Everett Takes the Field: Snohomish County’s Soccer Roots + Everett’s 2026 Waterfront Watch Parties

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(Upbeat Music)

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Emily
Okay, Kyle, quick question. If I say Everett and soccer, what pops into your head?

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Kyle
Honestly, people driving past Everett on I-5 to get to the Seattle Sounders games.

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Emily
Rude, but fair. But seriously, we are only 30 minutes from Seattle when there's no traffic, for sure.

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Kyle
And to be fair, we are going to start to get a massive boom as Everett is about to start hosting one of the biggest parties of soccer in the region.

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Emily
Exactly, because this summer, Everett isn't just a stop on the map. It's a place you can land, eat, explore, and watch soccer on the waterfront.

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Kyle
And if you've ever wondered why Everett in the Snohomish County area has become one of the areas for the party, we're gonna dive a little bit more deeper into some of the origin story of soccer in Snohomish County and in Snohomish more broadly.

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Emily
We're going to hear a few short clips from the Everett's 2026 State of the City address that Trent and I attended, because it lays out how the June watch parties are getting started, how many people it takes to pull them off, and however it is building a soccer team for the future.

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Kyle
Let's get to it.

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(Upbeat Music)

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Emily
Welcome back from pitched Puget Sound, the limited run series from the Snohomish Podcast Network, getting you ready for the 2026 World Cup Summer. I'm Emily, your Civic Clarity host.

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Kyle
And I'm Kyle, Soccer in History.

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Emily
Each episode, we help you enjoy the World Cup season in the real world. What's happening, where to go, and how to plan. And we tell the soccer story of this region with a Snohomish County lens.

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Kyle
Today is all about how a place becomes a soccer community. Before we talk about whatever it's doing in 2026, here's the history. Snohomish County has been building soccer infrastructure for decades. This isn't just one kickoff, one game, one event, it's a pattern of a soccer community that's driven by excellence.

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Kyle
Now Emily, what if I told you that Snohomish County is one home to a soccer referee who's on the shortlist for the Guinness World Record for most games officiated? OMG. We have local athletes from Snohomish County who have competed in the World Cup, won MLS championships, and are now in leadership, presidential roles throughout Major League Soccer.

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Emily
Whoa, I mean, I think I know some of them, but I'm excited to hear about more.

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Kyle
Honestly, it's crazy to think about how much history is baked into this quote unquote small community tucked up here in Pacific Northwest. But before we get too far into the modern history and some of those cool stories, we need to dive a little bit more deeper into the origin of soccer in Snohomish County. And we're not just talking about one thing, we're talking about a series of events. In our last episode, Emily, I shared with you guys a little bit about how soccer started in Washington State, and I'm sure we could go a million miles deeper, but at least today we wanna pivot a little bit more focusing on how soccer originated in Snohomish County specifically. What was kind of the first instances where we see Snohomish getting referenced in soccer, how we start to see Snohomish County and Everett start to become a little bit more of a landing destination. And lastly, we're gonna end up with how Snohomish County has been a bit of a catalyst for different teams, different organizations, different businesses in the area all around soccer.

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Emily
You know what that history sounds like? It sounds like a lot of civics too.

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Kyle
Absolutely. Now this is the earliest date that I could find thanks to Washington State Legends of Soccer and their plethora of knowledge. 1966, leaders from five districts in the Puget Sound came together, Seattle, the Eastside, Tacoma, Federal Way, and you guessed it, Snohomish, united to form the Washington State Junior Soccer Association. And fun fact, Washington was way ahead of the rest of the country, the United States, informing junior soccer associations. It wasn't until nine years later when the United States actually organized a country-wide youth soccer association. For those in the region, you may be familiar with the more modern name of this association, Washington Youth Soccer, which is still organizing soccer in our region for over 93,000 kids and teens throughout Washington State. Washington Youth Soccer is directly affiliated with FIFA Soccer. So all of those involved within this organization, you're already one step ahead of the rest of us in getting ready for the World Cup.

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Emily
Holy cow, how many people was that again?

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Kyle
93,000.

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Emily
That's incredible.

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Kyle
And that's a huge number for a quote unquote small sport in this country. Yeah. And really that matters for Snohomish County because it tells you that this county wasn't just watching soccer happen in its infancy, it was a part of that early organizing energy that helped youth soccer become a statewide thing and set us up for being a focal point of soccer within the region. Okay, so we're gonna fast forward a little bit. We start to see Snohomish County again pop up in the history of soccer in the region. We start talking about inclusivity and adaptability in soccer.

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Kyle
In 1978, the South Snohomish County Youth Soccer leaders made a very specific rules exception for us, one player. This player, 15 years old by the name of Mark Forsyth, had suffered a fractured skull as a toddler and was really worried about injuries on the soccer pitch. You can imagine I had a fractured skull and if you go up for a header, that could do some damage. At the time, and even today, we have typically rules in soccer that prohibit players from wearing things like casts, splints, guards, et cetera, things that can be hazards to other players on the pitch. But fortunately, the South Snohomish County Soccer Association made the right call and said, "Hey, this is someone who has their own hazard and we're going to bring the right rules and we're going to make the right adjustments." And like I said, we start to see Snohomish County being a potential forefront, a foreleader, of how do we make sure soccer is for everyone and not just for those that fit the mold of a soccer player.

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Emily
Yeah, I'm a big believer that if the rules don't work for you, then change the rules and get everybody on board with it. And I think this was a great example of how we're like, here's a problem and here's a way that we can fix it and make more people excited to be in the soccer space. I love that story.

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Kyle
Dare I say it's governance?

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Emily
It is, it is absolutely epitome of civics and government and why you should be involved.

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Kyle
Absolutely.

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Kyle
Now, on our last stop of soccer history in Snohomish County, we're going to dive a little bit into the, I'll say, unglamorous side, the governance side of things, where at the end of the day, the game only grows when there are places to play, right? If you don't have a field, it's really difficult to play organized soccer. Now, in 1989, there was an indoor soccer league hosted within Everett and there were 169 teams signed up for this, but unfortunately, this was interrupted when the Everett soccer dome, groups collapsed under heavy snow.

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Emily
Where was this in Everett? Is it still there?

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Kyle
So this is actually still there. They've rebuilt it, so they rebuilt the building and it's now called Everett Soccer Arena, which is literally right next to Angels of the Wind Arena. And it's been there for about 40 plus years, a massive institution in Snohomish County for soccer.

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Emily
You know what? I drive by that area every day and I had no idea that was there.

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Kyle
And it's a stalwart of our community.

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Kyle
Fun fact, the owners of the Everett Soccer Arena was Pepe Fernandez and Walter Schmetzer. Now, you might not know those names, Emily, but for some of my soccer aficionados, Pepe Fernandez was a former Seattle Sounders player and played overseas as well. Walter Schmetzer, have you heard of that name before, Emily?

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Emily
No.

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Kyle
Our head coach for the Seattle Sounders, that's his father.

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Emily
Oh, wow.

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Kyle
So Brian Schmetzer is the head coach for the Seattle Sounders, and it's his father that actually owns and operated the arena. So you can imagine our head coach for our number one team here in the Puget Sound probably played in some of those areas when he was a kid, which is pretty cool for an organization.

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Emily
He's got Everett roots and Snohomish County roots, and we love those people.

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Kyle
Absolutely.

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Kyle
Unfortunately, Walter passed away about six, seven years ago now, but he was a stalwart of the community and helped bring soccer to many kids. Huge thanks to all of his hard work and everything he was able to do for the community.

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Emily
I'm so glad we could highlight him today and his legacy.

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Kyle
One more fact about the Snohomish County and I teased this in the beginning, we are home to one of the most prolific officiators in all the world. And I apologize in advance if I pronounced the name incorrectly, but V.O.R.L. Sieubik is a remaining born referee who has become a legend at this Snohomish soccer dome and within the Everett soccer arena. In 2017, he was honored for officiating over 40,000 matches.

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Emily
Oh my gosh. Well, how did he have the time?

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Kyle
Honestly, it's crazy. So to put that in perspective, he would often referee five games a night during the weekdays and up to 10 games every Saturday or Sunday. So that's a lot of soccer games that he officiated. He estimated that during peak seasons, he would be working up to 60 games a week. And he's been considered a candidate within the Guinness world record for the most soccer matches ever officiated.

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Emily
That's amazing. I love that. Imagine what kind of skillset he had and ability to bring to those games. If you're being officiated by him, you know it's gonna be a good match and it's gonna be fair and he's gonna be skilled at it. I think that's really cool.

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Kyle
And you can imagine how many people in the community he's had an impact on, whether it's at youth levels, maybe adult league levels. That's someone that really showcases and highlights how Snohomish County has such a deep and rich history in soccer and why soccer has become a little bit synonymous with Snohomish County.

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Emily
Who knows him? I wanna hear stories about him and hear from folks. So I'd love to hear if anyone has a good story or an experience working with them. Reach out to us and let us know. We can feature a story about, how do I say it?

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Kyle
V-O-R-L, C-U-B-I-C. And if we pronounced it wrong, let us know. Yeah.

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Kyle
So when the world shows up here in 2026, Snohomish County isn't pretending to be a soccer place. It is already showing that it is. A place that helped organize youth soccer early on, a place where we were making real decisions and real civic changes with how we govern the game, and a place that's built infrastructure that allowed people to play the game that they love. And that's an origin story. Not just one little thing here, a game over here, a tournament on the side. This is all about a community choosing to embrace this game over and over again.

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Kyle
Now, let's talk about how Everett is going beyond the soccer part of it, and how are we making the host city a team to be able to pull this off?

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Emily
Yeah, you don't just wake up one day and say, oh, we're gonna host the World Cup. There was a process. We heard this before from State Representative Julio Cortez, who talked about how when they were selected, when our region was selected, to be part of the World Cup, that he raised his hand. And then he was in meetings and planning and coordinating all of that stuff. You got to announce it. You have to do the planning from everything we talked about to the transportation, to the infrastructure that we need, to wifi, at the waterfront, making sure everyone can watch the show and watch the games and have uninterrupted service. We don't want a Netflix thing going on here where it's blurry and grainy the whole time.

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Emily
So you've got to build the experience. So last week, our producer, Trent Deverter and I had the opportunity to attend the State of the City, which was coordinated by our amazing Everett Chamber of Commerce. Mayor Cassie Franklin came out with Abe Lucas, who is a Seattle Seahawks. He introduced her coming off of his amazing Super Bowl win with the team, and it's really cool. Abe Lucas is a great example of someone from here. He attended Archbishop Murphy and he's a coup. He went to WSU. So I'm super excited about that as a coup, whatever the guy who's wearing a UW hat today.

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Kyle
No comment, no comment. I'll leave my opinion at the door.

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Emily
Well, Cougs are the best, and they have a strong presence here in Snohomish County as well with WSU, Everett. One of the things I loved about the event, it was at the historic Everett Theater, and I felt like the whole community, the whole city was there. I didn't even have a chance to talk to everyone I wanted to talk to. So thanks to everyone who came out. First, here's the kickoff. This is Everett saying we're in.

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Cassie Franklin
Coming up this June, Everett takes the field as an official FIFA World Cup fan zone.

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(Audience Cheering)

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Cassie Franklin
As Seattle hosts one of the biggest supporting events on the planet, we will welcome soccer fans from near and far to four massive community watch parties on the waterfront, June 11th, 12th, 18th, and 19th, highlighting Everett's beauty, spirit, and hospitality on a global stage.

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Cassie Franklin
Our waterfront watch parties at Barkscar Park will provide a fun festival-like experience with giant outdoor screen, family-friendly activities, delicious local food and drinks, and beautiful Port Gardiner Bay as the backdrop.

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Cassie Franklin
We're offering a full day experience with pre-game fun and post-match festivities, plus a free shuttle to keep things moving.

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Emily
That's the headline for waterfront watch parties, a festival-like setup, family-friendly activities, local food and drinks, a big outdoor screen, and a free shuttle to keep things moving.

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Kyle
You're convincing me to go there.

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Emily
It's gonna be great. That's the part that you can see. Now here's the part most people don't always see. Hosting isn't one organization, it's a network. Here's the city calling out that this is bigger than Everett alone.

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Cassie Franklin
With partners from across the county, including the Tulalip tribes, hosting additional watch parties throughout the tournament, there will be multiple opportunities for our residents and visitors to be part of the game.

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Cassie Franklin
The excitement around Everett's waterfront watch party truly underscores our growing profile as an in-demand destination and our reputation for hosting world-class events.

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Cassie Franklin
Our project team has really been on the ball, so I wanna recognize our Fan Zone lead, Tyler Chisholm, as well as our partners, Cat Soper, and our team at the Port of Everett, and Tammy Dunn from the Snowmish County Sports Commission. I also wanna thank all our Fan Zone committee members as well as Snowmish County's tourism and marketing team for their support. More details to come, but you won't wanna miss it, and I promise you'll get a kick out of it.

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(Audience Applauding)

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Emily
A host city is a team sport. It's city staff, port partners, county partners, tourism, community groups, and a lot of coordination that you never notice if it's done well.

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Kyle
That's so true. I mean, these are the people behind the scenes that may not get the spotlight, but they are making things a reality.

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Emily
Yes, and then there are the names, the people doing the work between now and June. Those names matter, and quick note, you're going to hear from them on this podcast, Tammy Dunn from the Snowmish County Sports Commission, Tyler Chisholm from the City of Everett, and a representative from the Port of Everett, because if you wanna understand how a place hosts, those are the voices that you wanna hear from.

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Kyle
For real.

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Emily
A watch party is a moment. A soccer city is a commitment.

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Emily
So here's the long game. However, it is talking about building something that lasts.

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Cassie Franklin
And now with the future Outdoor Event Center, we expand our momentum even further. This project will be a game changer, an opportunity that speaks to who we are and where we are headed. The Everett Outdoor Event Center will be home to the AquaSocks as well as USL men and women's soccer, but it's so much more than a sports facility. It's a transformational once in a generation opportunity, a new economic engine, a community gathering place, and a symbol of the momentum we're building as a city.

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Cassie Franklin
The Outdoor Event Center will anchor downtown as a sports and entertainment destination, drawing in 400,000 visitors from across the region each year, attracting additional investment and development, supporting local businesses, and growing our local and regional economies. From baseball and soccer games to youth sports tournaments, outdoor concerts and community events, this facility will drive around $50 million in economic activity each year. This project is a major undertaking as the kind of bold community-focused investment that can be a catalyst for so much more. I wanna shout out the AquaSocks, USL, DLR Group, Bailey Construction, and our project team for their work on it to this point. I also wanna thank our council, our fans, our labor organizations for your continued support. We couldn't build this without strong partners, community supporters, and of course, our soccer and AquaSocks baseball fans. I look forward to continuing our work and have this facility open next year. We're ready to knock it out of the park.

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(Audience Applauding)

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Emily
That's the future-facing piece. Host the moment in June, then keep building the place people come back to.

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Kyle
This is big. I mean, Snohomish County is truly going beyond what we've been known as for soccer for years now. You're hosting USL men's and women's soccer teams. This is big.

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Emily
Yeah, we used the word catalyst earlier today, and I think that that's what we're gonna see in June. It's gonna be something huge, and it's gonna feel like that, that big moment in time for our community. We're already doing great, but I think we're about to see something huge, and I can't quite explain it yet, but a catalyst moment.

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Kyle
Absolutely, absolutely.

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(Upbeat Music)

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Kyle
If you've got a Snohomish County soccer memory, send it in. Old team name, a field you remember, a tournament that felt like a big deal, a coach everyone still talks about, anything that says you had to be there, let us know. We wanna collect these stories.

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Emily
So if you're planning to come to Everett for the waterfront watch parties, the best starting point is the official FanZone page, but you can also sign up for all of our updates. Through our newsletter, we have a website for it, and we will be linking to everything here in our show notes. So check it out, get in touch, stay engaged, and share your stories.

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Emily
This has been--

[00:18:46:19 - 00:18:48:00]
Kyle
From Pitch to Puget Sound.

[00:18:48:00 - 00:18:50:13]
Emily
Presented by the Snohomish Podcast Network.

[00:18:50:13 - 00:18:52:05]
Kyle
We'll see you back out there on the pitch.

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Emily
Can you remind me what a header thing is again?

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(Laughing)

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Emily
Quick note, this podcast is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by FIFA or the FIFA World Cup.