To commemorate the life of Ucal McKenzie, the first annual McKenzie Friendly at Warren Field honored the late counselor and coach by playing the game that he loved so much: soccer.
“I think this is great,” his wife Suzanne McKenzie said. “We’ve got the whole community to gather together. It really speaks about how much the community cares about Ucal.
“It’s the most appropriate way to honor him.”
The event was sponsored by the new Ucal McKenzie Breakaway Foundation, which will run soccer clinics for ages 8-18.
“These clinics will have fitness incorporated into them too,” McKenzie said. “The clinics will encompass all the points that Ucal wanted to make.”
At the event, four scrimmages were played: the girls’ varsity team against current faculty and alumni, the boys’ varsity team against Cambridge Rindge and Latin, the boys’ junior varsity team against Cambridge Rindge and Latin and two club teams, Newton BAYS U10 against Valeo FC Blast U11.
McKenzie used to coach the Valeo FC Blast U11 team along with coaching the boys’ varsity soccer team.
After the scrimmage between the girls’ varsity team and current faculty and alumni, four speakers talked about their unbreakable connection with Ucal.
James Nelson, the athletic director at Ucal’s alma mater Suffolk University, said that Ucal had the “voice of all the young people.”
“His voice was the voice that brought pride to the sport of soccer, his family and himself,” he said.
Next Phil Song ’08, a captain from Ucal’s 2007 team, said that Ucal’s stress on doing everything the right way will remain with him into the future.
“Ucal always pushed us our hardest,” he said. “He always emphasized professionalism, and that will stay with me forever.
“His legacy will live on, it will live on in the way we practice, live on in the way we do everything in life.”
After Song, New England Revolution Vice President Craig Tornberg presented Ucal’s jersey to his family. The Ucal McKenzie Breakaway Foundation has retired his number eight.
Senior Ryan Vona ended the program with beautiful interpretations of the United States’ national anthem and the Jamaican national anthem.

This post is tagged Eli Davidow