Soccer in Minneapolis is a big, big deal… and one of the biggest organizations, which is the literal embodiment of a soccer club, is Stegman’s SC. For those from outside of the “Mini Apple,” you may be more familiar with their soccer love-child MPLS City, but if you’re a regular down at the National Sports Center or Lincoln Ground down on Penn Ave., you are very familiar with The Blues. To get more information about Stegman’s we reached out to Dan Warner, who said to just call him Warner to avoid confusion with the other Dan richly involved in the club, Dan Hoedeman. Warner tells us he moved to Minneapolis in 2011 and was fortunate to discover Stegman’s Old Boys right away – he’s been affiliated with the club ever since. In 2018 he took the reigns of the entire Stegman’s operation so that Hoedeman and Jon Bisswurm could focus on developing MPLS City. While each affiliate Stegman’s team has its own manager, Warner oversees the whole club and still pulls all the strings for Stegman’s Old Boys. Insofar as we can determine, we hit paydirt and found the right guy to answer our questions about a good club doing great things in the beautiful “Mill City.”

Stegman's Soccer Club; Stegman's 1977, Stegman's Old Boys, Stegman's Athletic, Stegman's Blues, and Stegman's United... Stegman seems to be the common thread - which club came first and how has so many teams been born from one club?

The Old Boys are the flagship team starting in 2010. The things we did outside of game-day made us what we are and other people started taking notice. In 2011 we needed a couple of players to fill out our roster but there was so much interest we decided to form a second team under the Stegman’s Old Boys umbrella. We eventually grew to four teams across two leagues, the Minnesota Amateur Soccer League and the Minnesota Recreational Soccer League, both men’s summer amateur leagues. And of course, we played indoor and small-sided fall leagues as well.

In 2015, FC Internationals, a storied amateur club in the MASL that had been affiliated with us, ran into some financial and organizational difficulties. We were already affiliated with them so it made sense for us to help out. We did, the two clubs merged, and the Internationals rebranded as Stegman’s 1977 won the MASL Division 1 championship in 2016 and 2017.

Challenging for the ball down at the Lincoln Ground (photo: Stegman’s SC Facebook)

Tell us a little bit about the MASL - is there a pro/rel model in place and can multiple Stegman-based clubs compete in the same division?

The MASL is a 4-division league with proper 2 up 2 down pro/rel. It also allows teams in different divisions to affiliate and share players with a few simple restrictions. We have 3 teams in the MASL (Athletic in D3, Old Boys in D2 and 1977s in D1.) We do our best to keep our teams in different divisions to utilize the affiliations but there have been a few epic battles with Old Boys and Athletic in D3 over the last 5 years.

Stegman’s actually got started in the other Twin Cities league - the MRSL and have retained a presence with one or two teams in that league ever since. The MRSL has a similar setup - 6 divisions on Sunday nights and 6 on Monday nights with promotion/relegation but they’re a little more lax on who must go up and who must go down, nor do they have the affiliation or player-sharing system. Blues are currently in Sunday D5 (after winning D6 going undefeated in 2019) and United in Monday D3.

Founded just 4 years ago, MPLS City seems to have become a well-known sibling of the Stegman's teams - how did that come about and why wasn't it given the Stegman's surname?

Stegman’s has always been anti-.......lots of things, which is part of our, shall we say, charm. That charm works at the local, and even quasi-regional level, but not necessarily at the national level. With MPLS City joining the national soccer pyramid we took the opportunity to have a refresh and create MPLS City in the Stegman’s image but take it to another level with broader appeal. The first name when we joined the PLA was technically SSC Minneapolis City to make the connection to Stegman’s but we quickly dropped the SSC because it’s more than a mouthful and didn’t allow us quite the separation from Stegman’s we were looking for.

Who knows if it was the right or wrong decision, but it is hard enough to make things work in the lower divisions. We were worried an esoteric, if awesome, name like Stegman’s Old Boys might be a barrier.

With so many squads in competition, do players ever move in-between the squads? Do players perceive the NPSL side as something to aspire to?

NS - Since Stegman’s is the recreational arm of the club as a whole there’s always going to be roster shake-ups; people stop playing, move for family/work, etc. The goal is to make sure everyone is playing at the best level for themselves and the club and having 5 different teams within the club makes that much easier for us. Especially when players come along but the higher-level squads don’t have any room - we are able to offer a spot within the club with potential to move up. We then see what they’re like both on and off the field and understand how the club operates - e.g. squads are built on both skill and chemistry, our ‘no assholes rule’, amongst other things. Typically, we try to get these new players folded into the club / squads during a fall or winter small-sided league to work through these things during our off-season.

Some of the players who get involved with Stegman’s 1977 & Old Boys (our D1 & D2 MASL squad) do have aspirations to play with the NPSL side and we’re more than happy to provide them with those opportunities. More often than not, players on the MPLS City and MPLS City 2 come down to the Stegman’s levels to get some additional reps and game time.

Slicing through Fargo FC at the National Sports Center (photo: Stegman’s SC Facebook)

There are various ways that clubs can set up; LLC, S-Corp, non-profit with a board and even 100% supporter owned; how is Stegman's built, what informed that decision, what are the strengths and what are the weaknesses?

We are an LLC, owned by our own players. It’s a tax nightmare, to be honest, and we’ve had to slightly adjust the structure over time, but the intent is to build a club with staying power. Part of that is the financial piece. This gives us a broad base of guys who literally feel ownership in the success of the club. The other part is player engagement and guys willing to put in the time to organize and make things happen. We’ve been lucky in that respect, and are already well into the second generation of leaders and still going strong.

Aside from providing a ton of opportunity for players of any level to participate in soccer - Stegman's is well-known for contributing to charitable causes; what has made that a part of the mission of the club and what are some of your favorite causes?

We originally started out as a rec team that would do things the best way, the right way, and not be the boners who show up with mismatched shorts & socks…. though Club Legend, The Gray Wolf, never showed up to a game wearing the proper shorts. Anyways, the first Stegman’s squad wanted to be more than just 20 guys that show up to play on Sundays so we did some training during the week to build our chemistry.

As we moved into year 2 and year 3 of the club we started looking into other ways to live up to that mantra of ‘being more than guys that just show up on game day’ and this naturally led us towards giving back and some outreach to those less fortunate than we are. Two of the three founders are good friends with the founder of The Free Beer Movement so we decided it would be really cool to bring some of that energy to a men’s recreational soccer match. We got some items to raffle off, a bunch of beer, and invited friends & family for the first annual Stegman’s Free Beer Night, played against an unsuspecting MRSL squad. As the years went on we decided to do some new things with it, expanding our reach and philanthropy by playing a squad from The Sanneh Foundation at MN United’s training field. As the club grew bigger, and field availability in the Twin Cities became a bigger issue, it became harder to get this scheduled so it’s been on hiatus for the last couple of years but we’re always looking to bring it back as well as new ways to give back through soccer.

Stegman’s SC is more than just a team, it’s a family (photo: Stegman’s SC Facebook)

With such dynamic soccer-minds at the helm of Stegman's, what's the next evolution? What should we be looking forward to when soccer comes back to normal?

I think the most important thing for us is to double-down on what made Stegman’s the kind of rec club that has attracted over hundreds of guys over the years - our traditions, camaraderie, beer, etc. Oh, and to keep winning and adding more championship ‘staches above our club crest.

To Find out more about the club: http://stegmanssc.com/