Texas is known for its larger-than-life characters. The LBJs, the Nolan Ryans, the swagger and spit, the confidence that’s sometimes warranted and sometimes faked. It’s the accent, paired with the attitude, that you pick up across the room and have to investigate. It’s that moment in the conversation where you stop the storyteller and say, “Wait, you said WHAT?” because you just can’t believe anyone would have the level of guts or hubris to make a claim so crazy. Well, gather around people, because I’ve got the story of a Texas-sized storyteller who may have talked his way into founding the next professional club in Texas.

When I met Tyler Watterson, it was after a few short DM conversations with the Lone Star Republic club account. We had set on a Zoom call after a recent practice in preparation for their Independent Cup Regional Final against Gaffa FC last weekend. He looked sweaty and tired, but the second he started answering questions, his energy level went off the charts. Even though he’s 30, he could easily be 22, with a bushy beard and his hat on backwards. As we began talking, I joked about that if this conversation went past 40 minutes, it must have gone off the rails. By the time we finished, it was 10 minutes beyond that.

Watterson is from Dallas originally, but moved to Phoenix as a preteen. After playing highschool soccer, he had to bail on his collegiate soccer dream because of “financial aid problems,” living in California didn’t fit within his budget. That and his “own limitations” as a player, of course. But that didn’t stop him from continuing to play at a community college for a couple of years. He bounced around the country working a day job and, after the rest of his family had relocated back to Dallas, he decided to follow suit. “I always promised myself to never come back [to DFW], because my family’s kind of crazy, but I did it anyway. Great decision.”

Once he returned to Dallas, he decided to get involved with the North Texas Premier Soccer Association (NTPSA), a massive organization or at least it was, because “Dallas Soccer Alliance has been working to break it down and tear it apart, because it’s a horrible organization.” He put his name on the free agent list and waited to get called. Only one club reached out - Gunners FC, a sixth division club in the NTPSA - “one of the worst teams in the bottom tier.” The entire experience was a disappointment for Tyler, who had played in a better run league in Kansas City prior to returning to Texas. As the season went on, he decided he would change things. “I just slowly, without even asking, started taking over some of the coaching and managing.” The club improved, winning their division and gaining promotion, the first time they had even made the playoffs.

The changes didn’t end there. The club was also working on a rebrand when he arrived, though Tyler points out that this was one decision at LSR that he had little to do with. It was between Lone Star Lumberjacks and Lone Star Republic. There was some inclination in the club towards the Lumberjacks because, “it was a division six NTPSA team, having a funny name...it was like who cares? No one ever thought we were going to be approaching pro.” The decision to rebrand to Lone Star Republic instead of the tongue-in-cheek choice would prove to be a fateful one.

Tyler decided the roster needed a rework as well, so he began cruising the free agent lists in the league every season, particularly with players who were coming into the league from outside the DFW area. “I’d go in and find people who were way overqualified to play for us and I’d lie to them. I’d lie about the division we were in. Make us seem way more serious than we were. We’d get like 30 people out for tryouts and it was kind of like internet marketing, it’s a numbers game...I could count on a few of them not finding another team and that’s how I grew the team. I was cutting people aggressively. I’d say ‘Sorry, there’s not a spot for you this year, you didn’t do shit for us, so why would I keep you around.’”

Tyler pulls no punches describing the process of improving LSR. He had a goal in mind and no friendship or player’s limitations was going to hold him back. “I got sick of that sunday league. We had won the second division, getting ready to go into the first division, and I was just sick of all of it.” The drive in that statement, wanting more and not settling, is rooted in Tyler’s character. Zach Burson, the design director for LSR and the creator of the iconic club crest, describes Tyler with admiration. “He doesn’t take no for an answer. If he wants something, he goes and gets it or figures out a way to get it. He exudes confidence.”

So Tyler held a players meeting at his apartment and presented his dream for the club. He began with “this is what we are going to do” - a command instead of a suggestion. Get into the UPSL, invest in the team, and grow the brand. “Lone Star Republic is the best name in sports...as Texas as it gets.” So with the “best name in sports,” Tyler pushed the club to lean into the Texas connection. He created a “clothing brand” (quotes were added by Tyler during the interview) called Extra Texas. Then he created fake sponsors including the kit sponsor Airline (“because so many clubs are sponsored by airlines”), Multi-Level Marketing (which “sponsors” their practice jerseys), and he rounded it out by purchasing Visitrichardson.com (“because visitrawanda is on Arsenal’s sleeve”). Zach Burson was in the meeting that night and loved the idea. “We knew that unless we became a professional club or had a big following, we would never get actual sponsors, at least, sponsors that would be worth us putting onto the jerseys. So he had this idea of fake sponsors and I don’t even know of a single guy he spoke with [about the idea], that didn’t like that either...It’s obviously fake.”

Practice shirt sponsored by “Multi Level Marketing.”

The entry fee to the UPSL was raised from that group that night. Zach remembers the group who were in the meeting well. “It was just a group of us and we were just like, what if we took this to the next level and see if we could make soccer in North Texas better for guys our age. The league we were playing in at the time was just not good and we thought we could do it better…so we came together and thought of next steps, what each one of us would want to do with that, how each of us could contribute.” Each member would jump in to fill the gaps in fundraising, planning, and coaching. Tyler had sold them on his idea.

That was December of 2018, Tyler was recovering from a foot injury. The next month, he got a lead from one of his fellow LSR players. “He knew this guy named Ying, who has a high level group of players looking for a place to play. So I sat down for breakfast with Ying and pitched him on the idea - the fake sponsors, the cool jerseys, all that - and at the end of the conversation, he’s like ‘do you know who Zach Loyd is?’” Tyler was a former FC Dallas season ticket holder, he knew who Zach Lloyd was.

Zach was a Tulsa soccer player who played college ball for North Carolina and made 78 appearances for the Tarheels. The team is a force in college soccer, making the NCAA Tournament 3 of the 4 years Zach played there and the runner-up in 2008. The defender was drafted 5th overall by FC Dallas, where he would string together 6 years before exiting the league. He was a player of some pedigree, who, post playing career, was coaching a small youth program in the Dallas area.

Before the mention of the former pro, Tyler had planned on coaching the club, but plans changed quickly after he sat down with Lloyd to discuss a role with LSR. Zach agreed to be coach and technical director and again, the lineup would change dramatically. Zach’s connections with former professional soccer players in the DFC area gave him access to a whole new level of talent to stock his roster. “An entirely new first team, where very few of our players even made the roster...We went from one team in the fall of 2018 to three teams in the spring of 2019.” That number would expand to four the next UPSL season. Had the pandemic not wiped out the spring season of 2020, Tyler claims it would have been 5 men’s sides and a new women’s side.

The club gained promotion in 2018 and was prepared for the first division of UPSL in the Spring of 2020. And though Tyler had assumed his playing time was finished, he got thrown into goal one day and found he fit into the club. “The goalkeepers had been a weak spot, in comparison to the quality of the rest of the players on the field. Because I have played in the field so much, I can distribute really well, I’m good with my feet, and my defenders treat me like an extra field player. I’m technically the CEO of the organization, the guy who started everything, and, yeah, I play goal as well.”

Tyler in the back row, playing goal for LSR.

At this point of the interview, we swung to the rumors about LSR going pro. “It started when I was six months in with this team, when I was recruiting and taking myself way too seriously and sending out email pretending to be a way better team - it’s the exact same thing. It’s speaking it into existence. So far, that has happened. Everything we’ve spoken has come into existence.” After a long monologue on the failures of FC Dallas, he hints at his goal of the club, long-term. “I know we’re in the NISA Independent Cup and we’re very excited about the opportunity of joining NISA, but a lot of our bravado is about joining MLS.”

And like every step Taylor and LSR have taken, there’s a plan to get to the final goal. The next step, a UPSL championship. “Yeah, I’m very confident in that. Especially knowing we’re better than FORO. I’m very confident in our ability to win the UPSL this season. We keep adding players to the roster and it’s only going to get crazier in the college season gets pushed back [due to COVID].”

Oh, and how LSR got into the NISA Independent Cup, that’s just part of the Tyler story. “I tell people that they contacted us in January, but that’s just me pretending we’re way more serious. I found their [NISA] expansion director on Linkedin and sent him a message ‘Hey, you need to check us out, we’d love to find a way into your league.’ At the time, I didn’t really know the rules or about the 10million dollar investor [a requirement for league entry], didn’t know any of that...We got in contact, had a phone call, we’ll see where it goes. We think we fit well into the league’s plans and would love to be involved. We should be the Dallas NISA club.” But that 10 million dollar investor is a big stumbling block, one that keeps plenty of quality clubs from entering the league.

It’s hard to know how serious to take Tyler Watterson and Lone Star Republic. Are they the hottest commodity in North Texas? A successful club with an experienced coach? A club that had grown from a single Sunday league club to an organization with 6 teams, focused on player development? Are they really a single investor away from making the jump to NISA? Or is it all another mirage from the mind of a driven visionary who is willing it into existence

For Zach, he’s confident in Tyler’s dream. “We have all the pieces. When you look at it broadly, we have everything you need. We have all the aspects, in terms of job roles, skill players, people interested in joining us going forward, we have this tremendous coach...All of a sudden after all these teams joining NISA and becoming professional, it seems very realistic. With all of that said, I fully believe our goals will be met, because so far, everything we’ve been wanting to do, we’ve done. So I don’t see why we wouldn’t.”

Whether or not Tyler is able to drag Lone Star Republic over the finish line of his plan or not, remains to be seen, but his confidence in his ability to get it done is unshakeable. “I’m not joking about reaching the highest levels of soccer. We have no concern on whether or not we get there eventually.”

- Dan Vaughn