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Eli Lesser walked into a Los Angeles sports broadcasting camp wearing a gray sweatshirt and a Dodgers cap. The then-14-year-old saw dozens of kids just like him, wearing the same thing. 

“Everyone wanted to be the next Vin Scully there,” Lesser said. “I tried to talk a little soccer and no one was talking about soccer. I was bummed out by that. So going into the next year at that camp I went in saying, ‘I want to drive this, I want to be different from everyone else there.’”

That’s when Lesser, now a sophomore at Syracuse University, started This Week in MLS, an Instagram account he’s run for over five years. Now, with over 4,800 posts and over 45,000 followers under his belt, he’s expanding his content from Instagram graphics to video.

With the 2020 season wrapping up in mid-December, Lesser spent the fall semester creating his own video content for Instagram, which includes post game reactions, analysis and predictions. He also has plans to launch a YouTube channel in early 2021. For Lesser, This Week in MLS is the foundation for his future career aspirations: working as an MLS sideline reporter or television host. 

“Everybody that knows him, knows what he is capable of doing,” said Jerry Reynoso, a host of 110 Football, a show Lesser works on. “He’s the Adrian Wojnarowski of MLS.”

As a high school student, Lesser published Instagram graphics and stories nearly daily during MLS season, covering breaking news and highlights. He later hosted a weekly podcast that delved into the same topics alongside more opinionated content. The podcast had a solid viewer base and received positive feedback, so he started bringing the same analysis and opinion to Instagram.

Entering his freshman year at SU, Lesser was worn out by the constant grind of graphics and news posts multiple times a week. The Instagram content hadn’t changed for over four years — it took hours of work per post and wasn’t enjoyable, he said. Difficulties adjusting to college in fall 2019 only compounded that distaste. 

“I didn’t think it was worth my time,” Lesser said. “But I told myself that I had to post something because it’s This Week in MLS, and it’s my dream and I have to keep it going.”

Lesser found respite in the nationwide quarantine. With plateauing audience growth due to unknowns about the start of the 2020 MLS season and a canceled internship with For Soccer Ventures, Lesser took the opportunity to shift his content after SU sent students home in March. He realized that creating flashy Instagram graphics and top-10 posts wasn’t the kind of experience that’d benefit his future career. Drawing inspiration from other MLS content creators, he knew the next step for This Week in MLS was clear: video. 

“I was at my worst point right before quarantine started,” Lesser said. “It was really a cleansing experience for me.”

Standing in front of a camera isn’t as easy as audio-only podcasts and Adobe graphics, Lesser said. But despite the time-consuming nature of video content, the change revitalized his love for covering the game.

“I am so much happier with what I’m producing now, I’m actually enjoying it and it’s brought very great opportunities my way that I wouldn’t have had if I kept with graphics,” he said.

In addition to his This Week in MLS account, Lesser also works for the show 110 Football. Courtesy of Eli Lesser

He started using Instagram’s IGTV feature to push video content in June. The content is similar — MLS news, analysis and projections — but also features plenty of jokes. Lesser opens videos with jokes and memes to connect with his audience and keep them around, he said, even if they don’t always get the biggest laugh.

He also joined 110 Football, a YouTube and Instagram show focused on LAFC, as a national MLS correspondent. There, he’s gaining more experience with video content and being in front of a camera. Lesser produces MLS news segments for the show in an LA-based studio and covers topics outside of the LAFC sphere alongside co-hosts Connor Kalopsis and Reynoso. Both recruited Lesser because they were fans of Lesser’s work at This Week in MLS.

“We felt like, wherever we put Eli at first, he would be phenomenal at his job,” Reynoso said. 

During the offseason, Lesser talked about trades, signing and predictions on 110 Football ahead of the 2020 season. But due to the overlap of much of the MLS season and the fall semester, Lesser produced many of his segments remotely from his Booth Hall dorm room. The show provided him with the necessary equipment to produce and edit segments from Syracuse, and Lesser’s Newhouse courses helped him develop the skillset to do it all himself.

For 110 Football, Lesser produced segments remotely from his Booth Hall room during the fall semester. Courtesy of Eli Lesser

Lesser plans to use that video production experience for This Week in MLS as well. After adding IGTV video content this summer, he’s working toward a full YouTube show in January, featuring interviews with players and debates with other MLS pundits. What are now two-to-four minute video clips on Instagram will soon be a lengthier weekly production.

“I want it to be entertaining, like the videos on my page,” Lesser said. “I want it to be high quality because the idea is to either sell it, or sell me to someone.”

Quarantine gave Lesser the chance to revamp the account and rediscover his passion for the MLS, he said. He may not be the next Scully, but it’s exactly what Lesser wanted This Week in MLS to be in the first place — a place to jumpstart his career.

“Twelve months ago, I would have thought I’d fail at everything,” Lesser said. “I thought I was leading myself to a path of nothing. What this summer did for me is flip that around … (Now) I want to do everything possible to ensure that I will get to the top.”

Published on December 23, 2020 at 1:01 pm

Contact Nick: nickrobertson@dailyorange.com | @NickRobertsonSU