November 10, 2024

Meet Brad Namdar

Local Stories

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brad Namdar. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Brad with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
That’s a great question.

I believe that my work ethic has grown, changed, and evolved as I’ve gotten older.
I was blessed to have had mentors, family members, and people who were/are important to me along the way of life that have helped shape my work ethic.

Also, my life experiences are extremely important in how my work ethic has changed, where it comes from, or how I approach each item/objective/project in my life ( Experiences like: being a former NCAA D-1 Athlete, being a professional athlete, GM of a professional sports team, coaching at the college level, owning my own small businesses, a policy advisor, and many other experiences).

However, it’s important to remember to always fine ways to maximize your work ethic into maximizing productivity.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I have had the opportunity to work in various industries, support various nonprofit initiatives, lead community service projects, consult various businesses across a wide range of business spectrums, own my own small businesses, have been a public school teacher/coach, a professional athlete, and a GM for professional sports teams. Though, my story, and life experiences is ultimately why I have had the pleasure of working in diverse fields.

I was born in Dallas, Texas, raised in Plano, Texas, and as any other kid, grew up wanting to pursue several endeavors, and just ultimately, “grab life by the horns.”

I loved playing sports, watching sports, and was interested in the sports world (particularly in football and soccer) as I got older.

Naturally (being from North Texas), I ended up playing club soccer and football in middle school and high school. When I was in 8th grade I discovered I had a natural talent for kicking and started working to master that talent. Later, when I got older, and became a student athlete at Plano West Senior High School, (playing football & club soccer at the same time), my athletic performances on the field, and academics off the field, offered me the opportunity to play sports at the college level.

As a soccer player, I played for some of the top youth soccer clubs in the country, at the time (Andromeda S.C. , Dallas Texans, etc.) I made the Olympic Development Program for North Texas, and began coaching youth soccer in high school. I loved all things soccer.

Regarding football, I kept working on my kicking/punting technique since 8th grade. I worked extremely hard to be the best kicker / punter I could be, and despite being 5 foot 5, and 145 lbs. my junior year, I was ranked as one of the top college prospects for kicking in the country.

It’s important to note that college football recruiting wasn’t like it is today when I was playing in high school. We didn’t have as many outlets to get your talent discovered across the globe through the internet, or social media, countless online recruiting website, or other digital ways we have today that could display your talent to coaches in college.

When I was in high school, you had to play extremely well in games, be noticed by publications, have college scouts come watch you in games and practice, create highlight DVD’s to send to colleges, and be recognized by (reputable) recruiting entities – such as, Rivals.com to be considered as a real college prospect for the NCAA Division 1 level (especially as a kicker/punter).

I’ll never forget the joy I felt when I made the varsity football program at Plano West my junior year, and after my first game, the feeling I had when I saw in my locker my first NCAA D-1 recruiting letter, and the extreme joy I had when I received another letter from Rivals.com informing me I would be put on their online recruiting website as a top college recruiting prospect and was invited to their showcase day at SMU.

By the end of my junior year at Plano West, I was ranked as one of the top 5 field goal kickers in the country as I did not miss any extra points, field goals, and received accolades/recognition from entities like, being on the front page of the athletics/local section of the Dallas Morning News, receiving The Dallas Morning News, “Kudos Award”, being The Dallas Morning News, “Special Teams Player of the Week” – 5 times during the season, making the Dave Campbell’s football “Players to Watch list,” and was the 3rd leading scorer on the team my junior year.

My senior year, I came in handling all three phases of the kicking/punting game, won additional awards, accolades, and ultimately paved the way for me to move onto the next stage of my athletic playing career in college.

After high school, I played college football at Texas Tech University for the late/great Mike Leach, and was party of our that team won the 2008 Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida.Following that season, I transferred to SMU, and had the opportunity to play for another great football coach, June Jones, where we won the 2012 BBVA Compass Bowl.

I earned my B.A. in Journalism from SMU in 2012, with a minor in Philosophy from SMU, but always was involved in soccer during my undergraduate studies. After graduating, I went ahead and earned my M.A. in Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management from SMU, Executive Coaching Certification, and Mediation Certification from SMU (2014), while also working with the SMU Men’s Soccer Program as the Director of Operations, Estagio at FC Dallas, Cooper Fitness Center Soccer Pro, St. Marks School of Texas Soccer Coach, Founder and CEO of Dream Big Soccer, and was a private kicking / punting coach in the local Dallas area – where I was able to coach kickers/punters to play at the NCAA Division 1 level, and the Ivy League.

After earning my Masters degree, I wanted to really continue my journey in coaching, helping students, and being involved in sports. I accepted a position where I became the Boys Varsity Soccer Head Coach and Finance/Accounting Teacher at North Dallas H.S. (DISD) where our varsity soccer team had a fantastic season on the field, as well as, set a school record off the field academically; sending 12/13 seniors to play college soccer.

Based on the impact I had at NDHS, the success/experience we had growing the program on and off the field, I was offered a job to coach at the college level for Mountain View College (at the age of 26-years old), I was one of the youngest college soccer head coaches in the country (coaching two programs – men’s and women’s soccer). I will never forget how proud I was to grow MVC Soccer into being a program that brought in record breaking booster funds, hosted the Schellas Hyndman coaches clinic at our campus, brought in vendors to utilize the facility, and really created a respected program allowing us to recruit across the country.

It was a lot of work to say the least, and towards the end of the year, I needed a break. My “go-go-go-go work ethic,” at the time resulted in me wanting to try something different. After all, my entire resume was extremely sports-specific and I wanted to do something different. I created my own small business in the home decor/candle industry from the ground up, and before I knew it, I woke up and realized in 2022 that I was not working in the football or soccer world for over six years.

I’ll never forget, when I was watching the 2022 World Cup at my house with my wife, how much I really missed soccer, how I had planned to go back to soccer one day, and how much I missed playing football too.

Then, in the middle of the World Cup, I received a call from a very respected, and well known mentor by the name of Michael Hitchock, and he offered me the opportunity to be the GM of one of his soccer teams (The Denton Diablos). I had never been a GM before for a soccer team, I had always been a soccer coach, or a Director of Operations (SMU), but after meeting with Mr. Hitchcock, he made me realize that my experience in the business world, non-profit world, community service initiatives, knowledge of soccer, experience in the soccer world, all culminated into the talents required, work ethic required, and qualifications required to be a GM for a high level sports program. I then accepted this new challenge and hit the ground running.

At the Denton Diablos, there was a lot of work to be done; I had countless areas of the program that we needed to address; from raising funds, obtaining a field for home games, gaining ticket sales, season ticket holders, sponsors, community outreach initiatives, public relations projects, game-day operations procedures, and bringing on interns to help run the program, was just some of the items under my belt.

However, due to the amazing people who I got to work with, and my dedication to the club, the Denton Diablos (2023 season) set numerous records for the club. That year we raised more sponsorship funds than any other year, had the highest club attendance at home games, set a record for our home opener, established and helped non-profit organizations with our teams platform, and secured numerous long-term relationships for the club to sustain to continue in having success year after year.

At the end of the NPSL season in May of 2023 I had several soccer programs across all different levels of the soccer spectrum reach out to me in various roles; including that of GM. I thought to myself, wow, this is awesome and the next opportunity I took on was being the GM & Sporting Director for the well-known Texas Outlaws, of the Major Arena Soccer League (MASL).

The Texas Outlaws, owner was/is Mr. Mehrdad Moayedi, and he, along with his owner representative, Colin Moore, hired me in August of 2023 to be their GM for the 2023 – 2024 season (where again I had to hit the ground running, learn the indoor soccer world at a professional level, and all matters required of that for a professional soccer GM). The MASL season started in November and ends in April of the following year.

I am tremendously proud to say that in my first season as the GM & Sporting Director, we set numerous records! We raised the most sponsorship dollars in the history of the club, sold the most season tickets in club history, had conducted the most community outreach projects/initiatives in club history, had several players called up to the U.S. National team, and had the best performance in club history on the field winning our first round playoff game vs. San Diego.

Everything was great, and then…one day, in March of 2024, while I was at the Outlaws front office, a thought came in my head saying, “Hey Brad,… many of the players on your team are around your age, some are older than you,…why not see if you could kick again? You were in both world once, maybe you could still play football too.”

I missed football, and brushed that idea off at first, and then, about a week later after having that “kick footballs again,” thought, I was at a photo shoot at Southfork Ranch, where I met a gentleman by the name of Mr. Don Nabb, we were talking about horses, life, football, and all of the sudden he told me about his experience in the world of professional football. A month later, in April of 2024, and after soccer season was over, I was kicking field goals again! But this time, I was kicking in a professional football game for the Frisco Fighters of the IFL ( Indoor Football League).

I was so happy, excited, and humbled that I could still play at the professional level. I was so humbled to see so many friends, family members, supporters, sponsors from the Outlaws, and colleagues attend the game to support me, and watch me kick footballs in a pro-game. I thought, this was great, but it didn’t end there, due to the results of my performance with the Frisco Fighters, I had other teams/opportunities to keep kicking professionally across the country during the offseason.

As stated above, the soccer season had just ended, I was/am the GM of a professional soccer team, and now a professional football player (at the same time) from April of 2024 to June of 2024. During that time, I kicked in three different professional football leagues for four professional teams, as well as, played in a National Championship game with the Corpus Christi Tritons of the (AIF).

The 3 Leagues I played in were:

The Indoor Football League (IFL) – Frisco Fighters, and later the Tucson Sugar Skulls.
The Arena Football League (AFL) – Wichita Regulators
American Indoor Football League (AIF) – The Corpus Christi Tritons

I learned so much from these opportunities as a player, saw things from a different prospectives as a player, with a new set of eyes as opposed from the lends of a GM, and that really made me appreciate both world even more.

I enjoyed kicking again, I was getting better every game, I had some big teams interested in seeing me kick after Tucson, but unfortunately,…adversity was right around the corner, I got my first ever injury in a game playing for Tucson on June 22, 2024 where I had to take the rest of the season off, but the good news was I could still kick again.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
In my journey of life so far, the best advise I have and/or the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in my journey are listed below: (Its important that these answer are base line answers that can be applied to not only to your business, but in your personal life, or other endeavors you may have.)

1 – Don’t ever take your time for granted or allow for others to take time away from you, your endeavors, or from whats important to you. Life is too short, take a moment and enjoy it.

2- Don’t take your friends, advocates, supporters, or loved ones for granted. Having good people who truly want whats best for you is the hardest thing to find in life. Some arena’s are more competitive than others, but you can never replace good people who want what’s best for you… don’t take them for granted.

3- Never sacrifice your integrity, morals, or values. (Even if sometimes you may get hurt by standing firm for what is right, and supporting what’s right). I have been in environments where people want to just use the “system,” do the bare minimum to get by, discouraged me from doing my best, and/or wanted to divert what was right for other peoples benefit. My advise, have moral, integrity, and values …

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
In life we all face some sort of challenges, but I don’t like to look at them as challenges (in a negative way), but more as opportunities to become better, or goals to obtain.

Regarding this question in particular, a current challenge(s) that I am working on right now, would be removing from my injury I sustained when playing in Tucson ( on June 22, 2024). I have been focusing on making sure that I get my leg back to its optimal level, ankle back to optimal level, and then getting my kicking technique to be better than it was before my injury. I also am working on my overall fitness to be as best as it can be. Playing football again, showed me (even more than I thought) the importance of making sure you stay in shape, and take care of yourself, “…I learned I was mortal.”

However, I have been blessed to have the support of various businesses, brands, and people supporting me in my recovery process, including Mr. Don Nabb, my friend, who helped get me the opportunity to play professionally football and he still believes in me as both as a person and as a kicker- which has been great, and encouraging.

My friend, Nani who was a sponsor of the Texas Outlaws has been supportive as he owns a fantastic and growing sports apparel company called SLMV Apparel, which has been making sure to provide me with fantastic athletic apparel any athlete could ask for, as well as, providing me with additional physical therapy resources provided by a local sport specific professional, named Mr. Jaime Luna.

The Football Stick, is another awesome company that created an amazing product that is a kicking-specific product designed for kickers/punters to work on their form, approach to the ball, impact point on the ball, and they have been very supportive of me in my journey as a kicker and through the recovery process thus far; I also highly recommend their product for new kickers and professional kickers. I wish I had this tool when I was younger and every football program should have their Football Stick for their kicker/punters.

The various Doctors, Physical Therapists, and staff at Texas Orthopedics, and of course the many fans, supporters, and others that have sent their support regarding my recovery from both the Texas Outlaws (soccer program), and the fans from the IFL, AFL, and AIF (football).

I have been blessed to have this opportunity, and I believe I will be able to accomplish the next task/challenge/opportunity ahead (which I can’t wait for).

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