So, tell us about yourself, who are you and what's your connection to FC Motown?
Thank you for the interview and the opportunity to shed insight into our club. I am the co-owner of FC Motown along with a high school classmate (Delbarton School) of Scott Kindzierski. I am a CPA by trade and love the analytical side of roster building and game tactics. I previously played for the Central Park Rangers in the Cosmopolitan league so the amateur game has been present in my life for twenty plus years.

FC Motown has a bit of history; can you talk about how the club has grown and some highlights from its history?
FC Motown has an interesting soccer origin as we started as a Co-Ed team during 2012. Scott and I had just moved the Jersey suburbs and played in the No-Idea Morristown league. The competitive nature started early as Scott had 3 players from Montclair States final four team playing against people who just wanted to get out of the house. We took that group and incrementally worked our way up the GSSL State League through promotion. As moved up the ladder we kept increasing our talent base until we were the dominant amateur team in NJ (with Jackson and Clifton being great competition). When we beat national amateur champion Landsdowne in 2016 to qualify for the Lamar Hunt Cup we knew we had the player base to do well in the national league of the NPSL. In 2018 we had the best FC Motown team in club history and went all the way to the NPSL national finals beating clubs like the NY Cosmos along the way. Everything came together that year as we had former MLS players in Dilly Duka and Julius James supplemented by the best unsigned guys in the tri-state area.

What's the soccer scene like in your local area?
We view our territory as mostly a blessing as we are in the fertile Northern NJ/NYC area with the Red Bull organization being one of the best soccer clubs on the planet. Many of our guys came through the Red Bull system and we try to target guys with in their athletic prime at 25 who just missed having a career there. The downside of our area is that there is incredible competition for any entertainment dollars or attention being in the NY metro area. We have a terrific product who plays at beautiful Drew University but there hasn’t been any groundswell fan support (although metrics are growing on social media/streaming).

Your club plays in multiple leagues, how does the team approach player distribution and balancing operations for each club?
That is a wonderful question that we are struggling with. We are proud to have obtained a franchise in the USL2, but have had difficulty getting players cleared (US Soccer is understaffed) and have 30 games in 60 days (including state league). In general, we want to have our traditional men’s team play NPSL and use a new college base for USL2. Georgetown and Seton Hall having big NCAA tourney runs have limited our player pools early in the season so some guys have double shifted between the two leagues. In the long term that is not sustainable as there have been studies about injury escalation and reduced performance with fixture congestion. For big games we may try to create an all-star team amongst the two rosters, but that is still a work in progress.

FC Motown joined USL2 this year, how has that move gone?
The move to the USL2 has been very exciting for the club. Essentially our geographic area was to be filled by another team if we did not act and get a franchise. The leadership of the USL2 has been very professional and helpful getting us up to speed on the requirements of the league. It was interesting building the roster and following college soccer this year. We were on the right track as many of our targets signed with RBU23. That is a rational decision by those players, but we did very well getting a deep, high pedigree roster. Our roster will be primarily made up of Georgetown, Seton Hall, Fordham and Rutgers players. We are very excited to see how they blend with some of our older guys.

Can you highlight some of your players?
This is by far the most interesting thing about our club as we have such an eclectic mix of players. During our game against Atlantic City this weekend we had a spine of Jean Voltaire (Haitian Youth International), Tony Tchani (one of the best players of his generation and only 32), Kenny Hot ( U17 USYNT) and James Boote (hero during Seton Hall’s tremendous tourney run). That is as random as it gets. The core of our men’s league team is Ryan Peterson (NISA hero for Detroit City), Danny Cordeiro (he could play USL Championship if scouted), Dave Greczek (Swope Park/Rutgers), Joe Fala (6’6 former RB2 and D3 All American), Freddy De Oliveira (Portugal 2nd Division), Zach Knudson (Georgetown/NC State), Eddy Enowbi, and Zach Perez (Richmond Kickers). The above core is all approximately 25 years old and we are lucky they choose to play with us. There are so many other great players on our roster with interesting back stories but I can’t list them all as we have probably 80 guys come through the club each year. Special mention to the legends who built this club on their backs in Emerson Lawrence, Maxi Garcia, Marcus Hackett and Kene Eze. All of the above will help us this summer.

FC Motown won the NPSL crown several seasons ago, how do you see your club's chances this season?
Expectations are sky high as always and we are extremely lucky to have a brilliant coach staff of Sacir Hot (NPSL), Alan McClintock (USL2) and Dave Pekarek (Goal Keeper Coach) and top notch assistants. Saci has qualified for four straight Lamar Hunt Cups which is one of the best amateur streaks in the nation. That is always the goal when we start the season. We got an intense game against a very good Atlantic City squad this past weekend which showed us exactly where we are at. The base is there for a 2018 run if we stay healthy and fixture congestion doesn’t kill us. We have a handful of guys who are too good for this level and a very deep roster.

Anything else we should know about your club?
I would like to show my appreciation for all of the amateur and lower division clubs out there. It is a ton of blood, sweat and tears with no monetary pay off. The US soccer system is a tough nut to break through on and the best we can do is give our players a platform to enjoy the game and showcase their talents. Support your local sponsors as much as possible. We are very lucky to have Alba Construction, Wayne Wealth Management, James O’Rourke Physical Therapy, Kickerball, Atlantis Water Gardens, Phoenix Insurance Group and the hottest new Morristown bar “The Homestead” supporting us. Also go catch a game if you get the chance. We haven’t been able to build on our 2018 run after COVID and a slew of terrible weather games.

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