Imagine if you will tying your shoes, getting your final sips of Capri Sun and eating a couple orange slices in preparation for an intersquad scrimmage. You’re 9. And then Sound Wave marches onto your field. This is no normal scrimmage. This is Seattle Sounders FC giving the gift of a matchday experience to one of the area’s girls U-9 sides, complete with full pregame regalia and even Chad Marshall and Brad Evans serving as coaches.
Madeline Walker, an Eastside FC player, was taken by surprise. They all were. The moment she realized that she and her club were getting the full match day experience is summed up by her words “hey, that’s our field!”
We took the fun of #SoundersMatchday on the road and surprised a very special group of girls at @EastsideFC! pic.twitter.com/Rw1KfuYqpH
— Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) September 20, 2016
For those of us not involved, this is just a heartwarming story, an example of how a team can be a club. For the organization itself this is something more. These aren’t future players, as the Sounders do not have a women’s team. This is just kindness and generosity - the gift of joy to the greater Puget Sound soccer community.
“Even just some of the expressions on Chad and Brad’s faces as they were able to coach some of these young girls,” Sounders FC VP of Business Operations Taylor Graham said in wrapping up the event. “The parents, the kids - that’s what soccer is, it really does take a whole community to get this. It’s not just a group of players.”
Yes, this was a sponsored activation from Alcatel and the Sounders, but watch those faces a few more times. Those girls have a life time memory of Sound Wave, Eastside Supporters, Dr. Stephen Newby, play-by-play voice Matt Johnson, Marshall and Evans sharing all of soccer with them. No matter how you slice it, that’s a memory that will last a lifetime.