Chattanooga Football Club player Felipe Lawall, right, fights for the ball with Knoxville Force player Travis Bolton during their season opener at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga.Felipe Lawall wanted to play for his former college soccer coach this summer. First-year Chattanooga Football Club coach Bill Elliott initially turned him down.
Elliott coached Lawall at the University of West Florida — Lawall also spent a few years as his assistant coach — and called him “the most creative player I’ve coached.” So why not add him to the roster?
Like Elliott, the 31-year-old Lawall lives in Pensacola, Fla. He has a wife and a family. And during May, because of his responsibilities as a high school teacher and club coach, the midfielder was going to have to spend his weeks in Pensacola and his weekends with CFC.
“I did try to talk him out of it,” Elliott said. “I said you’ve got a wife and three kids and it’s a long way. … I think I told him no like two or three times, but he kept going.”
Lawall, a former Major Indoor Soccer League draft pick, wouldn’t be deterred, even by the six-hour drive each way.