So, who are you and what's your connection with the club?
My name is Tristan Long. I am the owner/head coach/scout/S&C coach/graphic designer/webmaster/Personal chef/chauffeur /Jack of all trades for the club (startup life). I am originally from Frankfurt, Germany. My family immigrated to the states when I was a teen.

Love the logo and name, can you talk about why bats and who designed it?
I moved to Austin in the late 90s and Bats were talked about a lot. Austin has the largest Urban Bat population in the world. Bats are neat, complicated misunderstood creatures, and I think that perfectly depicts how the rest of Texas sees us, a bit weird, a little bit batty at times. The Logo was designed by Thais Daurte Da Silva. She is a player from Brazil who just finished her last year of college at Oklahoma Science and Arts University. (USAO)

Can you talk about the history of the club so far?
We started out as a 7v7 team called the Dirty Birds. But once I started college it changed. I began doing person training for players at my old Junior college. One girl Kelso Peskin from South Africa didn’t actually play for us, but she was the first I trained her and she played at Lamar University after being a star at Tyler Junior College she went to Lamar who had won like 2 games the year before and led the team in goals with like 16 and she led them to their first winning record in some time, as well as a conference championship. but somehow, she was not getting any offers so I began researching if there were pro development leagues for women and I read about the UWS and WPSL. and so that's where the journey began for us. Kelso ended up signing with Toulouse in France a few weeks after we joined UWS.

You compete in the UWS Southwest Conference, what's the competition like?
This will be our first season so we will see how it goes. Really our conference I think only has 2 teams of the 8 have played before in the league, everyone else is brand new. The best team I think would have been Dallas International, but they dropped out 2 days ago which was strange.

Central Texas seems to be a hotspot for soccer talent, has that always been the case?
I think talent is only reflective of the teachers. In Central Texas there have been 2 very great teachers before all the pro teams showed up. Peter Den Harder, he was from the Netherlands, and Wolfgang Suhnholz who played for the German National team and Bayern Munich. He without a doubt is the reason soccer in Austin is relevant now. Sadly they have both passed away.

The UWS has been growing, what do you make of the teams being added - on the other hand, has Batco given any thought to developing the UWS2 side?
I like that its growing. I heard WPSL was kinda unfair to some teams in terms of paying during the covid season and not being able to play and UWS was really awesome and credit our payments last year to this season. And I think that says a lot about the organization not just being about just money.... in terms of UWS 2 maybe but I feel like that weakens competition within the team. Players' effort drops because some players just want to be seen... while others actually want to fight to get better, to get that coveted starting spot or spot on the bench. This isn't youth soccer anymore. We are trying to prepare these players to fight for a spot-on a pro team, and for the young ones, teach them the mentality they need to fight for play time on their college team. It took a certain type of personality to hear me say "no one is promised play time" to hear about the fitness test they have to pass every week in order to even have a chance of making the roster for the week play and for them to still be willing to bet on themselves to earn that play time.

Can you tell us about a couple of your key players?
Olga Massombo from Canada Is a player I rate very highly. She is growing a lot as a person and taking her training and nutrition more seriously as I've given her more responsibilities and I'm hoping that she flourishes. She was playing NAIA last year and now she's playing D1 and was 1st team all-conference selection. Hitomi Yamaue - She's from Japan, she Has been playing College as a Center Back, but she will play Center mid with us. such a great retainer of the ball. Cristina Garriga - She’s a star flying under the radar but we're going to get a lot of goals out of her this summer. Shante' Knox - From Katy, Texas another one under the radar, there are lots of players that have been given all the tools to succeed but at the most critical stage of development they are being sent off to colleges where coaches expect you to know the things you have not been taught and they don’t have time to teach. Anna Barkey from Parker, Colorado who plays with Shante' at UT Rio Grande, I recently signed her, she again is a player that has never played in these leagues whose extremely talented and were just trying to give her the chance to master her position. She's a Defender I'm very excited to have. and finally, Eveljn Frigotto From Italy, she is our Goalkeeper, played at Lindsey Wilson in the NAIA and WPSL in New Jersey were she was defensive player of the year.

How do you feel about the upcoming season? Like your chances?
I think we're all excited to be together again and play. I think we've got about a 3 in 8 shot of making playoffs...because 3 out of 8 teams make the playoffs. Haha, but in all seriousness were optimistic, but the first priority is to play well and develop the best players we can and then make sure the fans leave feeling like they have been a part of a special moment with us so that they want to come back again.

What's the priority for your club? Developing talent or winning championships?
We focus on Developing in Training, but games are only for those who are going to win us games. I see the league in a different way than maybe some. As I said I believe this is really a professional development platform or it should be or we are cheating our players. So, I believe developing the best team will lead to a championship, I think that when you see teams all around the world that focus on winning and they do win and maybe they win a national championship, but in that time have the players actually developed on any platform that isn’t a physical attribute? We try to roster 25 players 18 make the roster for a game, the mentality is "No one is promised play time, only the opportunity to train and earn a place on the roster. Games don't make you better, training does" It is a bit more cut throat for playing time and that's what I want so we know who has the hunger to win games, but it does weed out certain mentalities of people who feel entitled to play regardless of their bad performances in practice, and I don't speak to parents it really forces the players to be accountable for themselves and their success. But at the same time, we're left with those who respect each other in the team, so no one’s mad about not playing, everyone is here to make the club succeed. and for the friendships we develop through our grind.

Anything else we should know about your club?
We want to make football enjoyable, not just something where you wonder who wins, but where you wonder how you're going to be amazed today. I don't want us to be like some teams that don’t put out a good product but want the whole city to pay to see them simply because they are the only show in town. that just overcompensating for a bad product with things like fancy flags and banners and bounce houses. To me that's not football. Every player here and myself, we want our fans and anyone watching to fall in love with football when you see us play! It will be a challenge, but how can players get better without being challenged. I hope people tune into our MyCuujo broadcast and enjoy the hard work the ladies put in or come out to the games.

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