You have joined the group at an early time in our existence. Our website is just about 3 months old and we started out as 6 friends. It was at the Lion and Rose at Park North that we decided to put the group together. We all felt the same passion for the game of soccer and we all agreed how great it would be if we could see and support a professional soccer team locally. After seeing the immediate success in Seattle (in an NFL stadium too), realizing we are the 7th largest US city, and knowing what a great urban atmosphere downtown San Antonio offers, we knew in our minds there was no question that San Antonio could support a Major League Soccer franchise. Today we are roughly over  80  95 people in total (combination of unique people on facebook or directly signed up on Crocketteers.com).

With that said, we are fully aware that the USL is looking at the San Antonio market for another team in their first division. Although we strive to bring the highest brand of professional soccer to San Antonio, we agree that we, the Crocketteers, will also support a USL-1 franchise making an immediate rival with our friends to the North, the Austin Aztex.  A few weeks ago 11 of us joined Chantico’s Army (Supporters Group of the Aztex) in watching the World Cup Qualifying match between the United States and Costa Rica and later in the week watching the Aztex host the Charlestion Battery.

For a nice recap of our time in Austin, please read “Big Night for the Crocketteers!” by Sergio Macias and Sam’s “My First Live Soccer Game”. We were fortunate to hang out with Chantico’s Army after the game and meet the owner of the Aztex, Phil Rawlins, and their manager, former Everton star, Adrian Heath. Subsequently, the Crocketteers received a friendly e-mail from Kay Rawlins, Head of Client and Community Services, recognizing our efforts in attending their match. She has invited us to attend the Copa Aztex July 18th at the University of Texas in Austin. Cruz Azul and Tigres will be playing a match that day along with other soccer related activities on the grounds of UT. I invite you all to join us in another road trip up I-35 and see some top-notch futbol action.

Again I want to thank all of you for joining our group within the last week. I got a chance to speak to a few  of you briefly and I know some of you plan to encourage your friends to join our group. I want to reiterate that nothing is required of you as a member of the Crocketteers. When we do get a team to support, then we can make simple requirements to maintain membership but nothing too significant. For those of you who want to contribute more, feel free to ask how you can help. We are always open to new bloggers for the website. With that said, I hope you all can at least spread the word about the Crocketteers and help drive our membership numbers up. One member, James Hope, had the great idea of getting business cards made for the group to hand out at soccer events, get togethers, etc…

Lastly, we will plan to have a meeting for anyone who would like to help come up with various ideas and strategies to discuss making the Crocketteers a real success and taking the group to a new level.

Again, Welcome to the Crocketteers!

Single Flier (jpeg)

Double Flier (pdf)

The Austin Aztex played the Charleston Battery Friday, losing in a 2-0 shellacking.  It wasn’t a huge surprise, as the Battery are very good, and the Aztex are new to the USL-1.  However, the effort was there for the Aztex, which means more to me after watching the USA National team sleep through their game against Costa Rica recently.  The Aztex seemed to push the ball far more aggressively than the US team did, unfortunately they really did seem to be just physically outmatched at most positions.

Overall the game was an enjoyable experience, I got to see some things I never would have on TV, with my favorite experience being the poor distracted ball boy.  We were sitting near the Charleston goal about midway through the second half, with the Aztex attacking.  The ball was kicked into the stands by a Battery defender and rather than immediately feed the Aztex the ball for a quick throw in before the defense got set up, the poor ball boy tracked the flight of the ball into the stands.  He was completely oblivious to the crowd and Aztex player as they screamed for him to provide a ball to the player.  Hilarity ensued as the ball boy freaked out , threw a new ball to the player, and then refused to look at the crowd for the rest of the game.

While it was a sizable defeat to the Aztex, their faithful Chantico’s Army did not let that discourage them from supporting their team for the duration of the game and beyond.  They banged their drums and played their trumpets trying to coax their team to even greater effort.   The Aztex cheers and drumming was highly reminiscent of what I saw the Costa Rican crowd do in their match against the USA.  Unfortunately, for all of Chantico’s Army’s efforts, it didn’t seem to get the rest of the crowd as involved in the game as one would hope.  When San Antonio gets a soccer team I think we could learn from this and try to develop ways to get the whole crowd involved, perhaps through something similar to the college games, where they have appointed cheer leaders spread throughout the stands, where they could teach the chants and cheers so even new fans would have the chance to learn and participate in them.

With all that said, the best part of the game was the crowd that went along with it.  There were some very nice people from both the Crocketteers and Aztex supporters .  Crocketteers Daniel and James  were both highly helpful in explaining some points about the more technical aspects of the game and the business side of the game.  After the game, the Crocketteers were invited to the semi-official gathering place of the Aztex, Cuatros, which was more fun than a barrel of monkeys in a hot tub.  If you ever get a chance to go to a Crocketteers event, know that you are going to be hanging out with some quality folks.

Overall, while I still wouldn’t rate soccer as my favorite sport in the world, after watching 180 minutes of it in the last few days, I certainly don’t find it quite is repellant as I may have before.  There is a flow to the game that certain American sports (football, baseball) can’t quite match, although those sports certainly have their own redeeming qualities.  I still doubt that I will be watching soccer all the time, but now, I certainly won’t be so quick to turn the TV off.

After a 2 – 0 loss by the Aztex to the Charleston Battery (a great team in the USL-1 division), we Crocketteers met up with the Chantico’s Army (Aztex Fan Club) at their regular hangout, Cuatros.

Chantico's Army (June 5, 2009 Aztex vs Battery)

It was at Cuatros where myself, and my cousin Michael Macias, were introduced to Mr. Phil Rawlins, owner of the Austin Aztex and part owner of Stoke City FC in the EPL.  After being introduced to Mr. Rawlins, we also met Austin Aztex coach, Mr. Adrian Heath, and General Manager for Charleston Battery, Mr. Mike Anhaeuser.  All soccer enthusiasts, they were especially welcoming and especially grateful for our visit to Austin to watch the Aztex play.

Let me also take the time to thank Matthew Gray (mgrayscale on BigSoccer), President of  the Austin Aztex fan club Chantico’s Army, for hosting the Crocketteers and hooking all of us up with tickets to the game. Hopefully, in the future we can return the favor and party on the riverwalk.

Also had some Crocketteer faithfuls at the game, James Hope & Daniel Rodriguez.  James (jhope on BigSoccer) certainly proved himself to be a great knowledge base with the economic aspect of soccer as well as a general soccer fan. Daniel (Danilo on BigSoccer), a recent transplant to San Antonio (originally from Venezuela), was also right there with us meeting and greeting these new, influential people.

Lastly, and certainly not least, on our way out the door, Michael, Daniel, James, and myself got into a very good conversation about soccer here in San Antonio with Mr. Eric Vormelker (VioletCrown on BigSoccer).  Eric does the stats for the Austin Aztex and is also a member of Chantico’s Army.  This is where James really demonstrated his familiarity with the economic aspect of bringing soccer to our city.

One way or another, last night seemed to me to be a great night for the Crocketteers as we are working to establish a solid relationship with some strong soccer fans, faithful to soccer and dedicated to spreading soccer around Texas.

Victory or Death!

Thanks for reading guys! and feel free to correct any errors I may have made!

- Sergio J. Macias (ChexMex on BigSoccer)

PS I would definitely like to make it back out to Austin to watch some more games, and hopefully share some more drinks at Cuatros!