Geordies start an American revolution
AN American soccer club with a touch of Tyneside is celebrating 25 years since a wandering Geordie got the ball rolling.
Paul Willis, a graduate of Montagu and North Fenham Boys Club where he played with future Newcastle manager John Carver, went to West Virginia 25 years ago to play college soccer, but ended up moving to New England and making the US his permanent home.
In 1992 he founded Seacoast United in Hampton, New Hampshire, and in the 25 years since, has watched it grow to one of the largest sports clubs in the region, with several Geordies on the staff and teams from U9 to U19 level.
Beginning with small coaching sessions for kids during the summer, the club in Hampton, New Hampshire, now has over 10,000 young players and operates from 11 different sports venues, offering boys and girls in the Northeastern US a chance to play in world-class facilities.
The club has also attracted more recent Geordie arrivals, including Alex Ryan, who was born in Newcastle and played in Sunderland’s academy as a youngster before moving to Kentucky to play soccer at university, and now works in both coaching and marketing for the club.
Alex, 24, said: “Paul was at Newcastle and then came over to the US and he was very successful, he won two national titles as a player. He was in college admissions and then after about a year and a half he decided to leave and move to New Hampshire, and start coaching soccer.
“When he came here he started just coaching and then he looked at how players could play all year round. He started different kinds of leagues, men’s leagues, women’s leagues, co-ed leagues.
“The area wasn’t a soccer hotbed but there were people who wanted to play,
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