UltraFooty Pro Panel Night: Recap
Amidst the clutter of anxiety that event planning brings was a beautiful vision. One only conceived after countless hours of hard work, long nights, and painstaking thought processes. If a million people see a finished piece of work or an accomplishment, it can be said that only a handful of individuals, if you’re lucky, can see the process that builds up to that completed product.
UltraFooty may have celebrated their three year anniversary on February 19, 2024, but the night which was ripe with the wisdom and knowledge of coaches and professional players, was a mammoth 10 years in the making. For Dylan Evande and Jordan Saling, the UltraFooty Pro Panel Night was a testament to the hours, days, weeks, months, and years they spent doing the small things correctly. It was the reward reaped from the genesis of their dream.
Dylan and Jordan lamented their thoughts of days where it would take a shovel, a ball, and five yards of snowless turf to get in any little work they could. Their goal in starting UltraFooty was to ensure the next generation of Footballers an accessible, safe, and comfortable environment to grow and learn as both a player and a person.
I first sat down with the UltraFooty coaching staff. Sat next to me were three young men, equally anxious in their own right due to the prospect of speaking in front of a crowd of over nearly 50 parents and players. Ryan Evande, Roodlenscky Charles (Rood), and Fanor Arango provided keen insight on how they approach their day to day as sculptors of their clients’ game.
We dove firstly into attitude where each coach provided detail on their individual coaching philosophies. For example, Rood emphasized hard work and getting the little things done right with constant repetition. This tactic, he says, makes for an easy transition to live game and allows his clients to think more freely about the game on a Macro scale. We also saw, from the three coaches, an emphasis on having fun because, as each coach noted, taking the joy out of the game for players, especially young ones, is the easiest way to stunt an athlete’s growth.
The coaches discussed as well, how to manage expectations, and grade results. This is where we learned about the most poignant thought.
Comparison is the thief of joy. Fanor and Ryan echoed each other’s words by saying what might be success for you is not always success for all. Each coach noted that players are raised in different circumstances and with different blessings and barriers. Because of this, they noted that tethering your goals to that of your peers is a huge inhibitor of growth.
In all, each coach, though nervous at the outset, gave well received thoughts that the audience carried with them going forward.
In three separate panels, I was able to sit down with six professional players who have taken the pitch all over the world. Oscar Sanchez, Steven Ortiz, Ryan Peterson, Zach Perez, Chris Bermudez, and Adam Najem all told their individual stories, diving deeply into their trials, both figuratively and literally, their tribulations, successes, and life lessons.
Each panel, each pro — in truth — told a uniquely different story about what it took to get to the next level. However, each athlete, whether knowingly or not, preached one similar message.
Make the most of any opportunity you’re given.
Whether an athlete’s path started at the professional level from a young age, or opportunity presented itself after years of high school and college footy, each athlete spoke about how the importance of going pro, is staying pro. Steven Ortiz, a professional goalkeeper, recalled the harsh realities of realizing that the moment you become a pro is the moment you’ve most likely taken someone else’s job. For him, at such a young age, that difficult reality set in quickly. As most soccer players grow up playing with their friends, it seemed for a lot of pros one of the more difficult transitions was realizing that though your teammates will ultimately become your brothers, earning their respect took hard work first.
In discussing and taking key lessons from each professionals’ journey, on the pitch, one question from the crowd sparked key discussion across all panels about off the pitch. A young UltraFooty footballer asked about the importance of mental health. Some of the pros talked about being away from family, being alone, experiencing failure after years of praise, and what we found on the other side of a paramount discussion about life outside of the game was the reality of the sport itself. For everyone their goal is to ultimately be pro, but as Ryan Peterson puts it, “mental health is everything, but when it comes to the game you have to be a little naive about it…You have to do the right things at the right moments day in and day out.” Being a pro is a mindset, more than it is a profession, Peterson noted, the times where all of the external factors are bearing down on you is when you exhibit your most professional practice like remembering the little things and finding the fun, like the coaches said, and making the most of your opportunity like the pros touched on. Never be afraid to ask for help. That, after all, is why UltraFooty got started, to help others grow.
