NY Red Bulls Use Soccer Programs to Promote Healthy Lifestyles

Steve Adubato talks with Amy Scheer, Chief Commercial Officer for the NY Red Bulls, and MetroStar/Red Bull alumni and head coach for the NY Red Bulls II, John Wolyniec, about the ways the organization encourages kids to live a healthy lifestyle through soccer programs and festivals they host throughout the state.

8/22/17 #2068

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"Welcome to One On One, and One On Two in this case. It is our honor to welcome Amy Scheer, Chief Commercial Officer at New York Red Bulls, and John Wolyniec, who is head coach and manager, New York Red Bulls too. Let's set this up. Red Bulls started when? 22 years ago. This is our 22nd season. One of the original members of major league soccer. And today, I asked you this right before we got on the air, how many teams in the league right now? Currently 22. 22? 22 teams, yeah. Soccer growing by leaps and bounds? Leaps and bounds. Every metric that you look at in the world of major league soccer is growing. Ratings are up. Attendance is up. Merchandise sales are up. Sponsorship revenue is up. So, across the board, we average 21,000 fans a game, so we're growing. 21,000? Yeah. How did you get into this whole thing? As a kid... Where did you grow up? I grew up in Staten Island, New York. A local guy. My dad was a track athlete. He wanted me to run. Decided soccer was a good sport. They had no idea what was going on but I became good at it and just kept going. Went to college at Fordham University on a scholarship, and then luckily enough, got drafted and then played with a bunch of different teams on the professional level and then was fortunate enough to finish my career at Red Bull and the transition to coaching took place in 2010 when I stopped playing. You love soccer, you love coaching. What is it about the game, for those of us that have been involved in other sports... I'll tell you, our kids have all played soccer, but our daughter Olivia is by far the best soccer player. Plays in the Montclair Dome which is a great place, right? You guys both know it well. What is it about soccer? I see it as a huge challenge. I was always someone that took on challenges head on and enjoyed forcing myself to get better. I feel like it's the type of sport where you could be 5'2". You could be 6'2". You could be 200 pounds. You could be 150 pounds. It doesn't matter. You could find a way to be successful at the game. There's a lot of ways to get better as far as technical, can you kick the ball well? Can you kick it better? Tactical... do you understand how players move on the field? and then it's just a lot of ways to get better. And also where you live does not matter as well..."