Chicago Fire

This past Sunday was one of the best days we've had in a while.  We were invited to a meet-the-team event at Toyota Park to celebrate the Chicago Fire Soccer Club.  The back story is that I met the assistant coach, Leo Percovich, at the Dallas airport when he was travelling with the team.  We ended up sitting next to each other on the plane and he later invited us to come to a game and hooked us up with incredible seats.  He made huge fans out of us.  We all had a blast at the game cheering on the team. 

Fast forward to now, 8 months later, and we are still in contact.  I reached out to him recently because I'm in the midst of planning a fundraiser to raise money for Comfort Zone Camp.  I was hoping they could help out with a donation.  Leo suggested that I come and meet the president of the club face-to-face and thought the meet-and-greet would be the perfect setting. 

We had no idea how huge this event was.  It's exclusive to season ticket holders so we were very lucky to be there.  Leo met us at the gate and introduced us as his guests.  We made our way into the stadium and couldn't help but feel the excitement build. 

They had 10 tables set up on the outskirts of the field with three players at each table. The lines for each table, where you waited for autographs, were from the top to bottom of each section of the stadium. The president wasn't quite ready for us when we got there so we stood in line with the rest of the fans and started racking up on autographs.  First up was one of my favorite players, Daniel Paladini.   

Talan high-fived Kwame Watson-Siriboe and the player you can barely see in the right hand corner, Marco Pappa, who is a favorite of Kevin. 

I got a call from Leo who was at one of the tables signing autographs.  He told us to make our way down to the field so that we could be escorted by security to the tunnel to meet with the president.  I have to say, it was super exciting.  Watching hundreds of people stare down at us wondering why, on earth, we were walking around all of the tables around the field was a rush.  We finally met up with him and he was extremely receptive to my asking for their support.  When we finished talking, he asked us if we'd like to run across the field.  Up until that point everyone we came in contact with had asked us to be sure to stay off of the field per the groundskeepers request.  So when he asked us we must have looked puzzled.  He said "I know I'm going to get in big trouble for this but I don't care!  Come on kids, let's run through the middle of the field!".  So the five of us took off across the field, surrounded by all of those people wondering what the heck was going on.  It was so awesome!  Kevin offered to strip down and streak but the president politely declined. 

Before we left we were sure to make a stop to say hello to the head coach.  Reese was lucky enough to get a picture with him. 

From there we made our way out with one last stop at the team store.  On our way to the car we ran into the man who made it all happen, my friend Leo.  We didn't get a picture at his table so we took advantage of our impromptu photo opp. 

So much fun.  Kevin and I are going back for a game next week.  I can't wait!