How do I sum up 11 years in one short passage?
By my count I have been to 225 Sounders FC matches in the regular season, playoffs, Open Cup and CONCACAF Champions League. That doesn’t include the dozens of preseason matches, friendlies and reserve league matches, nor the five years I spent covering the club at the USL level from 2004-2008 before my home city became the biggest outpost for soccer in America.
In that time, just short of six full seasons, there were a lot of memorable moments and unforgettable people that made my task of writing stories for the masses about as much fun as I could imagine. And that’s without noting the adventures of those 225 matches.
I’ve had the privilege of listening to some of the most respected coaches in the history of American pro soccer talk tactics, locker room antics and life in general. Those pearls of wisdom from the likes of Jimmy Gabriel, Alan Hinton and Pete Fewing made attendance at daily training sessions and weekend matches required learning for anyone hoping to take every ounce of knowledge on the game.
The same could be said for Brian Schmetzer and Sigi Schmid, who were the only two Head Coaches to roam the sidelines during my tenure. With them, there were as many life lessons as soccer teachings, and there was plenty of soccer talk.
Lighting the kindling to stories told by Kasey Keller, Chris Henderson or Marcus Hahnemann and sitting back and watching the inferno of those tales spun on over 20 years of incredible journeys in soccer. Knowing that at any community event on any day in the Seattle area, you were likely to cross paths with James Riley or Roger Levesque. And that my two sons were treated like younger brothers by Brad Evans, giving them more than just the soccer heroes I had when I was a kid.
There was always more than soccer. I compared parenting tribulations with Zach Scott, who became a father just three months before I did. I laughed about the 253 with Lamar Neagle. I watched DeAndre Yedlin, a young kid from O’Dea who had a bombastic personality on the field that didn’t hide the awe he held for his blessings, blossom into a U.S. National Team sensation. Fredy Montero. Mauro Rosales. Osvaldo Alonso. Servando Carrasco. They were all family.
And so were the fans in the stands. Whether their numbers were great, as they have become in the last six years, or small, as they often were at Starfire during the USL era. For me, it was always about them. It was about the decades-long season ticket holders like Thomas Barrett. It was about Electron Boy, Erik Martin. It was the former players and coaches that brought their kids to games just as I was brought by my family to watch the Tacoma Stars play when I was a kid.
None of that would be possible without the tireless work of Adrian Hanauer. He has great people in support of him and seeing that they get to enjoy the fruits of these successes as much as they do is a thrill for me. Adrian, Brian Schmetzer and Zach Scott are three people that I’ve known longer than I’ve known my own children. Sharing this adventure with them, no matter how far on the periphery I may be, has truly been an honor.
This job has been pretty darn cool. And to do all of these things in my hometown made it that much more special. Which should tell you something about the opportunity that I have in front of me. It would take something pretty remarkable to leave all of that behind and Real Salt Lake has certainly made that so.
On Tuesday, I will get in my car and drive the nearly 900 miles to my new home. Somewhere, back in Gig Harbor, will sit a trunk of memories. I cannot express enough how much they mean to me.
