CHESTER, Pa. – When Chris Donovan stepped onto the freshly laid pitch at Subaru Park last month, it wasn’t hard to figure out where his friends and family were sitting in the stands even on a night with a sellout crowd of 18,717 in attendance.
One of those voices yelling “Dono” from the stands as the 22-year-old Paoli, Pa. native made his Major League Soccer debut was a coach who has watched Donovan’s rise from college and amateur star to the top flight of U.S. soccer: West Chester United head coach Blaise Santangelo.
Santangelo was sitting near Donovan’s father in the stands and for those who don’t know them it might have been easy to confuse in the moment who was his dad and who was his former coach.