From the Touchline

Wells Thompson is the Founder and CEO of Soccer Resilience. A former professional midfielder, drafted fifth overall by the New England Revolution and played for the Colorado Rapids and Chicago Fire in Major League Soccer, Wells has an incredible testimony. Even though he won the MLS Cup Championship, his career isn’t all glitz and glam.

Today, on the Soccer Chaplains United podcast, From the Touchline, part three of three in our interview. Wells talks more about the night his parents intervened in a powerful way and what might have been. We also end the podcast on a fun and light note as Wells plays a game of Crosses with Rev.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

Wells Thompson is the Founder and CEO of Soccer Resilience. A former professional midfielder who played in Major League Soccer, Wells has an amazing testimony. Much of his inspiration and work today comes out of the learning that he has had to do from his own lessons of life before, during, and after a professional soccer career..

Today, on the Soccer Chaplains United podcast, From the Touchline, part two of three in our conversation. Wells shares a deeply vulnerable piece about a retreat that he recently went on and some of the heart and soul work that he did around life and his identity that has been tied into soccer for so long.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

Wells Thompson is the Founder and CEO of Soccer Resilience. A former professional midfielder who played in Major League Soccer, Wells has a story worth hearing. His work today comes from his own lessons of life that he has learned and continues to learn.

Today, on the Soccer Chaplains United podcast, From the Touchline, is part one of three in our conversation with Wells. We catch up a little bit and Wells shares more about the work that Soccer Resilience is doing with young athletes everywhere. Wells also starts to tell some of the parts of his own story.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

Adam Smith is the Sporting Director of Central Valley Fuego FC. He is a former professional goalkeeper and is, today, a coach — perhaps his most well-known coaching stint back in 2019 leading USL-Championship side Fresno FC to a third place finish in the West.

Today, on the Soccer Chaplains United podcast, From the Touchline, in part four (the finale) of our series, Adam talks about his current role at Fuego and also reflects on what it is like to have a relationship with Jesus in the midst of the adversity and challenge that comes with the beautiful game. Adam also gets between the nets for a game of Crosses with Rev in a light-hearted way to end the podcast.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

Adam Smith is the Sporting Director of Central Valley Fuego FC which plays in the United Soccer League (USL) League One – part of the third tier of professional soccer in the United States. Adam has an extensive playing and coaching career that extends all the way back to England where he grew up and his eventual transition to America.

Today, on the Soccer Chaplains United podcast, From the Touchline, in part three of our series, Adam talks about his time as manager for Fresno FC. Fresno, a since-shuttered USL-Championship team, was led by Adam to a near top of the table finish in 2019, but with 5 games to go in season, they were told that the team wouldn’t be around in 2020 and was ceasing operations over a stadium issue. Adam shares more on his experience from his time there.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

Adam Smith is the Sporting Director of Central Valley Fuego FC which plays in the United Soccer League (USL) League One – part of the third tier of professional soccer in the United States. Adam has an extensive playing and coaching career that extends all the way back to England where he grew up and his eventual transition to America.

Today, on the Soccer Chaplains United podcast, From the Touchline, in part two, Adam talks about the trajectory of his coaching pathway as his playing days came to an end. He takes us all the way to the moment when, in 2019, he learned that his team Fresno FC, would be ceasing operations despite pushing for playoffs and being near the top of the table.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

Adam Smith is the Sporting Director of Central Valley Fuego FC which plays in the United Soccer League (USL) League One – part of the third tier of professional soccer in the United States. Adam has an extensive playing and coaching career that extends all the way back to his boyhood days of playing with Everton’s academy as the son of former professional footballer, Graham Smith.

Today, on the Soccer Chaplains United podcast, From the Touchline, in part one, Adam talks about those early days playing and where all his travels took him but to an important realization in his life. You won’t want to miss the start of this amazing series with Adam Smith.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

This week is Holy Week. For Christians around the world, each day of the week considers the life and times of Jesus as we approach Easter. Tomorrow, is Thursday, also known as Maundy Thursday. It was on this day that Jesus had a meal with his best friends. He gave them a new command: to love was he loves. He exemplified this by getting up from the meal and taking on the task of being a servant. He took a basin and towel and cleaned the feet of his friends, and even the feet of his eventual betrayer, Judas.

In football, the feet are important. We run, kick, pass, shoot, leap — we do a lot with and to our feet. SO maybe there are some lessons that we can take away into how we ought to be with our teammates, our fellow coaches, staff, our family and our friends. What does it look like to wash their feet? What might be the meaning and significance that we ought to pursue when it comes to caring for others? For serving them? We explore this on this week’s From the Touchline podcast.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (10-15 min) podcast with me, Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer.

Myself and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen to the podcast in our app, SoccrChapUtd, which you can find in the Apple and Google store.

Major League Soccer Next Pro, now in its second season, is part of the third division pro soccer landscape in North America. These teams, tied into their MLS (division 1 counterparts) represent an added step in the professional player pathway for the beautiful game. As the season began this past weekend, we have two Soccer Chaplains United chaplains on who are currently serving MLS Next Pro teams.

Jubal McDaniel, in his 3rd year with Tacoma Defiance has seen the club go from USL – Championship to MLS Next Pro. Kevin Hasenack (Rev Kev) is part of the work with the Colorado Rapids 2 (R2) team. Both join me on the podcast today to talk about their teams and the league and a few other football and chaplaincy related things.

Also, during this episode of From the Touchline, Kevin and Jubal face off in a second, head to head competition of Crosses with Rev — the little game I like to play with podcast guests. So tune in and listen as we talk about MLS Next Pro today on the podcast.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer.

Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.

Standing around the trash bin, we watch AFC Richmond sharing and, in a team bonding moment, being vulnerable with one another as they tell the stories and people and places in life that have shaped them and shaped their experience. It is not easy for men, especially, to share and be vulnerable. This is especially true in the competitive environment of a football locker room where you are a team, but still competing for a place in that team.

Today, in this Lesson from Lasso, we take a minute to observe the work of sharing and being vulnerable and I talk about how we can bring the burdens that we have — the spiritual, emotional, and mental burdens to Jesus. Jesus offers us a way forward and a way for us to share burdens with him and other Christian believers.

Ted Lasso, the immensely popular streaming TV show is about to being its third season on Apple TV+ features the antics and quirky, Coach ‘Ted Lasso.’ Lasso first appeared a number of years ago as a comedic character as NBC purchased the broadcast rights to the English Premier League. Played by Jason Sudeikis, Lasso (as a coach) brings change to the difficult football (soccer) team that he has traveled overseas to coach.

In the ‘Lessons from Lasso’ series, I (Rev Brad) look at some of the different life learning points brought up in the show from a chaplain’s point of view.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (usually 10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer.

Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.