Millennium Soccer Club is more than just a soccer program — it’s a community built on giving back, connections and joy. Tom Grogg founded the club at the beginning of the millennium and has been able to create lasting generational ties that continue to shape
lives.

For more than two decades, Millennium Soccer has provided a safe and inclusive space for children and returning players to experience the game of soccer fostering a sense of belonging.

“It's fun for the kids,” said Anne’ Knezevic, a board member and co-site manager. “It's fun for the adults. There is a real sense of joy that accompanies the work. That spreads throughout the ranks and that keeps us coming back for more.”

A community unlike any other

Tom Grogg’s impact on the Madison community is immeasurable.

“Tom was the glue that held the program together,” said Haley Brisky, successor to Grogg and the current president of Millennium Soccer Club.

He didn’t just teach soccer, he built relationships with students, community members and families, turning Millennium into a community that people are eager to join.

Two of Grogg’s former elementary school students, Miguel Cuellar and Anthony Smith-Broadus, have grown up since their time with the club but keep Millennium as a crucial part of their lives.

Cuellar came to the United States in the third grade. As a student of Grogg’s, he was proudly welcomed into the soccer club, and it was the first place he felt welcomed.

Now Cuellar manages a site at Leopold Elementary, ensuring the program gives the new generation of children the same sense of inclusion he once felt.

Smith-Broadus is now a physical education teacher at Lincoln Elementary and frequently volunteers at Millennium, occasionally bringing his son to play.

Seeing families and former students pass through the club is “kind of like a tradition,” Smith-Broadus said.

“Thomas Garcia Jr. was on my basketball team eight years ago and now he's out there as an 18 or 20-year-old leading the kids, so for me, that was really cool [ ... ] he came back and gave back to the community,” Smith-Broadus said, calling it a “full-circle moment.”

Jack Connelly, a current board member and one of the founders, has seen the program's growth and direct impact through other club members.

“It was pretty fun to see Ted [Gurman], who used to be the coaching coordinator and teaching the coaches how to do things — now his son was coming out and being a volunteer coach,” Connelly said.

Sharing the Millennium Soccer experience with generations touches a lot of people because everyone is “super passionate about this club,” Connelly said.

“The Madison soccer community is very tight-knit, not exclusionary,” Brisky said. “But if you play in a soccer league, the chance of you crossing paths with other people is so high, so you get to know each other well.”

More than soccer

The generational impact is what makes Millennium extra special, Brisky said.

Millennium Soccer isn't about producing the next Ronaldo or Messi, as Knezevic puts it.

“It’s the personal connection where [previous players, volunteers and members] are coming back because of a person or the feeling of being included,” Brisky said. “This program is a safety net making sure that no one gets left behind. Knowing families remember what it felt like and coming back making sure their children feel the same.”

Over the years, the club has gone through a period of modernization so that it can be sustainable for another 20 years. However, the spirit of the organization will always remain the same.

“If we can get that connection from a small child back up to being involved with the club [as adults], well that's very powerful,” Knezevic said. “Both for the sense of our motto of ‘building community through soccer’ and for the connection and the roots that it builds in our local community — making us stronger as we cross different transitions and still have familiar faces.”