CFC shows Scenic City at its best
With the last guaranteed home game of the Chattanooga Football Club season less than 90 minutes away Tuesday evening, Michele Burks of Morrison, Tenn., stood in line with the rest of her family, waiting to become the first general-admission ticket holder to enter Finley Stadium.
“I just love the spirit, their spirit,” she said of the Scenic City’s National Premier Soccer League team. “They work so hard for us. They give everything. When the season ended last year, I left here in tears.”
There were nearly 5,000 in the stands for a Fourth of July sporting event that didn’t include fireworks. And a lot of them were just like Burks, her husband Cameron and their children, Sydney and Ceth. They were there because they care.
Maybe not all of them care enough to make a 2 1/2-hour round trip from Morrison to the Scenic City. Most are local, such as proud Chattahooligan Braden Morris of St. Elmo, who pushed his infant daughter Brigid in a stroller while wearing a kilt.
“Personally, I think soccer is more community-oriented than baseball,” he said when asked if soccer was becoming as much a part of the Fourth of July in our town as America’s pastime. “And that’s not to say anything bad about baseball. But I think soccer appeals to a much broader base of cultures.”
With our nation’s 241st birthday now squarely in our rearview mirror, our varied cultures under a single red, white and blue flag have rarely seemed less united.
As gifted singer Caitlin Hammon Moore waited to once more stir a CFC crowd with her stunning rendition of the national anthem, she said of this Fourth of July in particular: “Despite a lot of division in this country right now, this is a night to come together to celebrate and recognize the sacrifices of all those who have helped us remain free.”
And Finley felt that way throughout, Chattanooga Strong and united, despite the brief cloudbursts that delayed the game’s start against the Georgia Revolution by more than 25 minutes, then later delayed it again during the first half. This was a crowd as mindful of wearing red, white and blue as the CFC’s traditional powder blue. Even a few Chattahooligans added a wee bit of stars-and-stripes attire to their wardrobes.
Then there was Shannon Lenier, who wore a snappy pair of stars-andstripes pants — “I break them out once a year,” she said with a smile — and made her famous pasta salad to contribute to the giant buffet the team’s fan group hosts inside the First Tennessee Pavilion before each home game.
“The ’Hooligans provide the entree,” said Lenier’s husband, David Steele, as the couple’s daughter, Savannah Grace, and son, Freddie, waited for a bite of Mom’s homemade cookies. “It’s really special. We’ve planned the whole day around this game.”
Yes, you read the above paragraph correctly. Before each home game, the Chattahooligans serve an entree somewhat tied to that night’s opponent or date. When New Orleans played here, there was a Cajun theme. On Tuesday it was hamburgers and hot dogs, with the possible added good fortune of sampling Lenier’s pasta salad before it disappeared.
“We cooked 356 hamburgers today, and 300 or so hot dogs,” said 31-yearold Chris Moreland, a proud ’Hooligan for the past four years.
“When we first started doing this, we were cooking for maybe 50 to 60 people. Today we’ll serve 500 or more. We get the money from the CFC merchandise we sell.”
And when there’s food left?
“We donate it to the homeless shelters,” said Moreland’s buddy, the ’Hooligan who prefers to be known on game nights as Luchanooga or Luchadore.
And you thought all they did was loudly bang on drums and yell, “Chatta,” then “Nooga,” over and over and over again.
This was hardly the atmosphere envisioned by Marshall Brock and eight other Scenic City soccer junkies when they formed CFC in 2009.
“It’s constantly amazing to me, all these people, sometimes 5,000 or more, walking in here in their (game) jerseys,” he said during breaks from his public-address announcer duties. “Nine of us started this. But the city of Chattanooga made it what it is.”
What it has become is something special each time CFC takes the field, but especially around the Fourth of July.
“We fight for this on the schedule every year,” Brock said. “This is a big night for us, and I think our fans have come to expect this. It’s such a great way to enjoy and celebrate our freedom.”
With Tuesday’s game almost upon him as rain pelted the playing surface, CFC general manager Sean McDaniel looked over a crowd about to be serenaded by Hammon Moore and inspired by a flyover by three vintage military planes.
”We’ve kind of become what you do in the summer around here,” McDaniel said. ”You put your differences aside, sing from the same hymnal and root for the CFC.”
And when it comes to an end, at least a few folks head for the offseason with tears in their eyes.
Talk about community spirit.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.