The Rosevelt Soccer Club is celebrating its 10th season, so over the next ten weeks we'll be celebrating ten of the club's milestones over the last decade.
No. 1: Qui Plantavit Curabit
When club co-founder Aaron Graffam and I met up at a bar in the Frenchtown neighborhood of Westbrook, Maine in late 2013, we sketched out an outline of what would eventually become the Rosevelt Soccer Club.
The plan had been modest, and it had been written on the proverbial back of a napkin: We'd organize a two-team club with a U18 Boys team and a 16U Boys team, and that club would exist until our then-U16 players graduated from high school.
I had recently stepped down as the boys' varsity soccer coach at Westbrook High School for family medical reasons, and Aaron's older son had just completed his freshman season on that team. My decision to step down wasn't expected, and I felt an obligation to continue working with returning players from that team for the remainder of their high school careers.
And Aaron and I both recognized the importance for Maine's high school soccer players to continue playing regularly at a quality level of competition from at least January-June to complement their high school season from August-November.
We also recognized that players from Westbrook--a working class suburb of Portland that has a rich history and present of welcoming families from around the world--were underrepresented among the current off-season clubs that existed in our area because of the relatively high costs of participation fees and travel demands that required multiple trips all over New England for league games.
Our club almost immediately grew to three teams by August 2014, when Ram Tray and Mark Hamblen--two youth coaches in Windham and Gorham--combined to roster a U13 Boys team that complemented their work with their town teams during the fall season Maine hosts for U9-U14 town-based clubs.
And over the last ten years, our club has lived up to its motto adopted from the Roosevelt family: Qui Plantavit Curabit--or "he who has planted will cultivate."
After our club's inaugural season in 2014 with three teams, we gradually grew each subsequent year while always trying to balance quality programming and maintaining our club principles with providing more opportunities for more players to play.
In 2016, we rostered our first three girls' teams--including a U10 Girls team that still has the same coaches and at least eight players on this year's 17U Girls team.
And over the last ten years, we've gone from a club that rostered teams for about fifty players to a club that rosters teams for about 300 players--including an anticipated 9U-19U pathway on the boys and girls side and 23U Men's and 23U Women's teams.
And over the last ten years, we've not only been growing with new members, but we have charter coaches like Rob Krouskup who has coached with us since we hosted our first player evaluations in July 2014 and charter players like Andrew Sawyer who captained our 23U Men's team and coaches with our 19U Boys team. And the list of long-tenured (if that term can be used for a 10-year-old organization) directors, coaches, and players is a long list that we're proud of.
When Aaron and I sketched out an outline of our club in that neighborhood bar in Frenchtown more than ten years ago, neither of us had any idea of what that club would end up looking like in 2024.
But the club's directors, coaches, and members have built over the last ten years is a testament to all the time and effort that our founding coaches and members put in back then--and all the time and effort our current directors, coaches, and members continue to put into the club today.
Or to put it a different way, Qui plantaverant curabunt: They that planted cultivated.
Rosevelt SC co-founders Aaron Graffam (left) and John C.L. Morgan (right) with goalkeeper
coach Joel Costigan (middle) in July 2014.
A screenshot of the meeting agenda for Westbrook Soccer League (WSL) Board of Directors, when the WSL formally
approved the creation of the Rosevelt Soccer Club to complement the town-based club's
U9-U14 programming in the fall. The WSL served as a de factor incubator for our
club until 2021, when Rosevelt SC became independent.
Two of the club's inaugural teams in February 2015, including the U16 Boys team coached by
Rob Krouskup (far right), who continues to work with the club and was a coach
with our inaugural 23U Men's team in July 2023
The club's first U10 Girls team in April 2017
Club photo in May 2017
Club growth from 2014-2024 - John C.L. Morgan
