That is huge. Where are you pulling from? Where are these athletes coming from?

The athletes are actually far-reaching. The majority I would say are division one college players, you know, current student athletes. We have several post collegiate and former professionals, a great deal of internationals and some tremendous high school players.

What’s been great with our league, in the last two offseason alone, I’ve processed over 75 international clearances for players in the UWS to go overseas and play-up in various professional leagues in other countries. Some of them come back and return to us during our season. We’ve been hitting it pretty hard globally and we’ve had tremendous success in being able to place players in the professional leagues. And you know here and there some really high caliber high school players, but for the most part, division one college players, post collegiate players and international is our pool.

Does that limit your season, since they are coming from college? Is it may to August?

Current model, yes.

Division 1 college players aren’t allowed to join us until May 1st, and depending on the institution, we could have players stretching it to the end of the July. So it’s a short season. We have been discussing in-house what we can do to make a longer season. Now obviously, under current NCAA rules, that would forgo some teams utilizing collegiate players but that’s the model we’re in right now.

What makes you the most excited about this upcoming season? What are you looking forward to? What changes are you potentially making for the UWS?

The level of competition is what’s been exciting, along with the crowds that some of our teams have been getting. Austin played out of Bold stadium and they had over 1,200 people there. The new England Mutiny had a 1000 people at their opener. The national championship had nearly a 1000 fans in Calgary. The LA Galaxy are always the league leaders in attendance, they are in a tremendous facility out in Orange County. Our championship in Grand Rapids two years ago had nearly 2,000 spectators. That’s really the exciting part.

We just accepted Detroit City in the league. They’re one of the preeminent organizations on the men’s side out there and we fully expect them to have their women’s side with the same type of electricity in their stadium and fanfare. We’re excited to have them on board. That’s what truly exciting about the league, not only our main standard of operation, but having an organization that has fans in the seats as well and showcases women’s soccer.

There really is limited coverage when it comes to Tier 2 women’s soccer; in what ways would you like to see that change?

It’s something I’ve really had to deal with for over 20 years, not only my own franchise but in various leagues. We’re out there asking for coverage, looking for coverage, it’s why interviews like we’re having right now are tremendous to get the word out. Anything we can do to be media friendly as a league we’re always accessible. I’ve seen the challenges over the years between layoffs and print media cuts and all that, so I get it, I understand it. It’s rare that resources from some media outlets are used to cover second division women’s soccer in general, but whatever we can do to make it as easy as possible to get the word out is what we’ve tried to accomplish.

Do you have a relationship with US Soccer?

US Soccer provides us sanctioning. We have all the insurances and have the ability to play international games, register professional players and have our Canadian teams sanctioned through them. So, we have a working relationship with US Soccer. Obviously, I’d like to see more matters accomplished, whether that’s more funds allocated to second division or a different tier, but those conversations are ongoing.

Do they provide any marketing assistance or is that all pretty much you?

No they do not, pretty much the league operates part and parcel. They affiliate with US Soccer, but it’s really incumbent on them to how they want to operate and how they market themselves.

Do you have a relationship with the NWSL since some collegiate athletes and some semi-professionals might be coming from them?

Yes we know all the teams and communicate with them regularly for players. We have affiliate teams, “reserve teams” - quote unquote, so there is a relationship there in each individual market. We have been able to accomplish anything on a league-wide basis. Hopefully, the time will come but they’re still trying to gain a solid footing as well. But the communication there has always been great.

I also want to ask if you have a relationship with the MLS because the LA Galaxy were the champions last year, is that correct? I wondered if that was associated with the MLS team?

It’s an affiliate. There are a few affiliates out in the southern California region. There is some synergy, but basically the teams are independent operations of each other currently. The relationships with MLS teams are basically market to market from a league standpoint.