At 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Kalen Ricketson turned the corner inside a hallway at Children’s Mercy Park, and then he heard the announcement. “Please welcome to the field, your home team, Sporting Kansas City!”
This is when it all felt real, he said. Amidst a line of Sporting KC players marching onto the field for pregame warmups, there was 18-year-old Ricketson, just trying to keep it together.
“I caught myself up on the video board, and I kind of panicked,” he said. “I didn’t know what to think. Just, wow, this was really cool.”
For three years, such moments of pure bliss have been difficult — if not altogether impossible — to find.