Exploring Life & Business with Brendan Campagna of Anglers Football Club

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brendan Campagna.

Hi Brendan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Through high school and college, my dream was to run a soccer club, particularly a small, local club in a small town in Europe. Think third or fourth-division teams in England, Sweden, or Spain. Clubs like Ljungskile SK in Ljungskile, Sweden. No, of course, you have not heard of them, but they are a big deal in their town of less than 3,500. I love how community-driven small soccer clubs can be.

As soccer gets more and more commercialized at every level of the game, these small community clubs will become increasingly important in maintaining the culture and ethos of football (soccer). But when I graduated college, the dreams of moving overseas and working for one of the myriad clubs around the world proved far more difficult than I had hoped. Application after application was sent into the void of the internet, but none yielded any return. Instead, I began my career as a teacher and high school soccer coach.

When, in October 2021, an opportunity arose to acquire a small, youth soccer club in my hometown of Colorado Springs, I jumped at the chance. Over the last two years, Anglers FC has grown through a rebranding and introducing new programs. As we look ahead, we are exploring new ideas to help make a better youth soccer experience more affordable and accessible for any family.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
While growth in the last two years has been relatively straightforward, financial sustainability has proven more elusive. Before the change in leadership, Anglers FC depended on the coaches and director to serve as volunteers; everyone was parents of children on the teams, so it was a labor of love for their kids. If the club was going to continue in the long term, however, a different path forward was needed.

The LLC that the club had functioned as for years was folded, and we reincorporated as a nonprofit, filing for and receiving our 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. This was the first step towards a more financially sustainable model. We began seeking corporate sponsors and pitching our unique value offering to donors. We instituted some minor price adjustments to the current service offerings and strategically added new offerings with much higher profit margins than the legacy services.

We now pay our coaching staff a small stipend each season, and I have been able to pay myself a part-time salary as director. We continue to seek funding and grant opportunities to allow me to transition to the club full-time, but the growth from both a participation and financial sustainability standpoint has been encouraging in our first two years since the acquisition.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Anglers Football Club?
Anglers FC has been in the Colorado Springs community since 2010. It is a club with a unique model. Rather than competing as part of the Colorado Soccer Association, teams within the club have scheduled their friendly games against local opponents. This model cuts down on the time and travel commitment for families and critically, is far more affordable than other youth soccer options. Youth soccer has a huge cost problem. A season of competitive club soccer is frequently higher (often much higher) than $1000; a season with Anglers FC is less than $300.

As a club, Anglers FC is known for being affordable, holistic, and family-oriented. In our rebrand at the end of 2021, we doubled down on these core values, committing to keeping registration prices low for families and introducing new programs to help players develop every area of their game. Beyond our fall and spring seasons, we now offer technical sessions through the summer to develop players’ skills with the ball, a futsal league in the winter to develop players’ tactical understanding of the game, mental excellence workshops to teach players and parents how to strengthen mental resilience, and international Christian mission trips to impact players’ spiritual lives and help them see the global nature of soccer.

I am proud of how Anglers FC continues to evolve and ask questions. Too often, things are done simply because that is the way they have always been done. This is especially true in youth soccer. Anglers FC strives to always ask questions, think critically, and hopefully come to some different conclusions about how a youth club can be run to better serve its local community and impact young people for the better.

What matters most to you? Why?
I have each of our coaches create their personal coaching purpose statement. Mine is to help players become life-long lovers of the game, regardless of the level at which they ultimately go on to play. This personal purpose statement certainly bleeds out into my leadership of Anglers FC. It is important to me that players have a positive experience and fall in love with the game of soccer.

While a few athletes are elite and should be striving to play in college and beyond, most simply need to grow in their skills, have fun, and learn valuable life lessons through both winning and losing. The vast majority of youth athletes will not play beyond high school. Rather than focusing solely on the minuscule percentage of elite players, I want to create positive experiences for players regardless of the level they play at later on in life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.anglersfc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anglersfc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anglersfootball
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/anglersfc