Hunter SC: 60 Years of Service

Hunter SC

60 YEARS OF SOCCER AND SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY

BY TOMMY BRAUER, HUNTER PRESIDENT

HUNTER SOCCER CLUB BEGAN IN 1962 AS A RESPONSE TO A CALL FOR physical fitness from President John F. Kennedy. Originally called St. Luke’s Soccer Club, it was made up of a group of Cub Scouts under the leadership of John Hunter.

John Hunter, a native born Scotsman, came to this country with a love of soccer. He took St. Luke’s Cub Scouts and taught them the game of soccer with a volleyball at Abington High School’s playing fields.

Mr. Hunter received support from Episcopal Academy when the school sent him its discarded shorts, shoes, and equipment. After some early years teaching soccer to the community children, along with Hans Peters, Mr. Hunter helped form the Intercounty Soccer League (ICSL) some 40 years ago.

For its colors, St. Luke’s Soccer Club adopted the royal blue and white colors of St. Luke’s school’s athletic teams and for its jersey, the blue and white horizontal stripes.

Besides the color scheme of St. Luke’s teams, these stripes stem from the uniforms of Queen’s Park Rangers (QPR), a famous English professional soccer team. Some QPR players would come to Glenside in the summer for Hunter’s soccer camp.

As a matter of fact, the early Hunter uniforms actually came from England and were exact duplicates of QPR’s teams.

That tradition continues today with the blue and white horizontal stripes that we call the “hoops.” Hunter also keeps the tradition alive with its current alternate jersey of blue and pink horizontal stripes that are worn all October for Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Although there are religious overtones in the original St. Luke’s Soccer Club name, the soccer club was and is non-denominational. To this day, Hunter Soccer Club does not discriminate against any of its participants whether coaches or players because of their religious backgrounds, race, or gender.

Hunter is a non-profit organization that also works closely with Upper Dublin SC, AC United, Jenkintown Youth Association, Chestnut Hill Youth Soccer, St. Luke’s, Roslyn Boys and Girls Club, Fox Chase, and other local soccer and sports clubs to ensure the youth in the area are given every opportunity to create memories learning to love the “Beautiful Game” of soccer.

In 1970, John Hunter passed away and to honor the memory of its founder, St. Luke’s Soccer Club became Hunter Soccer Club.

The club still depends on contributions from many unsung heroes.

Hunter relies on volunteer coaches to run our travel and intramural programs as a way to keep costs down for our over 1,500 players and their families in our community.

The strategy to use volunteer coaches hasn’t diminished the quality of the training or the level of play that Hunter teams have been able to achieve. Hunter had a team win the Indoor State Cups, another team win the Outdoor State Cups, and a team qualify for Nationals this year.

Hunter also relies heavily on parent and coach volunteers to run the Jack Walsh Tournament, a Columbus Day tournament that was started over 30 years ago and has grown from 16 teams to over 510 teams this year. The tournament has grown so big that Hunter partnered with Upper Dublin Soccer Club to make sure the continued growth of the tournament didn’t diminish the quality of the tournament.

Hunter also relies on Abington Township as well as the Abington School District to provide us with fields to serve our players. Abington Township provided Hunter with the guidance and approval to install the first synthetic turf field in the Abington area last year.

Hunter received the Service to Youth award from Abington’s Youth Task force in 2007 and were named club of the year in 2012 from the South Eastern Pa. Youth Soccer League. Hunter is also one of Inter County and Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer’s original clubs.

After 60 years, Hunter Soccer Club remains a strong, vibrant, community-oriented organization dedicated to helping the youth in our area create memories that will last a lifetime. Many Hunter alumni have come back to coach or help train the players at the club as a way of creating new memories for themselves and their players.

As Hunter President Emeritus Ralph Bocchino says, “Once you’re in, you’re in for life” which holds true in the Hunter Soccer Family.