Stone by Stone With John Garcia Out Now!
Stone by Stone is back with Edgewater Castle FC’s COO Tom Arnison sitting down with Chicago-area video professional John Garcia to talk about capturing the Chicagoland soccer scene for a wider online audience.
Garcia describes his Instagram, @gntacc.sports, as a highlight reel of sorts for Chicagoland-area soccer.
“It's basically clips of the best soccer in all [of the] Chicagoland area,” Garcia says. “Or at least what we believe breeds elite soccer in [the] Chicagoland area. … [We] make them a little bit more digestible for people.”
Semi-pro soccer doesn’t come with its own flood of media coverage as top-tier professional sports. While Garcia seizes this gap in coverage for his content, it comes with the challenge of accessing the myriad of matches strewn across the calendar and region.
“We try to make as many semi-pro games as we can, as many as we're allowed to be at,” Garcia says. Leagues like MLS have formalized media credentialing, while semi-pro and amateur leagues sometimes have to leave it to teams and venues to decide who can capture content from the sidelines.
“A lot of these places have restrictions. A lot of these places have their own videographers or, you know, camera guys,” Garcia explains. “They don't really want to let us in and do our thing.” Garcia says he has found success in capturing indoor soccer. Wherever he can access, he says anything “G.O.E.S.”
G.O.E.S. is Garcia’s acronym for deciding what makes it on the page.
“The G stands for grit,” Garcia says. “They're basically the traits that we believe make players stand out. … Someone that will jump in front of a shot even though they know it's going to sting, or someone that will slide tackle last-second, knowing they're going to get that rug burn.”
Check out the podcast for the rest. Suffice to say, Garcia believes that his formula works, especially as it relies on the players making plays.
“What, gives us better content is how hard the players want to play that day,” he says. “I always tell the players when they reach out [saying], ‘Oh, beautiful videos, amazing videos.’ And I'm like, ‘Look, man, like, thank you, but this is all you guys.”
Garcia didn’t know what look for without his history with the sport. He describes his family being involved with soccer for his whole life, including his own experience playing.
To hear Garcia’s whole story and insights into capturing soccer, make sure to check out this episode of Stone by Stone on Spotify and YouTube by clicking the buttons below!
