“I did well,” Aaronson said. “So I’ve been with them ever since.”
As he took some time off to relax from the recently-completed soccer season he had played for the Philadelphia Union soccer academy’s Under 17 program, 16-year-old Brenden Aaronson got a phone call while “chilling” at his family’s Shore house.
It’s mid-July and about two and a half weeks since the playoffs ended when “one of the coaches in the academy [calls me] and says, do you mind practicing with the Steel tomorrow?” Aaronson said.
The Steel are Bethlehem Steel FC, a United Soccer League club based in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley region. It’s also the minor league affiliate of Major League Soccer’s Philadelphia Union.
“And I said yeah.”
So the next day comes, and Aaronson, whose natural position is center midfield, drives down from the Jersey Shore to Talen Energy Stadium, located in the southwest shadow of the Commodore Barry Bridge in Chester, Pa. The stadium, which houses the home turf of the Philadelphia Union, served as the location for his first training session for the Steel. They liked him, so they rostered him for the game against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds the next day.
“You’re rostering him? He’s been to one practice!” Aaronson’s confused father, Rusty, rhetorically asked one of the team’s coaching staff. “And the coach goes ‘it’ll be a good experience to watch the game.’”
The coaches just wanted him to watch the game from the point of view of the bench. This way he’d get a feel for how things worked from the sidelines. It’s not like he was going to play or anything.
That was the plan, at least, until the team’s starting center midfielder, Chris Wingate, fell to the ground with a hamstring injury in the 39th minute. The coaches told Aaronson to start warming up.
Upon Burke’s realization that Wingate wasn’t going to be able to continue on in the game, he sent Aaronson in.
“I did well,” Aaronson said. “So I’ve been with them ever since then.”
It wasn’t easy for a 16-year-old — Aaronson has just recently turned 17 in October, and even more recently earned his driver’s license — to play against men in their 20s and 30s. During the next game against the Richmond Kickers, the other team’s players relentlessly mocked and trash-talked him for being young. They called him all sorts of “bad words” and names — the worst of which was “Justin Bieber.”
However, Aaronson, who is from Medford, is signed to an amateur contract, which means he doesn’t get paid. This way he can still go to college once he’s done with high school. He’s currently a Junior at YSC Academy, a private high school in Wayne, Pa., that doubles as a development camp for young players under contacts with the Philadelphia Union. He’s been there since his sophomore year and only completed his freshman year at Shawnee High School.
Right now, college is big on Aaronson’s mind. His top five schools are Indiana, Pitt, Stanford, Georgetown and Wake Forest, all of which have some of the most renowned college soccer programs in the country.
But even that’s pretty far down the line at this point. Since the Steel’s season just ended on Oct. 20 with a 4–0 playoff loss to Louisville City, Aaronson plays primarily for the Union’s soccer academy on the under 19 roster, which still makes for an extremely busy schedule. Every morning he wakes up at 5:45 a.m. so he can make it to Cherry Hill in time to catch the bus that takes him right to YSC Academy. Once he gets there, he has a morning training session. Then he goes to school from 10 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. Then he has another training session from 3:30 to 5 p.m. He gets back to his home in Medford at about 7 p.m.
“After 7, I do any homework that I hadn’t done and just kind of go to bed around 9,” he said. “It’s a long day.”
Over the course of his time with the Steel, he’s had a number of mentors. One is his dad, who runs Real New Jersey, “an academy level, premier youth soccer club based in Medford,” according to its website. Another is James Chambers, a 30-year-old Irishman who doubles as the captain for the Steel.
“He gives me coaching tips every day,” Aaronson said. “He’s been through it all so he knows what’s good for me.”
Aaronson’s dad describes Chambers as a “really funny Irish guy.”
“Every other word is a bad one,” he said. “But he’s a great mentor.”
With his dad’s and Chambers’ help, Aaronson is on the fast-track to achieving his dream of playing professional soccer.
