Matt Wolff and Vermonter Keil Corey started out as soccer teammates at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, over a decade ago.
The duo has stayed close friends ever since. Now, brought together again by their passion for the game and for social justice, they have started a soccer club in Burlington whose mission is to be socially conscious.
Wolff and Corey believe that soccer has the ability to build a diverse community while also addressing the major issues faced by today’s society. Vermont Green Football Club aims to do just that while tackling environmental and social issues facing the Burlington community.
“Soccer is a very unique and powerful way to do that work,” Corey said.
Their efforts include partnerships with local and national organizations to expand soccer’s reach into marginalized communities in the region, while prioritizing inclusion and progressive ideals and making decisions with those principles in mind.
That started with the decision of how to create the club. Wolff, Corey and the rest of the Vermont Green team wanted to make sure the club was broadly accessible, so they decided to form a minor league team instead of a major league. Operating in a lower league allows Vermont Green to offer less expensive tickets to games — $14 per game for adults compared to $35 for the cheapest available ticket per game for New England Revolution, a Major League Soccer team in Foxborough, Massachusetts — which makes the team accessible to a greater portion of the community.
Vermont Green is embedding itself into the Burlington community by working closely with longstanding local organizations, including a partnership with Juba Star Football Club, a Somali Bantu-led program that offers free soccer to refugee and immigrant youths in Vermont.
“Our goal is and always has been to provide a space for youth to thrive regardless of their ethnicity or socioeconomic status,” Noor Bulle, assistant general manager of Juba Star FC, said in a press release. “The combined efforts of Vermont Green FC and Juba Star brings us that much closer to those goals.”
The partnership will allow Vermont Green to financially assist Juba Star, but the main priority is simply to tell the club’s story.
“We have this community organization that’s doing incredible work, and we all should be supporting them and hearing their stories because they have really important stories to tell us,” Corey said.
Vermont Green is also working closely with King Street Center, which provides life-building skills for children and families. The goal is for athletes to become part of and care about the Burlington community, as they interact with it on a regular basis.
“It is essential that our kids see a reflection of themselves in the adults they interact with,” Gabriela Tufo Strause, King Street Center community outreach director, said in the release.
The partnership will allow players to interact on a regular basis with families in the community. King Street Center families will also be able to benefit from Vermont Green’s “Spread the Love” season ticket program. The program allows fans to purchase a ticket for supporters who cannot afford to attend a game.
“It’s a reciprocal relationship here, where we want our players to understand what they’re coming into, and then we want to learn as well from these organizations,” Corey said.
Vermont Green leaders have also partnered with the Anti Racist Soccer Club for guidance on racial justice. The national coalition of soccer clubs is dedicated to fighting systemic racism in the sport by helping teams to implement a plan to educate fans on racial issues in soccer, and leaders of that organization recognize the rarity that is Vermont Green.
“A club that’s purpose-driven is, unfortunately, different these days,” said Brandon Miller, co-founder of Anti Racist Soccer Club.
Vermont Green hopes to use its community ties to address issues facing the Burlington community, and tailor its mission to the needs of the community.
“We talk about clubs being fabrics of their community, but we don’t often address a lot of the issues within the community,” Miller said. “Vermont Green has shown themselves to be a club that is a part of their community and wants to hear the needs of the community.”
