It's not often Crew supporters have the chance to interact and mingle with players and staff. Ahead of the club's Opening Match on Saturday, the team held its annual Supporters' Summit on Tuesday night with special guests Crew President and General Manager Mark McCullers, Technical Director Brian Bliss, Head Coach Robert Warzycha and defenders Josh Williams and Gláuber available for questions.
The event was open to Nordecke season ticket holders and active members of supporters' groups. Fans were able to ask any question they wanted to the panel. Topics ranged from Goal 10K progress to
Robert Warzycha's jacket.
"Every year that the Crew tries to do something like this, it's great to actually have that connection between fans and the Front Office, players, coaches-- the whole spectrum," Supporter Aaron Angel said. "That's what sets this team apart from everyone else, they're so close with the community and continually striving to keep that relationship open. The dialogue between the two sides is always formal, always cordial."
"It's always great interacting with the players," fellow supporter Julia Oesch added. "I'm a huge Josh Williams fan, and he knows it. He's always so cordial, all of the players are. They always want to just sit talk, give you a hug and say 'Hi.' It's always a great experience meeting Robert [Warzycha] and the Front Office. They're really relaxed and they want to get to talk to us, which is nice."
For Williams, its was a nice change of pace from typically interacting with fans through Twitter.
"You can kind of put a face to a Twitter name now," the defender said. "It's good because you don't normally get to meet fans that much. This is more of a personal setting here. I was a little nervous at first when I didn't know what they would be asking, but they handled pretty well.
"It was fun to get up there and hear some interesting stuff and some funny questions here and there."
