By MARK MOSCHETTI
Seattle Pacific Sports Information
 
SEATTLE – When Todd Stauber was majoring in journalism and playing soccer at Seattle Pacific, he had no idea that he'd ever move to Spain someday.
 
When he took his soccer career beyond SPU, the notion of starting his own business was nowhere on his radar.
 
When he was coaching youth soccer in the Puget Sound area, he figured he'd just keep on doing it.
 
That was then.
 
Today, the Falcon alum who was part of Seattle Pacific's 1993 national championship team, is now in his seventh year of very happily living in San Sebastian, about 350 miles northwest of Barcelona. He is one of three people who teamed up to start European Soccer Solutions, which specializes in tours to Spain for youth and college soccer teams, focusing not only on competition, but also culture.
 
 

And, thanks in large part to all of that, Stauber is still very much connected to SPU soccer. He and his company are the ones bringing coach Kevin Sakuda's Falcon men to Spain for the next several days, where they'll play against some of the reserve teams from the country's famed La Liga, spend some time at the beach, and get an up-close-and-personal look at the place he now calls home.
 
"I've been really good friends with Kevin for a long time," the 48-year-old Stauber said. "I've known (assistant coaches) Josh (Swett) and Skip (Erik Skipper) and Jimmy Ward for a really long time.
 
"When Kevin got the job (as head coach, in 2021), we started talking about the possibility of them coming over," Stauber added. "We've done several university teams on preseason tours over here. So I was super-happy that we were able to make it happen, especially it being SPU where I played."
 
The Falcons landed in Barcelona on Thursday, and after getting settled in will be off to go Girona, about an hour north and the home of Girona Futbol Club. That 93-year-old team was promoted back to the top division for this past season, and finished 10th among the 20 teams with a 13-15-10 record. SPU will use the training facilities, then play against Girona's U-19 squad.
 
 

"They're pretty dialed in as far as taking care of transportation, food, housing, all of our games," Sakuda said. "Normally, we're trying to feed 30 guys (on the road)., so it's nice for this trip that we have someone we trust. He's a great guy and has been easy to deal with."
 
Not only will Friday be the first of five scheduled games for the Falcons, it's the point at which Stauber, the company CEO, gets to begin really enjoying the fruits of helping put all of it together.
 
"I like creating the tours and creating the experience," he said. "I have an unbelievable staff. They all know me very well, the understand me very well, and they know what I want, and we're able to execute it as a team.
 
"My favorite part is setting up the experience and then seeing the look on my guests' faces when they get here and get to go through the experience, and know that they're having a really good time."
 
A LEAP OF FAITH
Like many soccer players everywhere, Stauber wasn't ready to hang up his cleats after finishing his career at Seattle Pacific in 1995. He saw some action during two seasons with the indoor Seattle SeaDogs. Later, he was with the Puget Sound Soccer Academy Rapids, and then played for and eventually served as general manager of the indoor Tacoma Stars.
 
He also coached youth teams, and spent four years as the Director of Coaching for the Pacific Northwest Soccer Club (Pac NW). It was during that time when the seed for his future, if not yet full sprouted, at least got planted.
 

"I had taken a couple of teams overseas to play in tournaments in Spain, and I loved it in Spain," he said. "I was kind of getting burnt out on coaching youth soccer, but I wanted to continue working in the game. I thought there was a potential market for something like what we were doing.
 
"So seven years ago, I kind of took a leap of faith and kind of went for it."
 
Stauber and two others started their company, "and the first year, we brought over two or three teams," he said. It now has 13 full-time employees, plus seasonal employees. Each tour group, no matter how large or small, has its own guide.
 
"We just had a tour with 600 people at the same time, 16 teams at the same time," he said. "I've been very fortunate to be able to use my connections that I built from playing and coaching. … The year before Covid (2019), we did 16 teams, We'll do 38 this year. We're on track for 60-something next year."
 
The coronavirus pandemic that began in 2020 severely affected Stauber's business, just as it did all other businesses, particularly those whose lifeblood is travel and tourism. Spain enforced very strict lockdown requirements. As Stauber recalled, "We had three months when couldn't even leave your house."
 
He committed to keeping his full-time employees on board, and they agreed to reduced salaries during the two years when they were not able to bring over any teams. Under Stauber's leadership, they made the most of it.
 
"It has been good. After Covid, you take it all in stride and realize that it can go away at any point," Stauber said. "It was difficult, but at the same time, it gives you time for reflection. We revamped a couple things that we were doing with the business. At the time it was difficult. But it was a good time to reflect both personally and for the business."
 
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Once Stauber and his team were able to get back to business, business came right back to them.
 
"It was pretty rough, but in the end, everything worked out," he said. "One thing with American culture: When you take things away from American people, when they have the opportunity to have them back, they go full force. When we came out of Covid, because people weren't able to travel anywhere, they wanted to travel. So it played right into our hands and has been really good."
 
The clientele basically falls into two distinct groups: youth teams and college teams. For youth teams, it's fairly straight-forward in that their tours revolve around playing in tournaments.
 
For college teams, it's a bit more complex in that it involves setting up slate of one-off matches.
 
"We're looking at the level of the team, and then looking at how many days they want to be here," Stauber said. "What do they want to focus on ? Is it just soccer? Or is it a mix of soccer and culture? What are they looking to get out of it.?
 
"After seven years, we have a lot of good connections in a lot of different locations. We're able to look at it and say, 'This is what we've got.'"
 
Toward that end, Stauber's efforts with Falcons coach Sakuda was the epitome of working with the ideal client.
 
"The amount of thought and preparation that Kevin and his staff put into what they're doing for their guys is extremely high-level," he said. "We have college teams that come over and say, 'Just give us four games.' Kevin was very specific about what he wanted and when he wanted it in the tour. He's thinking about the season and how this tour is going to progress into the season. I met with Kevin and Jimmy and Skip and Josh multiple times to get this exactly right."
 
DIFFERENT VIBES IN SPAIN
Leaps of faith being what they are, Stauber didn't know if his own personal such leap would work out for him.
 
Not only did it work out, the native of Oak Harbor (90 miles north of Seattle on the north end of Whidbey Island) now considers San Sebastian to the place where he wants to stay.
 
"The culture here is so different, so laid-back, so different in terms of the overall vibe of everything," he said. "I've been here for seven years and never owned a car – I drive a moto around town. Nobody cares what your job is or how much you're making or what house you live in or what car you drive. The emphasis on working is not the same. The emphasis is more on enjoying life and family and friends and living.
 
"I've adjusted to the culture in a way that this is home for me."
 
It's a home that he's eager to share with guests – especially his current soccer-playing guests from Seattle Pacific. In fact, these athletes weren't even born when he played midfield for the Falcons from 1992-95, logging 14 goals and 29 assists in 74 games, while working off the field as sports editor of The Falcon student newspaper and in the sports information office.
 
"Everybody that we bring here, we want to show them the same thing," Stauber said. "This is a different culture, a different way of living, a different way to look at life, a different perspective. That's important to us as a company to make sure that we get people out of their bubble in America, if you will, and see things from a different perspective.
 
"You only know the environment that you're in," he added. "To see a different environment is extremely valuable, especially for guys of that age."
 
MEMORIES OF A 'MAGICAL SEASON'
Stauber will be back in Seattle next month to be part of the Legacy Night match on Sept. 16 against Colorado School of Mines at Interbay Stadium. He and his 1993 teammates will receive championship rings as they celebrate the 30th anniversary of winning it all. The Falcons beat Southern Connecticut in the final, 1-0, and Stauber had one of the assists on Dominic Dickerson's game-winning goal.
 

  "We were a very good team, we'd had an unbelievable season, and we beat a ton of top D1 schools," Stauber recalled. "I grew up with (brothers) Travis and Caleb Connell, who started that (title) game. They were on the field when we won it, and they were Oak Harbor guys, just like me. To win it was those guys was special. It was a magical season, definitely something you never forget."
 
But before that special night, there's a tour to finish – and more to come for other schools, long after the Falcons have returned home.
 
"When Kevin came to me, he wanted the guys to have a really great experience overall," Stauber said. "But obviously, the soccer was super-important because it's preseason. So we were able to put something together where they're going to get to see a couple different parts of Spain, a few different cities, and play some really high-level matches against really good clubs.
 
"We're really excited for when these guys get here. We have a lot of really cool things in store for them that they're going to get to see."

And Todd Stauber – the guy who never thought he'd move to Spain or start his own business – is the one who'll get to show it to them.