Manny Martins began his coaching career as an assistant with his alma mater, Sylmar High School, in 1996. He then moved on to Division II Cal Poly Pomona, serving as an assistant coach for three seasons. Manny then made stops at Los Angeles Mission College and Granada Hills Charter HS before moving to the club side. 

He filled multiple roles at the Los Angeles Premier FC and served as Director of Coaching and Player Development for the club, and head coach of their WPSL team in 2010. Manny also was an assistant on the future D1 National Champion UCLA staff in 2011-2012, where he later joined his head coach (BJ Snow) on various US Women’s National team coaching staff / scouting teams -- most recently as scout and opposition analyst for the 2019 World Cup winning team.

Manny joined the Oregon coaching staff in 2014 and is now the Associate Head Coach in 2017.

Coach

Manny Martins: Associate Head Coach for Oregon Women’s Soccer.

Topic 1: Finding a New Club

We discuss the potential need to find new clubs for players that were involved with the DA. Manny explains how players need to evaluate the things that are important to them within the club and their experience (coaches, teammates, training schedule, etc). Making sure we’re putting the substance over status was the key message.

Topic 2: DA Termination

Manny shared an optimistic take on the Development Academy termination and how at the end of the day, the league was simply a platform for players and eventually another one will emerge.

Topic 3: Mt. Rushmore of Soccer

Coach Martins gives us his Mt. Rushmore of Soccer including Ronaldinho, Luis Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo, and more.

Topic 4: Playing Time

Manny discusses the importance of playing time to him at a college club and how a player needs to give themselves an opportunity to succeed. We revisit the status of some high level clubs and how being a player on those times with limited minutes may not always give you the best opportunity to be seen.

Topic 5: Success - Mental Toughness or Talent?

Manny explains how soccer is a ‘thinkers’ game, and how important it is to be a step ahead of the opponent. We discuss how much the game has evolved talent-wise and how now the differentiator is the mental side. Manny also discusses how he has seen this stand out in his experience with the USWNT, and their ability to rise above the pressure.

Topic 6: Staying in Shape

We discussed realistic expectations for staying in shape. Become a student of the game and trying to learn as much as possible is our best way to come out on top of this.

Finding a new club can be challenging for a variety of different factors, but Manny Martins believes that a new type of soccer platform will emerge with time. The best athletes can do is to maintain their skills and stay strong mentally.

Full Transcript:

CHRIS GORDON  

Hey everyone. Thanks for joining us. Today we are joined by a very special guest. He is the current associate head coach at the University of Oregon. And he's also been a part of several us women's national team coaching staffs. Let's welcome Manny Martens to exact club experts. Coach Manning I talked about his journey up the coaching ladder and his experience with the US women's national team. We talked about the development Academy news and how players should remain calm during this time of uncertainty. And we also discussed mental toughness and some other common off field traits of successful teams. You can check out our entire conversation at a blog exact sports comm slash blog or on our social platforms, Instagram and Twitter with the tag exact sports and Facebook at the page except soccer. excited to share this one with you guys and I hope you enjoy it. All right, Manny, appreciate you joining us all the way out in Oregon. Let's get started here and just kind of get into your coaching journey and what led you to your current position. I know there's been a lot of roles in between so excited to hear a little bit more about your background.

MANNY MARTINS  

Just chronologically work work backwards. Prior to being here at Oregon, I spent a year out of the college game and that's when I first started working with the with the US national teams, youth national teams at the time. And then prior to that, I was at UCLA. Prior to that, I was coaching at a junior college down in LA area. Prior to that, I was a cub boy Pomona and then all the way back to coaching High School soccer, which is where I started back in 90 To 97

CHRIS GORDON  

Yeah, that's quite quite the journey. Now you've you've really worked your way up the ladder, you're pretty modest about your your, your up, like your background, but I know you spent a little time with the national team. So you 17 you 20 can you tell us a little bit more about your tenure with them and maybe a couple, you know, stories from from the road of spending time with those teams?

MANNY MARTINS  

Yeah, well, um, you know, after after I left UCLA. I was left in April and then in July. BJ snow at the time was the head coach for the under 17 national team. You called me and asked me to join his staff for a camp. So I did that. Remember that camp was, was Mallory Pugh and Gosh, Maddie Haley,

CHRIS GORDON  

I just heard a funny story about that camp was that the camp that overslept and forgot your cleats?

MANNY MARTINS  

Oh my. Yeah, that was the camp where they died died.

CHRIS GORDON  

I was just getting into that story when you when you signed on so I didn't I didn't get to the end of it.

MANNY MARTINS  

Now, it's, you know, it's a funny story that comes up from time to time when when we get, you know, when some of us get together. But so what happened was, we used to get to, in the mornings, we'd have breakfast together and sort of talk about talk about the, you know, a little bit of the plans review the plans for the day, and, and this particular day, I didn't show up for breakfast. And, you know, so the staff, they asked me, no response, they called me no response. So as they start Bender, breakfast, BJ and Graham actually grabbed me My head coach at Oregon now was on staff we were actually roommates at the time, or during that cycle not in that camp. So Graham and BJ come to my room at the hotel. This was at Ohio State, they have a real nice hotel on campus. And that's where we're staying. So they knock on the door I don't respond. So after a while they they actually can't the people from the hotel to open the room to you know, to see if I was in there, and sure enough when they open the room I'm laying on the bed flat. And you know, BJ shells My name a couple times. I don't respond. He does it again, apparently, you know, louder. And again, this is it. I've been told all of this right, because I was asleep. And you know, and so by the fourth time he's shouting really loud and he's still you know, he told me He was thinking, how am I going to tell his wife that he died? And, you know, so as he shouts, my name, my final time I stand up in bed. And I was really puzzled. You know why Graham and BJ were standing in my room? So I asked them Woody, what are you doing in my room? And, you know, so, so then that's just become the story of, you know, I almost died in my first camp. But that's also the first first training session. You know, I didn't know what to expect. I guess I assumed that we would have cleats available to us. I don't know why. And so I showed up to the first training session without my cleats, I mean, in in a hotel, so. So it was not a great introduction to it. I was,

CHRIS GORDON  

well, you definitely left an impression on on everyone and it seems like you stuck around for a while. So you know, Aside from that, there's obviously some things that you brought to the table that they were benefiting from. But I guess aside from the story, you know, but you're not waking up. Can you tell us a little bit more about, you know, your experience with the players with the coaches? I mean, it's got to be, you know, that's a once in a lifetime experience to work with a high profile team like that.

MANNY MARTINS  

Yeah, you know, I think, in every camps a little bit different in a one second. Every camps a little bit different. But, but the constant is, you know, you're working with the level of athlete that, you know, the mentality, the commitment to the game, the drive to be the best they can be is, you know, is is special. And that, you know, that's why the biggest takeaway from for me is, you know, getting to work with people that are high achievers in what they do. And, and and are always challenging you to challenge them. So you know, you have to be on top of your game. You have to be very prepared to be able to adapt because you have to adapt in, in many circumstances. And, you know, it's been an experience that's actually helped me grow as a coach because one working with some incredible athletes but also working with coaches that, you know, that have also challenged me to, to continue to grow. So you can't, can never just be comfortable and, you know, April Heinrichs used to say there's no finish line in in the national team and you say that to the players. I think, you know, for staff, there's never a time where where you say, Well, okay, I've arrived. I'm comfortable now I can just sit back and relax. I've been going from session to session camp to camp, you know, team to Team You're always looking to find ways to improve and grow and, and bring something new and more to the table. So it's been incredible experience incredible experience.

CHRIS GORDON  

Yeah, that's, I mean, it's pretty awesome that you've got to spend the time with those teams and you know, not really can say that. So that's definitely something that sets you apart. Now sticking on the, you know, on the USA soccer side, obviously, the news just broke a few days ago that the development Academy is is no more so can you get your Can I get your initial thoughts on that and what that means for for some of those players that may have been on those teams and how it's gonna affect the I guess the recruiting side of things going forward? You know?

MANNY MARTINS  

Well, obviously, something new will pop up and you know, it's just sort of the nature of the beast. Personally, I you know, I think the the academy There are a lot of good concepts that were introduced to youth soccer in terms of best practices and whatnot. But at the end of the day, the Academy is a platform it's a league. The Academy itself doesn't develop players doesn't do anything to players is just creates the best practices that if clubs and coaches and adhere to then then it should help create an environment to better develop players. And obviously it's it's a league that brings some of the top clubs together to play chose that creates a good level of competition and produces some avenues for coaches to recruit via the showcases. On the flip side, and you still have the CNL which again, I think it's very similar in the sense that you know, it's a platform, it's the coaches into clubs within it that You know, create training environments to develop coaches, to develop players and to improve them and guide them through the recruiting process. So I think, you know, I think when it's all said and done, it's going to be fine. Some clubs obviously have already made the commitment to play in ecml and others will find other leagues or newly will will, you know, will emerge again, it sounds

CHRIS GORDON  

like that's what they're doing with the men's are bringing that MLS league into the mix. So

MANNY MARTINS  

yeah, that'll be that'll be interesting. I mean, obviously, MLS got the resources. It's just a question is whether this was something that, you know, that was envisioned and planned and, or just something that they had to do and one or the other makes a big difference in terms of their resources in the mentality going into it?

CHRIS GORDON  

Yeah, I mean, the timing was interesting. But, you know, it's obviously there's there's not very good time for those things. So hopefully it plays out and it'll benefit, you know US Soccer down the road. Um, you know, like you said, there's there's a lot of great soccer out there, particularly in Southern California, which he spent a lot of time in the HR director coaching for a couple different clubs. And with this change, you know, coming into play, some of these players might might be trying to find new clubs, whether it be in Southern California or, you know, anywhere throughout the country that they're their development Academy club is no longer kind of in the mix. So if you were to give advice to a player, you know, if they're looking for a new club, how would you go about that for them? I know that you've kind of gone through the process as a coach trying to find a club. So I guess as a player, what advice would you give to a parent what to look for?

MANNY MARTINS  

Well, Iinteresting because I've had some of those conversations. I say, number one, I don't know that that kids have to be looking for a new club. I think the decision has to be made based on on the environment and what they're actually looking for in the sense of what's, what are their goals and what are they trying to achieve. And I was speaking to, to, you know, one of our commits actually just a few days ago, and she told me, she says, you know, I'm, you know, I need some advice. I, you know, I really love the Academy. It was great for me. And, you know, now my club is not going to be me Academy and I'm concerned if I should, you know, seek an CNR club now that my club won't be an ecml and I say, Okay, well tell me tell me. What did you like about the academy? No, she told me while we train four days a week we played against great competition. You know, the training environment is fantastic. And everything she listed was provided by the club not not the academy per se. So I told her you you really like XYZ club. You know, yes, the Academy was the platform that club played in, but everything you you have listed was provided to you by your club. So I think what you need to do is put together a list of what's important for you, and, and then create a column checklist of how much of it does your club currently provide? I imagined a training environment and all of that it's not going to change. It's the same coaches, same club, same venues. That shouldn't change. Question is going to be the competition, right, which clubs are going to be in what leagues and that matters, because if you're a player that's trying to grow and compete at the highest level, you know, you need to be in an environment that you're going to compete against teams. That, that are playing at the highest level whatever age and level you're in now. So, so, I think the key is is you know making a decision based on substance and not so much on the panic that people will look at the leagues and are so committed to playing in a specific league and many times because because of status, even though everyone uses that the buzzwords of you know development and competition in the highest level, but many times the reality of it is people are seeking to play in certain leagues and certain clubs because of status. So my recommendation is, find out what's what's, what is that you're seeking, and, and then look at what clubs what environment is going to provide that for you and whether it is the ecml or some small league in yours. community or your neighborhood and so be it, you know, players at the highest levels have come from very, very different backgrounds. And even those that that are usually claimed to have come from the big clubs or the big leagues. Far too often they started to develop elsewhere. And then were recruited once they were already a known commodity, you know, and then the big clubs in the big leagues, claim them as a product of their development, and they really weren't so so that the avenues different for everyone, but you just need to know, what is it that you're looking to accomplish? And then find what's right for you. Yeah, and

CHRIS GORDON  

I think that makes a lot of sense. And I was kind of going to get into my next question. You know, pertaining to the club side there. You know, a lot of these big clubs have so many, so many levels, so many teams. And you know, for a player, you know, a lot of times we hear it or cancel, you know, do I need to play to the top Team Do I need to play for the San Miguel team? If I'm a player, that's a borderline, you know, maybe a sub on a top team, or I have the opportunity to play maybe for the second team, the MPL team, were to give me the better opportunity to, I guess, give myself you know, more exposure to coaches, would it be the vcl team or be the second team where I'm getting a lot of the minutes and seeing a lot of the time.

MANNY MARTINS  

I, I have to say when I go to, to a game, I'm not watching two people. While they're sitting on a bench, I'll watch it you want to play. So if you come off the bench, and you play then when you're on the field I'm watching. So if you're the sub on on a top level team, and there's nothing wrong with it, every team has subs and in that situation, you know, changes, you know, if you're a sub now doesn't mean you're always going to be a sub. So again, I think the decision is not based on whether you're a sub or not I don't think Venus being a sub is shouldn't be a reason to, to seek a different team because I think that's actually part of the issue, you know, just in our days, is if, you know, if your kids are not the star, the starters of theme right away, it's too easy for parents to say, Well, I'm gonna pay for you to go to the other club, because you can start there. I think that's, that's the wrong approach to it. Now, I do believe that playing is a part of the development playing is certainly a part of the recruiting process because that's how players get evaluated. So with that said, there's need to be in an environment where where the level is such where you can play a fair amount of it where you are contributed a contributor. if if if the situation is such that that a player is only playing 510 minutes a game or are not playing it on some games, then I think the The level is just too high at the moment. You know, I've seen so many stories of players who gone to to a big power five a big back 12 or ACC school and don't do well because maybe they they just weren't ready. And then they transfer out to to a smaller mid major where the environment is better for them in a sense that you know, the depth of talent on the team is maybe not the same. So they they play a bigger role. And because of that bigger role they develop and then at the end of their college career, they're in a great place and going on to play professionally Where have they stayed at the big school, because of where they were initially, they don't develop and a career pretty much ends. So finding the right place, it's not always about finding the shaders. flashiest place, it's really finding where where you're going to be challenged where you're going to be a contributor. And that doesn't mean it's going to be the place you're always going to be but it's figuring out where you are and what matches you down

CHRIS GORDON  

yeah, I think the same applies to the college side too, right? Like you said, you know, it's you can go to a big time you know, power five school where that you know, shiny logo and tell everybody you play for the big school, but do you really play? That's the question, are you okay? Okay. sitting on the bench for a couple years or like you said, Go to that mid major school, being an impact player right away and have a great experience. It's, it's all it's all personal preference. So I feel like it applies to the club side as well. Um, so that's cool to hear the the comparisons on that front

MANNY MARTINS  

to the things that it has been a challenge for me throughout the years, you know, growing up, growing up in Portugal, we play the game because we you know, Just love it, you know, he just can't get enough with it. And I think, you know, if I, you know, my age, I'm still involved in the game as a coach is part of it, because I still can't get enough of it. But, you know, in our culture in our society, the games looked at it differently, you know, it's also a middle upper class sport, where in most other countries is not so so a lot of times the motivation and the drive to be involved in the game is very, very different. You know, we have a lot of players were very talented. We're very, very good, very successful. We're not passionate about the game, you know, they're passionate

CHRIS GORDON  

about I got too many people telling them what to do.

MANNY MARTINS  

Yeah, well, dad and the fact that they, you know, get we're in a very competitive society, right? Where it's all about, you know, winning and being ahead of the net, you know, very much keeping up with the Joneses. And, you know, so you have a A lot of people that have a passion for competing and there's nothing wrong with that. And, and they do really well at the game because, you know, it's sort of a platform for them to be, you know, to be winners to be, you know, achieving certain level of status. And I say that because I've seen so many times players were really talented and top of their game and, you know, we're on the spotlight, and then something happens or the level drops. And the so called passion for the game goes out the window. As soon as they're not having that, that level of success. You know, they decide to go do something else. So, which tells me the passion for the game was never there. So for us as a coach, you know, it's important to try to differentiate that, you know, because, as you put it, sometimes that big school well At any school, you're going to someone's going to be on the bench. And that is very often part of the process to eventually become a started to adventure become a major contributor on the field. And if if the passion for the game is not there, it's really difficult to get through the initial phase of the process where maybe you're not seeing the field a lot.

CHRIS GORDON  

Yeah, no, that's, that's definitely true. I think it becomes a mental thing as well. You know, if you're not seeing playing time, the confidence starts to deflate a little bit because you don't believe in yourself as much as you would if you were seeing a lot of minutes and contributing. And that kind of gets into my next question here. Now, you've worked with some pretty, pretty successful teams over the years from, you know, a future division one national champion, when you were with UCLA, you saw some of those players that were, you know, obviously going to be contributors to a national champion. You worked with the women's national team, who obviously has You know, went on to win a World Cup. And there's obviously a lot of skill there. But there's a lot of mental toughness there as well. Can you talk about, you know, how the two kind of go hand side by side and how much the mental side plays into a factor into success? Yeah,

MANNY MARTINS  

I think, you know, and it's almost sounds like a cliche when people say the game's 80% 85% mental, but that's true. The game is mental. I mean, everything about the game is mental. It's a thinkers game. You know, we say fear. If you are able to read and identify the next action of the game before your opposition, you know, you're always going to have an advantage. If you are mentally tough, and can push through, you know, you're going to appear to be fitter than other players. If you, you know, if you're mentally committed and driven You know to achieve you're going to be able to ride, you know, the rough moments. So the mentality piece is, is the big separator. You know, I think in our day and age, we have an incredible amount of talented players, talented players. I mean, the abundance is, is ridiculous. I mean, 20 years ago, you know, the best college teams in the country were the best because they were the only ones that had all the best players. Now, you can go find incredible players at any level, as far as talent goes. Now the differentiator really comes down to the mental piece, you know, who is committed to putting in the extra little, you know, paying attention to the little details, putting in the extra effort, further growth, putting in the extra commitment, you know, off the field, you know, so those little details are going to make the difference. I mean, being around the the women's national team I mean, it's incredible, the the level of professionalism and focus, and they're also different, you know, you know, 20 some odd players at that level, they're all different in terms of what their approaches are, you know, what they're, you know, personal drives and motivations are, but at the end of the day, their, their, their mentality, their confidence in their ability to compete, their ability to, to overcome and move past you know, breakdowns, mistakes, you know, issues that didn't work is pretty incredible and, and the ability to, to be ready to perform, you know, at that level, everyone is very, very driven and, you know, coming into play the last five minutes of important game in a World Cup is a lot of pressure that comes with that and the fact that they not only are able to take on that pressure, but, but perform as if they've been in a game as if, you know, as if just another day. That's, that's really impressive. Because, you know, as we know, it's tough to step into an environment like that and take it as when it's just another game. But that's part of what sets them apart is they, you know, they train and do everything at such high level that when you get into that environment, it really is just another game for them because they always perform and do everything at the highest levels.

CHRIS GORDON  

Yeah, no, it's it's a commitment for sure. And it's not for everybody. So it's, it's definitely cool to see how, you know, the mental side has such an impact. And, obviously, that's kind of how we differentiate ourselves that exact and hopefully give the players some tools that they can use to, you know, apply that to some, you know, positions out there. They're faced so we'll get into our last question keeping up with the times obviously where we're at home right now and not on the fields with our players I'm sure you guys have lost the majority of your spring season to do to to us being at home can you talk about ways that you're keeping in touch with your players and helping them stay in game shape not just physically but mentally

MANNY MARTINS  

Yeah well I'm obviously we're all live living in a zoom world now. And you know, we've had to adapt you know, I would say you know, game shape obviously that's not realistic can they can't stay in game shape physically or mentally you know, you have to be playing games in order to to be in any sort of game shape but there's a you know, there's a fitness base, mental and physical fitness space that they you can maintain. You know, And that's what, that's what the goal is at this point, right game shape for me is getting close to and towards speaking. And at this point, you know, even if there was a way to do it, we wouldn't want to be doing that this early. So, you know, so the focus has been on making sure and and by the way, we as a college teams, we are very restricted right now by the NCAA in terms of what what we can prescribe to our student athletes from a physical standpoint, just because of some liabilities, you know, at this point, we, you know, because they're all home, we can provide them with an athletic trainer and things like that. So. So it's very basic in terms of our very limited I should say, in terms of what can be prescribed from a physical standpoint. But with that said, in working our strength and conditioning coaches to make sure that student athletes have some options and things they can do from a physical stamp To maintain their fitness base, and then we do a lot of, you know, a lot of film. And I think that's, you know, that's the key in terms of maintaining and mental preparation and sort of sharpness. As far as the game I actually think this time, it allows us to, to maybe teach more than we typically are able to do. Because, you know, everything happens so fast, even in a spring as you have games and you prepare for a game and you recover and you know, in the limitations that you have throughout today, there's really so many hours you can devote to film. Now, most of the hours are devoted to that. So I think from from that standpoint, you know, time will tell but I think our players actually growing and learning more because we you know, we do a lot of film from from what we have performed out the winter in terms of our training sessions and our interest squads. But also, you know, Greg and myself have a lot of footage from national teams and World Cups and international tournaments that, that we clip and shown pictures of that are relative to what we're trying to do pictures that are relative to positions that specific players play. And you see that two players embrace that. And I think that everyone in a country is probably doing some version of that. And I think that that is the one way that players are going to stay somewhat, you know, sharp and keep, you know, a base that allows them to, you know, ramp up once once you can get back out on the field, but as far as actually gain fitness, not until we're back on the field and playing.

CHRIS GORDON  

I hear Yeah, but I think it goes back to what we were talking about earlier. It all goes back to that passion for the game and you know, it's easy to get outside and go for a run or you know, touch the ball here and there, those are the fun things we can do. Because, you know, we're really not able to do anything else outside but in terms of the film watching and really being educated on the game, you got to love it, you really gotta have a passion to to want to play and want to get better. And that's really all we can do right now. So I feel like those that take advantage of this time will really come out on the upside and hopefully we're back on the field soon so we don't have to do it much longer but sounds like we have good ways to keep us going while we're not. Alright, so and we'll end this this interview with some fun questions get to know you a little bit better. First of all, ask and I feel like you're gonna have an upper hand on most you know, given your your coaching background. So what is the coolest atmosphere you've ever played or coach today? Could be anything Across the board,

MANNY MARTINS  

the lowest atmosphere I've ever played or coached in Wow, that's a crash. I've I've been very lucky to be around, you know a few really cool atmospheres I'm going to say okay, I mean it has to be one of the World Cups. Actually, you know what it was? I'm gonna have to take it back to Jamaica in 2014. It was CONCACAF tournament with the under 17th. And we played Jamaica in the stadium was completely full enough for an under 17 game. The whole felt like the whole country was there for this game. And, you know, and I'm a big fan of Bob Marley. So a lot of Bob Marley was playing in the stands and crowd was super energetic. I'm going to say that it was probably You know, the coolest energy that I was part of coaching, that's obviously taken away from SR woke up, but I wasn't on the field coaching for that.

CHRIS GORDON  

That's gotta be pretty awesome to be a part of that. I feel like yeah, with all those fans, especially when you can relate to a lot that's going on there. That's awesome. All right, next one. So from Portugal on trend, I always try to get an idea of how they're gonna respond to this one. And so if you were to choose coaching environment, would you rather be 100 degrees or 30 degrees

MANNY MARTINS  

30 degrees.

CHRIS GORDON  

So I was wrong. I thought we'd go with the the hotter the hotter side. I guess the and now in Oregon, you probably have more of the 30 degree weather.

MANNY MARTINS  

Even as a player I always performed better, better when it was colder.

CHRIS GORDON  

Okay.

CHRIS GORDON  

And then My last question and might cause you to think a little bit so we've been asking our coaches to give us their Mount Rushmore of soccer players. It could be players that you've coached just players that you've idolized growing up or maybe even players that you've played with over the years. Your Mount Rushmore soccer.

MANNY MARTINS  

Okay Mount Rushmore of soccer

MANNY MARTINS  

is MBO

MANNY MARTINS  

Ronaldinho.

MANNY MARTINS  

Louis Spiegel?

MANNY MARTINS  

Gosh stuff one, you know

MANNY MARTINS  

I'm gonna say Cristiano Ronaldo. And I know there's the the the Messi,

CHRIS GORDON  

Ronaldo and Messi would be on there. That's that's been a staple. So

MANNY MARTINS  

I think they're equally incredible. I don't think you know, and I think we really should be picking between one or the other because there's so different. But I have to go with Ronaldo for two reasons. One is Portuguese. But But more importantly, I mean, this guy is, you know, he's you. He was gifted with an incredible drive. And it turned that into turn himself into this incredible athlete that has reinvented himself throughout his career. He started as a winger became a centre forward became a poacher. And you know, what he's done at different levels different clubs is, you know, I don't know that anyone's ever really done it to that extent. So he's got to be there.

CHRIS GORDON  

And he's still going still going strong. Yeah

CHRIS GORDON  

All right, MANNY. This is this has been great. I appreciate your stories and advice, and hopefully we'll see you back out in the field soon, maybe at an exact camp down the road.

MANNY MARTINS  

Awesome, Chris. Thanks for having me. You know, good luck to you and those close to you going through this time and hope to see at a field somewhere.

CHRIS GORDON  

Absolutely. I take care. That's all for our conversation today. Thanks again to coach Manny Martens for joining us. Coming up on exact club experts will be talking to more coaches and hopefully answering any questions that you may have, as we're all waiting to get back in the field. again to see any of our interviews or if you'd like a question answered, please visit or shout us out on our social media platforms, exempt sports, Instagram and Twitter, the Facebook page exempt soccer and check out our blog exact sports comm slash blog. I'll catch you all again next time. Take care

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