When USL president Jake Edwards went to El Paso, Texas, on August 17th, he wasn’t sure what to expect.



This was a city merely two weeks removed from a horrific mass shooting, where 22 people were murdered at a Walmart with another 24 injured. Two days after this and another pair of mass shootings in the country, Alejandro Bedoya found a sideline microphone after scoring for the Philadelphia Union. His message — ”Congress, do something now. End gun violence. Let’s go.” — put him in the middle of never-ending discussion about whether or not athletes should use their platforms to speak about off-field matters.



For a first-year club in the U.S. second division, it was an unexpected time to showcase El Paso Locomotive’s place in both their community as well as this ongoing discussion. Over 6,000 fans went to Southwest University Park for the city’s first major public event after the shooting.



Two days...