We’d like to share a fantastically inspiring story from Coach Bryan Wallace, head coach of the 2007/06 & 03 boys teams. We hope that it encourages others to get involved in anyway they can. You can make a difference, too.

In 2010 I was one of the directors for a club called United FC. I was seeking ways to get my older players more involved in the community when I discovered a friend, Oliver Wyss, and his wife, Jamie. Every year, they hosted a charity event called Soccer for Hope, which raised awareness for kids suffering from cancer. Oliver and Jamie had lost their 7-year old son, Hudson, to cancer; they would later lose a second child, 13-year old Abella, to a brain tumor.

It was volunteering at one of Oliver and Jamie’s events that I was asked if I was interested in being tested to see if I was a match for a child suffering from cancer. I was tested that very day––on the soccer field––and a month later I was notified that I was, in fact, a match for a 15-year old boy who lived in Philadelphia and was dying from stage 4 cancer. I was told that my blood stem cell could save his life. Without hesitation, I donated my blood stem cell to Shemmar Edwards in June of 2011. In 2018, I was finally able to meet Shemmar and his family for the first time.