July 29, 2021

Offseason Talks, Volume 8 – The Warrior Way w/ Marci Jobson

Offseason Talks, Volume 8 – The Warrior Way w/ Marci Jobson

In Episode 40, we continue our Offseason Talks series with our co-host, Paul Jobson, talking with Marci Jobson (yes, Paul’s bride), former USWNT, professional player, and Division 1 Coach, and mother of 4 boys, about The Warrior Way and its first...

In Episode 40, we continue our Offseason Talks series with our co-host, Paul Jobson, talking with Marci Jobson (yes, Paul’s bride), former USWNT, professional player, and Division 1 Coach, and mother of 4 boys, about The Warrior Way and its first three pillars: Worship, Work, and Serve.  

Resources and Links from this Episode

 
Transcript

Paul: [00:00:00] Welcome back everybody to the How Soccer Explains Leadership podcast. I'm your host today, paul Jobson. Normally you're used to hearing from Phil Darke. I'm normally the co-host, but today he's given me the microphone for a pretty cool interview that we get to do today. We appreciate you joining them.

We are between season three and season four. And we are doing our off season talks right now. We'll get back to our regularly scheduled programming in season four here in a little bit. I know Phil's got some amazing interviews lined up for season four. So we look forward to getting to that, but we hope today we bring you some great content that will maybe inspire you a bit.

If you've heard any of my interviews, anything I've done, you always hear me talk about my wife, Marci and I'm fortunate today to have her on the show. Marci is a former US Women's National Teamplayer that competed in the 2007 World Cup, also a former Division 1 women's soccer coach and amongst many, many other things that she's done in her soccer career that I'm sure at some point Phil's going to have her on for a full interview of her.

And you'll want to, to catch that in the [00:01:00] future as well. But today we're going to talk about something special, Marci. Thanks for thanks for coming.

Marci: [00:01:05] Thank you, Paul. And thank you Phil, for having me. That hat looks good on you, Paul.

Paul: [00:01:11] Yeah. You as well seeing hats today it's are our warrior way hats that that we thought were pretty cool.

So we're gonna, we're going to flash them today. If you're just listening to the audio, maybe you can catch a glimpse of the hats on the, on the video file down the, down the road. But Hey. Good lead in Marci with the hats, by the way. So we're going to talk about warrior way which is the, the logo that's on these hats.

And Marci, when we, before we really get started into their six pillars, that go into your warrior way program. But before we dive into the pillars, why don't you tell us a little bit about warrior way, what it's about, and also just tell us a little bit where it came from. As you put this program to.

Marci: [00:01:47] Yeah, sure. Warrior way is trying to teach kids a way of doing sport differently. We want to teach these kids to live courageously think differently about the trials and [00:02:00] triumphs of sport. We want to teach them how to do kingdom training on the soccer field to produce kingdom living. Off the field and we want to do this by teaching them how to connect their faith to their sport.

Teach them how to renew their mind and think differently by using God's word. And we want to start this young. We want to train up these kids young starting at two and three, where we can teach very basic soccer skills as well as basic Bible truth. And as these kids grow in age and grow in maturity, we will continue to teach them specifically more difficult soccer skills training as well as ways to, to think differently and to be able to renew their mind.

Paul: [00:02:45] That's awesome. You know, you talk a lot about the youth, but I know when we were kind of first navigating all of this, it really started with our college players. You know, it was some of the, the arena that we really started to dive into this with. Knocked it down, maybe back to the younger age groups. So [00:03:00] give us a sense of kind of where this, where this came, where this all came from.

Marci: [00:03:04] Right? Well, obviously for a long time, my passion was college athletes and I loved talking to college athletes about ways that they can bring Jesus into to what they're doing. I think so many people sometimes say I'm a Christian and I'm an athlete. But I don't really know how to be a Christian athlete.

Like what does that really look like? And when you ask that question, a lot of times the answers can be like, oh, we're, it means we're nice. It means, we say a prayer before the game. But I actually believe that being a warrior can be in a spiritual warrior means you have the ability to think through pressured this have poise and adversity to be able to when, when is difficult.

So I really believe that Jesus can, can help us to do those things that he actually wants to do our sport alongside us. So through having four little boys, I started [00:04:00] to to think about. How sports looks in the youth and, and we would run around town, playing sports, and I could see his frustrations with different kids.

I coached if they didn't score a hat trick or they didn't win their games 10 to nothing. Or if they didn't get to play the whole game. And I started to see in my own children that, that we weren't really getting those degrees. Point behind sports and how sports could actually be this awesome training ground for my children, to be able to learn about Jesus, to be able to learn about our relationship to Jesus and how he actually wants to come alongside them and help them to, to play their sport in a different way.

Paul: [00:04:43] Yeah, that's awesome. That's really, really powerful. And we've obviously being, being with you in this process have seen a lot of really cool things come, come through this, but I want to dive into, you've got six pillars. Tell us what the, what the six pillars are. And then we'll dive into maybe the first three today, and then we'll dive into the [00:05:00] second three on our, on our next episode.

Marci: [00:05:02] Right? Well, as a player, there's certain pieces I worked on in my game. And there are also pieces that if I'm training somebody that I'm going to focus in on and helping them become the best player that they can be, and those pillars are how they work, how they serve their team and their coaches how they work on their skills, their mental toughness, and how they make their body ready to perform, or I call that body readiness.

So that those are, those are five things that I. In my own game, focus in on to become the best player I could be. But now when we're talking about the warrior way, we make the number one pillar worship, which means that with the ability to worship Jesus with our bodies, when we play a sport, when we run, when we moved how we treat those around us, we have the ability to use soccer as a form of worship.

So the number one pillar is [00:06:00] that.

Paul: [00:06:02] Also. Yeah, so let's dive in a little bit further into worship. We'll do worship work and. Serve today. And so let's talk about, you know, worship is kind of the overarching piece of all this. So you listed it last, but it's actually kind of the hub of it all. So, so really dive in a little bit more into what the worship pillar really means for these athletes.

Yeah, for

Marci: [00:06:23] sure. I always think of that verse. It says, offer your body as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing the God. Cause it is a true and proper worship. And I think, you know, I became a Christian from watching somebody play a sport from watching them actually beyond the field, play a sport. And I wanted to be like that.

I wanted to know more about how I could be like that. And that gave somebody a door to tell me about Jesus. And so I really believe it matters how we play our sport. It matters how we go out there and compete. [00:07:00] And being a Christian athlete doesn't mean that, that you're just nice. And you you're, you're soft and you're wimpy.

I think it means that you are going to compete hard and you are going to, I always say, empty out your cup, empty out, every drop that you have in your cup, on the field, to give God everything you got. And so to me, that is in, in a nutshell what worship means as a pillar.

Paul: [00:07:25] Yeah. So basically doing everything that you do for the Lord and the cool thing with these pillars that people will kind of understand is that, you know, your avenue is soccer, but these things relate so much just to life in general.

Great principles that you're teaching these young people. So, as we move through worship into work, I think this is one that I think in general, people look at the word work and go, oh yeah, I know. I know what that means, but I don't think truly when we dive deep into what this pillar really is all about, that people really will understand well, they will understand once you explain it, but once you tell us, take us a little bit [00:08:00] deeper into that work pillar.

Marci: [00:08:01] Being the youngest of eight kids. I think I grew up in a family where it was, it was very much about working hard and we are going to outwork people. And even if we weren't the smartest, we are gonna, we are gonna work hard. And I was, I was somebody that especially in my sport, I was always going to be the first they're the last to leave.

I was going to be fit. I was going to do everything I could do to control how hard I worked and. So I think another piece of, of working hard though, is that when you're a Christian athlete, you're working for, you're not working for coach jobs and you're not playing for a pro coach or, or Instagram, or for somebody to like you, you are playing for the king of pain, you're playing for Jesus.

And so it gives you a motivation and an exception. That when you've given everything, you can, that is enough and you can be proud of that. And you can, you can take pride in [00:09:00] that. So it's really teaching kids how to give everything they have, but to also give that for the king of Kings and to not play for other people and not play for parents and boyfriends and girlfriends and Instagram, but to play for Jesus and what that really looks like.

Paul: [00:09:17] Yeah. I remember a lot of the pre-season talks that, that we would give, we would give the kids, the girls, the illustration of how you got to put your blinders on. Right. And you just got to get to work, put your head underground for a bit. You work, you work, you work, you come up, maybe take a breath, look around and get back to work.

And where you're putting that together from a spiritual standard point is that work is for God. And I did work is for Jesus. And that relationship that comes. Yeah. Right.

Marci: [00:09:41] And I think it's just, it's so easy nowadays to get distracted by all the social media and all the different things surrounding us is so hard for athletes.

Sometimes stay focused on what they're doing, but also really who they're doing it for. And so for the Christian athlete, just remembering [00:10:00] that it's not your kingdom and you're not a little, you're not a king to this mini kingdom, but he has changed to the kingdom and you want to. Be able to just honor him with how you do your sports.

Paul: [00:10:12] Absolutely. As we come into our third and the final one we're going to talk about today is serve. Again, another word that we're all very familiar with serve as not an uncommon term, but what does that mean within the warrior way program and the pillar that you've put into this program?

Marci: [00:10:30] Yeah, I think there's two pieces to serve.

I mean, there's the piece of learning how to serve on the field and that may be, you know, something as simple as like making that extra run back when you're so fatigued 'cause you see the person next to you and you want to serve them on the field and make that extra tackle, that extra, save that extra play. That's actually the under the pillar serve.

But I also think you know, being a player that dealt with an ACL tear being with dealing with a [00:11:00] job break when I broke my jaw and my pro career athletes sometimes get so lost in thinking that an injured I'm out. I don't have any purpose and I don't have any role in this team. And I, I actually think you have such an ability to be a light, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and glorify the father in heaven.

If such an opportunity to serve your team. To serve your coaches when you sit the bench, yes, you can, you can be a dark cloud that brings everybody down, or you can choose to be different and encourage and write notes and put them in lockers and, and shoot texts to your teammates and really find ways to stand out and be different.

So serve as really hits, close to home for me, because. Through my career. I had to learn some of that piece the hard way I didn't, I didn't naturally, I was naturally [00:12:00] selfish, you know? And so learning how to put your selfish ambition aside and consider other people better than yourself, but also while you're doing that, continuing to work for the Lord and not man.

So I think serve is just, is a key for all of us to say, And teach our kids. If you sit the bench, if you, whatever your role is, you can affect the game. You can affect your team and you can definitely affect your coaches. And, and it's a key pillar for me.

Paul: [00:12:31] I know, even on this podcast that we've, we've talked with different people about being able to find their role in helping kids find their, find their role. And sometimes the hardest part for an athlete is when they transition into the next level. Right. Which is kind of what you're talking about in your life. But when you transitioned into the next level, your role changed, right?

I think that's so helpful for these, for these athletes to be able to find their role. And then that backtracks into, you know, they're serving their, their teammates and their coaches, their team which goes [00:13:00] into, to work, which they're having to work for the Lord, serve the Lord. And all of that is worship.

And I love how that all kind of, plays together. Any final thoughts on the law on these first three that you want to add in before we let everybody go today and we'll rejoin next next week for the other three.

Marci: [00:13:17] Yeah. You know, Paul, like one of my favorite memories as a coach was in, I think, 2012 when, we were team team together and one of the big 12 championship.

And I just remember how key, our bench was to that, team and their ability to be like these girls that just. Full of like, and I'm not saying it wasn't painful for them at times to sit the bench, but man, they were full of light and they were joyful to be around and they would walk, onto the field or walk into the locker room.

And they just were really a big part of why we won that big 12 championship. So I think at these first pillars and it just reminds me of the 2012. big 12 [00:14:00] championship team. They, they really were a group that really put Jesus at the forefront of everything we were doing. They outworked everybody.

We were one of the hardest working teams out there, and they truly learned how to serve each other on and off the field. And so that team was, was pretty key in helping me even shape those pillars even more.

Paul: [00:14:20] Yeah, that was a, that was a fun time. There was so much great stuff in, in this, episode, I know Phil is going to love to dive in with you at some point and go deeper on all these things on a, on a full podcast as we get into our later seasons of this.

But for now we're going to wrap up this session Marci. So you really appreciate your time talking with us about the warrior way today. We'll jump in next week and finish up the last three pillars. Folks, if you are enjoying this content and everything. Phil and I are doing on this podcast. We hope that you will download these episodes that you will write review things that you will join us in our Facebook group and join in the conversation there.

There's just some great content in all of these episodes and we would appreciate any of your feedback and I should just having [00:15:00] you join in the conversation. So, for day we'll wrap things up, we appreciate, again, you join us for how soccer explains leadership and as we go through these episodes, I think we truly are learning how soccer does explain life and leadership .