RAY GADDIS HELPED LEAD THE PHILADELPHIA UNION IN 2020 TO THE BEST SEASON IN CLUB HISTORY, BUT THE SUCCESS ON THE FIELD WAS SECONDARY TO THE IMPACT HE WAS ABLE TO HAVE OFF THE FIELD THROUGH HIS FAITH-INSPIRED SERVICE TO HIS COMMUNITIES.
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By Joshua Doering
Philadelphia Union team chaplain Andy Young met Ray Gaddis, it quickly became apparent to him how serious the veteran defender was about his faith. He could tell it was more than just something Gaddis talked about. It was something he lived out on a daily basis. “One of my buddies said, ‘Drug dealers don’t smoke what they sell, but pastors should,’” Young recently told Sports Spectrum. “You knew that Ray was smoking what he was selling.” Gaddis has seen a little bit of everything in his nine years with the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer. He is the club’s all-time leader in appearances (221) and minutes played (18,702). He has played at left back and right back, depending on who
else was on the roster in a given season. He has started and lost three U.S. Open Cup finals, converting a penalty in a 2015 shootout defeat to Sporting Kansas City. He made 114 regular-season starts and logged 10,142 minutes before reaching the postseason for the first time in 2016. He played all 120 minutes of the Union’s 4-3 comeback win in extra time against the New York Red Bulls in 2019, the club’s first playoff victory. And he ranked seventh among the team’s outfield players in minutes in 2020, as the Union won the Supporters’ Shield, awarded to the best regular-season team in MLS each year. It marked the first trophy in the club’s 11-year history. “For me, it was a tremendous blessing,” Gaddis recently told Sports Spectrum. “I think over the last nine years, a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into the organization from a player standpoint. But to finally lift some silverware for the team, it was a little bit of a weight off the shoulders for not only myself, but for the organization first and foremost. I just think it’s a remarkable blessing.”
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