The Glenside Celtic Clare U9 futsal team returned home with a title after going 3-0 in the YTP Futsal League championship on Sunday, March 1 at Germantown Academy in Fort Washington.
According to head coach Jerry Abernethy, the win was the culmination of a year’s worth of hard work by a team which only formed around February of last year.
“It’s a scrappy group of kids. We started as Roosters FC as a group of intramural friends, then moved up to a travel team after Glenside Celtic graciously opened their arms to us,” he said, noting that the squad was sponsored by Roosters in Glenside. “This whole year has been a great experience. From the start in spring 2025, I can’t thank the families enough for buying into what we were trying to build with this group, and it always started with loving the game of soccer and having fun with friends.”
The group practiced over the spring and summer and attended the Ed Clark Soccer Camp to further develop their chemistry and love of the game. They also took part in the Glenside Celtic Winter Academy, which featured trainers from FuelTech Soccer, SD17 Soccer, and Issac Pitkow, head coach of the Abington High School boys’ team.
In the fall, Clare U9 won the VE Summer Splash Tournament, the Jack Walsh Tournament, and finished tied for first place in Division 1 of the Inter County League despite being one of the few teams in the upper divisions which didn’t play travel the season before, Abernethy said.
They finished 17-2-2 across all competitions.
“It was truly funny in Spring 2025, before we were an official team, I was contacting established clubs like HVAA, Philly Surf, and Upper Dublin asking them to host scrimmages for this unknown team of friends named after a bar.,” he said.
The YTP championship run included a 9-2 win over Springfield, a 7-1 win over Upper Dublin, and a 6-2 win over Whitpain.
“It was nice to see the boys go against some older teams with more experience. They really figured out how to come together, play hard, and learn the game. It was a huge turnaround,” Abernethy, whose son, James, plays for Clare U9, said. “The title capped off a calendar year of fun memories, player development, and love of the game with all local buddies and awesome families. It was the epitome of a true team performance as nobody on the team even knows who the leading scorer was.”
Abernethy, a registered athletic administrator, former athletic director in PIAA District XII, and the 2020 Philadelphia Public League Middle School Coach of the Year, said he has coached boys and girls in “everything from middle school volleyball to high school varsity basketball and baseball in Philadelphia Public League” from 2010 – 2025.
“These days, I’m more focused on coaching my own kids,” he said, noting that he also coaches his daughter, Evelyn, for Glenside Celtic Cavan U12. “Big shout to my assistant coaches Eddie Trainor and Colin Haviland.”
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Photos: Jerry Abernethy