Interview With . . . Archives

by NISA Network Staff October 19, 2022

Giancarlo Canas-Jarquin: Flying High with Flower City Union

By S.T. Weller It is a quintessential Los Angeles day sometime around 2004. Sunshine rains down from the sky. Even the ubiquitous L.A. basin smog has abated, making the sky a resplendent blue. The scene: Whittier Park in Whittier, Calif., 12 miles south of downtown Los Angeles. Parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and spectators young and old, gather along the sidelines of the soccer field. The CASSAL youth soccer league (“Los ...

by NISA Network Staff September 20, 2022

ALBION San Diego , EDI , Featured , Interview Series , Interview With . . . , Latest News

Alioune Diakhate: A Banner Season with ALBION San Diego

By Sam Weller Photo by David Frerker 6229 miles is a long way to travel to pursue a dream. But the distance from the west coast of Africa to sunny San Diego, Calif., is all part of the journey that began for Alioune Diakhate when he was a little boy. Sometime between the ages of five and seven years of age, Diakhate, who was born and raised in Dakar, the capital of ...

by NISA Network Staff June 4, 2022

AC Syracuse , EDI , Featured , Interview Series , Interview With . . . , Latest News

Alexander Satrustegui: A Long Way From Home

By Sebastian Johnson When Alexander Satrustegui was three years old, his family uprooted their lives in his birthplace of San Sebastian, Spain, and moved to his father’s hometown of Pamplona - a city 80 kilometers inland from the port town. It was an important moment in Satrustegui’s life, for Pamplona was the place where he truly fell in love with the sport of soccer. “I started playing soccer [in Pamplona] at a ...

by NISA Network Staff October 19, 2021

California United Strikers FC , EDI , Featured , Interview Series , Interview With . . . , Latest News

Family, Community, Soccer

by Sebastian Johnson It’s hard to imagine the work that goes into running a professional sports team. It’s a tall task to be sure - one that could leave even the most die-hard of fans feeling that they bit off more than they could chew. Suffice it to say, running a sports team is not a job for the faint of heart, and few know that better than Bronwyn Capriotti. Capriotti was ...

by NISA Network Staff September 16, 2021

Photo Credit: Dan Bartel/ Chicago House AC

Chicago House AC , EDI , Featured , Interview Series , Interview With . . . , Latest News

Sociology, Criminology, Soccer

by Sebastian Johnson | Photo Credit: Dan Bartel / Chicago House AC Chicago House forward AR Smith remembers the shock he felt the first few weeks attending Butler University in Indianapolis, Ind.. “I went to Butler, which is a PWI,” he says. “That is, a ‘primarily white institution.’ I was one of a handful of black people even attending the school, to begin with...I was often the only black student in many ...

by NISA Network Staff September 9, 2021

Featured , Interview Series , Interview With . . . , Latest News

We Are NISA Nation: An Interview with Pioneer Premier League Commissioner Desmond Armstrong

By Alexa Doebler Last week, the National Independent Soccer Association (NISA) proudly announced an amateur league affiliation with the new Tennessee-based Pioneer Premier League (PPL). The Pioneer Premier League is owned and led by Desmond Armstrong and his business partner. Desmond himself is a pioneer in the American game as the first Black player born in the United States to start for the USA at a FIFA World Cup (Italia '90), ...

by NISA Network Staff September 3, 2021

EDI , Featured , Interview Series , Interview With . . . , Latest News , Stumptown AC

Kevin Gonzalez Is The Perfect Man For The Job

By Sebastian Johnson It takes a special type of person to be a goalkeeper. A goalkeeper isn’t just another element of a team’s defense - far from it, in fact. The goalkeeper is the final defensive measure a team has, tasked with possibly the most crucial job on the pitch. Professional soccer players can send a ball towards the goal at speeds up to 80 miles per hour. It takes a unique ...

by NISA Network Staff August 23, 2021

California United Strikers FC , EDI , Featured , Interview Series , Interview With . . . , Latest News

For Shinya Kadono, No Distance Is Too Far To Close Through Understanding

By Sebastian Johnson The distance from Kobe, Japan, to Irvine, Calif., is 9,262 kilometers. In imperial units that’s just over 5,755 miles - a measure so great as to be nearly abstract. The average person can hardly visualize 10 miles; 5,755 miles is close to being rendered without meaning in its expanse. That is, unless you’re Shinya Kadono. Despite moving nearly 6,000 miles at age seven, the understanding he was met with ...

by NISA Network Staff August 16, 2021

Chattanooga FC , EDI , Featured , Interview Series , Interview With . . . , Latest News

Experience Shapes Actions for Shaun Russell

By Sebastian Johnson Shaun Russell didn’t realize the athlete he was becoming until he was 14 years old. “I realized I was good when I got my first college letter,” he says. It wasn’t much longer after that he got his first college call - a moment that cemented into his mind the fact that he just might be an above average soccer player. Even though Russell doesn’t remember the school that sent ...

by NISA Network Staff August 7, 2021

EDI , Featured , Interview Series , Interview With . . . , Latest News , Maryland Bobcats FC

Interview with Babajide Saba: President of the Maryland Bobcats Football Club

By Sebastian Johnson Babajide Saba is the president of the Maryland Bobcats Football Club. He also is a member of a growing number of front office executives who have taken non-traditional paths. He is a man forged by his experiences; a man who has grown to allow his unique past to inform not just his own future, but the futures of every life he has the power to affect. It’s easy to ...