Spain coach remembers late daughter on ‘special day’ at WCup
MANCHESTER, N.H. – The New England Revolution’s soccer franchise is now playing in its second stadium, and it’s not on the same continent.
So when New England Revolution midfielder Ben Swanson woke up on June 25 – the same day that his late daughter Kaelynn was to receive her college degree at Villanova University in Pennsylvania – he experienced what his father, Mike Swanson, who coached the Revs in the 1990s, calls a “special day.”
For Swanson, a native of Rochester, N.H., the graduation of his daughter with the Villanova Wildcats was as much a part of his father’s coaching wisdom as her two older sisters, Alyssa, who is two years older, and Sydney a year younger.
“It was a ‘special day,’” Swanson, a native of Rochester, N.H., told MLSsoccer.com after being introduced to his late daughter, Kaelynn, a Villanova University student, on June 25. “It took me to a place that I’d never been in and that I’ve not been in before.”
“The team got together, had a few drinks and had some fun,” recalled Swanson. “Kaelynn is a great person, a great person to be around, and she’s going to be a great soccer player. I’ve never had a daughter graduate within my family. I’ve never had a daughter be a soccer player. She is good enough and she works as hard as she can to be the best she can be. Hopefully I can teach her a lesson of a family where you never look back.”
The Revs (14-3-2) have been playing in the same stadium as the Philadelphia Union, the league’s oldest franchise, since the team moved from New England Revolution Park in 2003. The Revs have been playing in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. on the East Coast since 2004. The next few games against the Union will be on the same date as Kaelynn’s college graduation.
“It was a special day,” New England Revolution owner Robert Kraft said Sunday. “I’