January 25th, 2025
Article by Rafael Gonzalez
Photography by Noah Moell
With spring practice for the 2025 UFA season approaching, the Chicago Union hosted a closed tryout session at Intentional Sports on Friday, January 17. The session featured 24 participants who were invited to return following the open tryout session that took place on January 4.
The tryout participants were joined by several members of the Union, including captain Jack Shanahan, who gave the tryout participants advice and support, since some of them may be his future teammates.
“This is a big deal,” says Chicago Union majority owner CJ O’Brien, addressing the participants prior to the start of tryouts. O’Brien, along with Union coaches Dave Woods and Charlie Furse, congratulated them for making it to the next round. The tryouts kicked off around 9 p.m. that evening, beginning with a warm-up featuring the team exercise “Chaos Cutters,” focusing on communication skills.
“We’re looking for guys with pure athleticism, and those who work best as a unit, and we’ll be able to see that during 7v7,” said co-head coach Dave Woods ahead of the tryouts. In addition to athleticism, Woods and Furse were looking for players who excel in blocks and show poise on both sides of the disc.
From there, the tryouts focused on a mixture of individual skills, such as the “Randy Moss Drill,” which emphasizes 1-on-1 deep looks. The latter half of the session was made up of a series of team-oriented drills starting with a 5-on-5 scrimmage. Shortly afterwards, a 5-on-6 scrimmage was conducted, where handlers were tasked with finding ways to get the disc to their teammates, while cutters worked on finding space to get open and avoid double teams. The night concluded with an intense, full-field 7-on-7 scrimmage showcasing the participants’ skills.
“There is a certain baseline of talent individually that you need to compete at this level,” says co-head coach Charlie Furse. When finding a balance, it is important to select players who are skilled both individually, but can also work well as a team, “...and once you achieve that level of talent, then it’s a matter of how you fit as team: Can you actively use your body to take away what the other team is doing? Can you put your teammates in a position to do the same? Can you cover for them if they are getting beat down the field and how to put our team in the best position to succeed.”
As tryouts concluded and loads of talent was put on display, the participants now begin the waiting process and hope they have executed well enough to be wearing blue and white for the upcoming season.
“I love the intensity we saw tonight, players both young and old, players offensively and defensively” says coach Furse reflecting on the night. League-wide roster announcements will take place in March 2025.