National Sports Center Blog

NGB Frustration

by Teri Vogt, Tournament Director

International events, like the soccer tournaments the NSC organizes, require sanctioning by many soccer governing bodies. For NSC soccer tournaments we sanction through Minnesota Youth Soccer, US Soccer and FIFA - Federation Internationale de Football.

Changes in leadership regularly result in changes of procedures and as a tournament director you often feel whipped around by these governing bodies changing interpretation of rules.

One that is affecting the NSC this year is a change at FIFA.  For 23 years Schwan's USA CUP has been sanctioned by FIFA and the timeline has been to submit our paperwork about one year in advance of the event. FIFA approves the rules, sends the "okey-dokey" back to US Soccer and US Soccer issues us a "Permission to Host" form. Each team needs to present this form to their state or international governing body in order to obtain permission to travel.

This year FIFA has changed and is apparently not willing to process paperwork more than 60 days in advance of an event. They have told US Soccer, according to a contact there, not to even send paperwork that is more than 60 days out from an event.  Maybe that timeline works for an international friendly between two national teams, but it's a pretty tight timeline for and event like USA CUP with 1009 teams from 20 different countries. At best, teams will just have a few weeks once USA CUP posts the US Soccer Permission to Host form to obtain permission to travel.

My experience tells me this procedure will be short lived, but my hope is that teams will be patient this year as NSC waits for the Permission to Host forms for its events.

It's intern-hiring season again!

By Greg Hutton
NSC Media Specialist

Did you notice the change from NSC Media "Intern" to NSC Media "Specialist"?  No?!?!

Anyway, yes, that means I've returned to the National Sports Center's media department after completing my internship with the facility this past summer. For my first task, Matt Koehn, who coordinates the NSC's intern recruitment, asked me to write this blog about the facility's internships. I happily obliged.

To start, read the descriptions of available internships here.

If you're wondering what an internship at the NSC like, I'll sum it up in three words: fun, busy and rewarding.

Fun - because of the organizational climate, the structure and working on such interesting and unique events. And also this:

ABOVE:  Intern softball.

Busy - because my to-do list was full the first day after intern orientation. But that's what you want - to be an asset to the organization.

And rewarding - because we were successful in our tasks and I gained lots of new experience that will be valuable for the future. I firmly believe that an internship at the NSC is one of the most rewarding experiences someone who is interested in entering the sport management field can have.

As such, being hired as an intern is not easy. Staff members are highly selective. Approximately 200 resumes and cover letters are received each season.

Also, just because you don't live near the Twin Cities doesn't mean you can't apply for an internship. Past interns have come from a variety of locations throughout the United States and even the world. A pair of last summer's interns are natives of France. The NSC doesn't provide housing, but for those concerned about finding a place to live: rest assured. Finding an apartment to sublease during the summer is very easy with the help of Craigslist.

Here are a few other reasons to consider applying for an NSC internship:

1. It's huge. The National Sports Center, that is.

Everything the NSC does is large in scale. So is the facility itself; it's in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest soccer complex in the world. Also, SCHWAN'S USA CUP is the largest youth soccer tournament in the Western Hemisphere. Approximately 1,000 teams from 25 states and 21 countries make the trip to Blaine each July.

2. Responsibility

Scott Clasen, the NSC Web Architect and also a former intern, said it best in his Jan. 16, 2007 blog:

"Internships are quite different than at other organizations. First and foremost, interns are given actual responsibility with actual consequences for not performing on the job. With the large number of events we host in the summer, there's no choice but to rely heavily on college interns to ensure event success."

It is guaranteed that, as an intern at the NSC, you won't be needlessly making copies for eight hours each day. While the specific work that each individual intern completes varies, one thing remains the same: the work is paramount to the success of the facility's summer events.

3. Location

The North Metro suburb of Blaine is just a 15- to 20-minute ride from both downtown Minneapolis and Saint Paul. As such, there's no shortage of entertainment options for the time you're not at work. I even chose to live in Minneapolis, both during my internship and now as I complete my graduate degree.

One's time on the NSC campus also promises to be entertaining, which leads me to the next reason to apply:

4. The other interns

One of my favorite parts of my internship was that I worked with 17 other college-age interns. They became not only co-workers, but also great friends - both during and after work.

Not that the other staff members aren't enjoyable - they definitely are - but having a group of people that are in the same boat as yourself makes work that much more fun.

5. I interviewed Roberto Donadoni, the head coach of the Italian national soccer team.

It's true, I did, for Kick TV during last summer's SCHWAN'S USA CUP. You can even watch it here if you don't believe me.

But my point in mentioning that fact is to draw your attention to the unique aspect of the NSC's internships. Where else would I have been able to interview Roberto Donadoni? Or get mail from the President of the United States? Regardless of one's political opinion, receiving an envelope addressed to you from "The White House" is pretty cool.

6. The NSC offers paid internships.

Granted, the money is never a reason why one should or should not apply for an internship. Rather, internships are more about gaining experience to take to future employers. But having some extra money to help pay for rent, tuition, or more importantly, Twins tickets, certainly helps.

As evident from this blog, I was 100 percent satisfied with the decision to complete my internship at the NSC. I think you will be, too.

Please feel free to shoot me an e-mail (ghutton@nscsports.org) or give me a call (763.792.7342) if there are any other questions you would like to have answered. I'm happy to help.

Description of an Addiction

By Colleen Bourdon, Recruiting Director

It's always fun to hear the background stories of how people get involved with Schwan's USA CUP and the impact it has on their life. I asked Garry Finkel, a volunteer photographer from Winnipeg to tell us about how USA CUP became such a big part of his life. Here are his words:

(Garry in action shooting the Kick TV show last summer. l-r, Tara Durheim, Garry Finkel, Mike Woodley, Taylor Kruse)

Like any other addiction, the Schwan’s USA Cup presented by Puma starts innocently enough. You get a “taste” but then things start to take over.

For the Frankel family it started 5 or 6 seasons ago. An innocent little trip by our older son’s U16 soccer team from Winnipeg to the Twin Cities area. They were going into some big soccer tournament at some place called the National Sports Center. Given that most Winnipeggers view Minneapolis as our “big sister” city, we all signed on for the journey.

But what to do with our younger son Jonathan ? Four years younger than his big brother, Joshua, we were concerned that he would have nothing to do. So a quick check of the rather excellent USA Cup web site, and we had discovered the “guest player” registry. So we signed him up and hoped that he could home stay with a local Minnesota team. As luck would have it, he was picked up by Westside FC in Minneapolis and they arranged a nice team family for him to stay with.

We booked in with Josh’s team at a hotel in the north side of town, and we were asked if we could take on a room mate, a guest player from New Orleans !! Yep, a young lad from Louisiana coming all the way to Minnesota, to guest play with a team from Canada.

This first year’s experience at “The Cup” was very hectic. My wife and I and two strapping teen aged lads in a hotel room for a week, parents partying in the lounge every night, running back and forth to Blaine twice a day to catch both sons’ games, and the occasional journey down I35 to visit with Jonathan and his host family.

When it came time to leave, Jonathan did not want to part with his host family. All the way on the 7 hour drive back to Winnipeg he kept asking what a “green card” was and how he could get one. So the hook was now in place but not yet set !!

Late that winter, the subject of USA Cup came up again. As a coach, I would get mailings from NSC promoting the events there. Josh was now with a different team that was not planning any journeys. He had just qualified, however, as a senior referee and had approached other Winnipeg referees that he had seen at USA Cup the season before about the situation. At the same time, Jonathan had kept in touch with his new pals at Westside FC. By March, the die was cast.

Year two at USA Cup had Josh going down with an older senior referee (who had agreed to play in loco parentis for the dorms at NSC) and once again Jonathan had been invited back to spend a week with a host family from their team. So my wife Debbie and I found a place of our own. This time we parked on the south side of town near the world famous Mall. Almost a second honeymoon, as we got to see the boys each day and then get rid of them each evening !! We were, however, becoming regulars on the twisty route of I35.

Each day we could catch Jonathan’s game and search around to find where Josh was doing the ref thing. It was funny, because folks from the two competing teams would ask us which team we were cheering for. When we told them we came to cheer for the ref, it would get a big laugh. Josh was also making a lot of friends amongst the officials, many of whom were from far away foreign lands. One in particular, a young ref from England named Ezra who was there with his dad and the “British Contingent”, was fast becoming good mates with Josh. This would become significant in years to come.

We finish up year two at USA Cup as seasoned veterans. Once again Jonathan did not want to leave Minnesota, and by now he knew what a green card was. Josh had made many new pals from around the world while officiating at the event. Debbie and I had a lot of fun. The hook was now firmly set. We already knew we would be returning. The addiction was taking hold.

Going into our third year at USA Cup was a given. We had booked the same hotel long before. Josh had kept in touch with some of the younger referees, especially Ezra, and because he was now 18, no longer needed a sponsor. In fact, the boys had planned for Ezra to come back to Winnipeg with us after the tournament to spend some quality time in Canada (we share the same Queen !!). The only catch, Jonathan’s old pals were not going to be able to use him this time. So back to the guest registry.

Jonathan got selected by another area team, this time from North East Soccer across town. Once again he had a super host family to stay with. By this time we were all USA Cup pros. We knew all the short cuts, where the traffic snarls would be, how to snag a good parking spot, and we still had our love/hate relationship with I35. I was ready to settle into another week of no responsibility.

“Best laid plans” as the saying goes, the host team does not have an assistant coach for The Cup, and as I am a qualified and experienced competitive coach at home, I am drafted into the job (well I guess I sort of volunteered). Early into the tournament the coach had some employment related difficulties, so suddenly I had gone from a week with my feet up, to running a team in the cup.

This year the journey back home was more interesting, as now we would be hosting a visitor from the UK. Jonathan had extended his network of contacts, Debbie had dragged me to IKEA, and I had notched another team as a coach. If there had been any hope of the Frankel family loosing our addiction to this strange week in July, it was gone. We were now engaged, hook, line, and sinker.

When we first started on this madness the Canadian Dollar was around 68 % of the American Dollar (punishing). And gasoline was well under $1.00 US per gallon. Now the Canadian Dollar was creeping closer to the US, but gasoline had risen to well over $1.00 per gallon. So when we began making our plans for the next USA Cup, I started searching for lodging a little closer to Blaine. With the improving exchange rate I figured we could afford a little more for lodging if we save some on gas. As well, our little ‘nest’ on the south side kept raising the rates every year. My search paid off. I found a great place not far from NSC that was nicer and actually cheaper. Sorry folks, this will have to stay a secret !!! After my experience actually participating at USA Cup, I felt I wanted to be a little more involved. But what to do ? Coaching would be a little bit like a busman’s holiday, as I was still coaching at home.

I had recently resurrected my interest in photography and was involved as a volunteer with Special Olympics and all our local soccer organizations as a photographer. I applied to the Media Department to volunteer for the cup and was accepted into a very small, active group of folks pretty much as nutty as I am. So I was all the way into the very heart of the thing now.

Jonathan now had so many contacts there that after some e-mail blasts he was able to hook up with some old pals who were on new teams, and he was once again good to go. Josh was all set to rendezvous with Ezra again at the ref’s dorms. Ezra was planning his second trip to Manitoba for after the tournament. All was set up and I think even the US border guard was starting to recognize us.

For our boys, this season’s cup was pretty much business as usual. For me it was a huge new adventure. Now I was meeting new people, mostly young interns, and learning a whole new role there. The big surprise was just how much work goes into keeping the cup on people’s minds all around the world. And the role of getting pictures, interviews, and stories up on the web and into USA Cup publications. My addiction was almost becoming a religion. As we checked out of our hotel at the end of the week, I made sure to make the reservation for the next year before anyone else could discover our place.

Last years Cup seems almost routine. Our family’s life seemed to revolve around plans for the annual trip south in July. Once again I would be working with “the crew”, Jonathan’s network had found him another team/family for the week. Sadly, this year Josh would not be coming down as he was working on finishing his BSc at university. Ezra, on the other hand, substituted as our on site ref son, as he was back yet again, and once more would be making the trek north to what has become almost his second home.

For me, things were actually a bit more exciting as a Cup volunteer. I had a better idea of the structure of the whole event, I knew the people, and could try to make a bigger contribution. I also got to do some really cool photography. The helicopter ride, with me hanging out the door to do aerial shots, was probably the highlight of the season. This year’s new addition to the media crew was the daily online video story. It was great fun to watch all those talented young people put in many hours a day, just to make a 5 minute video. The strangest adaptation was I suddenly found myself referring to the army of people working there as “we” rather than “they”.

When weeks after the cup the tragedy befell the I35 bridge, we felt as though we knew the folks who had been affected. Every year that route and that bridge had become part of our lives as well. Although we live 600 miles away, it seemed as if it had happened to us and our neighbours.

A bit of a bonus this year was the fall visit to Winnipeg by the USA Cup’s own Colleen Bourdon and Vicki Barnes. So I grabbed a few cameras and made sure to document the fine work they do traveling like gypsies from city to city to promote ‘our’ Cup.

As USA Cup 2008 approaches, we find the Frankel’s once again making plans for what is now the annual visit south in July. Once again we have secured our secret hotel for Debbie and I. Josh hopes to be able to get down there again to ref. Jonathan has started to activate his “network”. This will be Jonathan’s last year as a youth player. No worries though, as he is also a senior referee and looks forward to changing his role after this year. I am hoping the good folks in media will have me back for the privilege of working with such a fine group. Once again Ezra will make the journey across the Atlantic and half way across this continent.

Oh yes, I almost forgot. This May, to celebrate the year of our 30th wedding anniversary, Debbie and I will be heading to the UK. Now we get to meet Ezra’s family. I am sure we will smuggle some USA Cup brochures to drop around the UK while we are there. We also hope that they will be able to come over here this summer and visit with us.

So I would caution all of you reading this too long tale. The USA Cup is a highly addictive, insidious event. Once it works it’s way into your system, it will never let go. You have been warned !!