TEAMPLAYR SPOTLIGHT: Ben Brannigan, Texas United FC

Welcome to another edition of our TeamPlayr Spotlight series where we aim to connect you with the interesting and inspiring stories of people and organizations looking to make a positive impact on the North Texas soccer community.

In today’s interview, we sat down with the newly appointed Brand Marketing and Community Outreach Director of Texas United FC – Ben Brannigan.  Ben has coached over 17 years and has held a variety of roles helping to build and develop programs in schools,clubs and other sporting organizations.

In addition to his role within Texas United, Ben is also a Private Soccer and Fitness Coach at www.worldsportfc.com in DFW, Texas since March 2022. He has also worked in the club and high school scene across DFW over the past decade  .He is Regional Soccer Director for www.collegepromotersusa.com for the Dallas Fort-Worth Area , as well as Scout/Evaluator for www.prepsoccer.com for North Texas Boys Soccer, as well as working on professional side of things with www.globall-soccer.com as a founding partner. 

Read along as Ben shares his valuable insight into the plans Texas United has to revolutionize the USL League 2 – Path to Pro format and learn how you can get involved!

Note that the following interview was conducted in person and the following text has been edited for conciseness and clarity.

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Hi Ben! Thanks so much for talking with us today. Let’s get started – give us a quick overview of your role and how you get connected with Texas United.

Alright, well my name is Ben Brannigan and I'm the Brand Marketing Director at Texas United FC. I've lived in North Texas for almost 7 years now.

I came on board with Texas United in the December-January timeframe. My goal is to make it one of the “to do” things on Saturday evening’s  in the summer for soccer and have something the city of Plano will be proud of also.  

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Can you tell us a bit more about Texas United and the USL League 2 format?

Yep, the club has been around about six years now, and they’ve played in multiple places in the Metroplex - from Fort Worth all the way over to here in the Plano area. While we’ve played in many different venues, we have now got our own venue at John Clark Stadium.

So, we are officially a men’s USL League 2 “PATH2PRO” team. All our players are going to be college eligible still , which means they can’t be paid, so they play in USL 2.

Our goal is to make these kids available and seen by the global soccer landscape. If they're not going back to college or they finish college, it’s to get them into the pro game whether that be with the MLS, or in South America or Europe – we have connections with all of them.

Oh, and just want to throw it in there, that last season we went undefeated in USL 2, won our division but went down in the first round of the playoffs.

So, a lot of those kids are coming back this year.

Texas United as a club has a new ownership group and are moving to a new city, Plano.

We’ve a lot of kids from the DFW Metroplex area stretching all the way from Fort Worth back to Dallas and  up to Plano and around.

It’s looking to be a really exciting group we have put together and we are sure to have an exciting  season.

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That does sound exciting. How’s the coaching staff shaping up?

We've got new coaches - we've got Dave Jacobs coming now and he's a college coach at Trine University in Indiana. His assistant is Josh Logan, his assistant coach at Trine , and they're other assistant is French, is Gaye Diade who's also a college coach at Chicago State.

So they've got great experience and breaking it down I'd say 75 to 80% of our team are current college players that play at high levels.

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So, you talked about the kind of players that are on the team now. What kind of players are you looking for going into the season, and If I were a player looking to get in touch or tryout with Texas United how would I do that?

 OK I'll start with the second question –

There is going to be another tryout on March 26th from 12pm to 2pm at Foro Sports on 14725 Preston Rd, Dallas, 75240. For more details you can send your details to info@texasunitedfc.

The kind of players we’re looking for … that’s more of a question for the coach, but I know that he’s still looking for players, primarily those who played in the college ranks  . It doesn’t matter what division, because he is very open about that. He’s also not against JUCO players.

He’s looking for “dynamic players.” That’s his favorite phrase.

Are there any age restrictions or certain qualifications you have to have to be considered?

You have to be over 17, and you can’t be a currently registered club player.

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What successes have your players seen? Has Texas United had success putting players down the pro pathway?

Yes, after the 2021 season we had one of our players end up signing with MLS II’s Houston Dynamo 2 and has done pretty well down there.

We have currently got a couple of kids that are highly touted that have just won the MLS Next trophies, the youth division MLS Next.  We have a golden ball winner, best player winner, and a couple of good kids that had really decent seasons in the NCAA.

The big thing that we've had is that I want to say 90% of our players are still playing at some level. If not with us at USL 2 level, they’re playing NISL, they're playing NPSL, they've gone back to college and are still playing, so we've done a good job of keeping the kids playing.

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I’ve been around the North Texas soccer community for a while, and I’ve seen a lot of semi-professional teams struggle to make a name for themselves. What is Texas United doing now that is different than those organizations of the past?

That’s my line of work – and to answer that question it’s simple.

We’re working from the very bottom up to the top, so we’re building a foundation.

… and what do I mean by that? Well, on a daily basis I go around the streets, basically, talking to everybody in a way that I am talking to you now. I go to  businesses and potential sponsors in the Plano area if i have not reached out to you yet i am going to get to you lol . We just moved here, and we want to be a part of Plano, not just for the short term but for the long term.

Our season is 3 months long, but I tell people this is a 12 month job for me. So, to go back to what you’re saying, you've seen teams come and go… the good thing is that we've got very good owners and they’re here for the long term.

It's not a fly by night operation.

We are renting our own stadium now. We're going to have a training facility with another partner. We're going to be running clinics and camps for everybody, not just not just certain people.

We're already getting involved with everybody from the rec side of soccer up to the club side of soccer, we're trying to build partnerships with everybody.

On the business side of things – we’re working with all the local businesses in the area of the stadium training facility, Downtown Plano, East and West Plano, we're trying to get everybody involved.

Great, it sounds like you guys are really looking to invest and partner with the community. Can you tell us about any plans for the future of the club?

The ownership group will be promoting a USL Championship team in the next two to three years that's going to be coming to the metroplex. So, we will have a proper pyramid of a USL championship team which would be a fully professional team with paid players.

We’ll also be launching an Academy, U17 through U23 to play at USL Academy level , equivalent to MLS Next. 

As the name says, USL 2 is “path to pro” and part of that path starts with having U19 and U23 to feed into the USL 2 team, which in turn feeds into the pro team.

Then 2 to 3 years down the line, we’re going to have a women’s side in USLW, and then hopefully in 4 to 5 years we’ll have a pro women’s team with the same pathway for them.

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How can fans in the area get involved?

Our stadium is John Clark Stadium in Plano. It’s a 15,000 seat stadium so we’re going to have plenty of room.

We are currently designing the season ticket, matchday tickets, and matchday entertainment. I can’t really give more details, not that I’m hiding it, the season schedule can be found below the text. 

 I can tell that when we do play at home it’s going to be awesome  entertainment and more available for our fans.

Our first home game will be May 20, and we'll be playing on the 4th of July weekend, so we plan on having a big event for that.

We’ll be doing lots of social media posts, so give us a follow-on Instagram or Twitter: @txunitedfc or check out our website at www.txunitedfc.com.

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You mentioned that you’re looking for partners in the community. What are you looking for from these businesses, and how can they get in touch with you?

Well, that’s easy. 

We’re not just looking for people to give us money. We’re truly looking for partners, because in order for this thing to grow properly in the neighborhood, we’ve got to have proper partnerships.

Our owners always use this phrase “you’re part of the family,” so when you work with us you’re becoming part of a family.

So we’re looking for, as much as possible, business local to Plano. Now, we’re not against partners from outside, but we really want to focus on building businesses in Plano.

If you want to talk more you can reach out to me directly at brannigan@txunitedfc.com or text me at (469)-268-7262.

We have a variety of packages for businesses of all sizes.

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DON'T MISS OUT AS TEXAS UNITED FC KICKS OFF THEIR SEASON THIS SUMMER!

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