When Brendan Burke arrived in Harford some 21 months ago, he expressed the hope his would be the team’s last major announcement. Through the United Soccer League franchise’s first five years, the tumult and turnover was nonstop, bottoming out with four wins in 34 games in 2023.
Burke, 32, who is the coach and GM, began building the kind of foundation he left behind with the Colorado Springs Switchbacks in 2023. They won the championship in ’24.
“This feels like what we built in Colorado Springs,” said Burke. “We’re that stable, that heavily concentrated, we believe in everyone on the roster, we’ve been rotating through the team consistently. There are 21 guys who are going to try to win two trophies.”
Athletic got off to a rough start, but the here-we-go-again days are over. This is an extremely long season, March to October, and Hartford has lost only once in its last 12 matches, and with its victory over Greenville S.C., this week advanced to the final of the Jägermeister Cup, the USL’s in-season trophy, and into control of a playoff spot, 9 wins, 5 draws, 9 losses in regular-season games, fifth in the East, with a 33-27 goal differential.
Athletic has made the playoffs only once, in the shortened pandemic year. Hartford plays at Sacramento for the Cup on Oct. 4, a milestone for the franchise. (And an eye-opener for those who thought Jager was just an 1980s college fad.)
Dramatic late goals push Hartford Athletic past Greenville, into USL Jägermeister Cup Final
“I would say the final is more important, it’s the club’s first final,” Burke said, as the team wrapped up its training for Saturday night’s game at Monterrey. “We trust ourselves to still execute and get to the playoffs on the other side. Any time you’re in a competition with 38 professional teams and you’re down to the last two, once you’re down to the opportunity to win a trophy at the pro level, they don’t come that often.”
Perhaps the best testament to what’s happening in Hartford came two weeks ago with a win over rival Rhode Island, before an electric, sellout crowd at Trinity Health Stadium. Mamadou Dieng, the team’s top scorer, who had ignited the team’s midsummer run, moved up to Major League Soccer, but Hartford was ready to full the void.
“That’s always part of my club-building philosophy, I did it at Colorado,” Burke said. “When somebody has a chance to move up to a high level, especially at such a young age as Mo (21), you don’t want to hold him back and it brings tremendous fun back into the club to allow you to push to grow your roster, it allows you to grow faster, so you have to trust the guys behind him.
“Right now, we’ve had Kyle Edwards, a top 10 in the league goal scorer, and we’ve been able to bring in Hadji Berry, a top goal scorer albeit coming back off an injury.”
Dom Amore’s Sunday Read: Rising star ignites Athletic, nod to state’s lone AP All-American and more
The long USL season, Burke said, is a study in “character analysis.” Stability matters, coaching matters, and experience in the locker room matters.
“You get the right veterans in your locker room, and we have that in Joe Farrell, Jordan Scarlett and Marlon Harrison, and you start to sprinkle in talent around them,” Burke said. “We got a lot younger last offseason, so it took a little time for the younger players to settle, but now I look at Junior Moreira as a regular starter, Jonathan Jimenez is making a big contributions, TJ Presthus has been a revelation, as a rookie out of Yale, he’s given us almost every minute of the regular season and just been phenomenal. What got us through that (rough start) is my own experience, having been through periods like that before, but those veteran guys are the key to all of it.”
Hartford Athletic has been a commercial success from the beginning, approaching 5,000 fans per home game each year, 4,867 so far this season. The home game against Pittsburgh on Sept. 20 is sold out. Now the action ion the pitch is matching it.
“I said when I arrived, the fans had always been loyal and impressive in the way they continued to show up when the team wasn’t performing,” Burke said. “Last year we started performing, but fell a little short of our goal of making the playoffs. The Rhode Island game a couple of weeks ago was one of the best USL environments I’ve ever been in. The building was shaking. It was just so much fun.”
It all started, as these things always must, with stability. Burke brought it with him, and signs indicate the stability is sustainable. The franchise is looking for a sporting director, or GM, to take some of the personnel moves off Burke’s plate.
“We’re doing everything we can on the technical side to insure that stability,” Burke said.
More for your Sunday Read:
Dom Amore: As season sets on the Sun, franchise’s future gets cloudier by the day thanks to WNBA
CT Sun players scatter
The Sun players, after finishing the WNBA season Wednesday at 11-33, packed and dispersed, revealing offseason plans in exit interviews. UConn great Tina Charles, 36, who rejoined the Sun and resumed her Hall of Fame caliber career, will not play overseas, but take the offseason to get her body some rest. Charles, who appeared rejuvenated by her young teammates, averaged 16.3 points and 5.8 rebounds, playing in 43 of 44 games, 28.4 minutes per.
“Physically, I give glory to God for coming out healthy,” Charles said. “I’m looking forward to just being with my family and time to myself. This will be the first season I’m not playing overseas, I’m looking forward to just regrouping and getting my body right, getting back healthier and stronger.”
Among other UConn vets on the Sun: Olivia Nelson-Ododa plans to return to China to play and continue building her Kayelise brand of women’s products.
Bria Hartley, who joined the team after two years of knee injuries and was having a comeback year before missing the last couple of weeks: “I was originally signed to go overseas, in Turkey, with the injury I’m still navigating what the next steps are,” she said. “Overall, I had a pretty healthy season which I’m happy with. This injury isn’t as bad as other ones I had. It’s frustrating but rather than just let that frustration linger, I’m just moving forward.”
Aaliyah Edwards, acquired in a late-season trade with Washington. Through an up-and-down season, she proved to herself she was “strong willed,” and she got a fresh start in returning to Connecticut where the Sun, though out of playoff contention, celebrated incremental accomplishments.
“There was just such a refreshing vibe to this team,” Edwards said. “I did appreciate those little moments, little celebrations.”
As for her offseason, “The future is ‘Unrivaled,’ that’s all I’m going to say,’” Edwards said, indicating she intended to go back to the 3-on-3 league for its second season. She will play in a tournament in California in October, and plans to run camps in her hometown, Kingston, Ontario, and in Jamaica.
“It’s going to be cool to go back to my roots,” Edwards said. “My family is Jamaican, and to pour it into the young girls there, share some wisdom.”
Sunday short takes
*Another UConn great, Napheesa Collier, became the second player in WNBA history, after Elena Delle Donne in 2019, to finish a season shooting more than 50 percent from the floor (53.1), more than 40 percent on threes (40.3) and more than 90 percent at the line (90.1). Sounds like an MVP case to me.
UConn’s Napheesa Collier: historic numbers. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
*Due to renovations, not quite finished at Gampel Pavilion, there will be no First Night this year at the “Basketball Capital of the World.”
*Former Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, New Britain guy, visited St. John’s practice recently, and stopped in Storrs to check out a Dan Hurley practice this week. Hurley is an admirer of Thibs. In other Hurley news, he will appear at UConn’s Jorgensen Center for “An Evening with Dan Hurley.” discussing his upcoming book, “Never Stop: Life, Leadership And What It Takes To Be Great,” on Oct. 1 with co-author Ian O’Conner, hosted by ESPN’s Molly Qerum.
*Though work at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford is ongoing, the Wolf Pack expect to start camp there on schedule, Sept. 28. Veteran goalie Louis Dominique signed to play in Russia, with Sibir Novosibirsk in Siberia. The Rangers didn’t sign a veteran, so former UConn goalie Callum Tung will get a chance to compete for the backup job in Hartford, where Dylan Garand is returning to start.
*The Yard Goats finished the home season, drawing 389,496 fans, 5,645 per game to Dunkin Park, second to Richmond in the Eastern League.
*The New Britain Bees of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League will sign a five-year extension of their agreement to play at New Britain Stadium on Tuesday.
*The Manchester Sports Hall of Fame will be inducting new members at Georgina’s in Bolton on Nov. 8. The honorees include Jeff Otterbein, longtime Courant sports editor; Megan Godwin, Manchester High 2010 grad, soccer standout; Taharri Turner, MHS 1994 grad, basketball player and coach; John Salcius, MHS (’62) track will get the Legend award; Ken Roback (East Catholic) gets the Founders award, Dr. Martin Keibel, MD, longtime runner and Manchester Road Race supporter; Roxanne Reimann Cislak, national and international standout in archery; and John Reiser, who coached MHS to its first state title in boys basketball since 1938. Tickets can be purchased at the Park Hill Joyce Flower Shop in Manchester; for more information go to Manchestersportshof.com.
*Davey Johnson, who managed the Mets to the 1986 championship and took the Reds, Orioles and Nationals to the playoffs, died last week. His baseball life, which includes a .562 winning percentage in 17 managerial seasons, four-times an All-Star as a player, and his pioneering in the use of computers and advanced metrics, should have landed him in the Hall of Fame long ago.
CT native Brian Dayett, former Yankees, Cubs outfielder, dies at 68
Last word
Baseball also lost a lesser-known figure, but one I will never forget. Brian Dayett, 68, from Valley Regional-Deep River, who played for the Yankees and Cubs and had a long coaching career in baseball, died last Sunday after a 25-year battle with Parkinson’s Disease.
Dayett was the first MLB player I ever interviewed. As a 22-year-old intern with the old Shoreline Newspapers, I went with a group, including a young Joe D’Ambrosio to Yankee Stadium in July 1984, and Dayett couldn’t have been kinder to a nervous kid from a small Connecticut weekly paper. When I hounded Dave Winfield for a quote about Dayett, he wanted to know if I was from Deep River. I said yes, and then he asked if the group I was with were all from Deep River, too. Again I said yes. “So who’s left in Deep River?” Winfield asked.
