] mean, league. League two is kind of where, I mean, I, I always describe it to people as kind of the, the college soccer summer league, right? Like in baseball, you’ve got the, the, the Cape Cod League, and there’s all these different, uh, summer things for, for college baseball players. And, and USL two is really that for the soccer community.

Right? So how do college soccer and USL two really work together? I mean, in, in my opinion, to better the US soccer landscape? 

Marcus: Yeah. So I think, um, you know, I, I think the SL lead two is a. Great lead for the college system because it keeps the players, um, active obviously during summer, but also playing at a pretty good level because in the lead too, I mean the base is college players, right?

So the base is college players, which is awesome. But then also you, you have some random, you know, 30-year-old playing, right? So you, you get some, you get some good minutes against adults. You have some younger kids who are at freaking academies at good level. You get a lot of different things. [00:04:00] Uh, so I think the League two is perfect for the college system.

Uh, and then one of the challenges I experienced from our side was when you then get to the playoffs, then all of a sudden your best players or some of the, usually it was the, the, the youngest guys right to the first years in college, uh, freshman in college. They were then pulled away too soon because the college coach didn’t understand that this kid can actually play a super important game at a high level.

That he wants them to run back and forth at some relays, uh, you know, for three weeks or something stupid, right? So I think that’s the, that’s the challenge a little bit. I think the challenge is, um, from my perspective is that the challenge is college coaches, obviously there’s a lot of college coaches knows the benefit of the lead too, but there’s also a lot that don’t, and they don’t understand the fact that this is actually pretty good level.

Uh, there’s some, a fair amount of these US early two teams will beat their college teams every day of the week kind of thing. So. I think that’s a little bit of a challenge, uh, for the [00:05:00] players too, because they wanna obviously be part of playing the, the top rated games because that’s where you get seen and you know, when you scout players, you look at the performances in the games that matter, not the, the, the first two games of the year kind.

Matt: Yeah. Yeah, that was, it’s always a problem when preseasons, and it seems like it’s starting earlier and earlier at, for the colleges, and then, uh, you’re like, Hey, man, I, I only got a certain win win window games here. Uh, it’s definitely a, a hard part for the, for the USL two folks. So, I mean, explain a little bit.

What is it like for a college player? Who, who, who plays USL two? Like, I mean, it, they’re there for how long? What’s training? Like, are they, uh, they’re not getting paid. So what are they doing? Like, how, how does that even, even work for a lot of the, a lot of the players and teams out there? 

Marcus: I think so. For, for many it doesn’t, right?

Yeah. But, uh, no, you know, I think in general, you know, you start early to [00:06:00] mid-May kind of thing. Uh, so whenever you’re done, basically you come in. So you basically go from college to then start training. Um, I, you know, I think clubs do do this very differently. Like the way we did it was we took into account that, hey, you’re actually coming off finals, right?

So your brain’s fried, like you actually won a couple days off. So we did not train more than three times a week. Here in Sara, uh, last couple years because we know these guys are fit anyway, so it’s just more about like keeping them fresh during the summer because this is something that comes back from when I was coaching, like as a coach, my number one job was to not end anyone’s career.

Right? And as a team owner, I think the same thing. So we’re not here to end people’s career. We’re here to build them, and therefore we need to reduce load a little bit. So we only train three times a week. But then you go through, um, you know, the highlight of the, the season is basically June, July, right?

So it’s two months. You have a lot of games. You played 12, 12 games, 12 to 14 [00:07:00] games in, in that eight, 10 week, eight to 10 week period, right? So it’s, it’s a very rough and intense thing. Um, many USL teams, most USLD two teams offer some sort of housing. So the guys, uh, have a housing opportunity. There’s some, could be some food on the side and stuff like that, and opportunities to do some, you know, camps, clinics to make money or even have a parttime job on the side.

Matt: Okay. That works. Yeah, it’s uh. I know when we were at IMG, the kids would work camps and, and that was kind of their, how, how they, how they got paid and made it work. So, uh, I know everybody, like you said, everybody does it differently, but you know, now you guys, uh, have made the jump. Congratulations. You’re officially a USL one club.

You got a couple games under your belt, I guess. Looks like they, they scheduled, uh. A lot, a lot of games for you at home this early in the season. ’cause the weather’s still good, so Yeah. 

Marcus: And bad and bad up north, right? So it’s 

Matt: [00:08:00] all the Yeah, exactly. So, so how has that transition been? Like what, what was that?

What was that like? 

Marcus: Well, so it’s a huge one, right? So like in 2024 in League two. We had zero employees, right? Uh, we now have 43 full-time employees. Uh, we have nine, 10 part-time and, and, uh, hourly. Um, and in addition to that, on game days, we basically pay a hundred people right, to execute a game day. So.

It’s a humongous operation. The level of expenses, uh, compared to lead two is almost 20 fold. Uh, so that starts to put like, uh, what’s going on, right? Instead of playing two months, we’re playing, you know, from where players come in January 15th, and then they leave maybe in the end of November, right? So last season, last season game is October 24th.

So. It’s a long season. Uh, it’s a proper, proper soccer season, which is good. Um, [00:09:00] just more, more money, uh, more travel, more time, more people. Uh, it’s a totally different thing. Like it’s so different that we struggle to get people to understand how different it’s right. Are they, it’s a huge, like we travel to California, we travel to Spokane, Washington, right?

We’re gonna go. Spokane on Sunday. And uh, and we have Boise on a, on a Wednesday, right? So it’d be nice little four, five day trip there out west. So it’s a totally different thing every game. Money is PN or CBS, right? National tea. So it’s a totally different level, uh, also of playing. Um, we see that from, from our roster.

We, we won our division fairly comfortably last year. And, uh, you know, one player. What we sign, you know? Uh, so it’s, it’s a big jump. It’s not that easy. 

Matt: Yeah. I, I, I mean, beside, like you said, the budget is 20 fold. The, the level of play, you’re [00:10:00] only signing one from a championship team from, from SL two. So how, how do you, how do you go about, well, I’m sure like I’m a, I’m a sports.

Business geek. So the, the 20 fold budget that you and I can have beers and talk about that, but how about the roster though? How, how was transitioning a roster? You know, you were used to building a roster of guys for two months that you knew were going back to school. Mostly. I mean, again, you, the occasional elder statesmen or, or the young kid.

But, but for the most part, your kids left you, they weren’t thinking about you for the next eight months. Right. But now. You gotta build a proper roster, somebody that you hope you can build with. And what was that like in year one? What did you learn? What, what would you have done differently? Or, or, or how does that work?

Marcus: So I think the, there’s a couple of reflections, right? So first thing to know for all the college kids is that, uh, USL has [00:11:00] a collective bargain agreement. So there’s a minimum compensation number, right? So we, for example, cannot composite anyone less than 2350 a month. Um, so, so that’s, and yeah, that’s rough, right?

But yeah, if you have a housing, you have a thousand bucks, 1500 bucks a month, as a young kid, you’re, you’re pretty happy. That would be easiest. Um, so that’s, that’s something to know. But, um, one of the biggest reflections for us, because in the international scope of soccer, like we look at player transfers, right?

It’s a humongous business around the world. Um, and also for us, we develop players to move them on to greater stages and, and the biggest stage in the world, right? And the biggest challenge is, ironically to find American players between the age and 18 and 21 because they’re in college, right? Um, so that, and that’s when you have the most transit value.

You after 21, your transfer value goes down because of your age. Uh, this is the only country on planet earth where you’re young when you’re 23. Uh, it’s, I, I don’t know how many [00:12:00] people reached out. Hey, I got a young guy for you. I’m like, okay, how old is he? 24. Like when I worked in Europe, if you’re 24, you’re either done or you’re playing pro.

It’s either work ethic, you’re not like aspiring to become something. So, uh, that’s been one of the big reflections for me. Um, the second one is how many, uh, especially college kids, uh, get picked up by agents that have no clue what to do. So we have actually an example, a player that we liked. Uh, he was a D three, uh, college player, but came from a rough background kind of thing.

Hard upbringing, like it’s a, it’s a great story, this kid, and we liked him. We want to give this kid a chance, like we wanna offer him a minimum contract and like get him in the door because we really believe in his personality. We had a lot of conversation with him and his family, or his coaches actually, because his family is not no longer there.

And we offer a minimum contract and we get an agent who thinks is [00:13:00] Ola negotiating on behalf of, right? So it’s like, I’m like, dude, what are you doing? Like, we just wanna give the kid a chance and here you are trying to just make money out of us. And, and unfortunately, so we, we couldn’t, we couldn’t sign him and unfortunately the kid then was put in trials different places.

Now he’s over our contract, right? So. It’s, there’s, there’s a little bit too many of the poor agents out there who talk all these good college kids into, uh, signing with them so they can make money. Right. Um, because the truth is if you weren’t standout in college, like if you weren’t on the national, like all national, whatever it’s called, uh, D one level, then you’re probably gonna have a minimum contract deferred to Right.

And then us perform and then, you know. If you’re doing really well, and maybe that’s the time to get an agent, maybe. But at our, our level, there’s so limited amounts of money because most of the clubs lose money anyway. So, um, you know, you kind [00:14:00] of, it’s a very, very tough situation for clubs, but it’s also very tough situation with players.

So then why should you give 10% to someone else? ’cause you come to me and we can talk and I’ll give you what you’re worth anyway. Right. And then, uh, hopefully it doesn’t take money. So. So that’s a big reflection and I think something for college players to watch out a little bit for. Obviously there’s good agents, right?

So there’s many good agents out there. Uh, but unfortunately there’s also many, many bad, uh, ones, uh, who just are there to make money, uh, from, from these young kids. 

Matt: Well, and, and yeah, I mean, a lot of college kids don’t, you know, the whole agency thing is like a whole nother, uh, I mean, we could probably have a whole nother episode just on that, but the, to me, the most interesting thing that you mentioned there was.

It was a D three player. You know, there’s a lot of kids who were like, oh my God, if you don’t go D one, you can’t play pro or you can’t go to the next level, or whatever. But I mean, we just saw. The, the example of of, of what was the player who went Juco D three, uh, in [00:15:00] England now. And I mean, there’s, there’s all these options.

The fact that, that you’re looking at D three players, you know, that that should give, give people hope. And then, and if, if, just because you’re not in the superD draft, MLS superD draft, uh, ’cause you weren’t a D one All American, doesn’t mean that there isn’t the next level. Um, ’cause 

Marcus: like today there’s so much data even on D three, D two, D one, we have video of everything, right?

We get recommendations of people and stuff like that, we, because, you know, you build a network so the the best way. But if you wanna be a pro player today, there’s only one thing to do. Just perform, just play well, right? And then you will be seen, like in this country today, if you are over the age of a 18, definitely if you’re in the college system, you will be seen if you are good enough.

Matt: So, you know, one thing I think that. I’d be curious to get your opinion on is, you know, like you said, it’s kind of strange in Europe it seems, you know, 24 is [00:16:00] old sometimes, or, or it’s not, at least it’s not young. Um, and they’re looking at 18, but I feel like, and maybe it’s more of a US thing because we don’t have that professional academy system that everybody else has.

There’s a ton of development that happens between 18 and 24. You could see a kid who’s 18, who’s just graduating high school and they’re okay. They’re not, like you said, they’re not going D one, maybe they’re D three, but that four years of college development or pro development, whatever, development can make a massive amount of difference.

So do you, do you, do you take that into consideration? Are you looking to see maybe, what is this kid’s. Floor, or what is this kid’s ceiling. When you’re looking at a player, 

Marcus: it’s two different, two things. All right, so number one is that you’re one and correct, right? Because we also know that in males, the brain is not full development until you’re 25, right?

So, you know, I was an idiot up until I was 25, maybe even [00:17:00] 35, or maybe even four, five. Who knows? Um, but like that’s a fact, right? So from the, and also from our level League one, like 24, 25 year olds who are out of college and good players. Perfect. Like that’s, that should be the base of the team in a way.

Um, but the second part of it is we are, uh, soccer is a business professional. Soccer is a business, and one of the potential revenue streams is actually player transfers. And if we’re gonna transfer players and receive anything more than a bag of chips back, uh, then age is all of sudden important, right?

Like, um, you know, of course. We have 27 year olds who are really good. So like they all, they have a transfer value. But if you’re 18, 19 and you’re promising and you show promise, that is actually as valuable as a 27-year-old that has performed as performing well. Right? So, um, it’s easier to [00:18:00] transfer player who’s between 18 and 21 than one.

That’s 24 to 27. That’s, that’s kind of how we look at it, right? Um, because at the end of the day. If this is, uh, gonna be sustainable for America Soccer over time, the US of League won. Definitely. And maybe also championship needs to become leagues that are actually developing younger players to take the step to the next level.

Right? In a perfect world, like in domestically, I would say. You, this is the wrong place to say it, obviously, but, uh, ideally we can get to the point where we do college online. Uh, and then you, you play with us from your 17 to 19, right? And then we sell you or transfer you to, you know, if it’s a USL premier that’s gonna be in 28 or if it’s MLS or it’s abroad, whatever is, but that’s, I think, the way it eventually will become a little bit, uh, unless, uh, you know, the college system switch it over to, to both.

Of the year and all those things, then, you know, [00:19:00] maybe there’ll be some, some competition there. But, um, I think that’s kind of from a soccer perspective will be better for the country because we will, we’ll produce so many more international players. If we had the most talented 17, 18 year olds playing professional soccer at a lower level and then learning the ropes and going off.

Griffin Garnet, for example, went from Richmond a month ago here now to, uh, to finish vitals, right? Um, so like, that’s a typical example. He, he did online university, right? Played with Richmond for two seasons since it was 18, two years 20, and now he was transferred, uh, abroad to Europe, playing in Europa League, right?

Um, which is pretty cool. So it’s a decent level, uh. 

Matt: All right, so, uh, I been awesome talking to you and getting this information. I’m gonna, I’m gonna ask you one last question. It kind of dovetails into that because I think it’s one everybody you know, wants to [00:20:00] know is, let’s say I’m, I’m a, an American college soccer player.

I only got the one passport. ’cause I know it’s different if you’ve got another one. But let’s just say I’ve got that one US passport. How hard is it for me to then go play anywhere in Europe? 

Marcus: So I think you depends on where you wanna go, right? So Scandinavia, for example, fairly simple. Uh, also because your playing stuff probably fits better.

Uh, the Scandinavia countries also easier culturally to adapt to, and they are more open, excuse me, to, to bring in Americans in, because we have, for example, Joshua Gat mm-hmm. Who was a co player, right. Went to a Swedish division one, mini level three team. A friend of mine actually got him over there. Then he went to a top level team, was bought by Malmo for two, 3 million bucks or whatever it was.

And you know, so, uh, those stories are real. And I think probably, [00:21:00] uh, Scandinavia, those type of leagues as well, or the place to look at, not the top level, but the level below. Uh, if you wanna have playing time as you do want. Um, so yeah, it’s not that difficult, but I, you know. You need to be the right type of player, I guess.

And you need to have the right type of mentality about it, because it’s not easy, right? Like when you go abroad, it’s, uh, regardless of where you go, uh, it’s gonna be tough because you’re, you know, you’re gonna miss your family, your friends, all the things. So many, many guys, uh, and gals don’t really make it because of that, uh, more than anything.

Matt: Yeah. Well. I appreciate it. Uh, wish you the best of luck, uh, this season. I’m excited to get out to a game when I’m not on the road. Uh, but I definitely will be there even though somehow I must, I mean, I must have not got the email about inviting me to, to, you know, you needed a 49-year-old on the roster just for morale and somehow I didn’t get that email.

But, uh, I’m sure it’s coming. I’m sure it’s [00:22:00] coming. Right. It’s coming. It’s coming. Okay. Alright, well thank you Marcus. Really appreciate it. And uh, you know, go paradise. 

Marcus: Thank you, Matt.