4: Indy Forever

My last blog was talking about my experience at University and the levels I went to whilst there to take full advantage of everything offered. As I alluded to at the end of Blog 3 , I ended up getting after graduating at Indy Eleven - a new 2nd division American club who were to start playing in the now defunct NASL league.

I’d assumed that on graduating with all my experience, I’d be fighting clubs who would all be scrambling to hire me. In hindsight I can see how incredibly naive that was, but at the time I believed I was better prepared than anyone else graduating. And quite possibly, that was true, but in the job market you’re not just competing against other graduates but against everyone who has always wanted to work in the sports industry, usually with good work experience behind them.

I applied for many jobs - I lost track how many but probably near 100 in various English speaking nations across the world and wasn’t even getting rejections from them, just was never hearing back. One of the clubs I had sent an email to in January 2013 was the then unnamed Indy Eleven, who had just announced themselves.

Hugo’s last day at Indy Eleven

I was grateful for someone I’d met while working at the Indianapolis 500, Ben Priest (now Senior VP for Mclaren F1), for reintroducing me to the club owner Ersal Ozdemir, who in turn introduced me to Peter Wilt, Indy’s GM & Juergen Sommer, Head Coach. The reason I mention this is to highlight once again the key to a strong network - I’d worked with Ben in 2011 but had stayed in touch with him and 2 years later he was able to help me get a job. I cannot stress enough how important a good network is - not only to meet people but to stay in touch in a useful & helpful way. There’s no point emailing someone you met at an event 3 years ago for a favour - it’s unlikely they will remember you or be willing to help. Stay in touch every 4-6 months, be interesting, don’t be too needy and be helpful if you can.

Indy was a real experience, a real eye opener. I’d been very used by the end of my time at University to being in charge at every organisation I was at, something that clearly wasn’t the case at Indy. Peter Wilt had built a great mix of experienced staff who had worked in professional sports before (John Koluder on PR, Tim Regan as a coach, Tom Dunmore with Operations, Mike Henn on Ticketing) as well as people fresh into sports like me who hadn’t done it before. We had a close knit, small staff (I think we peaked at about 13 staff when I was there) who, with the support of a number of interns, created a team from scratch in about a year. It was a huge learning experience for me and the fact we had so few staff meant that I got involved in so many things that I’d never of done in a larger club. I remember doing league/FIFA transfer registrations, picking out the training kits, finding player housing, selling tickets, sweeping the training ground, preparing the drinks, organising travel/training camps, budgeting etc - something that at a Premier League club would be done by about 15 people. But it really worked and while it was the hardest I’ve ever worked, I loved it.

Indy Eleven staff at the 2013 NASL Soccer Bowl in Atlanta

When we arrived we had 1 player - Kristian Nicht - who had played in the Bundesliga and was going to be our goalkeeper & captain. We pulled together a squad from all over and while I didn’t get involved too much in the scouting I was able to get us to sign a player from Southampton using my connections from my time as an intern, midfielder Corby Moore. We had a really interesting squad by the time we kicked off the first game - some of whom had made it through open tryouts and were local. Chris Wey had been working as a school teacher and it was great to have him on the squad along with a number of guys with local connections such as Baba Omosegbon, Nate Sprenkel, Brad Ring and Jon Dawson. The ‘jewel in the crown’ was Kleberson, who won the 2002 World Cup with Brazil and had played for clubs like Manchester United and Besiktas - he was a hugely exciting signing and it was my first real experience of Player Care - where the club went above and beyond to help him and his family settle in the area. While he didn’t quite work on the field, he did provide a good marquee player to the a league that had Marcos Senna and Raul playing at the NY Cosmos but was otherwise filled with mostly lower profile players. I haven’t worked with a squad since that had one person so clearly treated differently and despite the fact that Kleb was a lovely person, it definitely caused some resentment.

Hugo with Kristian Nicht & Don Smart before a filming day

We also focused our scouting in Honduras - a footballing rich country with some difficult living conditions and we were able to pick some of the league’s best players as they were keen to move their family to the USA. Erick Norales was a Honduran international and was a huge player for us, as was Sergio Pena who arrived later on. We had issues with languages in the squad with Erick, Sergio and Kleb all not speaking fluent English but there were enough bilingual players to get by and the situation was helped when I left as was replaced as Team Operations Manager by Bianca Regich, who was fluent in Spanish.

We didn’t win a league game when I was at Indy, but I learnt a huge amount of how teams have to operate when they don’t have Premier League budgets. We had everything we needed but there was still a focus on keeping the budgets tight - something that I was used to from running the team at George Washington but there was so much more that was needed. It was easily the hardest I’ve ever worked - because there were so few staff, everyone did everything and we weren’t able to plan as well as bigger organisations. One example that sticks to me was the sports drinks situation - we had limited storage at the training ground as it was a new facility which wasn’t quite finished yet - so I had to go to the shop maybe 3-4 times a week to get sports drinks for the players & coaches. This wasn’t an issues as the big stores were open 24/7 so I could go early on my way to work - but it probably added 30 mins onto your day. Then we had an issue that arose that the training facility in Westfield was sponsored by one drinks brand, but the stadium where we played games (and trained occasionally) had another - so sometimes it would be buying half Powerade but knowing that the Gatorade in my car couldn’t be drunk for a few days. Certainly minor issues, but the panic when you’ve brought the wrong drinks that day was something I’ve never experienced in the Premier League since!

The one thing that I look back on most fondly from Indy were the people - we recently did a zoom call reunion with most of the staff from that year and it’s great to be able to look back and stay in touch. Post career athlete transition is something that I never considered when I was at Indy, but in hindsight it could have been a hugely useful resource - nobody was making enough to not have to work again. Looking at the squad, there’s a number still playing but many have gone to such varied careers as sales, teaching and delivery driving - I’m really proud of them and it’s great to see so many of them do so well post playing. AJ Corrado, one of our star players in 2014, even left the club to go to dentistry school - again, something you don’t face in the Premier League.

Hugo with midfielder & now dentist AJ Corrado. Photo by Reid Sprenkel.

My final word is to those on the job hunt - have a look at the lower leagues to get your first start. If there isn’t Player Care there currently, approach them and offer to help for free. If you can prove your value, you may be able to create a role there - there are so many clubs outside the top flights that are great places to work and can really use the help - have a look in your local area and even further afield if you are able to.