Somerville United FC celebrates International Women's Day

Our inaugural home match is Sunday, March 15th. Join us at Dilboy Stadium for the start of something special in Somerville!

While our men’s team is at a really exciting point, for International Women’s Day, we want to celebrate all the women that are helping our mission come to life! From women helping with our men’s team, to those bringing our future women’s team to life, we have strong women leading at all levels of Somerville United. As the now-famous shirt says "Everyone Watches Women's Sports!"

We've been quietly laying the groundwork to create a women's team built on our same key principles of community engagement, high quality development, and celebrating Somerville. The SUFC women's team will strengthen the pathway to women’s professional soccer in Boston. 

With the World Cup coming to Boston over the summer, the Boston Legacy playing in its inaugural season, the Boston Breakers’ history in the area and the successful youth soccer program, the team sees a perfect opportunity to grow and provide a strong pipeline to develop local soccer talent. 

Tryouts are planned for May with the team set to compete in 2027. Drop us a line to get involved!

Ali Onjiko started playing soccer as a child before immersing herself in music as an opera singer. However, after meeting Robert Onjiko, her now-husband and other founder of Somerville United FC, she began playing again in adult leagues and fell back in love with the sport. 

“We have a bunch of amazing people in the community who have reached out and are helping in so many ways behind the scenes. It's with all that support, not just [Bob and I] but everyone who's heard, believed and trusted that this can happen has made it happen,” Onjiko said. “It's just really exciting to see how it's growing and how it's going to continue to grow with all these wonderful people that we have.”

Emily Mendes - Manager

Emily Mendes has spent her whole life involved in local soccer in NYC. After moving to Boston five years ago, she has been searching for a way to get back involved in local soccer, and Somerville United provided the perfect opportunity. Mendes works as a field manager for Education First, but previously worked with Gotham City FC and played soccer since she was a child. 

She is most excited for the impact the team will have on the community. 

“I think what this club is going to do is provide real opportunities for local talent to grow, provide access to the game and really build a culture where people feel supported both on and off the field,” Mendes said. “The focus on community and player growth and development from a young age and providing them the chance to to grow through a local pipeline to hopefully the pros one day is all we could ask for.”

Angela Cornacchio - Business Director

Angela Cornacchio has been involved in just about every level of soccer from rec up to professional. Although originally recruited as a player for Somerville FC, Cornacchio is now bringing her extensive experience to the table to grow the team and push it towards its goals. 

“I think it's going to have a huge impact,” Cornacchio said. “The thing with it is all of the teams that have really been in existence are far outside the city, and Somerville has such a large community of soccer-specific people and the youth soccer program is very large as well, so I think it's just going to be such a great feeder program for the kids to look into. I think it's going to be such an amazing thing for the community to just be based there.” 

Jessica Sumney - DEI Lead

Jessica Sumney only started attending soccer matches four years ago but has since become a passionate fan. Sumney has extensive experience working in DEI-related roles, including serving as the associate director of diversity, equity and inclusion at Penn State University where she first began attending soccer games. Somerville United provided her the chance to combine her interest in soccer with her passion for equal opportunity and inclusivity. 

“My goal with Somerville United is to build a place not only for soccer fans in our community, but for all of the potential soccer fans like me who just didn't know yet how much they love the game,” Sumney said. “I want SUFC to be the reason more people feel welcome in the sports world.”

Beyond these leaders focused on the women's team, we celebrate all the other women involved in building SUFC. 

Boston’s new National Women’s Soccer League team, the Legacy, is slated to open up its first season March 14th at Gillette Stadium against Gotham City FC at 12:30 p.m. New Kids On The Block is performing at halftime as the team celebrates its first game on the pitch.

The US Women’s National Team continued their inspirational winning streak, winning the SheBelieves cup yesterday after beating Colombia 1-0. Earlier in the cup, the US beat Canada 1-0 and Argentina 2-0. The US scored nine points to Canada’s six, Colombia’s three and Argentina’s none.