Trident Rising: How the W&L Alumni Network Brought a Professional Soccer Team to Life Classmates Mikel Parker ’99 and Jason Jarecki ’99 serve as co-owners of Trident FC, a professional soccer team that will compete in a $1 million winner-take-all soccer tournament in June.

Mikel Parker ’99 (left) and Jason Jarecki ’99 (right) pose with former Trident FC Coach Thomas Rongen (middle)

When they first met as members of the Washington and Lee University men’s soccer team and pledge brothers in the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity during the fall of 1995, Mikel Parker ’99 and Jason Jarecki ’99 could have never imagined that their burgeoning friendship would eventually give rise to a professional soccer team — and one that would serve to honor their beloved alma mater.

Both arrived in Lexington after distinguished high school careers that presented each of them with Division I athletic opportunities. Despite the allure of playing in the top levels of collegiate soccer, they selected W&L for its perfect mix of academic and athletic experiences.

The two instantly became like brothers, despite their soccer careers veering down different paths. Jarecki played just two seasons for the Generals. At the same time, Parker went on to become the first four-time first-team all-conference honoree in program history and was inducted into the W&L Athletic Hall of Fame in 2011.

The professional soccer landscape didn’t offer much opportunity in those days, and Parker opted for a career in investment banking, which offered a stable and more lucrative future. Likewise, Jarecki began a career in the business sector, but their friendship — and love for the sport — never faded.

“Our entire pledge class has been tight overall since day one of graduation,” said Parker, a member of the W&L Alumni Board. “We still text each other probably once a day, which is pretty crazy. But Jason and I probably get together more than the others, probably because we are always traveling for work and we’ve played together in some adult soccer leagues.”

Building a Brand
More than two decades after his final collegiate soccer contest, Parker’s love of “the beautiful game” has never waned. He has maintained a level of fitness that would draw the envy of most 20-somethings and continues to seek top competition to test his skills. So, when he first heard about The Soccer Tournament (TST), a winner-take-all tournament with a $1 million prize, Parker immediately knew he had to find a way on a roster. He and Jarecki worked together to inquire about roster openings for the tournament’s second go-round in 2024.

“We reached out to a couple of friends who were connected in some way, trying to see if there was a way for me to play on one of the teams,” Parker said, “but we couldn’t get anyone to bite.”

Enter Paul Hourigan ’99, also a former member of the Generals’ soccer team and a pledge brother of both Parker and Jarecki. Hourigan built a career in sports, most notably at Coca-Cola, where he previously ran the national sports marketing group for Coke North America. In 2022, he became a partner with Ryan Sports Ventures, which has a portfolio spread across the sports industry. This includes a minority ownership of AFC Bournemouth, one of 20 teams currently competing in the English Premier League, the top professional soccer league in the world.

“Amid our effort to place Mikel on a roster in late 2023, Paul, our close friend and ex-teammate, reached out about a sudden opportunity to jump in and replace a team that had dropped out of the TST for financial reasons,” said Jarecki. “Paul had connections to TST through his investment group and mentioned to TST that he knew two people who could assemble a roster quickly and meet the obligations of running a successful TST entry under such a short timeframe.”

“This literally happened only a little more than one month before the 2024 tournament started,” said Parker. “There are all these teams out there building up their rosters and we just had 45 days to find a team, order jerseys and create a presence.”

Jarecki knew the challenges would be steep, but after careful consideration, the friends decided to make a go of it as co-owners of a professional soccer team.

“I kind of paused initially because Mikel and I work pretty demanding jobs,” said Jarecki. “The level of execution and financial obligations involved in funding what is essentially a pro-level soccer team in just a few weeks was daunting. But Mikel and I talked it through, and he helped assuage any doubts when we laid out everything we could bring to the table.”

The duo pieced together the five-figure entry fee and presented their plan to the tournament’s organizing committee. TST was impressed with their quick assembly, believing they had the wherewithal and resources to be successful. Parker would get his chance to compete as a player while also serving as general manager and a co-owner with Jarecki.

The Creation of Trident FC
It takes years to create a strong athletics brand, but Parker and Jarecki had just over a month to forge an identity and source a team roster. The first step was establishing a team name so TST could include their squad on the tournament’s website and social media channels.

“We gave it some thought, and we said, ‘We’ve just got to do something with W&L,’” Parker said. “Jason and I both love the school, and we knew the name would have to be some sort of nod to the university.”

The two considered how they might incorporate the university’s identity into their branding but quickly realized they wouldn’t have the time required to navigate the official approval process to use the university’s name or logo. After some thought, they came up with Trident Football Club.

“There is something iconic about the W&L trident and referencing it seemed to make a whole lot of sense,” said Jarecki. “We wanted to pay homage to our beloved alma mater and soccer experience.”

Original sketch of the Trident FC logo

The Playing Format
The Soccer Tournament (TST) reinvents the traditional soccer experience with a rulebook designed for faster play and higher scores. Unlike the traditional 11-player format, TST features just six field players and a goalkeeper competing on a condensed field with compact goals. A TST field measures 65 yards long by 45 yards wide with a goal measuring just 7 feet tall by 16 feet wide. By comparison, FIFA, the organizing body for international soccer, recommends a field be 115 yards by 74 yards and a goal should be 8 feet by 24 feet. The diminutive field lends itself to the elimination of the offsides rule, and players may sub “on the fly,” similar to hockey and lacrosse. Throw-ins are replaced by “kick-ins,” and there is no offsides unlike traditional soccer.

Another striking difference to traditional soccer involves the length of the game. TST games are just 40 minutes (two 20-minute halves) long, far less than the 90 minutes observed in most soccer leagues. At the end of regulation, games go to “Target Score Time,” ensuring that every game concludes with a game-winning goal. When the full-time whistle blows, the target score is set by adding one to the leading team’s score and both teams remove one field player every three minutes, repeating the process down to two players each, if necessary, until the target score is reached. According to TST, these innovations aim to create a more dynamic, higher-scoring version of the sport that still maintains soccer’s fundamental skills while rewarding attacking play and quick decision-making.

“It gets intense, and the strategy completely changes,” Parker said. “The goalie plays the field more, and some teams slow it down while others try to play faster. It’s such a neat way to finish a game because a team is never out of it.”

TST administers a yearly tournament for both men’s and women’s teams, with the men’s bracket featuring 48 total teams comprising 12 four-team groups. The top two teams from each group and eight additional third-place teams with the highest point totals (32 in all) advance to the knockout stage, where one surviving team will claim the $1 million prize.

TST venue in Cary, North Carolina

Year One: Building From Scratch
Without the time afforded to most of their competition, Parker and Jarecki focused their efforts on obtaining a quality coach who could bring the team together. They succeeded in acquiring former MLS and international coach Thomas Rongen, mainly known for his role coaching the American Samoa team featured in the documentary “Next Goal Wins.”

Careful consideration was given to player positions and player pedigree when assembling the 20-person roster, which includes players from all over the country. As it turns out, Parker wouldn’t be the lone representative from W&L on the pitch — former Generals Grant McCarty ’24 and Samuel Bass ’23 were both offered spots and played on the first Trident FC squad.

Given the team’s makeup, Trident FC was placed in a group with three other collegiate alumni teams, representing Indiana University (Hoosier Army), the Air Force Academy (Freedom United SC) and Georgetown University (Hoya Nation). Despite their best efforts, Trident FC finished 0-3 and narrowly missed moving on to the knockout stages via the points system.

“There really was not time to focus on fitness, strategy and the game itself, being that it is so different than traditional soccer,” Parker said. “We didn’t do as well as we would have hoped, but we just loved the experience. You would have thought we won the tournament when we got knocked out. We just had so much fun.”

The 2024 Trident FC squad

Year Two: A Professional Approach
Following a thrilling experience playing in the 2024 TST event, Parker and Jarecki knew they wanted to run it back again in 2025. This time, they would have the time to overhaul the franchise to better position themselves for a deep run at the $1 million prize. Despite great interest from a majority of the players, the first priority was remaking the roster to better fit TST’s unusual style of play.

“We’re definitely committed to doing this long-term and creating a brand within this small  soccer community,” said Parker. “We’ve spent a lot of time chatting with other players, watching film and focusing on the right players needed to be successful.”

The club parted ways with Rongen, a traditional soccer coach, in favor of Todd Mordecai, a top-ranked CrossFit athlete and trainer, and former high school and amateur teammate of Parker’s. Mordecai competed as a player in the 2024 TST event and Jarecki will serve as his assistant coach in 2025.

“It’s such a grueling tournament — it doesn’t look like it, but it’s so grueling on your body,” said Parker. “By the third game, you are really worn out. Todd puts together regular workouts that he sends to the players, and those of us in the Atlanta area have a course that we have been participating in. We’re still working on getting together a few times throughout the year to work on chemistry, but it’s coming together pretty quickly, and everyone seems to enjoy playing together.”

Former Generals Grant McCarty ’24 and Samuel Bass ’23

One of those Atlanta area athletes is McCarty, who will be participating with Trident FC for a second year. A former all-conference and all-region player for the Generals, McCarty had an extra season of collegiate eligibility and spent the 2024 campaign playing for the soccer team at Emory University as a graduate student. He graduated just a few weeks ago with a Master of Finance degree and wants another shot at the TST title before beginning a career in investment banking.

“We are hoping to do better than last year, and everyone is keeping their fitness up in hopes of a run in the tournament,” said McCarty, who first met Parker as one of the Generals’ high school recruits. “It means a lot to be able to play on a team with such deep connections to W&L. Those connections have been very impactful in my life, and I have met so many driven individuals eager to help out other alumni. I hope I can help this team succeed as a representation of W&L.”

Parker and Jarecki have constructed a roster chock-full of former professional players from Major League Soccer (MLS) and overseas teams, but have always placed a priority on including W&L alumni on the team, and they value what McCarty brings to the table.

“Grant has looked really good during the tryout and workout phases,” said Parker. “He looks even better than last year, and I think he’ll be an amazing contributor on this year’s team. Most likely he will be playing midfield for us.”

Another priority for the Trident FC leadership was securing sponsorships that will subsidize the program’s expenses such as travel, lodging, food, uniforms and health care. Without much experience in this area, both Parker and Jarecki called upon their employers for assistance. Parker serves as the head of investment banking for AMB Wealth, which was the prominent sponsor featured on the kits for the team’s first TST Tournament. This year, Jarecki’s employer, global commodities trading and logistics firm Trafigura, will be featured across the team’s chests.

Mikel Parker ’99, Paul Hourigan ’99, Jason Jarecki ’99, Samuel Bass ’23 and Grant McCarty ’24

In addition, several members of the W&L alumni network have banded together to provide funding and logistical support to the club. Former men’s soccer teammates Jamie Parker ’00 (SMMT Outdoor), Gordon Meeker ’98 (Display Rights) and Dr. Anthony Mazzarelli ’97 (Cooper University Health) all have company sponsorship deals with the team, while Bill Sigler ’97 provides the team with advanced scouting of opponents.

“It’s been wonderful having so many of our W&L soccer teammates and close friends jump in to help sponsor us through their companies,” Jarecki said. “We’ve had so much help from the W&L community and beyond.”

Ready for Action
The 2025 TST will be held June 4-9 in Cary, North Carolina. The tournament’s popularity is exploding heading into its third year, with several top-flight professional soccer organizations sponsoring a club; more than 50,000 spectators are expected to attend. Premier League clubs AFC Bournemouth and West Ham United both have a team in the field, as does Borussia Dortmund from the German Bundesliga, Atlético de Madrid from the Spanish La Liga and the documentary-famous Welsh team Wrexham AFC. ESPN is investing airtime on its family of networks to cover the tournament.

Trident FC will be the beneficiary of ESPN’s opening day coverage, with its first Group L fixture against Seleccion Potrero set to be broadcast on ESPNU at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, June 4. Former Manchester City great Sergio Agüero headlines Seleccion Potrero’s roster.

“I’m really pumped to be playing against Agüero,” said Parker. “Members of Seleccion Potrero have competed in other seven-versus-seven championships in South America, and I’m glad we play them early before they’ve had an opportunity to figure out the differences in play. We have a core group who played last year, and I think our fitness and understanding of the nuances of the TST format give us a leg up on them.”

Group L action also pits Trident FC against the Certified Lions Football Club at 9:30 p.m. on June 4, with a third match at 4:30 p.m. the next day against Atlético de Madrid. Both matches will be broadcast on the TST YouTube Channel.

While both Parker and Jarecki have set lofty goals for their 2025 TST experience, it’s clear they’ve already won by so many measures.

“It’s been incredible to do this project with Mikel, employing our soccer experience and collective view of the game,” said Jarecki. “We laugh so much when we are together. We have so many funny stories and references from our W&L days – it’s like nothing changed. It will be great to see him out there again competing against players half his age.”

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