Our South American Odyssey: Day 8

On the evening of Day 7, April 3, 2019, we climbed into our "El Practico" bus and embarked on a 10-hour red-eye from Cordoba to Argentina's Capital: Buenos Aires. During the grueling ride, we stopped at ...

Our South American Odyssey: Day 7

Day 6 brought practice, Day 7, April 3 2019, was Game Day. It seems all of our efforts in fundraising, planning and practicing have led to this moment. This was the day our boys from Wheeling and the Ohio Valle...

Our South American Odyssey: Day 6

We have been in in Cordoba, Argentina now for three days and on Tuesday April 2 2019 we were ready to take the field for the first time. But first we needed to take care of something we had been planning for a ...

Our South American Odyssey: Day 5

Last you heard from us it was Day 4 and the boys were holding a "sleepover" with their host families. When they awoke on Monday April 1 2019, they had, literally and figuratively, never been this far home. Yes,...

Our South American Odyssey: Day 4

The “sleepover” is not a foreign concept to these 13-year-olds, yet Day Four of our journey presented a brand-new take on the subject. In the afternoon of Sunday March 31, the boys of FC United were dropped off...

Our South American Odyssey: Day 3

There are those moments in life that inspire people to take a step back, take a deep breath and reflect. For some it might happen often, but for most it only occurs a handful of times. It is when we find oursel...

Our South American Odyssey: Day 1

It was 5 a.m. on Thursday, March 27, 2019, when 14 boys from the FC Wheeling United U-14 soccer team became a part of a long-standing Wheeling “send-off” tradition by convening at the White Palace parking lot i...

Our South American Odyssey: Preview

After months of planning, fundraising, meeting  — and lots of soccer — reality finally settled in. The exact timing of such realization happened a few weeks ago when Diego Gattesco sent a message to our group o...

Wheeling’s Golden Core

This isn't a sports story.  It's not a sentimental story.  It's not a "glory days" story. It's a story of a city, Wheeling, West Virginia, whose core is made of gold. State Champs On Novemember 9th, 19...