It really started on October 19th with a simple
text of “Should I?”
Did I want to put my name in the hat for this wild ride of
attempting to run for USSF Vice President? Now yes, I had conversations
previous to this with friends and family about making sure that we have an
election and inevitably the switch to “Why don’t you run?” always happened. On
the 19th of October… I decided to do it.
I absolutely knew that it was a very long shot. When I say
long shot… I mean that as I knew I had realistically a zero percent chance of
winning. My main goal was to make sure that the conversation about the soul of
the game in this country continued. The energy and momentum around the HOW and
WHY we govern the game the way we do that was built during the lead up to the
USSF AGM and the Presidential election was amazing. I didn’t want to lose that.
I called WVSA the next day and ran it by the leadership to
see what they thought. They were all the way on board and very excited about
it. One letter in the bag!
On October 23rd I started sending emails, text
messages and DM’s to people I knew.
The politics of the situation had begun. You should talk to
so and so… I’ve heard such and such is running you should call them… make sure
you talk to so and so… we will make sure our board votes on it. I was having
great conversations with people, but I had not been able to secure the two
additional letters.
On November 6th I sent out my first emails to a
small group of organizations I did not have prior relationships with that I
think would share like issues with what WV deals with.
November 14th, I sent out an email to several
hundred people involved in the governance of the game across the country.
November 15th, I contacted the Athletes Council to
try to arrange a conversation with them about a letter of nomination.
BOOM.
November 30th I am hit with a call that I didn’t
expect. Don Garber and the Athletes Council have both come out in support of a
candidate. The election is over and nobody even knows yet.
What am I supposed to do now? Very few outside of the inner
workings of the game even know I am running or have read my platform. The
conversation has not been out in the open… it is just me and one person on a
phone, an email exchange, or a series of text messages. This is NOT what I
wanted to see happen.
Even though I only have one Letter of Nomination and I know
that I am not guaranteed to get the others I decide I have to release my
platform to the public. I know it will be embarrassing if I don’t get the three
letters. This is about something bigger than me though, this is about making
sure we talk about where soccer in this country needs to be. So, I release my
platform and request for nominations that I have been sending to the leaders of
the game around the nation.
I am contacted by numerous media outlets and talk about the
issues. Phil Baki of Protagonist Soccer writes an amazing article and I send a
second round of emails to the leadership of soccer in this country.
I am still confident that I am going to get the remaining
two nominations I need.
Then something changes behind the scenes. I am not sure what
it is. People who had been talking to me stop. Votes are starting to happen and
state association board members who are confident that they are going to be
nominating me start to send me messages apologizing and saying that their state
decided against it.
Word hits Twitter that Cindy Parlow Cone is the candidate of
choice…
Now everyone else knows that the election is over. It was no
longer a secret…
That is how the 2019 USSF Vice Presidential Election ended.
There is a thin line between disappointed and bitter. Yes, I
am disappointed. No, I am not bitter. I was able to spark some conversation
around where I felt the governance of the game in this country needs to go and
about how to better the game for more than just the top of the game.
I kept working the phone up until literally this morning
trying to get my two letters. I talked to people who sounded genuinely disappointed
that they couldn’t or felt they were not able for a variety of reasons able to
help make sure there was an election.
Maybe there is a second candidate out there that was able to
get the three letters of support that I (and nobody I’ve talked to) is aware of…
but I was not able to get them.
The big question is where do we go from here? We all know
exactly how these elections work. We have seen two in a row now decided in this
same exact manner. Don Garber and the Athlete Council decide who they want, and
they work with a few other large organizations and they get who they want. That
is all it takes. Less than 25 people decide where the Federation goes and who
gets to lead it.
The Athlete Council never even responded to my attempts to
talk to them. I find it a little ironic that I sent Cindy Cone two emails
asking to talk to her before I knew she was a candidate. Today the council
released a statement that they are in unanimous support of her.
If you read my blog you've seen me say this before… I don’t
quit.
If you aren’t happy with 25 people making the decisions on
who gets to lead and where soccer in this nation is headed and want to meet me
in person and talk about where we go from here…. I will be at the AGM in Arizona.
I would love to talk to you.
