ISSUE 025: The MLS NEXT Pro Executive of the Year

3 new job opportunities in soccer 🙌

IN THIS ISSUE

  • 👋 Introduction: Exactly that, an introduction

  • 👨‍🎓 Soccer Thought Leader: Darrius Barnes of Crown Legacy FC

  • 👥 Mentorship Opportunity: 1-on-1 with Darrius

  • ⚽️ Soccer Jobs: Jobs that caught our eye

  • ✨ Featured Jobs: Three open roles at Las Vegas Lights FC

INTRODUCTION

For all of our new subscribers, welcome to Pathway - we’re excited you’re here and hope that our little soccer newsletter serves you well in your pursuit to break into or build your career in the sport.

We have a good one for ya today - first, we jump in with the MLS Next Pro Executive of the Year, Darrius Barnes, of Crown Legacy FC. After a 9-year playing career, Darrius very quickly made the jump to the business side of the sport. He’s got a great perspective that we know many will find useful.

And be sure to scroll down if you’re interested in a 1-on-1 mentorship with Darrius - he’s kindly offered up a couple of slots to pick his brain.

You’ll also find a collection of new soccer-specific job opportunities below and additional info on our latest recruitment + hiring collaboration with Las Vegas Lights FC. They’ve got three open roles that are worth a look.

-Nolan Sheldon, Co-Founder & CXO

Did you spot a job that we need to include or have feedback on the newsletter? Drop us an email!

SOCCER THOUGHT LEADER: DARRIUS BARNES OF CROWN LEGACY FC

“I don't want to be risk hungry, but I do want to have a risk appetite”

After a successful nine-year playing career - including eight seasons with the New England Revolution - Darrius Barnes was able to quickly make the jump to the business side of the sport. His first role came in the partnership marketing space with MLS before he made the move to Charlotte FC, eventually becoming the President of Crown Legacy FC, Charlotte’s MLS Next Pro team.

And he isn’t slowing down either - in addition to being named the 2023 MLS Next Pro Executive of the Year, he is also pursuing his MBA at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

In our conversation, Darrius shares how he approached his career transition, the benefits of launching his career in the partnership marketing space, and how he views leadership as someone now leading a club.

Enjoy the read, Pathwayers.

Nolan Sheldon, Co-Founder & CXO

Questions and answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity (and any emphasis below is ours).

PATHWAY: After a nine-year playing career, you quickly made the transition from player to the MLS league office and into a partnership marketing role. Can you tell us about those final years playing, the immediate transition period, and your approach to your post-playing career in soccer?

DARRIUS: You know, no two players’ transition journeys are alike. You try to soak up as much knowledge as you can from those who have done it before you. And that's something I tried to do. Everyone tells you that your playing career goes by super quickly and you never really know when your last day is going to be. You're a professional on December 31st and then on January 1st, you're not a pro anymore. That reality strikes pretty quickly.

I was very successful in my rookie year, playing every minute of every game for the New England Revolution. And you think that’s going to be the benchmark and then the realization within the league starts to unfold a little bit. There’s competition for places, injuries, and all sorts of things. So, the first four years of my career were extremely successful. In the back four, I was kind of more of a role player.

The final two years of my career is when I honed down on what I wanted to do post-playing. I knew that I didn't really want to go into coaching, after being part of the competition side and the sporting side for so long. I wanted to find something where I could reinvigorate myself a little bit, but always knew my passion was still soccer. I wanted to stay connected to football.

I really wanted to diversify and see what else was out there also. And I learned a lot through having informational interviews with people in different industries and sectors. My last year playing was for the New York Cosmos in New York. I took that year to prep myself, having coffee chats, going in and shadowing people - seeing what the digital content team does, seeing what the partnership marketing team does, seeing what the player relations side does. I wanted to know what drives the league from a commercial standpoint and from a revenue growth standpoint. Those interviews and the connections that I was able to make at the league office paid off and I was able to join the partnership marketing department at the league office, managing a portfolio of the league's commercial partners with the likes of Adidas, Audi, MGM, SeatGeek, Body Armor - so that's how my career transition transpired.

PATHWAY: Talk about your experience in the Harvard Business School - Crossover to Business Program. What were some of the takeaways that you gained from that experience?

DARRIUS: Yeah, that was a fantastic experience for me. I was at a time [in my career] where I didn't really know what I was going to do. I was contemplating going to a traditional business school and just trying to continue to get some business acumen.

And this was an opportunity that the MLSPA provided at the time - I found this program super interesting because it is introductory into case study methods and understanding kind of the inner workings within business - getting behind the bones of actual businesses and seeing how startups are developed, how they're funded, how they raise money, how they raise capital to keep the engine going - getting into that kind of the financials - the high-level financials.

So, for me, it was important to reinvigorate myself, but also to get the business jargon going a little bit, just understanding the kind of terminology that you need in business landscapes, to be in certain environments, certain atmospheres, and understand how to extrapolate information from business case studies. It provided a new way of thinking, a different perspective in terms of how to look at the world, and how to look at organizations as a whole.

PATHWAY: While at the MLS league office, you helped manage some of the league’s key partnership accounts - how did you grow professionally during that period?

DARRIUS: One of the benefits was clearly understanding value proposition. It was a big one for me. What do we, as a league, have that motivates these big brands to associate themselves with MLS; a young league, a thriving league, a league of potential. And so just understanding what the league's value proposition was, I think was a big one for me.

And then, on a more kind of tactical level, was just understanding the value in relationships as well. When you're dealing with commercial partnerships and sponsorships, it's still very much a relationship-driven business.

So, being able to connect with people, to understand their objectives personally, and then understand the objectives of their brand that they're representing also. Whenever you're able to sift through the minutiae a little bit and actually connect with someone to clearly understand and align with their objectives, goals, ambitions - that's really where the business gets done.

PATHWAY: You joined Charlotte FC in year one of the club’s history. Talk a little bit about your role as a Director of Business Operations with the club and how you laid the groundwork for the club to grow and thrive.

DARRIUS: I was originally brought down [to Charlotte] as Director of Business Operations - it was essentially wearing a number of different hats to help build the club. At that time, the club was just starting - I think I was employee number five, six, or seven, something like that. And so really the task was trying to figure out what we didn't know. As a startup club, you're trying to get the learnings from clubs that have done it before you.

I had been in MLS for a number of years and worked at the league office for a couple of years prior to coming down. So, I was able to bring that experience to help build the club.

So, that role was to support and help build our community initiatives, support our partnerships team on sourcing partnerships, and manage some of those clients. We built out our broadcasts, managed our relationships with our broadcast production company, and managed from a comms standpoint how we're approaching our media relationships - you only get one opportunity for a first impression. And how are we maximizing that opportunity in our first year? And then what are going to be some of those reoccurring ways that we're able to capitalize on what we're building moving forward?

PATHWAY: In March 2022, you were named President of Crown Legacy FC. When there is a moment of club expansion and growth, what are the key ingredients to get it right? Where was the focus?

DARRIUS: At first, it's be to really patient. There's no quick-fix recipe to success. You have to take time to assess. So, you're assessing the whole landscape in terms of opportunity - where is the opportunity for growth? And so for me, it was being patient and consuming all the knowledge that I could, consuming everything from what we learned from starting Charlotte FC to understanding what MLS Next Pro was going to be and the objective of that league that MLS launched in 2022. So, just understanding the rules of engagement and the space that you're playing in, you have to kind of know what's surrounding you before you can get fully ingrained. That was a big, big piece for me.

And once you're able to do that, you're able to develop that growth mindset with the right perspective - we built Charlotte FC. Now, how can we build one of the best MLS Next Pro teams in the league? Set the right foundation for this to be successful and sustainable as we go forward.

 And then after that, I don't want to be risk hungry, but I do want to have a risk appetite. Where are those opportunities where we can take some risks and see what works?

PATHWAY: I really like what you said there “You don't want to be risk hungry, but you do want to have a risk appetite” – can you provide an example of when you and the club showed an appetite for risk?

DARRIUS: Initially for us, we were one of the first teams to consider a different approach to the naming and branding of our MLS Next Pro team. If you look around the league, there's a lot of a twos and Bs - NYCFC II or Orlando B. For us, we wanted to think forward and try to figure out and project where the league is going and wants to go, both from a sporting product, but also from a commercial product. I wanted to at least explore the idea of having a unique name, a unique identity, for our second team. And ultimately, after doing some research and speaking internally, we landed on deviating away from a Charlotte FC 2 or a Charlotte FC B and went with Crown Legacy FC.

I think that was a risk for us that was worth taking - you know, it's going against the grain, it's against the norm of what's out there right now. And there's going to be some pressure from the league to do more of that. I think you'll start to see a lot of clubs, traditional clubs, start to rebrand a little bit. I think we were one of the pioneers in doing so.

PATHWAY: As a club president, how has being in that role changed or reinforced your perspective of what leadership looks like?

DARRIUS: I wouldn't say it's changed, but it’s definitely shifted a bit and reinforced how I look at leadership. For me, I used to think that power had like a big stigma on it. And to some people, it does. But I don't think power has to have a negative stigma.

I think having power gives you the opportunity to have influence - so that's how I look at leadership. It is being in a position where you're able to help influence decisions, help influence people, help motivate people, help guide people, help guide organizations, influence organizations, and hopefully you're doing that for the better. 

Within the role that I'm in right now, just being able to be close to the president of Charlotte FC, our ownership, and our sporting director and GM - being around a lot of these like-minded and sharp individuals - helping influence how we're making decisions, helping influence how we're implementing process, how we're implementing policy, how we're implementing our player development pathway. kind of up and down the gamut.

And so for me, I've kind of taken a shift in that because there is a certain stigma around power that thinks you're kind of demanding and it's more of like a dictatorship. But that's not necessarily the case when you're in a position that you can influence people, that's also power within its own right.

PATHWAY: Think of a top performer within your club or during your time at the league office - what are the things that they do well that allow them to not only drive tremendous value to their organization but also grow their careers? What do high performers do that their peers are not doing?

DARRIUS: I think an underrated one is prioritizing tasks - having a strategic plan. It is simply getting tasks accomplished every single day. Having a plan of how you want to knock down tasks and having a plan of where you want to go, where you want to see the organization go, where you want to see your team go - I think having a plan, prioritizing tasks within that plan is extremely underrated because we all deal with so many things all the time.

One of the things I hear people saying, I try to get out of it myself, is people say, well, “how are you doing?” I'm like, “Well, I'm really busy.” Well, everyone's busy, right? So if you're busy, how are you prioritizing and putting a plan together to make sure that you're getting those top bucket line items accomplished?

PATHWAY: That's great. Think of one specific, tactical piece of advice for someone who wants to break into working in soccer – either as a recent graduate who is starting their career or for a mid-career professional who wants to pivot their career and begin to work in soccer. Can you share one piece of advice that would be helpful?

DARRIUS: I would say, first and foremost, for those that are just starting their journey and looking to break through it is never stop learning. Just consume as much as you can. You know, those first couple years of your career is when you're trying to figure out exactly what you what you want to do, right? So, never stop learning - be eager, raise your hand, try new things, and take something from every experience you have - take every experience that you embark on as an opportunity, whether it's a success or mishap - that's an opportunity for growth and opportunity to get better.

And for those who are pivoting, I'd say identify your superpower, identify that key strength. What are you good at? Where do you add value to an organization? And how can you continue to enhance that superpower? Ultimately, once you nail down what you want to do, it’s all about how you enhance that, build on that, sharpen those skills, and continue to elevate.

PATHWAY: Last question. What's your favorite thing about working in soccer, Darrius?

DARRIUS: My favorite thing about working soccer is the passion, the people, and the competition. No two days are the same and it keeps me hungry and that passion for the sport keeps me hungry. I don't think there's any other sport that has the passion from staff, players, fans across the world.

Ed. note: You can connect with Darrius on LinkedIn and follow him on X [Twitter!].

PATHWAY MENTORSHIP OPPORTUNITY: 1-ON-1 WITH DARRIUS BARNES

Darrius has kindly offered to conduct two (2) 1-on-1 mentorship sessions. If you’re interested in speaking with Darrius directly, click below to raise your hand for the opportunity. 🙋

  • PATHWAY MENTORSHIP APPLICATION: Darrius Barnes, Crown Legacy FC [apply here!]

SOCCER JOBS: THE MOST INTERESTING NEW JOBS IN SOCCER

Here are a few new jobs for your review and consideration! 🙂

Want to see all the soccer jobs in one place? Sign up for our weekly “Pathway Jobs Newsletter” where we aggregate as many as 100 new soccer job listings - and drop it into your inbox every Friday.

FEATURED JOBS: LAS VEGAS LIGHTS FC

Las Vegas Lights FC has opened the below roles for applications and we at Pathway are thrilled to be helping them source best-in-class talent for the opportunities. Click each title to read the full job description and apply.

  • The VP of Marketing and Communications will play a pivotal role in shaping the club’s brand, growing the fan base, and driving revenue through strategic marketing initiatives, campaigns, and platforms.

  • The Director of Communications & PR will be responsible for shaping and managing the team's public image, securing local, regional, and national media coverage, and supporting the sporting department and players as the club’s press officer.

  • The Video Producer will be responsible for creating compelling video content that showcases the team's brand, highlights player performances, engages fans, and drives audience growth across digital platforms.

WHEN YOU’RE READY, HERE ARE A FEW WAYS WE CAN HELP:

  1. If this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up here to ensure you get every issue (sent on Wednesdays!) directly in your inbox.

  2. You can subscribe to our Pathway Jobs Newsletter, which hits inboxes every Friday and lists as many new soccer jobs in North America as we can find (usually 80+ per issue!).

  3. And, if you’re a club or brand looking to hire the most ambitious talent in soccer, drop us a line and we can tell you about our process, our growing talent pool, and the services we offer.

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See you next week, soccer friends!