Welcome to the Struggle Bubble. I'm Chad Kutting. and I'm Craig Surgey. Greg, before we begin, have very important question to ask Ricky. Ricky, in your household, how does it feel to be the fifth best soccer player? Yeah. You could have gone a lot of ways with question. I was ready for anything. I was really ready for anything on that question. I thought you were going to say the fifth most important person in the household. But yeah, we can go soccer player too. So either way, I'm at the bottom in this household. So I know my role and I try to play to the best of my ability. We all know our role. Well, the second fun fact, Ricky, is you and I both worked at the same organization with the LA Galaxy. I was down there 2006 to 2009 in group sales and I think you were down there until 2004. Is that right? Yeah, that's right. That's right. A.E.G. That's right. I'm sure we have some mutual connections there as well. So yeah, great organization. just confirm the context Chad. You are not playing at LA Galaxy. Okay. You are, you are back office in LA Galaxy. Come on. That's awesome. Well, we appreciate you guys finding time. I know you're super busy with everything that's going on. So for all the people listening out there, have Leslie Osborne and we have Ricky Lewis. Huge family in the Los Gatos area and San Jose area and Santa Clara area. Let's go the full counter between everything you guys do with the community, with the girls playing soccer. And obviously we're all repping our BFC. You know, the first season this year has been incredible. Let's kind of want to kind of kick off there and maybe go back a couple of couple of years of where did this come from? Obviously played, you know, in the counter or at the college at Santa Clara. And then obviously with FC Gold Pride back in the day when we had the pro team here, how did Bay FC kind of come around and get to where it is today? By the way, we've been to multiple games, this unbelievable experience. Unbelievable. As you know, my kids dance and they go to one game and then Scarlet's like, I wanna be a soccer player now. I'm like, perfect, that's exactly what I wanted. One little opportunity. Yeah, I think I came out here to play college soccer and my world changed at Santa Clara. My eyes open. This is an ecosystem here where innovation starts. It bleeds soccer, it bleeds sports. This is a sports city. And for me, my senior year when the league folded, it was unbelievable that we didn't have women's pro soccer there. And that was in 2005. And so yes, we get FC Gold Pride to come back around in our second iteration of our league. And you know, I think with women's sports, you're seeing the trajectory it's on, but it was not always like this. The product was the same, but the foundation and the infrastructure of these teams and league, that's what's different about this go round. So the NWSL, we're celebrating 10 years this year. Ali, Danielle, Brandy and I four years ago thought But you know what, why do we not have a women's professional sports team here in the area? We need to start it. You know, this is a, it's an ecosystem here that I think that everyone was craving women's sports. You know, there's youth soccer at its highest. mean, look at our area. There's four great club teams within 10 miles of each other. There are amazing collegiate teams here. Santa Clara and Stanford winning national championships, both in the last couple of years. You've got a lot of startups and tech companies and other companies that are itching to invest their money into women's sports. So the opportunity here was too big to miss and we're grateful that we found Sixth Street Capital that was willing to inject the $125 million into this team. Back four years ago, know, Angel City had paid $3 million to get into the league and by the time we got in in 2020, paid 53 million. So it's pretty crazy to see, you know, Angel City just sold and changed ownership and sold for 300 million. So I think we got in. We got in a great time, but an interesting time. Things are still climbing. we're on a rocket ship and I don't know when it's coming down or when it's going to even out, but this is a pretty incredible time. And I think with Bay FC here in the Bay, what we're doing, we're third in attendance, you know, as an expansion team, you guys have come out to games, anyone that comes out, it feels different. It's a different atmosphere. It's inclusive. It's a community built. It's an amazing product on the field, but it's also off the field, incredible. And. We wanted to do something different and we want to have a global brand and I think that we're on the right track to do those things. Yeah, I've got to say every women's game I've been to, and I think it comes from the players out as well. As I said, every women's game I've been to when we were down in San Diego, every player stayed and signed every kid's shirt, gift card, whatever they had. And it really came from the players really care about all the fans that are coming out every game. And then you see that with, you know, Landon Donovan, et cetera. Like they really care. I think it's a real, as you said, it's a change. There's a feeling change that when you're watching these games, you really feel connected to the players, the organization, the staff, managers, whoever, the founders, to really accelerate women's sport. you know, I'm obviously two daughters, chaos and dance is a different kind of, it's a different feel to say the least. But women's sport in general, you know, I know, You're a big advocate, both of you, on the women's basketball side as well. Just more and more is coming through the pipeline for women's sport. For me, anyway, is having two daughters. It's pretty wild to see the opportunities for them in any sport. And I look at it very holistically from Danica Patrick in motor racing when she was doing her thing, all the way to Caitlyn Clark now in basketball. It's just there's no... opportunities they can't go and grab if they really want it with both hands. So I think it's amazing what you guys are doing and growing the sport. And I can't believe it's 10 years old. That's shocking. Kind of switching gears a little bit back to the parenting side of it. How the hell do you guys do it? Because we're struggling like hell. So, know, Ricky, your career as a soccer player and then transitioning to medical, you know, you're super busy. regional directors who are traveling, working with your team. Leslie, everything you've got going on with Bay FC and all the work you're now doing at school, you know, going back to school. How do you guys juggle those three little menaces on the constant? I'll take a stab at that. Thank God for the outlook share calendar. That's number one. We are constantly having conversations about events that are going on in our house. We've got practice. We've got to practice either either dance or soccer every single night, Monday through Thursday. Sometimes we do Friday activities and then Craig, as you well know, the games are the games on the weekend pretty much take up most of the most of our time Saturday and Sunday. So but I'll tell you what, we absolutely love it. I mean, this is how Leslie and I grew up. playing multiple sports, going from the baseball field to the soccer field to the basketball court. So we wouldn't have it any other way. And I'll put it on my wife. She's more the planner of the two. So she keeps this on track. But yeah, man, it's just kind of divide and conquer. Yeah, I think being former athletes, we're used to having a lot on our plate. And I think when we started having kids, was like, we're not going to let our life pretty much take a pause, we're going to just keep it going and our kids are going to come into our lifestyle. And so it's really fun. Our kids are really adaptable. We're on the fly. We're always on the go. I think we both thrive on that. And that's just the way that we're built. so chaos is like, it's actually like just part of our lifestyle, but it's like a fun, organized, crazy, fun, like chaotic chaos that our kids just have, they were born into. And it's just part of the way we roll. So. We have no family here, you know, so we've had to do a good job of bringing in like... To village. Yeah, to village. Alex Loera is, you know, a Bay of Sea player who has been helping babysit our kids for six years and she's literally part of our family because we've had to allow someone to just come in and help us because at times, you know, like we need to get away and we need, you know, so I think a few things have happened but I think we actually operate better busy and a lot of things on our... our plate. And you guys do a great job about finding that time as well. I know, think, Lesley, you told me once, if you're gonna go away on a boys trip or a girls trip, whatever, as long as you're back at the weekend, there's no complaining. If you've gotta get off that plane and get straight to the field, hungover or not, you'll get in there and you got a big smile on your face. Yep. Maybe you got the sunglasses on and a tall glass of water, but it's all right. We're there. The President. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. it. With the history that you have in soccer and growing up and playing professionally at a high level, how quickly did the kids gravitate towards soccer? Was there ever a moment where they were uninterested? I think it's interesting because I retired and then had kids, right? And so I didn't have the opportunity to play and have kids. And that's something that would have been just a whole nother special ball game. I think with having Olivia and because soccer football is just in our blood and part of our life, literally Olivia, Gabby and Izzy have literally grown up either watching the game on the TV. We go to every Santa Clara women's soccer game. We were at the earthquakes games for the last seven years. Bay FC and we were always playing like Ricky would be training at the field or we would be with Brandy and the Santa Clara team and so I literally think it's part of their their DNA like they literally have grown up with it they don't know life without it but it's in a way that we don't push it or force it I think we're very intentional about letting our children find something they love and our way is showing them how much we loved football and the game impacted us. And so far they love it. They want to be around it. And honestly, just exposing them to the players over the years and building those relationships and allowing them to meet them off the field, I think has been like the most special part because they actually believe that they can go out there and do that. Not because they're good enough or not because they actually it's because they are so relatable and they, they look at them like, I'm, I'm going to go play for like Olivia. you think she's not going to college already she's telling people she's not going to college and she's just going straight pro and we're like not no crack signer you ain't gonna go anywhere if you keep on doing that right but like you're getting it with your toe you're not gonna play college yeah seriously and then she scores with it and looks at me like, well, alright. coach? Well, Leslie, on that point, I wanna thank you and the founding team for bringing the team to the Bay Area because just like what you had said, we take the girls to the game or we get to meet Caprice on the field for a couple practices, their eyes light up to the possibility. And you're exactly right. It's not like going to a 49er game or baseball games, go Guardians, but they're able to see women in sport doing something and it just helps them aim higher. or rain. motivated them. I just wanted to say that to thank you and the entire team for everything that you're doing to bring the game and making it so fun for everybody. Thank you, appreciate that. You know, I think for our kids just meeting them and going like they're normal people, you know, like I think there's this like Alex Morgan they've watched on TV for so long and when they met Alex they're like, mommy, she's so cool, she's so fun, like she's normal. She's a mom trying to juggle so many things. She's just like a normal grounded person and I think that that is like the most impactful for them is to like, okay, like they're relatable. if there's anything else I'll ever do in my life, like, this is the best work I'll do for every child out there. And boys or girls, being around it by it, surrounding themselves, like, being inspired, motivated, like, it is, it's the most incredible, impactful thing. And I tell my girls, like, I grew up going to men's call, or, like, Marquette, like, I grew up watching Marquette players play. And that was great. Like, I would have, to have an opportunity to meet a women's professional, soccer player at 10 years old, eight years old, what? And now they're growing up thinking that this is normal and that's the way it should be. Yeah, yeah, it's super cool. And I think, what do you think about the involvement of social media? There's a couple of questions I got around that, but I think it gives them, the players get a little bit more interaction with, you know, all the selfies, for example, right? I think that's so big, twofold, right? For the players themselves to interact with the fans, et cetera. And then for the kids as well, just that same thing, right? The interaction with. I just finished the game and the big thing I see a lot is the mental switch for the players, I'm sorry, for the kids. That they can quickly see that in the game, they're in the game. But the minute the final whistle's done, they're instantly on how can I help, you know, take photos, whatever. What do think that impact to the social media world has kind of done for the game? Yeah. I mean. It's funny, 20 years ago or 50 years ago, whenever I was playing soccer, it felt like we didn't have it, you know? So, and now these players, men's women, even at an earlier age, you're able to not only create your brand, create your story, but you're able to monetize on that as well. And so the ability to do that, I think creates an appetite for athletes to be more savvy on the business side, for them to look outside of soccer and say, I'm just not a footballer or I'm just not an athlete. I can do other things. can create with, I can create content. I can connect with other companies, join startups and do stuff like that. it just, the impact that that has on their brand is massive, but also it makes them more relatable and more sort of closer to the, to the fans from an engagement perspective. So I think it's wonderful if they use it the right way. I think it's wonderful. kind of where I was going, because obviously Ricky, I know you had a terrible injury which kind of ended your career short than it should have been. And you transitioned right into, I don't want to say, air quotation, normal job. But if social media was around back then when you were playing, do you think you still would have gone the normal job route or? Do you think with all the social media and presence and everything else, because I'm seeing a huge shift over the last probably five or 10 years to your point, that people now are realizing that your name is your brand, right? So as I'm playing, I'm representing my name and my club and potentially country. And then after I finished playing, what else can I do with that? Because that's a huge shift even in Europe, right? 20 plus years ago, guys were finishing. they're on a decent wage, but they still have to go and do something after they finish planning the premiership, right? And now I think we're seeing that huge swing. So what do you think, know, if your career hadn't had shortened in the social media, do you think you would have gone somewhere down that road or do you think you would have still gone into where you are now? Yeah, that's a really good question. I never even thought about that, Craig, to be honest. For me, I left school early. So I left college when I was 20 years old. so I didn't have a degree. And so for me, I always made the promise to my mom that I would go back to school and finish. So she would not let me sign that contract without that promise. So I think for me, I was always going back to school to get my undergrad. And then while I was there, was just you got exposed. to other things outside of soccer. To your point, Craig, I always thought, okay, I was gonna play till I was 35, go coach, stay in the game, and that was gonna be my life. And so when that wasn't the case, it forced me to sort of shift and create a new brand for myself. And so the fact that I got exposed to, you know, corporate America or the med tech sector, you know, completely opened my eyes. So I honestly think I would have probably done the same thing just because I was forced to go back and get my degree. and it gave me exposure to other jobs out there. Yeah, I think I just talked to BFC about this two weeks ago. I went in and spoke to the team about monetizing your brand, teaching them how to use their social media because even for me, I left the national team and as I was leaving, Instagram became a thing. And if I would have been playing on the US team with Instagram back then, I'm sure would have a huge following, but I don't. And that's great. It's taught me to get creative and innovative, but I'm trying to talk to the players about taking advantage of the platform that they have now. The fact that they are a professional athlete, they can help monetize their brand, they can connect with companies, they can become ambassadors. And while they're doing those things, it's going to help them figure out, okay, what else am I passionate about? If I get hurt tomorrow, what else am I going to do? And I think like you touched on Craig, a lot of athletes think, okay, I'll just go into coaching. That's the natural pathway. But from my experience with my teammates to now, I've seen a lot of my former teammates go into coaching and they're not happy. They don't love it. It doesn't fill their cup the way that they thought it would. And they feel stuck and they don't, they go, shit, what's next? And so trying to teach our players, we're not trying to distract you from being on the field and focusing on what you're doing, but you have this amazing opportunity now with social media, with the time on your hands, go get an internship, go get experience doing sports broadcasting, go figure out to be an ambassador for a company and start to figure out those opportunities. now and what wakes you up in the morning the way that football has woken you up your whole life. So then when you are retiring or thinking about it you actually are putting your best foot forward and you have opportunities. Yeah, I love that. Cause again, you never know when your last game, right? I tell that to players all the time. Like I had no idea my last game was going to be like 19, 20 years old. No idea. I thought I was just going to roll up the next week, you know? And then even when you, if you get to 35, you're still a spring chicken to a certain degree, right? You've still only been in one world for so long. There's so much out there. And I think that's a huge, a huge, huge attractive. asset for Bay FC is having you guys in there saying, hey, you're 20, 21, know, Kings what? She's 20, I think. 19. I mean, babies, absolute babies. To have somebody, a mentor, we talk about this a lot on the podcast about having a mentor to help through those processes. It's just huge for these younger players. you know, obviously a lot of the players are doing some coaching and doing their licenses, which I... I love, I mean some of them are fantastic. Okay, let me switch really quick and get to some hard questions. How crazy is youth soccer in the Bay Area? I'm looking at a 19 year old playing amazing for the U20s team and I'm like, your girls are gonna be there in seven or eight years at the same age range. Craig, let's ease them into this here and make it directly relatable to you because you're coaching the children here at Los Gatos United. Leslie, Ricky, how difficult is it to have somebody else coach your kids when you obviously know better than Craig? It's actually not. I wouldn't say that. Craig's been phenomenal. And we're thankful that Craig does know the game. So I'll take a stab at that because we talk about this a lot. A lot of folks ask us, why aren't you coaching your kids? And honestly, I want to be a dad for now. I mean, we've got a little soccer field back here in the backyard. we do a lot of stuff outside of practice and outside of the games. But I just want them to love the game, whether it's soccer, basketball, whatever they want to do, fall in love with it, enjoy it, be passionate about it. If the time comes where they want me to or I feel the need to step in and do something and maybe we think about that. But for now, I'm a dad, I enjoy that role and I want to keep doing that role for the foreseeable future. Yeah, I don't think we've seen or experienced yet what... you're referring to, fortunately we're part of like a really great team and Craig and club. And so we haven't experienced a lot of it, but we see snippets, whether it's other teams we play or other families or coaches. But, you know, I think him and I have a similar background where our parents didn't know anything about soccer. They signed us up. My sister played, so I ended up playing. Ricky started playing at the YMCA. Our parents knew nothing about the pathway. And we just loved it. And that's like what we wanted to do. We drove it and we remind ourselves and tell each other like we want our children to do the same. We will support them, whether it's volleyball, basketball. They're playing sports 100 percent, but it doesn't matter what they play. And we just want them to find the same passion that we found. And we we look at each other and we're like, we're not we're not going to do that. And if we are hopefully role models for other parents or parents are comfortable coming and talking to us to get our perspective, which happens a lot. We're happy to give that. at the end of the day, fortunately, we've not experienced some of the craziness. And we hope that we won't. But we're ready for it. think. And just to clarify, it's not just the Bay Area. You go to any major market, it is everywhere. That's just sports in general. Yeah, we talk about this a lot on here and obviously we've had the ex athletes and current athletes on there. And it's amazing because I think we all kind of say the same thing that our parents really didn't drive it. It was our inner burn to get us where we wanted to go. And then also that, I don't want to say mentorship, but a good coach, in my opinion anyway, a good coach knows when to tell player to move on to the next place, right? And they don't hold that player back for their own intentions. So I think we have a good little flow where we are. But you're totally right. It is a little bonkers sometimes where we're talking to Thomas, the pitching coach at Stanford. It's kind of wild. Like some of these kids throwing 90 miles an hour at 14 and like thinking that's okay to, you you just know they're going to burn out by intensity in the situation or their arms just going to give up and it's. Yeah, it's just, it's kind of crazy how far people go to try and think that that's the, you know, and as we all know, one injury and it's over. You just can't control it all. So it's... talk about that a lot, the burnout, because I think even, you see it right now, and Craig, you can attest to this, at age eight, nine, these kids are playing five days a week, and then multiple games on the weekends. And the extra sessions that kids are going to attend. And hey, no problem with that. I just wonder what the effect is going to be like when they're 15, 16, when it, quote, really counts, right? That's when you really want to be trending up in the right direction. Leslie and I have been around those players that were the best 10 year olds around, but then when it came to being 15 and 16, they were nowhere to be found. So I think we're very cautious. Gabby said something to me the other day. You know, there was a Wednesday alternative session. She's like, dad, I just want to go to the jumpy house. And I was like, cool, go, go be a kid. you know, we'll get plenty, we'll plenty of time for extra sessions. yeah, we talk about this a lot. When we were playing, it was unstructured extra training. So it was different age groups, different genders, school bags for goal posts. You know, it was a totally different environment. And we try and replicate that, as you know, every few weeks of just play, just mix it up, play, learn from older players, whatever. I think the structured is the difficult one. We always have to have a field permit. We always have to have a coach. All that stuff that kind of drives me bonkers. But to your point, Ricky, about 15, 16, when it really matters, and I wasn't going to touch on this, but I will, it's an epidemic here. Like the women's national team has not played at the level they were back in the early 2000s. And we have an epidemic of 12, 13, 14, 15 year old girls dropping at that age group. Mmm. just, I super scared obviously my older team playing GA and there's ECNL and GA, which are the two, there's so much organized structure that you never know which one's the best league to play in. You, and it's different from state to state as well. The East Coast is very GA orientated, where the West Coast is very ECNL orientated. Then we're seeing that the development to your point, the best 10 year olds do not transition to the best 14, 15, 16 year olds. When it's really tough. I call it an epidemic because none of the national teams are producing at the highest level now and the US national team women's national team was by far far ahead in the early 2000s and kind of touching the tens and the men's game different right I think the men's game has gone through ebbs and flows with players moving to Europe and now you know the MLS is starting to grow again and develop more and now we're looking at different you know league formats and stuff like that but you know what's your opinion on the national side of that and you don't have to go too deep and you know but it kind of worries me that we're losing those 14, 15, 16 year old kids and be able to play that level. Yeah. Yeah. So when I was on the US women's national team, that was a while ago, 80 % of us played multiple sports leading up to high school. Like I remember two people didn't. And now when you talk to the team, 90 % of them only played soccer. And I think it's interesting because I think that I know for both of us we played multiple sports. I played three sports in high school until my junior year where, you know, my basketball coach made me choose between soccer or basketball. I just, again, these kids, other sports will help, right? It'll help with their movement, their balance, their stability, their strength, all of that, their coordination. It helps them mentally, right, to play high school. Like high school soccer was for me one of my favorite memories and it's hard to see these girls. I was an athletic director at Santa Clara when I retired and I spoke to so many Santa Clara athletes. and a lot of them were burnt out or injuries or eating disorders because of the pressure and the anxiety I saw it. And for me, I didn't have that path. And again, I go back to how much I drove it. I wanted it. I'm the one that asked my parents to drive me to the field to do fitness and they could tie me. I'm the one that wanted to go to the boys practice after my high school practice, you know? So for me, it just goes back to the kid. like wanting it. And I think playing multiple sports for as long as they can is actually a really great thing for them. At some point they'll have to decide, but you know what? Playing basketball, playing tennis, playing the other things to 13, 14, that's a great thing. And I think we're going to try to instill that, you know, as much as we can. Because I think a balance across everything in your life is just the best route. take. And when that passion kicks in, you know which direction you're gonna go. And that's the decision, right? It's still self-developed and self-found that that's where I'm gonna go and do. Yeah. want to reiterate that point so much. Craig, you and I have heard this a bunch. Leslie, Ricky, you're reiterating a point of we've had a men's national rower, we've had other professional athletes come on and say, I played everything. I tried everything. was good at some things, great at some things, and then I hit puberty and think all things changed. But it was the opportunity to have a diverse set of experiences. So everybody listening to the parent that is signing up for the extra practices and saying soccer year round or baseball. tournament after tournament after tournament, take a pause and make sure that the kids are getting as much out of it and they're showing that desire and that motivation and not doing it because you're asking them to. Again, this weekend, there was on Alexa's team, a girl led in a goal and her first reaction was to go straight to her dad to see his reaction. And that you could feel that pressure in that moment and that's not what we're all here to do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. be a national player or an Olympian or a professional athlete. It's just a different mindset I think we need to shift to. I think to your point about playing other sports. know, specifically youth soccer in this country is more of an affluent sport. And then let's say you go play basketball or football. And, for me, I grew up in an area where, you know, the players that were playing football and basketball were not playing soccer. And so I had exposure to do two different groups of people from different socioeconomic backgrounds, different ethnicities. And so for me, that gave me a more, a well-rounded experience that translates to I'm at today that I feel comfortable in many different types of rooms. And so I think from a, you know, just zoom out, let's not just talk about sports, but just life. I think playing multiple sports, getting connected around people that are in different backgrounds, different types of people, that's gonna, that's gonna suit you going forward. I love that, Yeah, for sure the rounded molded and you can tell like I can tell when I'm coaching certain players as you guys have already heard me say in Chad as well I generally interview the parents before I see the kid just to make sure whether Where I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna push one way or I'm gonna coach one way and it may not be the right mix Right and that's fine. But to your point Ricky goes back to how did they play? What did they do? What's their background? Can they be relatable in all these situations? When we win, it's easier. When we lose and we struggle, then we gotta look at ourselves. And I always say, right, you always gotta look in the mirror. How much did you want it? How much desire was it? Did we eat this morning? The kickoff was 8 a.m. Yeah, those kind of things. So I do need to ask a question while I have both of you here, Ricky Leslie. I coach my oldest daughter's rec soccer team. She went down the comp route, it wasn't for her, there was a lot of pressure. So I said, all right, if you'll keep playing, I will coach. I didn't grow up playing soccer. I know only what Craig has taught me. But I wanna hear from you. We have, she's just turned 12 years old a couple days ago. How would you approach that more laid back recreational season for a girls team 14 under? What can I take with me to practice tomorrow? Having fun. Yeah. Having that smile, your energy. This is a life experience for them. Creating a culture and an environment where those girls look forward to coming to practice. They love their teammates. They'll work for each other. They're open to learn new things. That is a life experience. And honestly, I've goosebumps thinking about that because that's the best gift you can give is a place where those girls can't wait to go to and they can't wait to be, or they're excited to be part of that team. Whether you're teaching on things and they're growing and they can look back and go look how much I developed but that is that is a safe space and that is a space where those girls can really look forward to coming to and they'll look back and say I loved playing for that team when I was 13 or 12 13 years old that's the most important thing where they have confidence and they feel safe and empowered and respected you know the guys that I play club soccer with from 14 years to 18 19 you know we're still best friends to this day mean, these are my brothers. And we talk about it all the time, what we learned. And everyone played soccer at a high level back then, but not everyone played at the professional level. But what we learned at that age was teamwork, hard work. How do you push yourself? How do you make yourself better? And just the bond and the unity that you have with teammates. Those are the things you're gonna take through college, through your job, through family. When things get hard, knowing how to persevere. So it's those qualities that are you know that that's going to transcend your life much more than you know playing pro soccer Love it, thank you. that. The safe space is something I think is major. Seeing the kids, cause everybody has a crappy day, right? Every just feels like shit one day, but turning up with your teammates around you and it's okay. Like it's such a major, major thing. say right now everyone, we're still a very young age, but that companionship, that growth mindset and you know, Ricky, poor Ricky screwed his back up and the girls came down to San Diego. It was. It was unbelievable for me to step back and watch how they didn't miss a beat. Like obviously they miss you guys being there but the kids didn't miss a beat because the community, the whole, they were just secure in that bubble. It was amazing to see. we're very thankful for that. We, you know, we talk about that weekend a lot and just the fact that, you know, everyone stepped up, all the parents, you, Craig as well. And, you know, we're just very thankful for that. And again, that's, that's the sort of community that we hope that they take and remember, you know, 20 years, 30 years down the line and they recreate that for their kids, you know, cause that's how we had it. And having great coaches, like mentors, people they look up to. mean, my girls tell you they love you. because they love you. And that's amazing, right? I have had some amazing coaches along my way and I think back to my club days and those are the most impactful times, the foundation and yeah, those relationships, you know, regardless of how much they're learning on the field, that can be actually the biggest blessing too, is just having someone to look up to and trust. It does make me laugh when one of the kids shout dad because they get, you know, they're in motion and I still react. I'm like, wait, is that me? Was that to me? they're funny. Well, we appreciate you guys. Thank you for finding the time. I love these conversations, as you know. So it's really great to get out to the broader horizon, the people that follow us on the struggle bubble. It is a struggle. We do all survive it. So as I always say, if you're in the struggle, call the bubble. We thank you guys for having us. It's a lot of fun and Chad was great to catch up and really connect. So we appreciate you having us. I appreciate it. go BFC. Two more games? Two more games? Yeah. Last one is against Houston. My boy Ricky Clark. Let's see what we got. Yeah, hopefully we got that one in the bag. Stay above that red line. Yeah. Cool, alright guys, thanks again, much appreciated. Cheers, bye bye.