CHATTANOOGA – There are no homegrown players on Chattanooga’s National Premier Soccer League club.
Playing for Chattanooga FC is, in essence, a summer job. The season runs from May to mid-summer, longer if the team is winning. As soon as it ends, the players pack up and leave, heading primarily to small Southern colleges with soccer programs.
Saturday night, though, for the club’s regional semifinal match against Miami Fusion FC, the team wore black armbands, observed a moment of silence and helped a community grieve.
“It’s a weird thing to just be playing a simple soccer game at a time like this,” said defender Nick Edginton, who is from New Zealand and is spending his first summer in Chattanooga, “but maybe it’s something that we all need to do.”
Canceling the match was never an option, according to general manager Sean McDaniel, despite the Thursday attack that has resulted in the death of five military servicemen.
McDaniel, who played at Covenant College, directly across the Georgia border from Chattanooga, said he felt it was the club’s responsibility to bring the community together.
Tim Kelly, one of the board members who helps govern the club, which competes with Nashville FC, added that the team is “the only really authentic Chattanooga” sports team the city has. The city is also home to the Lookouts, a Double-A baseball team affiliated with the Minnesota Twins, but they have been on a road trip since the shootings.
As soon as the gates to Finley Stadium, which has a view of the city’s downtown, swung open Saturday night, fans snatched up a supply of T-shirts that read “#NOOGASTRONG.”
Proceeds from the shirt sales benefitted two charitable funds set up after the attack. One provides immediate relief and the other will give scholarships to the victims’ children.
Another one of Chattanooga FC’s defenders, Jack Hopkins from Birmingham, Ala., was just blocks away from one of the sites where the gunman opened fire, coaching a youth soccer camp. He said it’s important for the community to have an outlet like Saturday night’s match to temporarily take its minds off the tragedy.
Galen Riley, the leader of the club’s support group known as The Chattahooligans, agreed.
“Chattanooga FC as a club has sort of been an expression of civic pride,” said Riley, who is from Antioch. “We’re hoping to distract some folks for a couple hours.”