Hot Time in Old Town looks at the club’s “PASS” program
When Javier Casas, Jr., Allan Rodriguez, Chris Brady, Alex Monis, and Brian Gutierrez all signed Homegrown contracts with the Chicago Fire first team last season, the five teenagers were making the biggest jump of their lives.
They were going from the Chicago Fire Academy, where they were surrounded by fellow high schoolers, to a cutthroat, results-driven professional environment, with grown men who certainly wouldn’t be happy about teenagers trying to take their jobs. On top of that, they were entering that environment during a global pandemic, where no one was quite certain what the future would hold.