Nine Steps to Marketing Your Student Athlete

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soccer player

It may sound cliché, but we have all heard that it is not what you know, but who you know.  While many of us Generation X parents are likely tired of hearing this within the workforce, unfortunately, the same logic applies true to sports and we must embrace this concept if our student youth athletes want to expand their careers beyond high school.

By the end of this article, it is my hope, that as parents, we are all more knowledgeable of things we can do to assist our student athletes with their marketability within this competitive sports arena.

Some reading this may think that marketing youth athletes is too premature and unnecessary.  But guess what, our student athletes will be just one of hundreds and in some cases thousands applying for soccer scholarships or trying to get noticed for their chance on a professional team.  If we as parents, and our student athletes cannot speak on their accomplishments, nobody else will.  Let’s face it, coaches deal with hundreds of athletes at any given time. They don’t have the time or desire to promote every athlete that plays for them. Let’s be honest, coaches also have their favorites and if your athlete is not trending to the top, they will likely get overlooked in the discussions.

Think of it this way, on the job, we must have that five second elevator speech on who we are, what we do and how our contributions have impacted the organizations we work for. Our goal, at Team Give & Go, is to help you think about that elevator speech for your student athlete.  May be a little longer than five seconds, but the concept remains the same.  So, let’s begin….

1.    Don’t be afraid to let the coaches and scouts know how amazing your student athlete is. Caveat….they must be able to back it up on the field, because actions still speak louder than words.

2.    Ensure your student athlete is excelling in the classroom.  You’ll notice that I reference student athlete throughout this article.  They are students first, athletes, second.  The combination of good grades and skills on the soccer field will make them highly marketable for any college or university.

3.    Have your student athlete craft a summary of their accomplishments and accomplishments of their teams. Knowing team statistics, goals, assists, shut-outs, will help make your student athlete more marketable.  Also, list any honors received while on the team or participating in the club.

4.    Capture video.  If you’re like me, you’re often too involved in the game to think about capturing video, but content is the best form of self-promotion, particularly now that social media sites like IG and Twitter have become the self-promotion platforms. If you’re unable to do it yourself, identify someone who enjoys capturing video and ask them to assist you. 

5.    Get recommendation letters from coaches, camps that they have attended and parents of teammates.  This provides first hand testimony from someone other than you.  You might find that other teammate parents may be hesitate to provide a note promoting your child. If this is the case, don’t worry, most teams have at least 15 players and I’m sure there is one who understands the ocean is large and there is enough space for us all to swim. 

6.    Utilize the video content that you gather (as noted in #3) and put together a short video compilation that showcases your student athlete.  This can become a quick reference when reaching out to recruiters and coaches.

7.    Understand and align on you and your student athlete’s end goal.  Make sure the goal is coming from the player and not the parent.  Aligning on what you’re really trying to accomplish will help craft your approach, keeping your specific objectives in mind. Knowing what to ask for and when to ask for it will be key.

8.    Don’t oversell. Be confident, but be truthful. Again, action speaks louder than words. If you over sell, and your student athlete can’t live up to the expectations, you will likely damage your integrity and your positioning of your student athlete.

9.    Create a brand for your student athlete and be consistent. What does your student athlete represent? Hard work, superiority, offense, defense, all-around, balance?  Understand the key attributes of your student athlete and use those attributes consistently in your messaging and content.

 When in doubt, reach out to Team Give & Go at tlynn@teamgiveandgo.com  for more information and assistance with marketing your student athlete.  We’re all in this together with an end goal of building a world of diverse and dynamic soccer players.

Author: T. Lynn Jones

What kind of scholarship offer can I get?

What are the Different Types of Offers I Could Get?

One of the first surprises for many student-athletes and their families is the disappointingly low number of full-ride athletic scholarships available. What may be just as surprising are the many different types of offers athletes can actually receive from a school. To better understand the basics of athletic scholarship offers, here are a few key facts you should know:

• Most offers are typically one-year agreements. Although multi-year offers are becoming more popular, they are still rare.

• Verbal offers from a coach are not binding agreements.

• The National Letter of Intent (NLI) is a legal binding contract between an athlete and the school. Since it is a contract, it is important that you fully understand the agreement.

Hopefully, knowing these terms will give you a better understanding of the offers you may receive. Let’s take a quick look at the most common offers a student-athlete may receive from college and universities.

Insider tip: Read What Verbal Offers and Commitments Really Mean for Your Athlete

Full-ride scholarship offer

Full-ride athletic scholarships are only available in six college sports:

• Football

• Men’s Basketball

• Women’s Basketball

• Women’s Gymnastics

• Tennis

• Volleyball

These are known as head count sports that create revenue for the school. A full ride covers the major costs of attending college like tuition, room and board, books, and some course fees. The term “full ride” doesn’t mean for the “full four years.” Full ride scholarships, like all offers, are one-year agreements that may or may not be renewed.

Partial scholarship offer

The remaining sports or “equivalency sports” in NCAA Division I and II are where coach essentially have a pool of scholarship money that they can divide up amongst their team. While not a full ride, a partial scholarship offer can still cover a significant portion of college costs or very little. It may be that one student-athlete on a team gets a scholarship that covers tuition, while a teammate may only get offered a scholarship that covers the costs of books.

As a response to COVID-19, NCAA D1 Council adopted legislation that loosened regulation regarding need-based aid and academic scholarships that are not tied to athletic ability. Starting August 1, 2020, teams in equivalency sports will not have any athletes’ need- and academic-based aid count against the maximum athletic scholarship limit. Prior to this update, athletes had to meet certain criteria for their additional aid to not be counted against a team’s athletic scholarship limit.

Teams will still have a maximum athletic scholarship cap, but student-athletes can seek to stack as much need-based aid and academic scholarships on top of their athletic scholarship as they qualify for. With school and family budgets being impacted by the coronavirus, this rule change should allow sports programs that have available funds to extend more money to families and athletes that need it—especially at pricier private colleges.

While a partial scholarship might not be enough to compensate for an athlete’s financial needs, NCSA’s Senior Recruiting Manager David Kmiecik shares how student-athletes can leverage scholarship offers and find additional resources to cover the cost of college.

Are Ivy League or Top-50 colleges on your target list? CollegeAdvisor.com offers 1-on-1 guidance from admissions experts to strengthen your college applications and boost your chances of admission.

Preferred walk-on offer

Not all offers come with a monetary reward. Sometimes, the reward is simply a spot on the roster. Walk-ons are far more common in college sports than most families and student-athletes realize. It’s important to understand the distinctions between the different types of walk-ons as you navigate the recruiting process.

A preferred walk-on offer means the coach would like you on the team but cannot (or won’t) offer any financial assistance at least for the first year. Preferred walk-ons can earn a scholarship going into their second season, but nothing is guaranteed. Some student-athletes will turn down scholarship offers at smaller schools to play for a bigger program as a preferred walk-on.

Do preferred walk-ons sign on signing day?

Technically, preferred walk-ons don’t have anything to sign on Signing Day, as they aren’t receiving an athletic scholarship. However, walk-ons are an essential part of a successful team, and college coaches want to celebrate their signing, as well. Ask your future coach about having something to sign, especially if your school is throwing a Signing day party. Don’t forget to rep your new school with some gear!

Recruited walk-on offer

A recruited walk-on offer means there is interest from the coach but no financial assistance and you must still earn a spot on the team through additional try outs or summer training camp. Although there is no financial assistance or even a guarantee of making the team, some student-athletes still view a recruited walk-on offer as a great opportunity to be play at the highest level of competition.

Unrecruited walk-on offer

Typically, this is when a student-athlete qualifies for admission to the school and plans to join the team through an open tryout. In this scenario, there is usually a conversation with the college coach prior to enrollment to confirm the student-athlete will be able to try out for the team.

There is a lot to consider with any type of walk-on offer. This is especially true if you have scholarship offers from other schools.

Read more: The 5 Most Commonly Asked Questions About Being a College Walk-On

The multi-colored shirts of college sports

While “redshirt” may be a familiar term to many student-athletes and their families, there are actually a number of different shirt color terms that designate a student-athlete’s eligibility status. The color also shows how a coach sees a recruit contributing to the program in both the short-term and long-term.

Redshirt scholarship offer

Typically, a redshirt athlete will have a scholarship but cannot compete for one year. They will participate in all team activities like practice, training, and receive benefits such as academic tutoring, but they will not see any playing time. However, they will get an opportunity to play four seasons in five years. Reasons for being redshirted include a coach wanting a year to physically prepare an athlete for college competition, or a chance for a student-athlete to recover from an injury. An “academic” redshirt would be a freshman who may not meet the academic eligibility requirements coming out of high school.

Grayshirt scholarship offer

This is one of the more challenging offers from a college coach. A grayshirt is an incoming college freshman who postpones enrollment for a semester. Instead of enrolling right away in the fall, a grayshirt freshman enrolls in classes for the second term (winter) of freshman year. During their first semester of college, a grayshirt does not enroll as a full-time student. Instead, they only take part-time classes. A grayshirt also does not join the team, practice with the team or receive a scholarship during their first, part-time semester.

The NCAA allows student-athletes five years to complete four years of sports eligibility after enrolling, so this means a grayshirt NCAA athlete officially starts their athletic eligibility once they enroll full-time. Most coaches try to be clear about extending grayshirt offers, but some committed student-athletes have been surprised to learn they have been grayshirted as National Signing Day nears.

What is grayshirting in college football? A grayshirt college football player can play in the season a full year after they graduate high school, instead of starting practice competing in games right away. This is most often done at college programs that over-sign, meaning that they sign more student-athletes than they have room for on the roster. Grayshirting helps college programs sign athletes early, with the intention of having them actually join the team in the next season.

Sometimes, injuries and roster changes can mean grayshirt status can be rescinded and an athlete will be offered a roster spot earlier than expected. But it’s important to have clear and open communication with college coaches about your role on the roster and the possibility of being grayshirted.

Blueshirt scholarship offer

Blueshirting is becoming a more popular (but hardly common) way to creatively manage the number of athletic scholarships. Blue shirt rules allow for unrecruited players to be awarded a scholarship at the start of freshman practice. Like a redshirt, they will practice with the team but won’t be allowed to play for a year. This allows a team that may have too many commits to essentially borrow against their next year’s scholarship total. The rules are rather strict in regard to what is defined as being “unrecruited.” That means there was

• No official visit

• No in-home coach visit

• No signed National Letter of Intent

• No form of athletic aid

Given the recruiting restrictions, it is still a pretty rare occurrence for a student-athlete to be considered for a blueshirt scholarship offer.

Greenshirt scholarship offer

More and more fall sport athletes are getting a jump on their college careers by graduating in December and enrolling a semester early. The benefits to greenshirting include the chance to get ahead on classes, attend spring training and practice with your new team while on scholarship before the new fall season. Student-athletes who greenshirt are allowed to play their first year but the can also redshirt and have five years to play four seasons.

Beyond NCAA DI and DII

Statistics will tell you that only two percent of high school athletes receive athletic scholarships. Student-athletes and their families who may have had their heart set on playing for a D1 or D2 program should take a closer look at D3, NAIA, and even junior colleges for financial incentives.

While NCAA DIII schools cannot offer athletic scholarships, 80 percent of D3 athletes receive some type of financial aid. The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) reports that its athletes receive on average $7,000 in financial aid. And in the often-overlooked world of junior college athletics, the National Junior College Athletic Association offers full and partial scholarships at more than 500 colleges.

Insider tip: Despite the impact that coronavirus had on college sports, as of June 1, 2021, the NCAA resumed its regular recruiting rules and activity! Coaches are actively working to fill their rosters, so student-athletes should be proactive in reaching out to coaches. Read up on how the extra year of eligibility granted to athletes who were most affected by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 will impact future recruiting classes.

repost from NCSA

Dallas Based Soccer Non-Profit Team Give & Go Catering to Multicultural Student Athletes Represents in ECNL National Championship in VA

Dallas Based Soccer Non-Profit Team Give & Go Catering to Multicultural Student Athletes Represents in ECNL National Championship in VA

2021 ECNL National Soccer Champs

Dallas, TX (July 2021) Team Give & Go, a non-profit organization developed to be a resource and promote the game of soccer to African-American youth student athletes excelled on the pitch this past weekend with seven of its members winning the ECNL U14 National Championship with Solar Soccer Club.  

 This past weekend, at the ECNL National Championship games in Richmond, VA, the Solar ECNL U14 demonstrated why they were the best in their age bracket in the nation this year, showcasing a culturally diverse team that displayed skills, speed, toughness and soccer IQ. Solar Soccer Club U14 girls soared to national championship status, beating teams such as Tennessee, MVLA, Mathfit and Utah Avalanche in Tampa, FL at the quarter-finals to continue to the Semi-finals in Richmond, VA, where they were able to continue their winning streak against, LAFC Slammers and SoCal Blues, two of the best California teams.  

Members of Team Give & Go, including Coda Jones, Zoe Matthews, London Young, Kyla Dawn, Iriana Sarpy, Leah Negeri and Dezeriah Scott were huge contributors of Solar’s successful season and ultimate national championship win. 

“Team Give & Go is extremely proud of Solar’s U14 ECNL National Championship win, showcasing members of Team Give & Go.  Our mission has been to showcase and elevate the game of soccer among African Americans and to have seven players on one team, winning a national title gives us great satisfaction that 

 progress is being made and the world is seeing the contributions that African Americans can make in the game of soccer”, states Troy Jones, co-founder of Team Give & Go.  “It’s a privilege to have some of our girls receive this accolade and encourage others to participate in this sport.”  

Team Give & Go’s mission is to highlight and become a resource for talented African-American and multicultural youth soccer players around the country. Team Give & Go provides African American & multicultural student soccer athletes with monetary resources, a support network and access to training, mentorship and information to begin or extend the lifespan of their athletic recreational and competitive seasons. 

 Solar Soccer Club, home of national champions, is recognized as one of the competitive top youth soccer clubs in the country. Solar has consistently developed diverse youth players who are now members of professional clubs or participate in national teams globally. 2021 has proven to be an extraordinary year diversity in the game of soccer for Solar. 

 Team Give & Go, established in 2018, provides resources, a support network and access to training, mentorship and information to promote & extend the lifespan of athletic recreational and competitive seasons for multicultural student athletes.  Recognized as the only organization in the U.S. that focuses on the development and nurturing of young talented African American youth soccer players, Team Give & Go aims to close the gaps in the youth soccer industry for young African American soccer athletes. 

 Solar Soccer Club was established in 1976 and is proud to be the oldest continuous soccer club in the Dallas Fort Worth area.  Solar Soccer Club is a recognized nonprofit 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization established for the sole purpose of providing an opportunity for children to play youth soccer at a competitive level.  Solar is recognized as one of the top competitive youth soccer clubs in the country.  Many of our past players are now members of professional soccer clubs and on United States National Teams.

Team Give & Go members pack meals for kids in need for Frisco Fastpacs.

TG&G Members Pack Meals for Frisco Fastpacs and kids in need of food this holiday season.

Members of Team Give & Go; a non-profit soccer organization that focuses on introducing soccer and providing resources to the African-American athlete — spends a day packing bags for Frisco Fastpacs. Frisco fast pacs provide meals for kids so they won’t go hungry while not in school.

TG&G members are soccer players from all over the country. The group of girls above are from the TG&G Texas chapter and truly understand the value of giving back.

For more information on Frisco Fastpacs go to friscofastpacs.org and to learn more about teamgiveandgo, go to teamgiveandgo.com or visit us on instagram at teamgiveandgo

Kevin Durant Buys Minority Stake In Philadelphia Union Soccer Club.

By: Marty Fenn / repurposed

Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant has had plenty of time to explore business opportunities as he continues to rehab a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered during last year’s NBA Finals.

It appears Kevin Durant has found his next venture: professional soccer.

Kevin Durant has reportedly bought a minority stake in the Philadelphia Union of the MLS after previously discussing an ownership role with the club in December (via Mark J. Burns of Sports Business Daily):

Nets F Kevin Durant has purchased a minority stake in the Union, between 1% and 5%. It’s unclear if Durant’s investment in the MLS team is a personal one or through Thirty Five Ventures, a business he co-founded with partner Rich Kleiman. It’s also unclear if the Union’s USL team is involved. Both the team and Thirty Five Ventures declined comment. In December, the Union confirmed a meeting with Thirty Five Ventures after pictures surfaced online of Durant with team officials. Durant in the past has reportedly tried to buy a minority stake twice in DC United.

Kevin Durant’s love for soccer has been less publicized than NBA contemporaries such as Steve Nash or the late Kobe Bryant, but he clearly has a love for the sport and embraces the potential of MLS.

On the basketball front, speculation continues to surround the status of Kevin Durant as the Nets prepare to head to Orlando for the resumption of play.

The NBA’s board of governors approved a plan that will send 22 of the league’s 30 teams to Orlando for an eight-game conclusion to the regular season, followed by a slightly modified 16-team playoff.

As reported in Newsday, Kevin Durant has been scrimmaging with teammates. But it also appears the Nets will leave the decision to KD.

In the meantime, Kevin Durant is solidifying his profile off the court, adjusting to a very uncertain sports world with a level of confidence not every investor might share. Durant is clearly willing to take some chances, at least.

New Season Mean New Goals

A new season is here for you to shine. We’re looking to award your best efforts. Submit your stats, and grades this season so we can acknowledge your play on the pitch and in the classroom. Good Luck!

Lorne Donaldson on how the ECNL vs. Development Academy turf war has created a 'toxic environment

Lorne Donaldson

Lorne Donaldson is the Executive Director of Coaching of Real Colorado, one of the few clubs that compete in both the girls ECNL and the girls U.S. Soccer Development Academy. Real Colorado's rate of sending players into the U.S. national team program ranks it among the top clubs in the nation. Donaldson also serves as assistant coach to Hue Menzies of the Jamaican women's national team, which will be making its first Women's World Cup appearance this summer.

SOCCER AMERICA: Your club, Real Colorado, is one of a handful that fields teams in both the ECNL, launched in 2009, and the Girls U.S. Soccer Development Academy, which started in 2017 and is now in its second season. How do you manage both?

LORNE DONALDSON: I think we have a good staff and our management is good. We really have no problem. We have the fields to do it. And we have the players because the kids want to play for us because it’s a good environment.

We have a good pool of players, and it’s going to get better if they allow us to stay in both leagues. But who knows what’s going to happen now? I think there are going to be some decisions coming up.

SA: You may not continue fielding teams in both the Girls DA and the ECNL?

LORNE DONALDSON: The ECNL wanted us to get out of [the Development Academy]. There are some clubs already out of the ECNL. They have been kicked out.

The ECNL thinks that at the clubs that play both ECNL and DA, your top players are playing in the DA and the second-string players are playing in the ECNL. They [the ECNL] want all the top players. The ECNL is saying, you can’t do both. You can just do one.

SA: So what do you think will happen next season (2019-20)?

LORNE DONALDSON: I don’t know yet for sure if we’re going to be in both. Three or four days ago, I told them if we come to the ECNL, we want two teams [in each age group]. They have to go and discuss it.

SA: Because if you leave the Girls DA, about half the Real Colorado players who now play in the Girls DA and ECNL will no longer be playing in one of the nation’s elite girls leagues?

LORNE DONALDSON: Yes. If we're only going to play ECNL, we can’t just take one team. It doesn’t make any sense. We would like to see both teams in if we’re going to do it. We have the environment to do it. But that’s a discussion with the ECNL.

SA: And if it comes down to making a choice between the two?

LORNE DONALDSON: Then most likely we would stay in the DA. We will lose our ECNL group.

SA: As it is now, for the last two seasons, how is it decided which Real Colorado girls play in the DA and which play in the ECNL?

LORNE DONALDSON: I’m not going to try to sugarcoat. Most of the better players wanted to play in the DA. But there are some very good players, and a few top players, who decided they wanted to play ECNL because they wanted to also play for their high school.

And there are DA players who still want to play high school. They still talk about it and they want to play.

[Editor’s note: U.S. Soccer does not allow DA players to play high school soccer.]

SA: So an advantage of being a club with both DA and ECNL teams is that players have a choice, and the ones who want to play high school still have access to high-level club competition …

LORNE DONALDSON: Yeah. It’s actually created an environment for us where you can service people better. But again, how long is it going to last?

It’s OK to have two leagues, but you got to try and get them under the same umbrella and moving in the same direction. If you have them under the same umbrella, and the guys are working together, and you cross-play, and you do stuff like that, then the soccer is going to be good again. But right now, it’s a sad state of affairs.

SA: Instead it's been a turf war?

LORNE DONALDSON: I think what has been created with the ECNL and the DA is a toxic environment for these kids. It’s actually no fun right now. The game is no fun.

We haven’t changed anything at our club that we were doing five or six years ago. We’re still doing it the same way, but there seems to be a lot conflict between the leagues. It’s on the top. And they can’t work it out.

It’s created a very poor environment if you look across the spectrum, across the board. A lot of fussing. People are mad at each other.

SA: Some of the top girls clubs in the nation are split between the two leagues, so they don’t play each other anymore …

LORNE DONALDSON: Our top teams used to go play teams like the Slammers, PDA, Michigan Hawks, Stars of Massachusetts and Eclipse [which play in the ECNL]. Those were great games. Those are the games people want to see. When you throw the best games out, it’s no longer any fun. There has to be a way for the top clubs to play each other.

SA: That reminds me of a complaint I heard from a DA coach who told me he can’t play his very strong neighbor club because it’s ECNL, and instead travels hours to play a weaker club. It doesn’t seem too complicated to allow those teams to play each other. Why doesn’t that happen?

LORNE DONALDSON: Ego. And everyone wants to be the top dog. And both groups think their league is better. And they don’t realize that they’re killing the game and driving kids away. There are kids who are turned off from the game because of this stuff. We have to get back to where kids will enjoy the game.

And one league has a lot of restrictions.

SA: The DA?

LORNE DONALDSON: The DA. You’re not supposed to manage the club the way you used manage it even though you’re smarter than the people who are making the rules.

Most of the people making the rules have never run a club in their lives. But they’re making the rules that a lot of times don’t make sense.

SA: Such as?

LORNE DONALDSON: The biggest one is the high school [ban]. You tell me why a kid can’t play high school soccer? If they still want to go play high school and be a part of that, I don’t see anything wrong with that.

We have a lot of kids who, when they go play high school, they come back better and more confident because they’ve played against bigger, faster players. They get more playing time.

Leave it up to the clubs to figure it out. Our top-level players, if they don’t choose to play high school, they train with the boys. The environment is already there for the elite players. The top players, going back to Mia Hamm, they could play high school.

[Editor's note: Mallory Pugh played high school soccer while playing club for Real Colorado.]

This article was created by Soccer America by Mike Woitalla @MikeWoitalla,

Black Soccer In North America.

Great round table discussion sponsored by MLS. #BlackHistoryMonth

Gilbert (Gil) Heron - The First Black U.S. Soccer Player Remains Forgotten.

Gilbert (Gil) Heron was born in Kingston, Jamaica on 9th April 1922. As a schoolboy in the Caribbean, Heron excelled at track and field defeating Herb McKenley, who would go on later to become a 400m sprint world record holder and compete at the 1948 and 1952 Olympics in six events in total, winning one gold and three silver medals. As well as athletics, he played cricket, the national sport of the West Indies. Heron, aged 15, led his Jamaican school, St George’s, to victory in the Manning Cup, contested among schools in the Corporate Area (comprising the parishes of Kingston, St. Andrew and most of St. Catherine)

In Heron’s later teenage years he moved to Canada. The young Jamaican played football and continued to compete in athletics, including long jump, high jump and sprinting, as well as taking up ice hockey. In 1940, at the age of 18, Heron became Golden Gloves welterweight champion of Michigan, and later enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Older brother, Roy Trevor Gilbert Heron, served with the Norwegian Merchant Navy during World War II and then joined the Canadian army, later becoming active in black Canadian politics.

In Detroit Heron took a job in an auto plant to make ends meet. Heron continued to play football after moving to America and became the first black person to play professionally in the United States was the only black player in US professional football at the time. In 1946, he signed for Detroit Wolverines, who played in the short-lived North American Professional Soccer League, which they duly won in its inaugural season, with Heron scoring 15 goals in eight games. Though Heron was the league’s top goal scorer that year he was paid only 25 dollars a game compared with the 100 dollars a game paid to white player Pete Matevich, who scored far fewer goals than Heron.

Considering the United States did not have a truly national league until the late 1960s, crowds of 2,000-4,000 were respectable by the US standards of the time. Despite getting paid less than his teammates Heron was drawing personal acclaim with his performances. In a 1947 profile, Ebony magazine described Heron as the ‘Babe Ruth of soccer.’ With reference to the sports roots in England the article said “The ancient Old-World game of soccer boasts a New-World star.”

As Heron’s performances continued to raise acclaim he was selected on the US’ All Star team the year after the Ebony magazine profile. This led to the striker transferring to Detroit Corinthians, who played in the larger American Soccer League.

In the 1950s Glasgow Celtic had a history of making lengthy American tours and doing some scouting at the same time. The goalkeeper Joe Kennaway was an earlier product of this strategy. One of Celtic’s scout must have been at a Detroit Corinthians game as the Scottish giants did not play Heron’s club on their 1951 tour. Regardless of the exact circumstances Heron was invited to Scotland for a public trial. The game was a success as the Jamaican scored twice at Celtic Park.

Heron’s performance convinced Celtic sign him and therefore become the first black player to play the Scottish club Celtic, and the first to play professionally in Scotland. Heron told a Scottish newspaper upon signing in 1951 “Gee, I was tickled, Glasgow Celtic was the greatest name in football to me.”

His impact was instant as he scored on his debut on 18 August 1951 in a League Cup tie against Morton that Celtic won 2–0. As he had done in Detroit, Heron was making a positive impression on the media in Britain. “Right now, he is Scottish football’s Golden boy” said one newspaper. Another claimed “fifty thousand supporters hail him as the greatest thing seen at Celtic Park since goalposts.”

Heron was competing for the centre-forward role with John McPhail, a Celtic hero of the era. As former athlete in his youth, his extraordinarily pace led supporters to give Heron the nickname ‘Black Flash’.

As well as gaining recognition at club level Heron won a place on the Jamaica Football Association XI, which in 1952, played a series against the Caribbean Combined XI, which featured Trinidad star Delbert Charleau. Heron was a truly multi-talented sportsman and also excelled at cricket, having played growing up in the West Indies, and while in Scotland competed professionally for leading Glasgow clubs while resident in the city.

Despite a successful club debut and rave reviews in the press Heron struggled to fit into manager Jimmy McGrory’s lineup, which included legendary performers such as Sean (Iron Man) Fallon, Bobby Evans, John McPhail, Bertie Peacock, Charlie Tully and Jock Weir. Heron scored 15 times in 15 appearances for the Celtic reserve team but ended his Celtic career after five first team appearances, scoring two goals in the process. It’s claimed the reasons for the brevity of his career in the famous green and white hoops were because he wasn’t robust enough for the Scottish game in the 1950s with its tough tackles and rough play. Other reports say the forward was far too stylish a player. The likelihood was, aged 29 when he arrived at Celtic, Heron was probably past his best, especially as pace was a key attribute to his game. Despite this Heron was described as “a great and supremely interesting human being” by the Celtic FC guide "An Alphabet of the Celts."

Upon leaving Celtic Park joined Third Lanark where he played in seven League Cup matches, scoring five goals but did not appear in the League. His football career in the UK concluded with a season at Kidderminster Harriers, playing in the Birmingham League. As he had been at Celtic Heron was the first black player to sign for the midlands club. In 1954, Heron would leave England returning home to Detroit to re-join Detroit Corinthians. With a family to support, he took a job on the assembly line at the Ford Motor Car Company. A man of many talents Heron later became a referee, as well as resuming his career as a professional photographer. Gil Heron was also a poet and jazz musician.

Despite being a pioneer in the game his achievements have been overlooked by his legendary son. In 1949 poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron was born in Detroit to singer Bobbie Scott, Gil Heron’s wife. The couple separated when Heron left for Scotland and did meet his son again until Scott-Heron was 26. While in Scotland Heron met his future wife, Margaret Frize. Heron had three more children, Gayle, Denis and Kenny, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Detroit, and eight grandchildren. Gayle said her father was not bitter he received so little recognition, “He knows he was a pioneer,” she says.

His son, Gil Scott-Heron became a rap music pioneer of the 1970s and 80s. His Midnight Band are best known for the polemic song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." On a visit to Glasgow Gil reflected that his father continued to take a lifelong interest in the fortunes of Celtic football club, until his death from a heart attack in November 2008, aged 86, "My father still keeps up with what Celtic are doing. You Scottish folk always mention that my Dad played for Celtic, it's a blessing from the spirits! Like that's two things that Scottish folks love the most; music and football and they got one representative from each of those from my family!"

When his father’s links to Celtic became known it became a feature of his son's UK concerts that some of the fans turned up wearing the club’s shirts. Scott-Heron would joke "There you go again - once again overshadowed by a parent. I'm going to wear my Celtic scarf and Rangers hat when I come over!" The singer went into more detail about his father’s career in an interview with The New Yorker “It was after the war, working for Western Electric, he also played for the Chicago Maroons, or something like that. A Scottish team came through, and he scored on them, which was not what they had come for. They was all white. He went to Scotland, and the legend goes he scored the day he arrived. He was dubbed the Black Arrow, and played professionally for three more years.”

Writing this article, I discovered that behind a little-known fact was an incredible life story of a man who may be overlooked as the father of his legendary son. However, Gil Heron was a trailblazer in his own right, and his own personal achievements will go down in Celtic history.

AMERICAN SOCCER IS NOT ACKNOWLEDGING BLACK HISTORY (MONTH

A few weeks ago, the editorial staff of SoccerGods.com had a brainstorming session, in the middle of which someone almost offhandedly said, “Well, it’s Black History Month.” It got a genuine laugh, because the idea of American soccer and black history intersecting sounded absurd. It was as if the ghost of Desmond Armstrong (who is still very much alive) came down and blessed us with an idea.

Baseball, basketball and football have all commemorated the journeys of black athletes, from times that pre-date their respective leagues through segregation, the Civil Rights Era, into modern times. The stories range from harrowing accounts of prejudice overcome, to stories of players breaking out of neighborhoods birthed by decades of institutional racism, to stories about today’s players reaching back to uplift often-neglected communities some still call home. Quite simply, other sports, whether out of genuine reverence or pandering, have made strong efforts to recognize these points in history.

That isn’t the case with American soccer. For generations, soccer in this country has included millions of players and fans from across the Pan-African diaspora. A beautiful tapestry of cultures and experiences exists within soccer’s black population — diverse within itself, with roots reaching from the United States back to Africa, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Volumes of books and hours of documentaries have been filled with facts and folklore from other sports, but somehow, our nearly 102-year-old national federation and 20-year-old league don’t seem to have any legends of their own. Why not?

That’s the question I asked myself several times. The first answer was invariably “because Major League Soccer didn’t appear until 1996.” The theory we could all easily believe is that by the time MLS came into our lives, America was already breathing in Clinton-era progress fumes and had planted the seeds of a mythical “post-racial America.” Black players were on the field from the league’s first day. MLS didn’t have its Jackie Robinson, because Eddie Pope’s 1996 was a different world in every way than Robinson’s 1947.

It’s easy to offer a “we don’t see color” excuse for all involved, but that’s nonsense. America lives for celebrations of hyphenated-Americanism and microculture. Highlighting our varied heritage is what we do best, and rightfully so. But there’s no denying that black fans and players are still seen as outliers in many circles, especially in insular communities. If the organizations that are the caretakers of the American game, or the outlets that cover it, do nothing to highlight the flaws in that theory, the perception will persist that black participants in American soccer culture are somehow alien.

MORE: Celebrating Black History Month: The story of Nutmeg Jenkins

But if you still buy into the notion of a post-racial American soccer, then you’ll have to explain MLS’s Latino del Año or the league’s Hispanic Heritage Nights. It isn’t as if the American soccer powers aren’t open to the idea of cultural acknowledgment, but search “Black History Month” on the league’s web siteand you’ll see its level of commitment.

All of this raises an interesting point about what American soccer can afford to ignore. On one hand, American soccer can’t ignore the contributions of Latinos, even if it did so in the past. And it would be a shame to ignore that history. Without a large enough market to appease, people seem to have no appetite for black contributions unless those contributions involve extremes, like poverty, violence, death threats and a lot of distance, whether physically distant (Europe) or temporally distant (the 1800s).

Perhaps it doesn’t help that the limited black soccer history that we know is recent, easily palatable, and probably, therefore, easy to ignore. Go farther back and it’s murky, without obvious heroes, and obscured by the neglect. That’s a perfect formula for a majority that wants to feel better about itself for being more tolerant people than its forefathers and foremothers.

If American soccer had a well-known figures who endured lives like Satchel Page, Jesse Owens or Jim Brown, or our treatment and view of the past would be greatly different. Those stories certainly existed in soccer, but no one seems to be telling them. History and the black player experience offers countless opportunities for conversations about racial and cultural identity, from developing youth through the MLS ranks, but we rarely hear them. In soccer, that history remains too obscure.

This week, we’ve chosen to close out and extend Black History Month by contributing in our own way. You may rub your chin in deep thought. You may laugh and wonder, “Am I allowed to think this is funny?” If we’re lucky, you’ll send us hate tweets, but as long as you watch — as long as you finally read and discuss — we’ll be one step further along.