San Diego FC Head Coach Mikey Varas joined Annie & Elsten on Friday and talked about what it is like starting a football club from scratch, the challenges SDFC faces, and his connections to San Diego even before he became the head coach.
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00:00Our Major League Soccer franchise, San Diego FC, coming to play late February, first home
00:07match March 1st at Snapdragon Stadium.
00:10Right now on the 97.3 The Fan Hotline, we are thrilled to welcome for the first time
00:15to our airwaves, the first ever head coach of San Diego FC, Mikey Vares, is joining us
00:22right now on Annie and Elston.
00:24Mikey, good afternoon to you.
00:25Craig and Annie here on the radio.
00:27Thank you so much for your time today.
00:29Yeah, thanks for having me.
00:31Thanks for having me.
00:32Oh, the pleasure.
00:33The pleasure is ours, sir.
00:34I know you've been a busy traveling man, an international traveling man, the last couple
00:39of weeks.
00:40I wanted to just start with more of your journey here to San Diego, to this coaching position.
00:46How would you describe that professional journey to get to this place at this time?
00:53I would describe it as nonlinear and unpredictable.
00:59I've coached at every age group across the youth and professional landscape.
01:05I think the only group I haven't coached is professional women, but I did have the privilege
01:13of coaching some really talented female youth players that ended up winning gold medals.
01:20So I would say it's nonlinear in the sense that it's not so cut and dry.
01:24I've coached across all different age groups and levels.
01:28And that's from, you know, U8 beginning youth players all the way up to the men's national
01:34team and coaching the best American footballers on the planet.
01:38How much did Right to Dream Academy speak to you when you were considering taking this
01:42job and why did it?
01:44Yeah, it spoke to me tremendously.
01:48I would, I have to say it's one of the main reasons that I even started thinking about
01:57leaving the men's national team because we have a World Cup on home soil in about two
02:03years, which is obviously a massive event for our country and our footballing history.
02:10But the more that I read about the project in San Diego, obviously my wife's from here,
02:15so that's what first kind of tipped me off in terms of seeing kind of what it was about.
02:19And then as I dug deeper and deeper and recognized the Right to Dream and the, you know, football
02:25with a purpose and making a bigger impact, it spoke to me tremendously.
02:30And I think that has a lot to do with my background as a youth coach, but also some of the studies
02:37that I've done in my master's degrees in terms of developing the whole human being and making
02:42a greater impact through sport on the community.
02:45So it was a massive driving factor.
02:48Mikey Valdes, San Diego FC's first head coach is joining us.
02:52Just kind of building off of that question and answer, obviously when you're building
02:56through youth, you're creating a pipeline that you hope becomes vibrant and sustainable
03:01year upon year, decade upon decade here in San Diego, being so close to Mexico, having
03:07the ability to recruit south of the border.
03:10That's going to be a massive advantage for San Diego FC as well.
03:14How quickly do you think this team, this franchise can become a winner, can put all
03:20of this together and have the pipeline produce results?
03:23Yeah, I think first and foremost, we have such an exciting project, right?
03:29Because a few of our long term competitive advantages are going to be one, yeah, youth
03:34development and producing youth talent from the region and also from our global network
03:42of academies, right?
03:43And then the second competitive advantage is going to be our style of play and making
03:48sure that everybody is playing the same style through the academy but also linked to the
03:54global academies, right?
03:55So ultimately what we have is we have the opportunity to resource a much bigger organization
04:05to help our project in San Diego succeed.
04:09That being said, it's also a very daunting one, right?
04:12Because we start a club from scratch.
04:14Right now, we have five players signed and well six, but one is on loan.
04:21And it's, you need a lot more than six players to play a game, right?
04:26You're at least five short, Mikey, I think.
04:30Yeah, and we start, we kick off preseason on January 13th, our first session, and we
04:36won't have the whole team signed on that day.
04:39That's just the fact of the matter.
04:40That's the nature of a expansion endeavor, especially when the international window,
04:48transfer window opens January 1st all the way through April.
04:52So the idea is that one, the first thing we have to do is instill the key building blocks
05:00that are going to make us successful.
05:02The way that we see that is one, we need to start stimulating a really strong culture
05:09where everybody's bought in to giving everything to the club.
05:12And that's not just players, but that's staff members also.
05:16The next one is we have to start building the foundation of our style of play.
05:20You know, we'll probably have about five weeks, we'll have five weeks of training before our
05:25first game where, you know, all of these guys are meeting each other for the first time.
05:31So building those building blocks is going to be really important.
05:35But also getting them to understand who they are individually and how they can relate to
05:41each other on the field.
05:42Because ultimately, coach's job is to put the players in the best conditions to succeed
05:48based on what type of profile they bring.
05:52Those are going to be the major short term.
05:55At the same time, we want to be as competitive as possible while we do that from the get
06:00go because what we don't want to do is lose this energy and this excitement about the
06:04club coming, right?
06:06So ultimately, what I see is the first year, we should be contending for playoffs right
06:10away.
06:11That should be our benchmark.
06:12That should be my benchmark, you know, for if we're not in playoffs, but we're really
06:17close.
06:18Okay.
06:19If we're in playoffs, I think we're doing a great job as an expansion team in the first
06:23year.
06:24The second year, we got to show that we can advance in the playoffs and start making an
06:28impact.
06:29And then I think in the third year, based on the investment and commitment everybody
06:34makes from ownership all the way to the coaching staff and the players, you know, we should
06:38be competing for something.
06:40And ultimately, you know, there's four trophies that a team can compete for.
06:47And we believe that we should be in a position to compete for a trophy or a title in year
06:54three.
06:55Obviously, I'm a competitive person, so I want to win every game.
07:00And, you know, in an ideal world, we go undefeated in our first year.
07:04But we also are going to have those realistic goggles on knowing that this is going to be
07:11an amazing journey, but it's going to have lots of obstacles also, and we'll be ready
07:15for them.
07:16Yeah, absolutely.
07:16Mikey, and you mentioned it.
07:18You've got a ton of experience at different levels, but this is a new challenge for you.
07:21And you're doing it with a team that before two years ago didn't exist, right, and has
07:25yet to play its first game.
07:27So what do you navigate?
07:28Like, what are the challenges in terms of building an identity, getting this off the
07:32ground the way you want it in a limited time frame?
07:35And how do you address the growing pains of what could be a real advantage for you guys
07:39with youth, but also might also take a little bit of finessing along the way?
07:44Yeah, I think first and foremost, prioritizing what we're going to get to in the preseason,
07:49because you can't get to everything.
07:51Football is so complex.
07:52It's so big.
07:53So if we try to do everything and we're just, like, mediocre at best and all of that, we'll
08:00be in trouble early on in the season.
08:01So we'll prioritize what we're going to go for.
08:03We have to create a very competitive culture where trainings are competitive, playing time
08:11is competitive, and that in and of itself will help the team as we're learning our identity
08:17and be more competitive in matches, right?
08:21And then ultimately, what I have to do is I have to surround myself with people who
08:26are exceptional.
08:27And this has already been very evident in the organization that I joined that we have
08:34exceptional people.
08:36And now it's time to build out a staff of exceptional assistant coaches, performance
08:40staff members, analysis staff members, because if it's up to me, it won't be good enough,
08:46because one person doesn't have enough time or expertise to get a full footballing operation
08:53going.
08:54But if we can put all the right people in the right seats, I have a lot of confidence
08:59that I have the ability to drive the culture and drive the direction of that group of experts
09:06to be optimized in terms of setting the team up for success.
09:10The first head coach of San Diego FC, Mikey Vadas, is joining us here on Annie & Elston,
09:15San Diego's number one sports station, 97.3 The Fan.
09:18And coach, just learning a little bit about you more on a personal level, I know that
09:24you have Chilean roots.
09:25You're binational in terms of United States and Chilean upbringing and heritage.
09:30You played professionally in Chile for a year.
09:33You went down there as a kid with your family to feel the vibrance of that culture.
09:39You're bilingual.
09:40I watched some of your introductory press conference, conducting interviews in Spanish.
09:46How important do you believe it is in not only in modern soccer, but in this market,
09:53this binational region, not only bilinguality, but you're being culturally conversant of
10:00both sides of the border?
10:03Yeah, first, just one little correction.
10:05You know, I was a training player in Chile.
10:08I never signed a professional contract, so I have a lot of respect for the professional
10:13footballer.
10:14I want to make sure that that's clear.
10:16I appreciate the humility on that, coach.
10:18I appreciate the humility on that.
10:19Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:20But no, definitely traveling to South America as a kid, growing up in a dual national home.
10:26Then going, as you mentioned, I was able to train with the team right after college during
10:34the season, which was amazing.
10:35I think it makes a tremendous impact because San Diego is an incredibly diverse place.
10:45Within that diversity, I think the Latino American and the Mexican American influence
10:51is massive.
10:53And San Diego, maybe more than anywhere except with LA and maybe like Dallas, I think have
11:02the strongest Mexican American connection, where if you grew up in San Diego, you probably
11:10know quite a bit of Spanish.
11:11You probably have so many friends that are Mexican or Mexican American or Latino.
11:18And so we want to make sure that we optimize the ability to get that part of the fan base
11:28in the region super excited about the game because, as you know, football in Latin America
11:34is everything.
11:36You know, it is, I would say, religion, family, and football, you know, are the three things
11:43that drive South America and Central America.
11:46So making sure that we have that connection.
11:49And I think it goes a long way that I can speak Spanish and that I can also speak to
11:54experiences that they've had.
11:56Yeah, absolutely.
11:57And Mikey, you mentioned your wife is from San Diego and you met her in San Diego, if
12:02I'm not mistaken.
12:04What is your familiarity with San Diego before taking this role?
12:08Yeah, so my best friend was living here.
12:12And so I was visiting my best friend quite a bit because San Diego is a great place.
12:17And it was a time when Southwest and Virgin America had those like $50, $60 tickets.
12:24It was amazing, right?
12:26So I would come, you come from San Francisco where, you know, San Francisco is amazing,
12:31but it's not San Diego when it comes to weather.
12:33So anytime you'd have a free weekend as a coach, I'd pop down.
12:37And yeah, they ran in the same circles.
12:40And we met one weekend and, you know, I, quote unquote, missed my flight so that I could,
12:45you know, so I could spend more time with her.
12:48And then I think the next week she was in San Francisco and everything moved pretty
12:54fast with us in terms of our relationship.
12:56But we could obviously because of that connection with my best friend, but also the connection
13:02to her family, we continuously visited San Diego for the next 12 years before we moved
13:09to Dallas.
13:10I would say the connection is really strong.
13:12I've always described it as this.
13:14I never lived in San Diego, but it's a place that always felt like home to me.
13:19And I think a lot of people can resonate with this feeling in terms of the people that they
13:24meet in San Diego, but also just the feeling you get when you're here.
13:29And it's something that has kind of stuck with me and some of the best my best friends
13:33that I've made in my entire life.
13:35They're either born and raised here.
13:36And I met him while I was visiting, or they're also transplants who just fell in love with
13:41the city and then ended up living here.
13:44Head coach, Mike Ivana is the first head coach of San Diego FC coaches is a great get to know
13:48you.
13:48We'd love to have you on down in the future.
13:50I'm really fascinated with all your time working with analytics with the US national
13:55team, how that is coming into such a flow sport, such as soccer.
14:00There's so many things to discuss, style of play, everything else.
14:03But of course, you've got this runway heading toward opening night next February.
14:08Thank you very much for a few minutes here to have us get to know you.
14:11And we certainly hope we can have you on down the road.
14:14Of course.
14:15And once again, I appreciate you taking the time to have me on.