Annual Memphis 901 FC Open Practice Is Again A Smashing Success

Following up last year’s open practice at the Snowden Grove Soccer Complex in Southaven was going to be a tall task, but this year’s open practice at Mike Rose just might have surpassed it. A fantastic crowd of over 400 kids, parents, and supporters of Memphis 901 FC made it out to the stadium at Mike Rose to watch the team conduct a training session. And of course, participate in drills with the players as well as getting pictures and autographs.

The giveaways from the team to all those who attended were quite good as well. The first 100 youth players who arrived were given a Memphis 901 FC swag bag with stickers and trading cards of 901 FC players. Fans also had the opportunity to enter a drawing to win various tickets for this Saturday’s home game down at AutoZone Park against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds at 7:30pm. Additionally, several lucky attendees won official team jerseys signed by all the players.

As Memphis 901 FC attempts to become more visible in the community and boost their attendance, events like this are going to be a more regular occurrence, spearheaded by Assistant Sporting Director Caleb-Patterson Sewell.

“It fits the vision and it’s gaining traction year on year, which is nice.” Patterson-Sewell said. “We have this one. We have the coach education event that’s coming up. So that’s one thing when I first came to the club, I met with a lot of local clubs and they wanted community days, they wanted coach education. They felt that there’s a need for that. So, this year we’ve got our staff is going to be there and the Technical Director from Sporting Lisbon, which is a massive club in Europe.”

But it doesn’t stop with just open practices or clinics for the youth coaches and Patterson-Sewell stressed that the players are all-in on these events as well.

“We’re going to be running four events with the city throughout the summer as well. We’ve just completed four inner-city events and I think what’s cool about it is that it’s really driven by the players. So, we told all the players when they came that this is what we stand for and this is our DNA. So, if you want to come, come but don’t tell us later that you don’t want to get in the community. To be fair, our guys love doing this. If you watch, they’re all interacting with the kids and having a good time.”

When asked what these extra events would entail, Patterson-Sewell didn’t hesitate.

“Yeah, I think that’s what we’re trying to do with the whole community program in general. Not just have one event or one type of event that we’re doing. We just mentioned there that we’re doing the inner-city program for the schools. So, we go into there, where those kids are not typically playing soccer. That’s one event. We’re doing the events with the city which will hit on the Hispanic community over the summer. I think when it’s all said and done, this year we’re on track to do more proper events than we’ve ever done as a club in terms of appearances.”

Perhaps no player on the Memphis 901 FC roster is more qualified to speak on growth in the Memphis community than the captain Leston Paul, as he’s been with the team since the very beginning back in 2019. He was certainly very pleased with both the commitment to the event by the organization and the turnout by the fans.

“For me it’s a dream come true.” said Paul. “I love to be around kids and see that they’re having fun. As you guys know I have a daughter. So, seeing the joy on these kids faces mean’s that we’re doing something good. They are the future.”

Paul then said how impressed he was at how the open practice had grown from last year to this year.

“Hopefully there’s a lot of Memphis players coming in. Hopefully there’s a lot. So, it’s really a joy to come out today and see the strides that the open practice has made from last year to this year. It’s massive.”

He also said that, while he would like to the open practice be more than just once a year, the load on the players is something that might need to be considered.

“I think that’s a great idea, but we have to take the season into consideration. There’s travel for the players, there’s training days, there’s double training days. I don’t mind having one of these every week to be honest. But sometimes we have a game on Wednesday, we travel, we have a game on Saturday. And then we don’t have time to train and it’s just recovery. So, we have to take that into consideration. But having it more than once for the year should be something that we’re aiming for. I think that’s a great idea.”

The Assistant Sporting Director and the team captain were both delighted with how the open practice went. What about the head coach, Stephen Glass?

“I think last year we were really happy with how it went.” Glass said. “I think we felt that it could be something a little bit greater and I think tonight you can see that there’s so many kids and families here. It’s been fantastic. A brilliant event.”

Glass also echoed what Patterson-Sewell had said earlier about the players really being bought in on these events.

“You can see how involved the players are with the kids as well. So, every player is out there just now coaching kids, getting involved in the local community. Hopefully we can see a lot of them again on Saturday night, and hopefully get a nice performance and a win and watch some fireworks at the end.”

When Glass was asked about the stellar play lately from Marlon Santos, he dove right into the answer and even managed to tie it into the open practice.

“Since we moved him to center forward, he’s been amazing for us. There’s a lot of the boys doing really well but you can see his character really shine at the moment. And I think, to be honest, the kids bounce off it a little bit as well. You can see they relate to it. He’s great with people. Sometimes you don’t always understand him, that might be a good thing {which drew hearty laughs from the assembled media}. He’s been great in the community, he’s brilliant around the players, and everyone loves him. If he keeps scoring goals, we’ll love him even more.”

And to close out the night, Coach Glass was asked about not just teaching the game of soccer to youth soccer players at the open practice but going to inner-city schools and teaching the game of soccer to kids that have never played soccer before.

“That was unbelievable actually. Quite humbling. Some of the boys have gotten involved in foundations so they can take equipment to those schools that don’t have it. There were kids that didn’t know what soccer was, didn’t know what a goalkeeper did, things like that. But after a few weeks of us going there every week they were very involved and looking forward to us coming back. There were a lot of them that were loving it. I think we did a great job there and I’d love to go back again next school year and be heavily involved in that. And I know it’s really close to a lot of the players hearts as well.”