So who are you and what's your position with Poolboys FC?
My name is Jeremy Poklemba. I’m one of the founders of Pool Boys FC. As far as my current position with PBFC, I guess maybe the best term would be “general manager.” I more or less do whatever it takes to field a team each week, from coaching to fundraising, from social media to talent acquisition. Ultimately, I have a lot of behind the scenes help from good, local people that believe in PBFC and enjoy helping us field a competitive team year after year.

Pool Boys FC, so good, what's the story on that name?
After moving from Florida, one of my first soccer nonprofit roles was as the Louisiana Soccer Association (LSA) Vice President-Adults (2010-11ish). As part of my role in conducting Adult State Cup, it was natural to connect with the adult soccer players in Alexandria to field our own team for this annual event. I was lucky enough to connect with three other longtime Alexandria soccer guys, Loye Ayres, Elliott Ewing, and Robert Weeks (all of which had previously helped to field Alexandria teams). Once we had a core group, we of course needed a team name. And since we all know it takes some dollars to field a team, we thought it made good sense to shamelessly exploit our connection the Ewing Pool & Spa business and perpetually force a recurring sponsorship by naming our club after the business. After some amazing brainstorming sessions with the other founders (which definitely included a graphic of me with a lifesaver on a dolphin in a pool), the name Pool Boys FC stuck.

How long has the club existed and what's changed since day one?
PBFC was officially founded in 2013. Although all 4 founders have stayed involved since day one, most of us have transitioned from the roster to the board room. Loye is the lone rebel that still punishes his body weekly to get on the roster. From an on-field perspective, we’ve gone from playing once a year in a state tournament against local opponents (and then a possible regional championship) to competing all summer against some of the best clubs in the south (from Texas to Florida). Although we haven’t earned the title of the best in the GCPL, we are proud to be contenders each and every season that we compete.

Your club plays in the GCPL, can you talk about that league and what sets it apart?
The GCPL believes in a highly competitive, regionalized model as a vital part of the continued growth of the adult game. As a founding member of the GCPL, PBFC obviously agrees. There was/is a gap in opportunity for players as they age out of the youth (and college) system. There’s also a gap in the opportunity for teams to participate in a reasonably affordable, high level league. The GCPL ticks both boxes, filling that gap for players and teams. And now with its affiliation with NISA, the GCPL continues to develop innovative ways to connect its localized model with a national umbrella, providing a vertical pathway for players and teams, from amateur to dream.

The agreement the GCPL signed with NISA, what does that mean to your club? Do you feel it's a selling point for the league?
The NISA affiliation provides GCPL teams with merit-based qualification into the Independent Cup. As a club, we of course love the idea of winning our way into an event, especially an event that features professional squads. It keeps the dream alive (just like lower leagues in Europe) – it’s just nice to be able to win a league and move on to something else, to play against high quality opponents, to chase a cup!

It makes sense to be part of a unified system. So, yes, I think it’s a selling point for the league. Maybe we’re just working on our own parallel soccer universe like everyone else, but if feels like we’re trying to pull like-minded people together to form reliable, regionalized systems that feed into a national amateur system, that feeds into a semi-pro and professional system. I think NISA affiliates are moving in the right direction, and that should make membership attractive to existing and new clubs.

How has your club dealt with the pandemic?
Being in Louisiana, PBFC has been hit pretty hard by the pandemic. A complete shutdown of soccer in LA from March through the summer effectively eliminated our normal 2020 season. Of course, players wanted to play, but we were mindful of policies and took our obligation to be good neighbors seriously by shutting down our program for the summer.

And then as we geared up for the fall showcase, we had to deal with uncertainty of whether or not college players would be available – PBFC normally features a fair number of players from 2 or 3 colleges in or near Alexandria. When one institution decided its players and staff would be unavailable fairly close to the season start (due to COVID), we had to pivot … but we have a solid core of returners and a nice, new crop of players. [You can also imagine our surprise when we faced off against staff from that institution this past weekend.]

On top of that, the cancellation of the 2020 US Open Cup made it a little difficult to recapture the 7 or 8 PBFC players that opted to participate on LA Krewe’s Cup-qualifying team. Maybe that’s pandemic-related and maybe not.

In other words, it’s been a little more difficult than normal. With that said, we are thankful for the GCPL for providing this fall showcase opportunity as we gear up for the 2021.

Can you talk about a player or two from your club?
PBFC forward Nicolas Mboungou is a player to watch for this coming fall showcase. As a truly homegrown player, Nick grew up playing for our local youth club (Crossroads Soccer Association) and made his first PBFC appearance and notched his first PBFC goal and assist while still a youth player. After a brief stint at Multnomah University (OR), the former LSUA General is now back from knee surgery and looking to make waves in Central Louisiana this season.

Another former LSUA General, Andrez Joseph, has returned from Dominica and may soon be sporting the captain’s armband if he continues to lead the way on the pitch. PBFC was lucky to have Andrez for just one game in 2019 and is thrilled the lefty is back for 2020/21!

What are your expectations for 2021?
As always, we expect to win the GCPL championship. It’s always been within grasp. It’s just a matter of getting everyone on the same page, committed to the cause.

Is there any Poolboy FC merch?
Pool Boys FC merch will drop before Christmas. Mark my words. Be on the lookout!

Anything else we should know about your club?
PBFC’s long-term goal is to make it big off of solidarity payments. It was awesome to see of the 34 players in Sunday’s PBFC vs LA Krewe game, 25 were either current or former PBFC players. If we can just monetize this player movement, we’ll be set.

And maybe you should know we don’t take ourselves super seriously. We enjoy banter and expect to be your new favorite club.

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