Photo: Philadelphia Union

Remember at the end of 2018 when Ernst Tanner, Tim McDermott and Jim Curtin had a town hall meeting and said the Philadelphia Union would help bring back Chester’s high school soccer program? Well, today the club has announced that after 30 years, they will help fund a new high school and middle school soccer program for the area beginning next school year.

The announcement came this afternoon at Talen Energy Stadium, with the Chester students in their new uniforms and the Union players on the field together. Partnering with Chester-Upland School District, the City of Chester and Power Home Remodeling, here’s what came from the press conference.

The new school soccer program

Let’s just jump into the specifics of the new program. Eight Chester High School and Chester Middle School soccer teams, both boys and girls varsity and junior varsity teams will be created. This will be able to provide 200 local kids with a top quality soccer experience starting in the next school year.

If you’re wondering what the Union have to do with Chester’s new school soccer teams, the club is helping fund the program. The entire program will be fully funded by Philadelphia Union, Union Foundation and Power Home Remodeling. New practice and game fields, pro-level outfitting, coaches and anything else the schools will need are covered by the Union and its foundation.

Why now?

It’s been 30 years since there was a soccer program at Chester school district. When the Union first picked Chester to be their home, there was tons of revitalization talk, including talk of the city’s school district getting a soccer program again. At that point, there hadn’t been a school soccer program for 20 years. While it might have taken the Union another 10 years to help bring school soccer back to Chester, this is still a big thing for the club to do.

Both the Chester school district and the Union have come together to say that school sports are important, soccer is important. Both believe that athletics contribute to academic success, and are excited to expand the school district’s athletics program to include soccer, allowing for more student athletes to thrive in the community. Acting on some of the revitalization talk, the Philadelphia Union are growing more roots. The club has given back to Philly and Chester over the years, but this is pretty big for them. This engages the Chester community, it adds to the club’s growing younger fan base, but most importantly, it’s just a good thing to finally do after years of discussion.