The Seattle Sounders will honor former player Chance Fry prior to Wednesday night’s home match against St. Louis CITY SC (7:30 p.m. PT; Watch on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, 93.3 KJR FM, El Rey 1360AM | TICKETS) as part of the 50th Anniversary celebration.
Fry embarked on his professional soccer career with Seattle in 1983, but it was when the team arrived in 1974, he knew he wanted to be a Sounder for life.
“I've been a fan ever since I was nine years old,” said Fry. “My parents were season ticket holders, I was at the first game, and [in their inaugural year], was when I realized I wanted to become a pro soccer player.”
His dream to play professionally came true almost thirty years ago when he was still a teenager at Sammamish High School.
“The day I got drafted was an amazing moment,” said Fry. “I was in history class and got pulled out of it to be told [the news], and then as the next couple periods unfolded, people in the school found out about it.”
The feeling of getting drafted in the first round of the North American Soccer League Draft was superior to anything else at the time for the Washington native. While he was only a part of the club for one season before the league folded, he managed to make his way back to the organization 11 years later, in its APSL era, to close out his career.
He made a successful name for himself at the club, tallying 30 goals in his five seasons and was honored as a 1st Team All-Star in 1994 after recording 11 goals in 18 games.
“I was a quick thinker in the box,” said Fry. “I played with my back to the goal a lot and was a post up guy and would just get the ball and keep possession, get myself open in the box for a cross, and hopefully get on the end of it.”
One of the few players to start and finish at his hometown club despite bopping around in between stints to the Tulsa Roughnecks, the New York Cosmos, and the San Jose Earthquakes, to name a few, Fry left a lasting impression on the Sounders organization and the overall Pacific Northwest soccer community.
“I loved it here,” said Fry. “And even though I was fortunate to play in some really great places where they loved their teams, Seattle was always going to be my home.”
What he didn’t realize, however, was his largest impact in the game and at the Seattle organization was yet to come.
“When I got done playing, I went straight into coaching and did that for a long time, then I was a coaching director,” said Fry. “And now, I'm really enjoying what I'm doing not coaching, but being able to influence the game off the field and grow the game and grow the sport at the youth level, which I think in turn is a groundswell of everything going upward and it helps support the Sounders.”
Since his retirement in 1997, he’s remained in close ties with the team, supporting them on both the professional and youth side of the organization.
“I was Brian [Schmetzer’s] assistant in the USL, coached the women's team for their first two years and also was the Director of Youth Development,” said Fry. “After that, when the Sounders came into MLS, I was on the advisory board and have been doing some radio as well.”
“So, it's been a long time with the Sounders.”
Fry continues to grow the game in his current role as the Executive Director of local club Eastside FC.
Along with being a part of Jordan Morris’ success to stardom as one of the forward’s first club coaches, Fry also played a role in the partnership between Eastside and the Sounders where youth players have the opportunity to join the Academy side of the organization and be a part of the pathway toward the First team.
“I’m super proud,” said Fry. “I think that we've done a good job of sticking to our guns and doing things the right way…And not only just teaching soccer, but teaching people how to be good kids.”
His desire to remain connected to the club goes beyond being a part of the youth soccer scene as well. He also collects memorabilia dating all the way back to its inaugural season in 1974.
“Some of the things that I have that I think are pretty unique are the first program from the very first game or the first ticket stub…All of their firsts; their first uniforms, the first team picture, and all that kind of stuff,” said Fry. “Memorabilia just gives me good thoughts about what I got lucky enough to do.”
Like the Sounders collectibles Fry has accumulated over time, he, too, embodies a significant part of the club’s history that has made it the successful franchise it is today.
“The jingle bells song in the locker room [after an away win] started in my era,” said Fry. “We had some great wins, we had some great games where we had to come from behind or win late, and that feeling that you were never out of a game, that feeling has been sort of inscribed in all of the different eras of the Sounders.”
The club represents an important part of Fry’s life, and he feels forever grateful for it.
“I want to thank everybody that's ever been involved with the Sounders,” he said. “Thank you to all the fans, all of the owners and all of my teammates and staff and everybody who has had a hand in building not only the Sounders but US Soccer into what it is today.”
