Dirigo Union Aims to Show Maine's True Colors

From the moment that it was announced that Portland, Maine was receiving a USL club, Dirigo Union co-chair Donald Thibodeau knew he wanted to play a part in a supporters’ group.

Thibodeau’s passion for soccer has gone through its ebbs and flows. After playing in high school, his love for the game dissipated but after a trip that saw him attend a Portland Timbers match, he fell in love with the atmosphere and the game.

Co-Chair Mitchell Ketchen has a more unique and dare I say American story. A fan of the Patriots, he owes his passion for soccer to the FIFA video games.

The group was actually started by Mario Moretto, John Morgan, and Colin Durrant. With Moretto and Durrant moving down to Washington D.C., Dirigo Union needed some helping hands and Thibodeau and Kitchen were more than glad to be involved.

From the early days of Portland Hearts of Pine and Dirigo Union, the supporters’ group has had its voice heard by the club; including founder Gabe Hoffman-Johnson.

“It’s a beautiful thing, really,” Ketchen said of the communication with the club higher-ups. “They’re our family.”

Family will be felt throughout Portland and Dirigo Union. Thibodeau wants to create a second family for fans of the club by way of the supporters’ group.

“First and foremost, we want this to feel like a family, right? Like I said, during our town hall, if this is done, right, it’s gonna feel like a second family,” the co-chair said. “I’ve already met a ton of awesome people. You know, I didn’t know Mitchell before this. Now, he’s one of my favorite people. I like listening to him talk about soccer. He’s so passionate about Liverpool. Gameday wise, we want it to be a party. We want to be loud. We want to be excited. We want to bring the energy. You know, I love what LAFC does, I just want to do our own way though. I want it to be crazy loud. I want opposing teams when they come in, they don’t want to be there.”

Ketchen also believes that the supporters’ group will show what Maine is all about.

“I think it’s important that we highlight what Maine really is all about,” he said. “We’re hard working, we’re gritty, we’re tough, we’re passionate. We have an extremely diverse community that that come from all walks of life like the groups of kids playing pickup soccer down at Kennedy Park, singing songs, bringing Portuguese flair. We have a really great Somali population in Lewiston, who made national news playing soccer together just a few years ago. So it’s really important for us to bring together this beautiful melting pot of soccer fans bring that energy and highlight what is beautiful about Maine in our own way.”

The group has already been involved in creating committees to give members of the Dirigo Union a voice.

“If you want to make a flag, you have every right to come in and share your idea. If you want to write a song, a chant and spread it with the masses come right in. If you want to give back to your community, we’re a nonprofit, a 501C7, finishing the application process there. So we’re totally community-driven, community run. Everything that we make goes back into our organization and it allows us to go out into the community and do a lot of work whether it’s picking up around the stadium on game days, supporting members with their own endeavors and things like that. We’re just really excited about all the possibility we’ve started and look forward to see what it becomes.”

But one day, possibility will turn into reality. Kits will be donned, a stadium will be filled and a whistle will be blown.

Ketchen can’t wait for that day to finally arrive.

“I’m anticipating the night before our first match, I have a feeling it’s going to be all the giddy feeling before the first day of a season, but it’s a little bit sweeter where we have put this work in. We’re around 450 members strong right now. The side that we’re going to be sitting on has a capacity of 2,500, So, there’s plenty of work to do but once we see the Dirigo Union scarves, the Portland Hearts of Pine scarves, flags waving, smoke, drums marching into Fitzpatrick day one is something I’ve been thinking about for well over a year now.”