How Good Was Anna Leigh Waters at Soccer, Really?

[00:00:00] Meditieren, Yoga, Joggen, nichts entspannt mich. Echt? Mich entspannt meine Steuer total. Steuer? Wie Finanzamt? Die Steuererklärung? Ja, ich hab ganz locker über 1000 Euro Zugriff bekommen. Hast du geheime Connections oder Excel-Superkräfte? Nö, nur die Wieso-Steuer-App. Wow, und das ist einfach? Klar, die macht fast alles automatisch. Ich fühl mich plötzlich so... entspannt. Hol dir dein Geld zurück. Abgabefrist 31. Juli. Was? Schaffst du ganz entspannt mit Wieso-Steuer? Ach, ach ja.

[00:00:30] One thing that I want to touch on here, and I want to know, is this exaggeration or not? You said in the article that give her six months and she would have the top ladies teams calling her. Give her two years and she could be on the U.S. women's national team. Is that realistic? I mean, she's 19 now. I just think, like, you lose, like, a year of soccer. Like, forget it. But she could take...

[00:00:59] Like, tell me, can't she do this? Can't she make a comeback? You gotta remember her determination, her athletic ability, her IQ, her will to win. She doesn't accept defeat. I probably exaggerate in a little bit. I think it would be sooner than two years. Yeah.

[00:01:23] So the best pickleball player in the world might actually be wasting a national team soccer career. And maybe the only guy that knows for certain is waiting in the wings, and we're gonna have a chat with him, Clem McCauley, Annalie Waters' old soccer coach. Zane, we... It's almost like a running joke.

[00:01:44] If you're playing the Dave Fleming drinking game, you're probably drunk on the floor right now hearing how many times Annalie Waters could have gone pro in soccer. It's insane. Actually, there's an article in the Dink that is being released today, and in large part because just a couple weeks ago, you and I, we were jabbing at this exact idea with Gabe and Hayden. Talking about Annalie, pro soccer player.

[00:02:13] Yeah, right, my ass. Right? But Thomas Shields... They probably said something a little bit different. They probably had some more F-words in there. But yeah, you're right. They probably did. They probably did. But the godfather of the Dink, Thomas Shields, went into some deep diving, talked to Annalie's old coach. So we're going to talk to him in just a second, but I want to get your take right now. Is this a bunch of bullshit?

[00:02:43] Or is it possible that Annalie either... Zane, one, was she good enough to eventually be a pro soccer player? And two, the biggest claim is, can she still do it? Yeah, that's a crazy one. So first off, I'm glad that we're getting to the bottom of this so that we can set this. This is one of those things that's just said in pickleball, but nobody actually knows what it means.

[00:03:10] So I'm glad that we're going to figure out what this actually means with regard to AL's soccer talent. And pretty cool deep dive from Thomas and the Dink team. I think, obviously, the one thing that obviously carries through and carries over to any sport is... I've said this a few times as somebody who's been a teammate of Annalie. She has MJ, Kobe Bryant level of competitiveness and tenacity.

[00:03:38] And I think she could put her... If you put that to work at any sport, you're going to be really freaking good. Now, that's not even talking about her actual athleticism. And she stopped playing soccer a long time ago, so it's probably pretty hard to tell. She obviously is the best mover in the sport in pickleball. I don't know how that would translate to soccer at this point.

[00:04:07] But yeah, you have that sort of competitiveness. She could be the world number one at quilting if she wanted to. Yeah, you know, Zane, she's notoriously a bad loser. She gets a lot of flack anytime she loses. And the whole world is rooting for her to lose because she's so dominant. And there's been numerous occasions when she'll lose and just almost short circuit. One notable example is when she's playing Tyra Black in singles.

[00:04:36] Maybe the last time or second to last time she lost, like three years ago. And people complain. But to your point, that level of obsession with winning and dominance and Michael Jordan-esque mentality is probably what makes her great. And I guess just the thing is whether or not that mentality is enough to actually play pro soccer.

[00:05:01] Her coach, Clem, he told Thomas six months to a pro tryout, two years to the U.S. women's national team if she started today. That's crazy. I mean, obviously she's been working on fitness and all of that stuff. Like I said, she's the best mover. And she's really good at changing directions. I don't think she would have the same top speed as the other ladies.

[00:05:28] But I think she would be just as good, if not even better. Probably even better than a lot of the top athletes in women's soccer in terms of just quick cuts and changing directions. Now, I'm not going to claim to be like a soccer guy. I don't know how important that is. I know it is important, but I also know that top speed is important too. Yeah, I just think it'd be obviously fascinating. And it's going to live in the world of what ifs.

[00:05:56] Obviously, it was very promising. We got some stats out of this that she had like 78 combined goals and assists in like 30 games when she was also playing up a couple of years. Like just some crazy, crazy stat lines. So, I don't know. I still feel skeptical that you can come in now at 19 and become a pro soccer player.

[00:06:27] So, I'd consider myself a skeptic on that one. Just because, I mean, these people are – the rest of the people who are on these teams are also elite athletes and have actually been training in that space for the last seven years that AL hasn't. So, I don't know. I'd consider myself still skeptical of – I think she would absolutely get the tryout, right? Like I think she would get the tryouts. And I don't know.

[00:06:53] It goes down in the list of things I wish we could actually get an answer to but never will. It's the world of hypotheticals, which is the world that I live in every single day. Zane, anybody listening to this, if you haven't – this article reminds me. There is a guy on TikTok. His name is Neil Kennedy. If you look him up, he was saying – he's just this guy with like this like lumpy body, always shirtless, like moops for sure. Probably like 35. I don't know.

[00:07:23] Anyway, he's like, I'm Neil Kennedy. The summer of next year, I'm going to be on the 2026 U.S. Men's National Team for the World Cup. And then he would like shoot a shot, like one shot and go upper corner, perfect shot. But like everybody knew this guy was a freaking joke. Like it is funny. He did it literally for like two years. Now he has like five million followers. Anyway, every time I think about the story, I think about that guy. And I think just how insane it is to even think that Annalie could do this.

[00:07:51] Like to me, one is she's taken four or five years off of soccer. I don't even think Annalie could be number one in the world in pickleball if she took four years off of pickleball starting right now. Like I think that that amount of time is a lot. And the other thing I think about is just being a world-class pickleball athlete is so much different than being a world-class soccer athlete. It's just the sheer number of people that play soccer. You know what I mean?

[00:08:18] Like Zane, you brought me on, you know, for those of you who are new to the show, I'm in the seat that I'm in right now because Zane invited me on to talk about the dominance of Annalie Waters versus the dominance of Serena Williams. Right? And I finally come to a realization of who Annalie is. Annalie is Will Chamberlain. Okay? So, what I mean by that is she is the best in an era where there aren't as many people.

[00:08:48] She's breaking through. Will was scoring 50 a game, 100 a game, 30 rebounds. The stats will never be replicated. But the pool is nowhere near as deep as it is now. And the same goes for women's soccer, especially in the United States where United States has been the standard of women's soccer since like 1999.

[00:09:10] Like, I just don't understand how you can even make the assumption that a pickleball player four years removed from soccer could even sniff a tryout on a pro soccer team. Yeah, actually, I really like that comparison to Wilt Chamberlain because I think it is. Yeah, you'll never know how somebody like Wilt would do in today's NBA.

[00:09:35] But, like, you can look at clips of him and be like, man, this guy was a freak athlete if he had the same sort of coaching and all that type of stuff. Like, the athleticism is there for the modern NBA, obviously, for him.

[00:09:49] And I do think that while Anna Lee couldn't take four years away from pickleball and become a pro pickleball player, I do think that soccer is more on the athleticism to technique, more skewed towards the athleticism side of things than pickleball is.

[00:10:08] And so I think, you know, if you took a freak athlete, like, I mean, you think about some of these guys who come into the NBA having played basketball for like two years in Africa. There have been like a couple of draft picks who've only played basketball for a couple of years and can still make it.

[00:10:29] There's some crazy statistic where if you're like a 26 year old man and you're over seven feet living in the U.S., like there's something like a five percent chance that you are actually in the NBA. Like, so anyway, that's all to say that I think the if her athleticism translates to soccer and that quick cutting movement is something that she could utilize the same way that she does in pickleball.

[00:10:58] I think it's plausible. And one thing that I know for a fact works for Anna Lee in any single thing that she wants to go into is is that like I've called her I called her on partners. I said, Anna Lee is a low key psychopath. And I stand by that in the most positive way.

[00:11:18] Like she obsesses over these things. And yeah, that's something that is just as I think God given as as your actual athleticism. Right. That's something that you can't teach. It's got to come from within. You've got to have probably some element of a screw loose. Like you said. Being a bad loser is pretty highly correlated with some of the people who are the best in their craft.

[00:11:48] Yeah, I think so. So now the biggest question is. Low key psychopath, a freak, an athlete, a winner. Are all these things enough to be a pro level soccer player after taking time off? You know, we don't know. You don't know. I don't know. Maybe the only person that could actually give an intelligent answer is waiting for us here. So we're going to bring on Coach Clem. Clem McCauley, he was Anna Lee's coach at AC Del Rey.

[00:12:17] Coached her since she was 12 up until the end of her soccer career. If maybe it's an end, maybe she'll come back. Who knows? Retired pro athlete. So this is not just somebody's dad who coached a soccer team. This is a pro coach who is also a pro level player who you'll find out says this is a generational talent. One of one that he's ever seen. So with that, let's get Coach Clem.

[00:12:44] So Clem, Zane and I have been arguing about you for like the last 10 minutes. We need you to settle this. Is this real or is this just a coach who loves his player? Like talk some sense into us. Like is it? How good is Anna Lee? Okay. Well, you asked me that question. You just gave me goosebumps on my arm because I'm a very, very passionate, sensitive person. I've been from Ireland. It was the way I was brought up. I'm very passionate about the game. I'm very passionate about players. I coach.

[00:13:14] But she was it. That's all I can say. She was it. You don't come across it very often. I've come across. I've coached for 22 years. I played professional for almost 10 years. I played right up till I had my stroke 12 years ago. And she just has everything. Except like when she started playing pickleball. Well, in her parents, I was like, I had to be a nice sidekick in the whole life. You mean I didn't realize how big it is.

[00:13:41] And then, you know, I saw how good she was as well at that. And I was like, ah, yeah, but she's going to play for USA ladies team. And I'm going to go all around the world and watch her play. I'll be in the dressing room with Julie Ertz and all these players. No problem. But anyway, she's lived a different life. What can I say? So Clem, what does it actually look like for a, you know, like a 10 year old girl? Like how do you, how do you just determine what? I came across her when she was 12. I came across her when she was 12. Okay.

[00:14:10] And I had never coached a ladies team. So this is what happened. I'm coaching my son's boys team. I go to Ireland to bring my son's team to Ireland, 53 of us. While I'm in Ireland, one of Annalise's closest friends who played with her, the mum is texting me in Ireland. The father is a doctor. He's calling me while I'm in Ireland. And I'm like, what the hell is going on? I'm not a great man for a phone. So anyway, cut a long story short.

[00:14:39] One day, I'm in Ireland and with 52 people were playing three games over there. And I said, I better call this man back. He's a real nice man and he's a doctor. So I call him back and I said, hey, you've been trying to get a hold of me. He goes, yeah. I said, I'm in Ireland with Aidan's soccer team. Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Hey, an opportunity is coming up. Would you be interested in coaching the girls team? Well, I didn't get the words out of my mouth. And when I got off to playing four or five days later, I was meeting him in an Irish bar in Boca.

[00:15:09] They already decided I'm getting a job. I never said yes or no. You know what? So it was like, anyway, I had never met Anna Lee till that time. I had met the doctor's daughter, who was a really good player as well. But I met Anna, sorry, I met Anna Lee, but I never saw her play. I saw her, you know, kicking the ball around with Tony, Tony Stevens, you know, doing some coaching with her. But I never actually sat down and talked to her. Crazy.

[00:15:38] That's where it all started. Wow. So, so then, so you get the job, you start working with Anna Lee. Like, oh, I get the job. Yeah. The World Cup final is on between France and Croatia, which I think was eight years ago. Yep. Right. Right. So Tim Finnegan's is an Irish bar in Delray. The lady who owns it is a personal friend of mine. I worked with her for years.

[00:16:04] Now, all of a sudden, all these girls and parents are in there and are coming up to me. Oh, congratulations. And I still haven't accepted the job. Right. And I'm like, I turn around to these people and I was like, yeah, well, you're going to take the job. Anyway, two days later, I'm up in Delray. Okay. And Anna Lee had been doing private lessons with Tony because I was busy with my boys thing. And we'll just come back from Ireland the next minute.

[00:16:35] Oh, Anna Lee came out because some of my boys said they wanted to kick around. We came back from Ireland. It was such a great trip to want to kick around. She comes out, has a kick around. And then after we finished kicking around, her mom or dad said to me, hey, can't, would you mind showing Anna Lee how, you know, to turn a hit upon the net? And all of a sudden, now it's eight o'clock, quarter past eight. I'm heading home to dinner. Now it's eight thirty. Now it's nine o'clock. Oh, can, would you be interested in maybe meeting up as soon as you can?

[00:17:05] Yeah. Yeah. Can you do tomorrow? What? Can you do tomorrow? Yeah, I guess. Sure. Yeah. And it started from there. So the question is then, so you're getting this job or you're possibly accepting it. You're seeing Anna Lee. How long does it take you to realize that she's special? Like, is this something that happens immediately or? Fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes. What do you do in fifteen minutes?

[00:17:31] The night when you come over on the field and boys have finished their practice and the parents asked me, could I stay on shore how to, you know, do a turn or take a shot? And, you know, I had a stroke twelve years ago and I can't move around or move my body like I used to be able to, but I could, you know, I'm sure. And all of a sudden that fifteen minutes went, well, could you show her how to make rums? Could you show? Now we're there at eight thirty at night, quarter to nine. And it's like, okay.

[00:17:56] But I saw on that fifteen minutes, I went, I remember saying to my son, I said, Aidan, did you see that? And he goes, yeah, dad, that's kind of, that's kind of freaky, my son said. I said, yeah. Yeah. And the sweat is pouring off her and she's got that grumpy face on her and she's twelve years of age, thirteen years of age. And I'm like, what am I getting myself into? I went home, I had dinner with my kids. I was talking to Aidan and then we went to practice at nine thirty the next morning.

[00:18:28] Wow, so I'm hairy. Back at it immediately, went back to practice with Annalie the next morning? Yes. No, just went Annalie and then my son came to help out. Okay. So, now roll on. Okay, this is where it started. Now roll on then a year from then. I spent a year with her playing and doing some lessons with her private lessons. And she's practicing with the boys and the girls. And then COVID comes in, right? So COVID, her parents come to me, we've got to get a plan, Clem. And I says, a plan for what?

[00:18:58] There's going to be no games till September, October because, you know, we're going to be shut off. And she goes, no, but we've got to get a plan to get her up to the speed you want her at. I said, she's up to the speed I want her at. No, no, we want to get her where you think you can make her. Okay. So what do we want to do? Well, I said we can do one or two sessions a week. I bring my son out and bring maybe one or two of the boys and be making it good for her, right? Okay. So one or two starts off.

[00:19:26] Within a week, we're doing four, five sessions at eight o'clock in the morning. Eight o'clock in the morning, right? Now, she was there on time. I was there on time. You try and get boys up at eight o'clock, eight o'clock. I'll show up at quarter to nine or, you know what I mean? She's out there. I'm with her. I'm with the guys who come out. She'd do another hour. Like, it was supposed to be an hour for an hour session. It was never below an hour and a half, two hours. Never. Never. So that's what I had to deal with, basically.

[00:19:55] So, I mean, to me, that sounds like you're seeing her just like competitiveness, her work ethic early on. But I'm curious, like, was there something like physical that you're noticing? Because I look at Annalie and I'm like, I mean, she doesn't have a top, top speed on the pro tour. But her ability to change directions is, I think, what makes the best move her in pickleball. So, like, what are you actually seeing her physically at that time?

[00:20:24] So, it's funny. My son asked me the same question. And I said to my son, Aiden, do you know what I see? And he goes, what? I see, my name is Cam McCauley. I see a young Cam McCauley. That's what I see. And he was like, Dad, like, she's unreal. I said, no. I said, it's not because she's unreal. It's the will she has, the determination she has. I could see that after 15 minutes.

[00:20:52] And I was like, I used to get excited. I'm even getting goosebumps now. I used to get excited just to go, to show up at 8 o'clock, 8.30 in the morning, just to see her. And she would say to me, I can come back at 4.35. But then she's going, I guess you're doing pickleball. And I didn't really understand pickleball. I said, no, you're good. You don't want to get overworked. And she goes, well, you're going to be here tomorrow, right? And I said, no choice, right? And she goes, yeah, yeah. I'll see you tomorrow. And that was it. Wow. So, you said she's like a young Clem.

[00:21:22] Now, let me ask you this. To help paint the picture for, like, the audience who doesn't know you, can you give up maybe, like, a professional comp? Like, is she like a Messi, like a Luka Modric? Is she like a Ronaldo? Like, what did you see? Like, what are the pros that reminded you of her? Oh, so, what I saw straight away, because at that time, you know, the USA ladies team was very popular. And the players were getting well-known.

[00:21:50] And I saw Juilliard's. I just saw, like, luck-wise, movement-wise, Juilliard's is not a turn of pace, but covers ground. And I was like, this girl is 12, 13. Like, what is she going to be like three, four years? And I just saw this, and then it just started from there. And then, you know, from playing, when I was 14, 15, I was playing with people at 26, 27. And I was fearless.

[00:22:18] I'd be jumping at the tackles and getting yellow cards of 14 against guys 25, 26. And I just saw a person who was just, I just said at the start, lads, itch. I just said, itch. Like, that's it. I mean, that's what it was. I mean, I can't say any more. Wow. Juilliard, that is big praise. For those of you who don't, are not familiar with women's soccer,

[00:22:47] Juilliard was a staple on the U.S. women's national team. I think she played like... Two feet. Two feet. Annalise is saying her left foot was as good as her right foot. Her right foot was good as her left foot. Juilliard was the exact same. Wow. Okay. So we don't even know basically what foot. Basically ambidextrous. Juilliard's comparison. Well, it's funny you say that. I'll tell you a funny story, Dad. So I turn around. I used to be joking with some of my kids. I'd say, you're antidextrous. And they go, what do you mean?

[00:23:16] I said, you're bad with both feet. But when Annalise came along, I said, you're antidextrous. And she goes, are you going to tell me what you tell the boys? I said, no, you're good with both feet. I mean, so that's... I like that. I tell Zane all the time. I say, are you sure you're right-handed? But it sounds like Annalise was short-footed with both feet.

[00:23:37] I know I said 15 minutes, but all joking aside, after I spent one week to work, I saw her going to be on a USA U-16 team, you know, within two years. That's what I saw. Like, you know, I'm saying 15 minutes, but literally it was 15 minutes. But the first week I spent with her, like during COVID, when I spent that first week with her, it was insane. And then we started doing stuff on our own. Like, I started doing physical work with her, which you wouldn't do with 16, 17-year-olds.

[00:24:06] She's 13, 14, and I would time her. And I was putting her through stuff that I went through stuff when I was a professional. And I tell her, you know, I talk about stuff. She talked to me, asked me questions. And I say, I'm doing this stuff to see what level you're at. She was just at a different level.

[00:24:25] And it sounds like, you know, through the article that was released today, you mentioned that Anna Lee was playing both with the boys and she was playing a year up. Is that? Two years. Two years up and with boys. Okay. Now that's part of it. So she was playing U-14 with the girls and U-16 with the boys. Okay. Wow. It's not crazy. Yeah, that's impressive. That's impressive. I'll give you a sense.

[00:24:54] The night she played her first game, it was a tournament in Palm Beach and I had the girls team and the boys team in the tournament. So the girls were opening their first game on Saturday. I can remember it like it was yesterday. The boys were opening their first game Friday night. So I said to her, do you want to come Friday night? Maybe I can let you, if the referees are out, sit on the bench and see how I talk to the players and organize them and all that.

[00:25:24] She goes, oh, I'd love to. So in the meantime, I go up to sign all the players in. I knew the guy who was running the tournament. It was the Palm Beach Predators. And I said to him, I said, if I wanted to play a girl or put her on the bench and I kind of played it down. If I want to put her in for five minutes and put her on the bench and I have a card and would I be allowed to do that? And he goes, yeah. He said, is she in the age group? I said, yeah, yeah. She's in the age group. But, you know, I just want to give her five minutes and get a taste of it.

[00:25:54] She's a really good player. And he goes, she must be a really good player. Yes, she's a good player. But, you know, I'm short on players tonight. I just want to try it out. But I wasn't. I just wanted to give her experience. So roll on. The game. We're kind of dominating. And I did see her. I'm just keeping an eye on her on the bench. She's moving. She's kicking every ball. She's walking around. And, you know, the water break comes. Some of my kids don't even get up for the water break because the subs are this way. She's up.

[00:26:23] She's kicking balls on the field. And the rest of them, of course, go out and start kicking balls around. And I'm watching all this. The next minute, in just about 10 minutes before halftime, the other team score and make a 1-0. The second half, my mid-limit field was working, controlling the ball. And I wasn't happy. And I turned around to my assistant coach, Corey's school teacher. And he'd heard about Annalie. I said, Corey, do you think you should throw her in for 10 minutes? He said, you're the boss. Do you want it? I said, yeah.

[00:26:52] I want to throw her in. It was about 15 minutes to go. 15, 12 minutes to go. I put her in. A ball comes across. I can still see it. She controls for her right foot, plays for her left foot into our center forward. The center forward plays to someone else, plays the back down of the lead. She pushes onto her right foot, one of the drills that was doing her, hits it from 25 yards. And the keeper tips it over the bar in the top corner. Everybody in the crowds just applauded. Even the other type.

[00:27:22] And I was like, whoa, whoa. And the guys, you got to understand now. Some of the guys hadn't had minutes played yet. So, you know, I'm sure they're thinking this is BS because why is a girl going in and we're not getting on the field? Right. At the end of the game, every one of the guys come up to me and says, geez, she's cutting the words out of the mouth. Right. And she's great. And then I see her parents and they come over.

[00:27:52] You know what she was? She was so effing mad that we lost the game one night. It wasn't about how she played. Whereas everybody else, no, or just, no. Oh, I enjoy it. But we got the girls game tomorrow. Can I play with the boys tomorrow afternoon? No, you can't play with the boys tomorrow afternoon. You can play with the girls tomorrow. No, no. But can I, can I, can I come? Yeah. You can come and sit in the bank. But you know, okay, I'll come. She played with the girls in the morning. The boys are playing at four o'clock. She comes, she's sitting on the bench. She's all ready to go. She goes, I'm good.

[00:28:22] I said, what did I tell you? You are not playing this afternoon. Right. So anyway, she didn't play. I wouldn't let her play. Cause the other team was from Miami and they were a little bit dirty and I didn't want to, you know, you know what I'm saying? Right. So Sunday then the girls had a game in the morning. We won four nil. She scores three goals. The boys have to win at five o'clock to get into the final. And she goes, can I come? Now the girls were in the final later that evening.

[00:28:51] I think it's six o'clock. I said, yeah, you can come, but you're not playing. You are not playing. Anyway, she comes. It's one nil with about 10 minutes to go. Our center back had to be carried off and brought to a hospital. Terrible injury. And she's there. And my son comes up in front of all the guys. Dad, put Anna Lee in. I said, Aidan, I can't put her in. Come on. And then another kid comes up. Oh, put Anna Lee in. Anyway, same thing again. One nil down.

[00:29:21] I put her in. She swivels on her left, onto her right, curls it, hits the pole and comes out two minutes to go. So we didn't make the final. But again, she left the last impression. Yeah. Wow. This is impressive. You never hear of one. I think you see occasional times when a girl will play up or sometimes boys.

[00:29:48] You rarely ever hear about them being completely embraced by their male or boy counterparts as we need her to win. Yeah. And then what I had was the girls started getting so interesting. The girls would come and start watching the boys. And then it was like, Oh, can I train with the boys? Can I train with the boys? And I had to, you know, to retreat and I'd stay on and practice with the girl. But it just became like, it kind of brought everybody together in a strange way.

[00:30:18] Wow. So, Clem, I guess I know a lot of this story is like unfulfilled potential, right? Yeah. So she was, I think the term gets used too loosely a lot, but prodigy, you know? She was the real deal. But she really stopped playing soccer when she was, what, 14, 15 years old? 14, 15, yeah. What opportunities did she have while she was playing?

[00:30:46] And what was it like when you finally got the call, Hey, I'm going to, I'm going to do this pickleball thing full time. I'm walking away from soccer. Well, what happened was we were training a lot and she was having really trouble with her knee. And then I started to understand the pickleball and I understood that, you know, there was sponsorship coming in. And I would, I would never stand anybody's way. And I had a serious child. We used to joke all the time. Wait.

[00:31:16] All right. And I used to joke with our parents all the time, but then I kind of got serious. And I said, you know, the parents called me. We were literally in tears. Cause our team now is really progressing, really progressing. And they were like, we had lost the quarter final of the state cup and pen on, um, penalties. No, sorry. I'm wrong. We lost state cup quarter final. Our first time in a three, two in the quarter final and Anna Lee missed the penalty.

[00:31:45] And after the game, she couldn't stop crying for 25 minutes. And me and her mother, I'm serious. I literally had to grab her and her mother. We would not be here for us. She didn't care. She wanted to hear that. She just was so mad. We lost the game and she was brilliant in the game. But even the girls were like, just that. Anyway, we were getting ready for next year. I was bringing, there was three new players really coming up for another club who wanted to join our team. And we were going to the next level. We were going to win the state cup the next year, which was unheard of because we were a, we were a bronze team and I took them over.

[00:32:16] So she was all excited. Couldn't wait for next year. We're training during the summer. And then her knees started to get worse. And I was talking to Lee a few times and you know what? I kind of like, I left with Lee. I said, Lee, you know, if she wants to play important games, that's fine. But Ken, you know her, she won't want to play important games. She wants to play every game. And I said, I know, but I said, let's see what we can do. Anyway, she started off the season and played and we were winning pretty easy. We're doing well. And the girls were improving, not just her, all the girls are improving.

[00:32:45] And she was getting close with some of the girls. And then all of a sudden I spoke to Lee one night and she was telling me, you know, we're probably going to have to make a decision. And she says for our pick a ball future, her physiotherapist said she's going to have to go to soccer. And I was like, well, if that's going to be her career, I totally understand. But I'll tell you, she can play professional soccer. And they were like, well, that's what she loves.

[00:33:12] Now I said, I'm not going to fit her head full of, I would never do that. But, you know, we had conversations and, you know, me and Lee had tears over and Steven. And, you know, then the, you know, the first six, seven months kept in contact. Anyway, the girls went to the state cup final. We won the semifinal six now, but then we played Wellington. They were the number one team in the whole thing. And we, it was one, one about 10, 15 minutes. We lost four, one.

[00:33:39] But by God, if we had her there, it wouldn't have been one, one. I mean, anyhow, then the following year, go to state cup final, goes to penalties. Following year, we go to state cup final again. Like this team had never, the club had never won a state cup game in Darius football. So, you know, it was, and it wasn't even about that. It was about me showcasing, getting her name out there. And her name was out there.

[00:34:04] And, you know, we jokes and laughs and all the teams were trying to, you know, get me to get her to go to different teams. Or get her what I get, would they get her? And then she would get me. And we made a pact. We're staying here. We built this together. So if we're going to, if we're going to be together, we're staying here. So it was never about an ego with her. It was never, hey, I want to go and play with better players. I want to be seen. No, it was never, ever. Crazy. Wow.

[00:34:31] So we have a stat here, Clem, that in one of these seasons playing up, she had 46 goals and 31 assists in 38 games when she was also doing it playing a year up. Can you just sort of describe, I mean, like high level, what we were seeing or what you were seeing? Well, it's funny. She played middle and midfield where I played. I played professional. I was learned.

[00:35:01] And my biggest attribute was I'd always make a third man run into the box, one touch, finish. So I used to work with her on all this the whole time. And she would say, well, what if I turn? No, no. Just get a one touch. Just finish the ball, right? Just, you've got a powerful shot, right? No, but what? Stop. You know what I mean? This would go on and back and back and forth. But that year, she was unstoppable. She scored three or four goals. I'd be taking her off after 30 minutes, 35 minutes. So, or I'd say we had a thing.

[00:35:31] If we have possession, let's keep possession, work it up the field, work it back around, and work it back to the old goalkeeper. Whereas, the first year when I took them over, we'd have a goalie and boot it down the field, and the girls would be running after. So, but anyway, I want to go train in this, keeping possession. And these girls were never used to that. But she thought this was great. Like, oh my God, she thought this was brilliant. It was a challenge. And then at practice, like with the boys, she'd be saying, oh, we do this with the girls. We keep possession. We keep possession. We bring it back.

[00:36:00] Back to the goalie. And everybody else played the ball back to the goalie. The goalie would just kick it down the field. We'd keep possession in our own box. And she'd come back and get it and dribble around people and play it out. Oh my God, you're getting me excited, guys. Wow. No, this is interesting to hear. So, my son plays extremely high-level soccer. He's on an ECNL soccer team. Oh, that's what I coach. Yeah, I coach that. Yeah, yeah. So, he's 12.

[00:36:25] He's like the starting, you know, he's the hopeful future Annalie in our family. He plays the six. He plays, you know, defensive center mid. So, hearing the story is really fun. And what's interesting is hearing how many goals and assists all came from her position, which is not something I've ever seen. So, that's impressive. I'll be honest. Finish it there. No, go ahead. There was games where she would score three, four goals.

[00:36:55] If she wanted. She could have scored seven, eight goals a day. No problem. In one half. In one half. No. But I had to move her out to the right and move her to the left. And we had, you know, Kevin De Bruyne that plays the Belgium? Yep. So, with the Gareth's team, Annalie would be in the middle, right? So, little coaches would hear, you know, me talking, right? To them. We had to have a code. I would go, after 20 minutes, De Bruyne, which means that everybody rotated from the left to the right.

[00:37:24] So, the left side of the midfield would come into the center. The left center would go right center. Annalie was right center or center midfield. She would go to the right side of the midfield. And then we'd create an overlap where we'd put the ball in the space and she'd just go one-on-one. But I couldn't say Annalie go to the right. Because the other coaches knew the name then. You mean? So, I was like, yeah. We had to do codes. It was funny. Wow. Sounds like she's topped out. She's almost too good for the league.

[00:37:51] So, Clem, one thing that you mentioned, you had said that if, you know, she wanted to, she could have gone pro. Now, one thing that I want to touch on here, and I want to know is this exaggeration or not, you said in the article that give her six months and she would have the top ladies teams calling her, give her two years and she could be on the U.S. women's national team. Is that realistic? I mean, she's 19 now.

[00:38:22] I just think, like, you lose, like, a year of soccer. Like, forget it. But she could take, like, tell me, can't she do this? Can't she make a comeback? You got to remember her determination, her athletic ability, her IQ, her will to win. She doesn't accept defeat. I probably exaggerate in a little bit. I think it would be sooner than two years. Wow. Sooner than two years. Yes.

[00:38:51] Women's national team. And for those... The only problem is I'd have to be back on the field five nights a week with our five more, probably five more events. Exactly. And for people, and I know right now is, like, the perfect time to drop this because everybody's interested in the World Cup and they're seeing the U.S. men's team good for the first time in quite some time. But the U.S. women's national team is, you know, the powerhouse of the world. You know, they have been... Like, you look at...

[00:39:19] You know, the central midfielder. I watch everything. You look at the central midfielder for the ladies' national team. If she come back and she just concentrated on soccer, forget the pickerball, she would be knocking on the door to central midfielder and nothing. Wow. All right. I'm not sure who it is now. Rose Lavelle, you know, watch out your day's numbers. She would play beside Rose Lavelle. Perfect. Perfect, L.A. Perfect. Wow. And Rodman would make him runs in behind or down the right wing,

[00:39:47] the other girl on the left wing, and she'd be coming late into the box. Okay. Now, at this age of 19, she would be a Juilliards without a shadow of a doubt. Wow. All right. So we've heard this. This is... It's hard for me to believe. No, I understand. I think it's going to be hard for anybody to believe. But you had to see it. And I think, you know, one thing that you brought up that I'm sure Zane could attest to

[00:40:16] is that Annalie Waters does not lose. Does not like to lose. When you asked me, what did you say? She just knows the word lose. She just knows the word lose. I told you that the night she made her debut for the boys at 14, everybody was red. Could you imagine them at that age? I can remember because I was 14 and I had senior players. So I can remember when I made my debut, I hit the crossfire in Trimble, my hometown in Ireland. And I was on the way home and we were lost. But I was like, God, I hit the crossfire. I did great.

[00:40:45] All she was mad about that we lost again. Not about how well she did. Yeah. In 10 minutes. Right. That told me where her mindset is. Wow. Yeah. You know, sometimes she gets some flack from the professional pickleball community because when she loses, she's not always the most gracious loser. No. And by the way, you tell me who is. Is Messi a gracious loser? No. No. Is LeBron? No.

[00:41:14] I can go through serious players. If she's a gracious loser, she wouldn't be where she is today. Now, anybody who does that and says that is totally wrong because she's an absolute one of the nicest people and our parents and our grandparents, people I've ever met in my life. But the whole family are winners. They're all winners. They want to win. And I love it. I think it's great. I'm sorry. I was a terrible loser. Terrible. Yeah.

[00:41:39] I think Gary Vee, who is the owner of her major league pickleball team, said like, you know, show me a kid who cries after they lose and I'll show you, you know, a successful kid. Yeah, exactly. So I think that, you know, kind of proved a lot to me. And I think, you know, Clem, that Anna Lee is not just a professional pickleball player. She's not maybe just a professional soccer player, but I feel like she's just a professional athlete.

[00:42:08] Like if she would have done tennis, if she would have done, she played the number one or number two tennis player in Florida two or three years ago. And the girl, she went to seemingly, I only heard about this. It went seven, six, seven, six. Wow. She hadn't played in what? Four years. Now her dad told me as well, her dad is a scratch golfer, brilliant golfer. She went out playing golf with her dad when she was 14, 15, when she was playing with me just one day, you know, scratch player, dad.

[00:42:37] Her dad said she was hitting shots like you would never see in your life. Wow. Freak. Freak. That's what I'd say. A freak. Freak. That's probably the best way to end it. You know, Anna Lee, freak. Soccer freak. Pickleball freak. Athletic freak. I think, you know, regardless. I would actually say.

[00:42:59] A freak with an athletic body that will never accept defeat until the final whistle goes. That's how I'd summarize. In any sport. Any sport. Any sport. And I think she'll probably be riding the pickleball wave for the foreseeable future. Clem, I'm not sure how much you keep up. I do, yes. She hasn't lost a singles match in over two years. I saw that. I saw that. She's basically untouchable.

[00:43:29] So... But it doesn't surprise me. See, people... I met people down at one time. I think it was when she was 14. People were asking me, like, you're talking to me tonight. And all I ever say is... I'm talking to you because I'm talking now. But when I'm out in public or talking, people say to me, all I ever say is, doesn't surprise me. And they say, well, Cam, elaborate. There's nothing to elaborate on. Doesn't surprise me. There's nothing to elaborate on. I was with her. I saw what she went through. I'd be doing, at the end of practice, sprints and shuttles.

[00:43:59] She would do it. And then she said to me, am I getting quick enough off? And I was showing her how to get off. She would stay in about 10 minutes. If I... Let me tell you something. We trained with the girls at 6 o'clock. The boys trained at 7.30. She had both sessions. The fields used to close at 9.15. If the fields stayed open at 10, 11 o'clock, Anna Lee and Ken McCauley would be still at that. That's... No, I'm serious. I'm not joking. I could never tell her.

[00:44:28] She would listen to me. Don't get me wrong. Always listening to me. Always asking for pain. Total respect. But you could never tell her, no, you've enough. You've enough. You've enough. No, listen, Anna Lee, I'd play it. Okay, okay. Can I just do five minutes? Okay, I have to find... Anna Lee, that's enough. Okay, can I just do five more minutes? It was always five more minutes. Always five more minutes. Wow. And that's another thing we could say. What will go on Anna Lee's thing? Five more minutes. You know why?

[00:44:56] Because five more minutes is the difference in winning and losing. Yeah, exactly. I think Michael Phelps once said that, I think all the Olympic swimmers did six training sessions a week, and he would do seven so that he could get an additional 300 hours of training that nobody else got. And I think that's the Anna Lee mentality. You know, she'll go until you drag her off the court. But you know, it's funny. Her whole...

[00:45:25] Even when she's eating, because she loves chocolate. Now, don't do that, all right? But she loves chocolate. Or even when she's eating, like she'd always want to not eat the most expensive food, but she'd want to eat the best food, or she'd want to eat properly. And I was the same. My mom told me. I used to get grumpy, because when I want to eat, I want to eat. When I don't want to eat, I don't want to eat. And she was the exact same. I'm telling you right now. And I even said to my mom and my son,

[00:45:55] she's a female version of me when I was that age. That's what she reminded me of. So it was like... It was so easy for me. It was so easy, honestly. Wow. Well, Clem, I think, just to wrap and to sum up... Five more. Yeah, go ahead. Five more. I think... What I think about is what you've said is unbelievable, right? It's hard for me to wrap my head around.

[00:46:24] Probably hard for anybody to agree with. But... You know what's the only thing I'm sad about? I thought she was going to be on this tonight. I was really looking forward to that. Oh! Well, Annalie, this is an open invitation. We will get her... We'll bring her on. And we'll have to do an on-site... On the soccer pitch. Yes! Yes! And I bring out some of the old girls, right? Three or four of them. There you go. And some of the boys. Some of the boys. There we go. So I want to say... So, you know, to wrap, I just think...

[00:46:54] What you said is unbelievable, incredible, hard to believe. But what she's doing at Pickleball is also unheard of, incredible, hard to believe. Correct. No, we... I came on this pod one year ago as an invite from Zayn because we debated whether or not Annalie was more dominant than Serena Williams. Regardless of that conversation... You're right. You want to agree. It's like... That's the level that she is playing. Unbelievable.

[00:47:24] Like, rewriting history. So, I think at this point, I might be turned... I believe, you know... I believe you, Clem. I think I would love to see it in an alternate universe. Maybe she's playing soccer on the U.S. Women's National Team next year at the World Cup. And let's not... Let's not... Not a pie in the sky. It's not a pie in the sky. There we go. Exactly. We'll see. So, we'll see if she has a Michael Jordan-esque run at soccer when she gets inevitably

[00:47:52] born of pickleball winning for seven years in a row. Right. But it was very nice. Very nice. Thank you very much. I really enjoyed going on. Thank you very much. Thank you. Pleasure, Clem. Thanks so much. We'll stay in contact. Thank you. Absolutely.