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Founder of Beach Soccer LA, Brian Easler has created his own pathway to becoming one of the most well-known beach soccer players and now coaches not only in the United States but around the world. Where is he from and what brought him to the City of Angels? Here is his story…
Brian Easler was born in Las Vegas, NV, and raised in the southern state of Alabama. He began his soccer career at the age of 10 years old. Easler grew up in the small town of Dothan, AL that has a population of roughly 65,000 people. He competed under the local club team that combined the best players out of six different high schools in that area, Alabama Alliance. Throughout his time there, he played as an outside midfielder for roughly 5 years until his team was in desperate need of a goalkeeper. To avoid the struggle of searching, Brian decided to approach their coach and volunteer to be the goalkeeper. The transition was smooth and although he enjoyed freely playing outside mid, the sacrifice to play the arguably most important player on the field excited him. He enjoyed the challenge and from that moment on continued the rest of his soccer career as a goalkeeper for Alabama Alliance. After competing under the club for 8 years, Brian was a main component of the team and contributed to their success of being ranked 42nd in the nation out of all U-18 teams in the country. This accomplishment led him and his team to showcase their talents at the Nike Cup held in Atlanta, GA.
“We beat the top 20 teams in the country which made us stand out. ”
This opportunity exposed their team to plenty of college coaches and resulted in every player on their team receiving a college scholarship. Brian was recruited by over 8 schools in the South, but just like any clueless 18- year old unsure of where they wanted their life to go, he decided to reach out to a university in the capital of Alabama. Faulkner University is a private Christian university with an average of 3,100 enrolled students. Faulkner granted an athletic scholarship to Brian to compete for their men’s soccer team. Because this school was a Christian University it had its strict requirements for all full-time students to attend Chapel. Below are some of the Chapel Attendance Rules from Faulkner University’s website:
Chapel Attendance Requirements
Residential students on the Montgomery campus must attend Chapel every day regardless of their class schedules.
Only students on an approved University-sponsored event and whose name appears on the list submitted by the event sponsor(s) may have Chapel attendance waived for the event.
Chapel attendance records will weigh heavily in considering student’s housing arrangements, student awards, and club awards.
Excessive absences are considered a serious student conduct issue and will be addressed.
“I had to go to chapel, I had no choice.” Although he didn’t have a choice, he explained that he did not like being forced into going to chapel and missed “too many” chapel sessions. This resulted in fines that were up to $70 for every unexcused absence. As a freshman, he made several appearances for the university but did not like the religious demands from the school. He was excited to leave and start a new journey pursuing a Criminal Justice degree at Troy University that had 5 times as many students as Faulkner. Brian put his soccer career on hold and spent a year and a half playing pickups, attending school, and living the “college life”. Although he enjoyed his time at the campus and hanging around with friends, he had become bored of the same classes, explained that they were “too easy”, did not feel challenged, and felt as if he wasn’t getting the most out of his college education. So, he decided to step out of his comfort zone and purchase a one-way ticket to Germany.
Brian kept in touch with old colleagues from his previous schools and landed in Hamburg, Germany, took a train to the city of Kiel, and stayed with a good friend that welcomed him into his home. He enrolled in Förde-vhs/Volkshochschule Kiel, a German Language School. There, Easler learned German and days into arriving at Kiel attended a try out for Division IV Heikendorf Soccer Club (HSV). He played as an outside midfielder for the club. “The level was much higher than it is here in the States.”
He adjusted to the team’s style of play but at times struggled with the language barrier. Although he enjoyed the culture and atmosphere, Easler didn’t quite see himself settling down and continuing his life there. After living in Kiel, Germany for almost two years, he decided to go outside of his comfort zone and move to the City of Angels.
Brian saw Los Angeles, CA as a city filled with opportunities. He didn’t want to move back to the South nor continue his life in Germany. At the time, Los Angeles seemed right. After working plenty of different jobs, making friends, private training, and hosting grass soccer pickups, he came across one specific friend that invited him to watch her and her friends play a beach soccer game in Long Beach, CA. Easler attended his friend’s game and immediately thought “I want to try this out.” This isn’t your typical Beach Soccer interest. Especially since the game is a physical demanding sport played on sand that can vary from freezing to an extremely hot surface.
He began to train, play for the local long beach league, study the game, and eventually became a huge promoter of the sport. After a few months of consistently playing, Brian saved up his money to purchase goals and training equipment to host pickup games for locals. He grew passionate about the sport and found himself training on a regular basis, hosting 2-3 pickups a week, and traveled multiple times to compete abroad. Brian began building an organization for beach soccer and named it Beach Soccer LA. With his non-stop efforts, Brian has hosted over 100 pickups to the public, held 5 tournaments, created a beach soccer school, built two women’s beach soccer teams in Los Angeles, and recently hosted the very first women’s beach soccer league in the country.
Today, the plans for Brian and Beach Soccer LA are bright. Easler plans to continue working towards building one of the biggest beach soccer organizations in the country. His goal is to create a pathway to teach others the game, continue coaching, coach at the highest level, and build some of the most prestigious players in the world. And the show goes from there…
To see where Brian and Beach Soccer LA are now, check out their pages through Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
Writer: Kelly Garzon
IG: Kgarzon
Photos: Gilbert Bita