I signed my guys up for the Seattle Sounders’ Junior Alliance club back when they did the Sounders Camp and kind of forgot about it until a couple of boxes showed up at our door. Inside each box was a scarf, a membership card and a ‘letter’ from Sigi Schmid, the Seattle Sounders’ head coach printed on the back of a poster. I read the letter to the guys and they listened very intently and then scurried off to put their special cards in secret places. I tried to explain that the letter wasn’t totally from Sigi himself, and that everyone who signed up for the program got the same one but they didn’t believe me. I wish Sigi would also instruct them on how to brush their teeth, put away their dishes and go to bed promptly when told. (That would definitely be a value-added Sounders Alliance program.) The guys barely put down their scarves the first game after the boxes came.
My guys. Definitely Sounders for life.
(PS. Driving home from a game recently, we heard Coach Sigi in an interview and he said something like “a life without challenge isn’t worth living” which is really brave and inspirational. I love this little snippet of his outlook on life and I’m so proud he’s a coach my guys can look up to!)
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)