What does it take to start a brand-new soccer team in Minnesota? How do you rally everyone to create a winning formula? And what is it like to start playing soccer at age 4 and become a professional soccer player? Andrea Yoch and MacKenzie Langdok from the MN Aurora FC share their stories in the world of women’s soccer. To hear the entire conversation check out So Much More Ep. 78: MN Aurora FC. For Community, By Community.
Presented by Bloomington Minnesota Travel and Tourism the official destination marketing organization for the city of Bloomington, Minn.
[00:00:00] What were some of those first steps? What did that look like to get up and running with a brand new team here in Minnesota?
[00:00:06] Well, we were lucky. There are nine founders. And somehow, like the best version of Survivor, we each had skills we were able to bring to the table.
[00:00:15] So I wasn't the person worried about hiring the soccer coach or figuring out the brand or anything else. My job was to get attention for the team.
[00:00:23] So for me, it was rallying everybody that I'd ever worked with and saying, hey, we've got this thing happening. We need your help.
[00:00:31] And because of the nature of the Twin Cities, which you guys both know, right, people help. And everybody wants things to be successful.
[00:00:38] There's not this competitive feeling of, oh, your success comes at my expense. It's if you're successful, it makes our market better.
[00:00:46] So that's really where we started was I started in my lane over in the marketing and the public relations.
[00:00:51] We had some other founders working on the coaches. I was working on where are we going to play?
[00:00:56] And some of our amazing designers and our board chair now, Allie Schmidt, she was working on the brand with a group of incredibly talented women.
[00:01:04] And so we all divided up and it worked out really well. And the next thing we knew, it sort of all came together.
[00:01:12] And in fact, our very first event was here at the mall. It was the first day I met McKenzie.
[00:01:16] Yep, it was.
[00:01:17] It was that day. And so, yeah, it was really amazing how it came together. Best group project I've ever worked on.
[00:01:23] Well, I have to say you guys pulled together an amazing team. The talent for those women athletes for Aurora obviously knocked it out of the park right away.
[00:01:32] So McKenzie, we're excited to talk with you and hear about your experience with Aurora.
[00:01:37] Love hearing that you guys met for the first time here at the mall.
[00:01:39] Yeah, we did.
[00:01:40] So tell us a little bit about your story. How did you get involved?
[00:01:42] So I grew up here in Minnesota. I'm from St. Michael Albertville. And so I went to school at Minnesota. I went to the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.
[00:01:51] And one of the other founders, Matt, did like social media for our team. And so once I was done playing, he connected me with Nicole, who ended up being the head coach.
[00:01:59] And I connected with her, went to a tryout, and then was on the team.
[00:02:04] And you were our captain our first year.
[00:02:06] I was a captain. First and second season. And yeah, it was just, it was incredible. The kit reveal, I think, was really when it sunk in for me how big this was going to be.
[00:02:16] And bigger than anything that I had been a part of or experienced before. So it was really, it was incredible.
[00:02:21] It was incredible.