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by Forge AC
Forge Channel is the official podcast of Forge AC—a place where transparency, ideas, accountability, and ambition come together in pursuit of a better future for youth soccer.This podcast exists to provide an inside look at Forge AC: our mission, our values, our philosophy, and our long-term vision. We believe organizations should be willing to explain not only what they do, but why they do it. Whether we're discussing player development, coaching, league decisions, or the future of the club, our goal is to have honest conversations that help our members and the broader soccer community better understand who we are and where we're headed.But Forge Channel is about more than one club. We'll tackle some of the biggest issues facing American youth soccer today. From the national landscape of leagues and development pathways to the challenges of pay-to-play, we'll examine how the game can better serve players and families. We believe talent should neve
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- 2 weeks ago1h 10m
Ep. 4: The Man in the Arena: Building a Better Model for American Soccer | José Rodriguez
Some people talk about fixing American soccer. José Rodriguez is actually building something better.In Episode 4 of The Forge Channel, Kristopher Miller sits down with José, the head boys’ soccer coach and a science teacher at Meadowcreek High School in Norcross, Georgia. José led Meadowcreek to the 2026 Georgia Class 6A state championship—but the trophy is only one part of this story.When José arrived at Meadowcreek, he did not begin with formations, recruiting rankings or expensive leagues. He focused on three foundations: academics, financial accessibility and community involvement. From there, he helped build a program designed to serve the players in front of him—not the business model surrounding them.Academic performance became part of the competitive standard. Community members and local businesses stepped forward to support players who might otherwise have been priced out. José says nine of his twelve seniors continued into college soccer, with scholarships covering roughly 95 percent of their education.José challenges the assumption that money proves a family’s commitment. He explains why attendance, effort, academics and accountability are the real forms of buy-in. He describes how a community can sponsor a player instead of simply buying another banner. And he argues that affordable soccer is not an impossible dream—it is a choice.“You can make club soccer affordable. You really can make club soccer affordable. You choose not to make it affordable.”José also asks a question American soccer rarely confronts: Why is soccer the sport most willing to tell young athletes to abandon their schools and communities in order to be taken seriously?Football, basketball and baseball recognize high-school competition as part of the development pathway. Soccer often treats it as an inconvenience. José argues that public schools already possess much of the infrastructure the country claims it lacks: fields, coaches, transportation, classrooms and direct connections to local families. Instead of importing another country’s model, why not build an American pathway around the institutions already present in nearly every community?In this episode:• How José’s Salvadoran family shaped his view of soccer culture• Why academics must be part of player development• How Meadowcreek built community and business support• Why money should not determine whether a child is considered committed• The relationship between high-school, club and college soccer• What a genuinely player-centered system could look likeJosé is intelligent, informed, innovative and deeply self-sacrificing. More importantly, he is not offering theories from the sidelines. He teaches the students. He coaches the players. He raises the money. He builds the relationships. He accepts responsibility for the results.Theodore Roosevelt wrote that the credit belongs to the man actually in the arena—willing to strive, fail, endure and spend himself in a worthy cause.José Rodriguez is one of those men.This was one of Kristopher’s favorite Forge Channel conversations because it offers more than criticism. It is evidence that another model is possible—and people are already building it.If you care about youth soccer, pay-to-play, high-school soccer, college recruitment or the future of the American game, watch and share this conversation.Subscribe for honest discussions about youth soccer, money, development, culture and the people building something better.#YouthSoccer #AmericanSoccer #PayToPlay #TheForgeChannel
- 3 weeks ago56 min
Ep. 3: Skip Gilbert & Why American Youth Soccer’s Structure Is Broken | Episode 3
Episode 3 of The Forge Channel features Skip Gilbert — former CEO of U.S. Youth Soccer, former professional player with the Tampa Bay Rowdies, and a longtime executive across American sport.This episode goes deep on one central question:Is American soccer short on talent — or is the structure around that talent the real problem?Skip has spent decades inside the system, and we get into how youth soccer became so fragmented, how U.S. Youth Soccer interacted with U.S. Soccer, why MLS built its own development environment, what happened to broad-based talent identification, and what the system should look like if we were building it for tomorrow’s players.We talk about the actual governance relationship between USYS and U.S. Soccer, including a revealing structural disadvantage Skip dealt with as CEO. USYS representatives serving on U.S. Soccer boards and committees were generally volunteers rather than USYS staff. That meant confidential conversations could happen at the U.S. Soccer level without Skip being able to know what was discussed, while some competing organizations had CEOs directly involved in those rooms.We also get into MLS and MLS NEXT.Skip makes an important distinction: MLS is a professional business trying to build the strongest league possible. From that perspective, creating its own youth pathway makes sense. But that raises a bigger question: should a professional league effectively become one of the primary systems for identifying talent across a country as large and diverse as the United States?That leads to one of the biggest questions in the episode:Are we actually finding the best players in America?Skip discusses ODP, geographic talent identification, and the idea of creating national events that are truly open to players and teams regardless of league affiliation.His proposal is fascinating: a U.S. Open Cup-style competition for youth teams, paired with an ODP-style national identification system for individual players. One pathway identifies the best teams. The other identifies the best players.We also discuss:• why youth soccer became so fragmented• the U.S. Soccer–USYS integration• the future role of state associations• MLS NEXT and closed competitive environments• player tracking, training compensation, and solidarity payments• pay-to-play and the economics of youth development• private equity in youth sports• shareholder return versus growing the game• why recreational players still matter• what U.S. Soccer needs to get right nextSkip’s broader point is simple:The clubs, coaches, referees, players, and communities are the game.Everything around them should exist to make that game better.When business interests, league politics, governance structures, and organizational self-interest begin driving the system instead, the structure becomes the problem.American soccer has spent years adding leagues, platforms, pathways, badges, and organizations.Skip’s challenge is different:Build the structure for tomorrow’s players.Fix the structure. Fix the sport.This is Episode 3 of The Forge Channel.American soccer without the bullshit.Youth Soccer • Money • Development • Culture#YouthSoccer #USYouthSoccer #USSoccer #MLSNext #ODP #AmericanSoccer #SoccerDevelopment #PayToPlay #PrivateEquity #ForgeChannel
- Oct 1, 202654 min
Ep. 2: Is U.S. Soccer Taking Control of Youth Soccer? | Nik Bushell on MLS NEXT, ECNL & N1
Episode 2 of The Forge Channel features Nik Bushell, Executive Director of the Missouri Youth Soccer Association, for a candid conversation about where American youth soccer is actually heading.Nik has spent roughly 25 years in the youth game, from club leadership with Avalon FC and Missouri Rush to nearly a decade with Missouri Youth Soccer. Today, he is helping operate one of the country’s largest National 1 regions and serves on U.S. Soccer’s Youth Council. Pasted text Pasted textWe get into some big questions:Is U.S. Soccer finally building a unified youth pathway?Nik says MLS, Girls Academy, US Club Soccer and other major organizations are participating in U.S. Soccer pathway discussions — and that the long-term expectation is for the major leagues to operate under U.S. Soccer standards and supervision. But would everyone inside MLS NEXT or US Club Soccer describe that future the same way? Nik’s answer: “It probably depends on who you speak to.” Pasted textWe also discuss:Why Nik calls the current American youth soccer model “dysfunctional” and expensiveWhether National 1 can create a legitimate team-based pathway for smaller independent clubsWhy the best teams in a market should actually play each other instead of driving past one anotherHow N1 teams will connect with ECNL Regional League competitionWhy MLS has not yet made the same competitive connection to N1 that US Club Soccer/ECNL hasWhether ODP may still be one of the most genuinely merit-based and club-agnostic talent identification systems in AmericaThe pressure on families to chase badges, leagues and D1 promisesPrivate equity and venture capital moving deeper into youth sportsWhy Nik believes investor-owned youth sports need constraintsStay-to-play — including Nik pushing back on some of my criticism and explaining why the model originally existedJPL pausing its U.S. season and what consolidation means for smaller league operatorsAnd why, after all the elite pathways and acronyms, the most important thing may still be teaching kids to love the gameNik is especially candid about private capital, saying its financial reward structure is not inherently tied to player development and warning that youth sports could lose control if investment enters the market without appropriate constraints. Pasted textAnd we finish somewhere much simpler: parents cannot buy a child’s destiny. Soccer is only part of their life, and the goal should ultimately be helping kids develop and love the game. Pasted textThe Forge ChannelAmerican soccer without the bullshit.Youth Soccer • Money • Development • Culture#YouthSoccer #USSoccer #MLSNext #National1 #TheForgeChannel
- Sep 24, 202642 min
Ep. 1: Who Controls Youth Soccer? Nate Shotts on N1, U.S. Soccer and the Club System
Who controls American youth soccer—and what happens when the organizations fighting for control want different things?In Episode 1 of The Forge Channel, Kristopher Miller sits down with Nate Shotts, Executive Director and CEO of the Colorado Soccer Association, for a direct conversation about the power struggle reshaping the youth game.Nate has spent nearly three decades inside Colorado soccer. He joined the state association in 1997 as Technical Director, overseeing player development, the Olympic Development Program and coaching education. He also served as CEO of the Region IV ODP program before moving into his current leadership role at Colorado Soccer.After more than 20 years leading the organization, Nate has watched the American youth system expand, fragment and begin another major transition. His contributions to the game have earned him a Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Colorado Soccer Hall of Fame.Few people are better positioned to explain what is happening between U.S. Soccer, U.S. Youth Soccer, state associations, MLS NEXT, Girls Academy, US Club Soccer and the growing number of leagues competing for players, clubs and influence.This conversation addresses the questions that usually get buried underneath announcements and press releases:Why does youth soccer remain so fragmented?Can U.S. Soccer bring the system together?What prevents MLS NEXT, Girls Academy and other major platforms from moving in the same direction?Nate’s blunt answer: power, control and money.The conversation also examines Colorado’s role in N1 and whether the league can create a more accessible pathway for smaller clubs, isolated communities and strong individual teams that have traditionally found themselves locked outside the major national platforms.Could N1 become a first step toward a genuinely vertical youth soccer pyramid?Could teams eventually earn promotion based on performance?And should one exceptional team be allowed to move up even when the rest of its club is average?That distinction matters. A team-based system rewards what players and coaches accomplish on the field. A club-based system can make access depend on organizational size, reputation, geography and the strength of unrelated age groups.Nate also discusses the realities of operating a league across Colorado, Wyoming and surrounding states, including travel costs, event consolidation, geography and the challenge of giving families meaningful competition without forcing them to spend thousands of dollars chasing games across the country.This is a conversation about who holds power, who gets access and whether American youth soccer can build a competitive structure that rewards performance instead of protecting closed systems.Topics include:• The proposed integration of U.S. Youth Soccer into U.S. Soccer• League consolidation and continued fragmentation• MLS NEXT, Girls Academy and institutional control• Power, money and competition between platforms• Colorado’s role in the National 1 League• Opportunities for smaller clubs and communities• Team-based promotion and relegation• Travel costs and geographic challenges• The changing role of state associations• What clubs can do to help N1 succeedWatch the full conversation and tell us what you think:Should competitive placement belong to entire clubs—or should individual teams earn the right to move up?Subscribe to The Forge Channel for independent conversations about youth development, money, parents, coaches, culture and the systems underneath American soccer.Problems. Ideas. Solutions.#YouthSoccer #AmericanSoccer #TheForgeChannel
- Jul 31, 20268 min
What is this really about?
What if we've been asking the wrong questions about youth soccer?In this inaugural episode of The Forge Channel, we step back from rankings, badges, leagues, and the endless pursuit of status to explore what really matters. This isn't just a conversation about soccer—it's a conversation about parenthood, perspective, and the incredible responsibility of raising young people.How do we pursue excellence without losing sight of our children? Are we preparing them to win soccer games, or to navigate life with courage, humility, resilience, and character?Whether you're a parent, coach, or athlete, this episode is an invitation to remember the bigger picture: championships fade, but the person your child becomes will last a lifetime.At Forge AC, we believe soccer is more than a game—it's a classroom for building great people.
- Jul 21, 202627 min
Where Does Forge AC Fit in the National Conversation?
Where Does Forge AC Fit in the National Conversation?Forge AC is entering a new chapter—but what does becoming part of a national platform actually mean?In this episode of Forge Channel, we break down Forge AC's place in the ever-changing landscape of American youth soccer. We'll discuss why national competition matters, how different leagues position themselves, and why we believe meaningful player development depends on more than just a league badge.We'll share why Forge AC chose its current path, what opportunities it creates for our players, and how we evaluate national platforms through one lens: Does this make life better for players?Whether you're a Forge family, a coach, a player, or simply someone passionate about improving youth soccer, this episode offers an honest 30,000 foot look at where Forge AC stands today, where we hope to go tomorrow, and why we believe constructive dialogue—not complacency—is the key to moving the game forward.
About Forge Channel
Forge Channel is the official podcast of Forge AC—a place where transparency, ideas, accountability, and ambition come together in pursuit of a better future for youth soccer.This podcast exists to provide an inside look at Forge AC: our mission, our values, our philosophy, and our long-term vision. We believe organizations should be willing to explain not only what they do, but why they do it. Whether we're discussing player development, coaching, league decisions, or the future of the club, our goal is to have honest conversations that help our members and the broader soccer community better understand who we are and where we're headed.But Forge Channel is about more than one club. We'll tackle some of the biggest issues facing American youth soccer today. From the national landscape of leagues and development pathways to the challenges of pay-to-play, we'll examine how the game can better serve players and families. We believe talent should neve
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