So who are you and how did you get involved with Philly Falcons?

My name is Yunio Martinez (he/him), I'm originally from Guatemala so FOOTBALL is the main sport there. When I moved to PA, 8 years ago, I remember googling “Gay soccer Philadelphia” and from there it’s all history.

Can you share some about how the club came to exist?

The club has existed for 31 years - same as my age haha. Our founder Drew Adair started everything with a pickup or practice and now the Club has mens, womens, and coed teams playing in Philly Leagues, International Tournaments, and we also host our own Pickups and Leagues. But here is something of OUR STORY (in a more formal response):

Through his experience playing in local sports leagues, Drew Adair recognized the urgent need for an LGBT+ space for soccer players. To start this Philly movement, he first reached out to the NY Ramblers, President and Founder, Bob Whitmore. He collected ideas on how to organize, advertise and discover what other teams were out there. Drew contacted the Park Commission Office about available field space, got some free ad space in Au Courant & PGN, and prepared a press release for the gay-friendly show on the public radio station.

In early July, Drew posted flyers at all the usual hangouts, submitted press releases and scheduled practice. On a softball field down in South Philly, Drew held the first practice with about 7 or 8 other men. Within a couple of weeks, they secured a couple of hours once a week on a college field hockey pitch (mostly when the security guards were on break!). As things progressed, there were regular practices, more men joining, and the group was gaining some publicity. One of the biggest initial hurdles was working with schedules of other sports and retaining players when it came time to seriously join leagues, which meant entering the public, heteronormative sphere. This emergence into leagues and playing in out-of-state tournaments also meant picking a name for the group was imminent and a crucial decision. After several meetings solely for the purpose of naming, the group stood behind the Falcons because it was "Philly-ish" and had a lot of visual possibilities.

Our women's teams didn't start forming until 1998 when a Falcons team traveled to Dallas for a tournament with one woman player. Another team refused to play our team, which lit the fire to build up the women's side of the club. By 1999, we were able to send a team just full enough to cover the field to the IGLFA Championship Tournament.

Now we have had over 500 members and continue to be at the forefront of inclusivity within the soccer community. We have teams in many leagues across Philadelphia and still travel nationally to tournaments.

What's the current mission of the club? What do you do on a day to day basis?

The Falcons are dedicated to bringing affordable and fun soccer to the Philadelphia community. Our members are primarily LGBTQ+, but we gladly welcome anyone who is interested in playing soccer!

On a regular basis before this Pandemic, we had pickups twice a week, and we also have teams playing in the different leagues in Philly. Some of our teams even travel around the United States and the world to participate in different LGBTQA tournaments.

Can you tell us about some people who have been involved with your organization over the years?

Our club is run by 10 volunteers who dedicate their time, called the Falcons Board. We vote and elect a new board every year. Besides the board, there are the captains of the different teams...

This is my second year as president, but before me, there have been so many great people who served as Board members, so I couldn't mention one because everyone put their time and effort to continue building a SAFE SPACE for everyone.

We're in love with your kits, can you talk a little about how they came to exist?

Our jerseys went crazy on Twitter! I do remember posting the link as Pre-Sale and then my phone was getting all the notifications, people from different countries were in LOVE. But the whole story starts here. In March we have to cancel all our soccer and social activities. For almost 4 months we tried to continue to stay in contact with the membership, but finally, in June we had our first in-person Board Meeting and, of course, June is PRIDE MONTH. So we were trying to decide what we should do for Pride Month. Every Pride Month, all the organizations come to us, we usually get emails of invitations to events and all that stuff.

In the past months, we have seen how the gay and lesbian part has been more accepted but our trans community is getting under-served. In a way to show our support (because we are not just a LGB soccer Team, we are a LGBTQA+ organization and together we are strong), we decided on changing our logo and raise funds for an organization that supports our siblings (Morris Home is the one we decided on, days later).

I was on my way home when the idea to make NEW JERSEYS come to my mind, so I texted Robert Smukler from ICARUS. I sent the NEW LOGO and the Trans Flag, told him some ideas, and he did the first design. I presented it to the Board and we switched some colors and then this beauty came to life. It was crazy, we never had people from all over the country, 40 different states and 5 other countries were buying them.

Does the club play in a league currently?

As of right now we aren't having any soccer activities, but we can't wait to come back to the pitch. I'm also co-captain with Isaiah Johnson of our 11v11 CASA team. So we are talking with their president Nolan Bair on having a tournament like the NWSL or MLS have, but for a good cause. We probably will not have all the Sponsors that they do, but we are going to try to continue raising funds for our pride campaign (Fundraiser Campaign that goes all summer long).

If so can you talk about some players from the team?

We have great humans in our team, love everyone of them. We have people from all the backgrounds, all skill levels, all genders. WE LOVE ALL AND WE WELCOME ALL. SOCCER FOR ALL.

If someone wants to get involved, how would they do that?

If you love to play soccer, if you are LGBTQA+, and I'm including straight people (because our club has a lot of allies too) just reach out to us on our website.

As I said, we have practices and our leagues (which usually are all skills), but we also have competitive teams playing in different leagues around the Philadelphia area. If you like to travel, we go all over. Our last tournament was Sin City Classic Las Vegas. We’ve even been out of the country - we were in Mexico and Paris for the Gay Games and the next ones will be Hong Kong. But if things improve, our captains are planning on sending a team to Copenhagen next year for World Pride.

Anything else we should know about Philly Falcons?

We love to play soccer. We love to be accepted for who we are, not only for our sexual orientations. We will continue fighting on building a safe space for everyone.