Welcome to the scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. Soccer.

Our guest today is the founder of 703 Warriors, a free soccer development program in Arlington, Virginia.

The project is geared to give young players a chance to really grow in the game, even and especially when their parents can't afford thousands of dollars in fees.

It is a fascinating project, and the founder is Anise Mercy, a graduate of West Point, a military veteran, and a volunteer youth soccer coach at the forefront of what I'll call the science of accessible high-quality youth soccer, a pressing issue for the sport in America.

Anise, welcome to scuffed.

Oh, thanks so much, Adam. I really appreciate you guys having us on.

Can you give us the lay of the land?

How did you decide to start 703 Warriors?

How did you do it?

What is it?

You know, kind of just give us the basics here.

Yeah, I mean, it really started from a passion of mine.

Something that I felt when I was growing up and experienced personally.

I got lucky where things worked out, made it to high school. Football coach came up and said,

hey, son, what are you here for? I was like, I'm going to go for soccer, you know, when I get back

into it. And he said, no, son, this way. Football is this way. And, you know, football took me

to places I wouldn't have gone otherwise,

namely college, we mentioned West Point, played there. And, you know, the opportunities that were

opened up for me from sports is huge. So I always said, if I have a chance to do something about it,

I'm going to do it. And it just so happened to be, you know, in 2023 when I was able to do

something about it and kind of formalize something I was doing on the side anyways. It's like just for, you know, I have kids also, just making basically play dates for a bunch of kids. You had a big text group like, hey, if anyone wants to come out, we're going to be over here. Let's just go play and have fun. And so I saw these kids that

continue to come out, kids that would be walking with their scooters or just walking by the parks and saying, hey, can we jump in? And I was like, hey, there's something here. Let me try to formalize it. Give it a chance. And if it doesn't work, there's a reason why it doesn't because no you know there's a reason why no one's doing it because it's impossible

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