I once played a game of rec soccer against a team with Seb Harris on it. As a defender, I was less than enthused when I realized he was going to be playing forward that day. For the most part, though, he was fairly quiet, until a cross came into our box in the second half. I elected to mark the player in front of me, a girl who stood maybe 5’4″. Seb crashed the back post, unmarked, and put home an easy header for the goal.

As frustrated as I was at myself for leaving him all alone like that, I quickly realized it probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference. While I’m of respectable height – 6’0″ in cleats – I surely would’ve met the same fate as so many other defenders who tried to stand in the way of one of Harris’ thundering headers.

Dave Edwardson arrived at City in 2013, part of a crowded midfield group that included Kevin Taylor, Latif Alashe, Spencer Thompson, Locky Savage, and T.J. Van Slooten. As the season wore on and injuries took their toll, Dave rose to the top of the depth chart. His play over the course of that unbeaten regular season only served to cement his place. By the end of the Cass era, his leadership qualities had become evident, and with Josh Rogers’ retirement, there was never any real doubt as to who would inherit the captain’s armband.

Most admirable was Edwardson’s willingness to sacrifice the bodies of opposing players for the good of his team.

And, every now and then, he’d fire in an absolute banger.

As Dave and Seb’s on-field roles diminished over the past couple of seasons, their status within the club only grew. There’s no point in building a culture if it’s not passed on to the next generation, and the two of them embodied the culture of City perhaps to a greater degree than any other players who’ve worn the Rouge and Gold.

With City’s move up to the pro level, there will be, by necessity, a more cutthroat approach to roster building and player selection. We may take on guys whose first and only goal is to earn a paycheck, there will be loan signees in the squad for short spells, and there will inevitably be fewer local products in the side on a weekly basis.

Simply, it will be harder than ever to maintain that City ethos among those who take the field wearing our crest. It’ll be up to the next group of veterans – Stephen Carroll chief among them as the new permanent captain – to carry the fire and show the newcomers who we are, what we stand for, and how things are done around here. Their job has been made a little easier because they’ve learned from the best.

Saturday, October 19th, 2019 – Detroit City FC 0 Milwaukee Torrent 1

On January 1st, 2012, the amateur and professional soccer landscape in Detroit and the Metro area was a barren wasteland.

Detroit Arsenal won the NPSL Championship in its inaugural season, 2005, then played one more year and promptly folded. Meanwhile, up in Pontiac, the Michigan Bucks were running roughshod over most of their PDL competition, but were only drawing crowds comparable to medium-sized dinner parties. Then along came Detroit City, and everything changed.

I’ve spent the past 6+ years documenting the whys and hows of the club’s rise, so I won’t rehash all of that here. Instead, I’ll try to condense it down into a simple formula:

Professionalism + healthy dose of ambition balanced with an equal amount of realism + community engagement = Success!

The enthusiasm generated by City’s first season did not go unnoticed. Almost immediately, imitators began to pop up, looking to ride the wave of a massive hit, a la Battlestar Galactica in the wake of Star Wars.

The first, FC Sparta, came along in 2013, eager to get a piece of that sweet sweet supporter-driven action. While their ambition was sky-high, they lacked every other crucial element and got zero traction. Now in their third/forth/fifth? incarnation, they’re still trying to get it right.

After them came Dan Duggan and his plans to bring a USL team to Detroit and build a 5000 seat stadium in 90 days. Unsurprisingly, this highly-ambitious yet in-no-way-reality-based plan also fell flat.

Most recently, the Gilbert-Gores MLS to Detroit bid posed a very real existential threat to City and its future prospects. Luckily, for whatever reasons you choose to believe, MLS turned its attention elsewhere, bilking other municipalities out of millions of taxpayer dollars and folding existing independent clubs into the collective.

Through it all, City persisted, setting and accomplishing reasonable goals and biding their time while those around them bit off far more than they could chew. Now, every would-be local competitor has fallen by the wayside, and City stands poised to join the wider footballing world as a fully-professional club. This fall’s toe-dip into those waters showed that they’re more than ready.

As the amateur/semi-pro chapter of the club’s history closes, another begins. There will be new friends, new foes, new trash-ass, player-hatin’ refs, and unforeseen obstacles to overcome. That said, much will continue as currently constituted. City’s stable, competent ownership and well-established culture of professionalism has the club well-positioned to become a national, and perhaps one day, continental power.

More importantly, in lieu of a worthy challenger emerging, City will remain Detroit’s football club – today, tomorrow, until forever.

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Gallery photos by Franzi Loetzner