A brief history of soccer in Atlanta 

Before there was the Atlanta Silverbacks, there was the Chiefs

FIRST GOLD: The 1968 Atlanta Chiefs, led by Phil Woosnam (kneeling on far right), were the city’s professional sports championship team.
FIRST GOLD: The 1968 Atlanta Chiefs, led by Phil Woosnam (kneeling on far right), were the city’s professional sports championship team.
Critics of Atlanta's MLS expansion team say the metro region doesn't have a soccer history. That's not true. Atlanta had Phil Woosnam, a Welsh soccer star who came to the United States in 1966 to help the Atlanta Braves set up, and later coach, the North American Soccer League's Atlanta Chiefs. It was the first team in the city to win a professional championship. In the decades since, soccer has flourished throughout the metro region. The Chiefs, which folded in the early 1970s, even made a comeback under Ted Turner later that decade. After a lull on the professional level, the momentum has returned, says Graham Tutt, a retired British goalkeeper, who, after playing for the Chiefs and Georgia Generals, helped create soccer camps across the state. More youth players are kicking balls than ever before. Amateur players pack rec fields seven days a week at the same DeKalb County complex where the Atlanta Silverbacks, the cream of the region's professional soccer crop, also play in front of thousands of fans. CL spoke with some of the people who watched the Chiefs blossom and are part of the game's history in metro Atlanta. The following interviews have been edited and condensed.
Phil Woosnam, who died in July 2013, speaking to the BBC in 1967: When I came to Atlanta, I was impressed with the stadium and the baseball club, the development. You get the feeling that everyone is very aware and wanting to move ahead. I'm sure that this is the right time, in this city, for soccer to come here.
Dick Cecil, former Braves business manager who traveled throughout Europe and Africa with to scout players. He served in the same role for the Chiefs: Eight schools were playing soccer in Georgia when we got the franchise ... St. Louis and Chicago had [large ethnic populations] that knew soccer. We didn't. Everyone thought we were crazy because soccer in Atlanta, Ga., in the 1960s didn't mean a whole lot. Especially if you called it football ... Martin Luther King Jr. had just won the Nobel Prize. The city was vibrant. You had great leadership. A lot of people were moving to Atlanta. You came to Atlanta ... The city wanted to become international and this was a showpiece. We beat [Manchester City]. That made stories in major cities around the world. It helped bring Atlanta into being a major league sports city.
Graham Tutt, an English goalkeeper who joined the second iteration of the Atlanta Chiefs in 1980: [Man City] were coming through Atlanta. Phil thought this [would be] a wonderful opportunity to have an exhibition game. Man City got angry because Atlanta beat them. On their return trip they wanted revenge and Atlanta beat them again. Atlanta was the first team to win a national [championship]. Over time, people came to forget, but it's part of Atlanta's history.
Ruth Woosnam, widow of Phil Woosnam, and former NASL referee coordinator: There was so much enthusiasm. After the people came to see the novelty of it, there was a fan base. By the time I [moved from suburban Chicago] to Atlanta in 1969, people weren't going just to be seen. They went because they loved the game.
The Chiefs and Generals played nearly all their games in Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. Crowds weren't huge, but sometimes reached 10,000.
Cecil: Here was this brand-new stadium. It was the multipurpose stadium common in the 1960s. Terrible for anything (laughs). But it was home.
Tutt: There was a sandy area we'd run across where the baseball diamond was. And the field was 100 yards long. It was too short.
Cecil: The crowds were emotional. We were playing St. Louis. We were behind 3-1. Then it got to be 4-1. We had eight players on the field. Then we scored two goals. The crowd was on their feet for 20 minutes. Women were standing on their chairs yelling at St. Louis players and the refs. It was the wildest crowd I'd ever seen.
Tutt: I remember one game the crowd started clapping when we had a free kick from 35 yards out — like it was a field goal. There was an expectation of a point or two being scored. The crowd reacted at the wrong time for me in some respects. There was a learning curve.
Professional soccer in Georgia tried to gain a foothold after the Chiefs folded. While teams tried to compete on the professional and minor levels — including the women's team, the Atlanta Beat — the game was thriving among youths. DeKalb County was ground zero for that movement.
Boris Jerkunica, co-owner of the Atlanta Silverbacks: Druid Hills was the hub of Atlanta's soccer scene. DeKalb County Schools System, when I was growing up, was the best soccer in Georgia. If you won DC you won the state. Druid Hills, Lakeside, Southwest DeKalb, Redan. They were the powerhouses in the late '70s and '80s.
Tutt: If there's a heartbeat, it started there and it went from there to the suburbs to Conyers to Cherokee County and then to Augusta.
Jerkunica: I grew up 300 yards from Emory, where the Chiefs used to practice. One of the guys was from Yugoslavia. My dad got to know him, he would come over for dinner and he'd give me pointers. All summer long, back in those days, at 8:40 a.m., parents kicked you out of the house and said don't come back until dinner. What we'd do is play soccer all day long. That's how I made friends. When I was 10 or 11, the Emory soccer coach would kick us off the field all the time. It was the varsity field! And here we were, a bunch of brats. We'd come down, he'd kick us off the field, and then we'd come back on it. He'd do that two or three times a day. And then I ended up playing for him in college ... In the 1980s, it kept accelerating. More and more youth clubs. By the end of the 1980s, that's what you did as a kid. By the 1990s and late '90s, it even started going into more inner city areas. All of a sudden it was penetrating not only the white suburban culture but also the inner city culture. All of a sudden these kids were like, I want to play soccer.
Sean Johnson, Chicago Fire goalkeeper, Brookwood High School alum: In the early days there was the Southeast Athletic Complex. Me and my dad, we used to go over there and they would have a Caribbean league on Sundays. I thought it was just the coolest thing in the world to be out there and watch these guys run around and kick a soccer ball ... High school soccer was a bit more prevalent back when I was a freshman in high school. The club teams were strong, too. We won some national titles with the Atlanta Fire, there was also AFC Lightning.
Clint Mathis, Chicago Fire assistant coach, Heritage High School alum: Redan High School, McIntosh — when I was in high school — were really good. You had the Parkviews, you had the Brett Conways. Brett ended up being a professional field goal kicker, but he was always a great soccer player. The competition was high and Georgia soccer started developing these guys and getting more notoriety.
Tutt: The talent 30 years ago compared to today ... some days it was like a rugby match. You were expecting them to pick up the ball!
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    Nigel Shoyoye, father Marvin and mother Deanna posed on Thursday after learning that they had won a trip to the World Cup in Brazil.
    Nigel Shoyoye, father Marvin and mother Deanna posed on Thursday after learning that they had won a trip to the World Cup in Brazil.
    Because of one cup of sweet tea a 7-year-old Atlanta boy will get the trip of a lifetime.
    Nigel Shoyoye will walk onto the field with the U.S. soccer team before it takes on Ghana in its opening game of the World Cup on June 16 in Brazil.
    “It’s just a beautiful thing to see your child be blessed with such incredibly positive opportunities,” mother Deanna said. “We try to expose our children to all the world has to offer. For his first international trip to be to on this scale, and to represent our family and the Atlanta community, is a blessing.”
    Nigel plays for Olympic Atlanta Soccer Club, a new league in south Fulton.
    It was at a practice on Thursday that he was surprised by fast-food character Ronald McDonald with the news that he was one of 25 children from the U.S. going to Brazil as a player ambassador.
    Deanna said she has rarely seen Nigel speechless.
    “He couldn’t get past Brazil,” she said. “He knows what World Cup is. It’s hard for any 7-year-old to grasp how big the event is on a global scale.”
    Nigel knows a little bit about Brazil. He knows they speak Portuguese. He knows one of his favorite movie characters is from there.
    “I’ve seen a movie about Brazil, called Rio,” he said. “There are a lot of crazy animals. There’s a cockatoo that raps and has my name.”
    The trip came about because Deanna was thirsty.
    Shopping at a Wal-Mart in Lithia Springs, she ducked into a McDonald’s to buy a sweet tea. On the cup was a sweepstakes contest.
    Deanna loves sweepstakes.
    She and husband Marvin went to the website and entered a few times.
    Life took over and they forgot about the contest.
    A few weeks later Marvin got a call.
    They had won.
    During the next three-four weeks, they just needed to take care of two things: update Nigel’s passport, and work with McDonald’s to plan the trip without Nigel finding out.
    They were able to pull it off…barely.
    In the car one day, he heard his mother on the phone telling someone that, “He’s in the car.”
    Nigel, a clever boy who reads on a seventh-grade level, quickly reasoned he was the only other “he” in the car.
    “I thought something was up, but wasn’t sure yet,” he said.
    Deanna and Marvin were able to keep everything under wraps.
    Some of their family showed up to watch the moment because not only is it exciting, but also because soccer has played a big part in the Shoyoye’s lives.
    Nigel’s grandfather, Abimbola otherwise known as “Big Daddy,” came from Nigeria to the U.S. to play college soccer at Akron. Nigel said Big Daddy is still his favorite player, with his dad and former Chelsea player Samuel Eto’o tied for second.
    Nigel and Marvin will leave for Brazil on June 12. Nigel said he can’t wait to see the hotels and eat the food in Brazil. He likes that it is exotic (seventh-grade level, remember). He’s learning about the U.S. soccer team. He wants to be a goalie one day, so maybe he will get to hold Tim Howard’s hand when he walks onto the field.
    With the confidence of youth, he said he won’t be nervous.
    Deanna said the trip is a blessing because Nigel works hard and always try to stays positive.
    “I love for him to see how big the world is at 7 years old,” she said. “Go forward in your life and dream big.”
    http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-georgia-sports/2014/05/27/7-year-old-atlantan-will-be-on-field-during-world-cup/
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    Games will be at 9.00, 11.00 & 1.00pm each Sunday starting June 15th 2014 and ending on August 24th 2014. (6/15,6/22,6/29,7/20,7/27,8/3,8/10,8/17,8/24)
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    WhenJun 15, 2014 11:00 AM - Aug 24, 2014 12:00 PM
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    A former Wheaton College coach has worked out well for Greater Atlanta Christian football. The Norcross private school’s administration hopes the same happens with its girls soccer program.
    GAC announced Thursday that it has hired current Wheaton (Ill.) men’s soccer head coach Mike Giuliano as its new head girls soccer coach. He takes over a Spartans team that just won the Class AA state championship in the last season under Troy Bendickson, who stepped down to continue his late father’s ministry work.
    Tim Hardy, GAC’s head football coach, also coached at Wheaton for nine seasons before moving to Gwinnett. Giuliano will coach the upcoming 2014 fall season at Wheaton before joining the GAC staff in January.
    “I love to teach, I love to mentor and disciple players and students, and I love to coach championships,” Giuliano said. “The exciting new challenge at Greater Atlanta Christian will allow me to do all three day in and day out. From the moment I walked on the GAC campus, I knew that I had found another school with the same commitment to excellence as Wheaton.
    “Troy Bendickson has set the bar high for this program and I will do everything in my power to continue his legacy of championships and changed lives.”
    Giuliano, who took over the Wheaton men’s program in 2007, has a 99-38-18 record at the school. He has a career record of 359-142-50, including stints with the women’s soccer programs at San Diego State (three years) and Westmont College (11 years) and the men’s program at Trinity College (five years).
    He has been named the NSCAA/Adidas Coach of the Year four times, has been conference coach of the year 12 teams and has won four NAIA national titles, as well as 26 conference championships, in women’s soccer. He also has 28 years of teaching experience at Trinity College, Westmont College, the Pepperdine School of Law and Wheaton.
    His long career and travels played a part in his selection of GAC.
    “Leading the men’s soccer program at Wheaton has been one of the great privileges of my life,” Giuliano said. “This is the finest college and one of the finest soccer programs in the nation. I thought I would be the coach at Wheaton for the next 15 years, but God had other plans. My amazing wife Barbara has been following me around the country for over 30 years while I pursue my dreams, and now it is time for me to honor her dreams.
    “In Atlanta, she will be involved with a great organization that develops and implements strategic ways to stop the human trafficking crisis. And what’s equally exciting is that it appears I will be able to be involved with the same organization in one of their programs that aims to challenge men to take a more public and activist stand to end trafficking locally and around the nation.”
    Giuliano takes over a program that is one of the state’s best in girls soccer. The GAC girls have played in the past four state championship games, also winning the state title in 2012.
    Bendickson began his GAC career as a boys assistant, but has been the head girls coach for the past 12 seasons. His career record at GAC was 171-54-7.
    “Mike Giuliano will make a great addition to our faculty and coaching staff,” GAC senior high principal Scott Harsh said. “Mike’s collegiate experience coaching both men and women positions him well for his work with a very talented group of girls. We will dearly miss Coach Troy Bendickson both as a coach and as a leader in our school community, but I anticipate a very smooth transition as Troy passes the baton to Mike.
    “Mike exhibits many of the same attributes we’ve loved about Troy, passion for the game, a gifted teacher and most importantly a man of deep faith. Mike understands he is inheriting a very strong program from Troy and we believe Mike will lead the team with excellence into the future.”

    Community at ASIF 2014

    Festival, Endorsed by Mayor Kasim Reed, To Take Place at Atlanta Silverbacks Park, June 7

    The 2014 Atlanta International Soccer Fest (AISF 2014), in celebration of the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Brazil™, will take place on Saturday, June 7th at the Atlanta Silverbacks Park. The event brings together the Atlanta community for a one-day tournament and festival to benefit SOS Children’s Villages, the world’s largest organization dedicated to vulnerable children.  
    “The recent announcement of Major League Soccer coming to Atlanta continues to strengthen our reputation as a leading international city,” said Mayor Kasim Reed. “The Atlanta International Soccer Fest not only gives us an opportunity to celebrate our vibrant and diverse cultural community, but support important causes including the SOS Children’s Villages.”
    During the one-day 7v7 tournament, teams will play up to three round-robin games with the championship games taking places inside the stadiumdirectly prior to the start of the Atlanta Silverbacks FC game. The awards ceremony for the top finishers will take place during halftime of the Atlanta Silverbacks FC game.
    “The Atlanta Silverbacks FC could not be happier to help with SOS Children’s Villages endeavor of providing stable homes to orphaned and abandoned children,” said Atlanta Silverbacks FC President Andy Smith. “What a wonderful way to celebrate the upcoming World Cup and our diverse community, while giving back at the same time.”

    REGISTRATION
    AISF organizers are still accepting team registrations; however, space is limited for this summer’s premier soccer event. The event is open to the entire Atlanta community, including: businesses, bi-lateral chambers of commerce, consulates, cultural organizations, soccer clubs, and any other teams that wish to play. To register for AISF 2014 click here. Additional Atlanta Silverbacks FC tickets are available to purchase at a discounted price. $3 from every ticket purchased will be donated to SOS Children’s Villages.
    Current partners of the event include: Atlanta Silverbacks FC, Atlanta Sports Council, Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce, Consulate General of Brazil in Atlanta, Georgia Soccer, German-American Chamber of Commerce, Global Atlanta, South African-American Business Chamber, Goethe Center, Realm Advertising and Atlanta Sport and Social Club; however, sponsorship opportunities are still available.
    For more information, please visit www.atlsoccerfest.com and www.sos-usa.org.
    About SOS Children’s Villages
    SOS Children’s Villages creates stable, loving families for orphaned and abandoned children. They provide mothers who give individual attention and guidance to each child until they become an independent adult. They are raising 80,000 children in over 500 villages across 133 countries, including the US. Through their outreach programs they impact the lives of over 1 million people each year. Learn more at www.sos-usa.org. SOS Children’s Villages is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
    Class AAAAAA
    1. Brookwood
    2. Mill Creek
    3. Douglas County
    4. Harrison
    5. Campbell
    6. Walton
    7. Lassiter
    8. Central Gwinnett
    9. Hillgrove
    10. Johns Creek

    Class AAAAA
    1. McIntosh
    2. Greenbrier
    3. Houston County
    4. Clarke Central
    5. Gainesville
    6. Glynn Academy
    7. Lakeside-DeKalb
    8. Warner Robins
    9. Heritage-Conyers
    10. Riverwood

    Class AAAA
    1. Dalton
    2. Johnson-Gainesville
    3. Spalding
    4. Southeast Whitefield
    5. LaGrange
    6. Perry
    7. Statesboro
    8. Lanier
    9. Grady
    10. Chamblee

    Class AAA
    1. St. Pius
    2. Oconee County
    3. West Hall
    4. Dawson County
    5. Woodward Academy
    6. North Hall
    7. Savannah Arts
    8. Coahulla Creek
    9. Peach County
    10. Islands

    Class AA
    1. Greater Atlanta Christian
    2. Westminster
    3. Calhoun
    4. Thomasville
    5. Wesleyan
    6. Benedictine
    7. Lamar County
    8. Toombs County
    9. Lovett
    10. Jefferson

    Class A
    1. Paideia
    2. Atlanta International
    3. Hebron Christian
    4. Brookstone
    5. Our Lady of Mercy
    6. Pace Academy
    7. Fellowship Christian
    8. Pinecrest Academy
    9. First Presbyterian
    10. Mount Paran
    State High School Soccer Championships
    Friday
    At Kennesaw State
    5:00pm – AAAAA Girls: Starr’s Mill vs. McIntosh
    7:30pm – AAAAA Boys: Houston County vs. McIntosh
    At Emory University
    5:00pm – AA Girls: Greater Atlanta Christian vs. Lovett
    7:30pm – AA Boys: Greater Atlanta Christian vs. Westminster
     
    Saturday
    At Kennesaw State
    12:00pm – AAAA Girls: Marist vs. Veterans
    2:30pm – AAAA Boys: Johnson, Gainesville vs. Dalton
    5:00pm – AAAAAA Girls: Harrison vs. Grayson/East Coweta
    7:30pm – AAAAAA Boys: Mill Creek vs. Brookwood
     
    At Emory University
    12:00pm – A Girls: First Presbyterian vs. Pace Academy
    2:30pm – A Boys: Paideia vs. Atlanta International School
    5:00pm – AAA Girls: St. Pius vs. Blessed Trinity
    7:30pm – AAA Boys: St. Pius vs. Oconee County