Hundreds of soccer enthusiasts and area residents gathered at the Robert Crown Community Center on Saturday for the 10th annual Unity Soccer Festival. This is an event unlike most other sporting events.
While a typical soccer tournament involves multiple rounds of eliminations with one team emerging as the winner, the Unity Soccer Festival doesn't focus on goals or winning, instead focusing on celebrating inclusivity, diversity and friendly competition.
More than 60 teams of all ages gathered on 20 fields for a day of 4-on-4 football, music and food. In keeping with the festival motto, “A Goal Ain't a Goal,” no goals were scored in the matches and each team was guaranteed to play three matches.
Founder and Chairman Elliot Hartig said: He and his friends founded the festival 10 years ago after realizing the need for community within a sport loved all over the world.
“Many of us noticed that many of the football games we attended tended to be segregated along racial and gender lines,” Hartig said, “so we thought, 'Let's have an event that brings everyone in the Evanston community together to celebrate what makes our community great – the diversity and positivity.'”
Hartig, a former English teacher and football coach at Deerfield High School, The city hosted its first Unity Soccer Festival with 14 teams at Kamen Park in 2015. Since moving the event to Robert Crown three years ago, that number has grown to 48 last year.
The teams were divided into three age groups, from youngest to oldest: the Marley Division, the Chavez Division, and the MLK Division, with team pairings within each division determined randomly prior to the tournament.
This year's event drew a record number of attendees, featured separate games for children, local medical professionals treating injured players and local vendors such as Taco Nano! and Curt's Cafe.
Festival founder and chairman Elliot Hartig will address attendees before the start of the games.
The festival has become an annual tradition for many groups who make it their goal to register a team each summer, including Will Schmetterer. Deerfield High School classmates He is an alumnus of the football team and has made several trips to Evanston over the years.
Schmetterer, who was Hartig's coach during his high school years, praised his former coach's dedication to the sport and said the festival's growth is what keeps him coming back.
“We love this game and it's so much fun to come out here and see the familiar community,” Schmetterer said. “It's so vibrant and it's amazing to see how many people are here and how the numbers have grown.”
Saturday marked the debut of newcomers such as the Evanston City Team featuring Mayor Daniel Biss and City Councilman Juan Gerakaris (9th Place) and the Northwestern Women's Soccer Team, who joined returning teams including Jabat FC. Campagnola There are restaurants and several world class teams, including teams representing the countries of Spain and Togo.
West African Koku Hoateme, playing for Togo alongside his longtime teammates, is accustomed to competing in larger, more competitive soccer tournaments and enjoyed the unique structure of a goalless match at Saturday's festival.
“We're just here to have fun and we're really grateful,” Huatemeh said. “It's good to compete with people from other places.”
Hartig and the festival's 12-person board of directors plan to limit the number of participating teams to 60 in future, but are hopeful the event's impact on the Evanston community will continue to grow.
The festival is not for profit and teams are required to pay a $50 registration fee, with proceeds going towards scholarships for kids who need financial assistance to participate in touring soccer. This year's scholarships were awarded to six recipients from Ethiopia, Venezuela and Jamaica.
With a deep passion for the sport and no plans to quit, Hartig hopes the Unity Soccer Festival will become a staple not only for Evanston residents but the entire soccer community.
“For us, just taking a moment and looking across the field and seeing people having fun and interacting, that's the most rewarding part of the day,” Hartig said. “We have a common language, and that common language is we love football. That's what brings people together.”
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