They drink for America.
Tennessee students Drew Whorley and Jason Galat are encouraging others to join the American Outlaws.
The American Outlaws are an organization of over 125 chapters with greater than 18,000 members all across the country that support the United States National Soccer Teams through a unified and dedicated group of supporters.
Drew Whorley, junior in logistics and co-president of the Knoxville chapter, said the goal of the American Outlaws is to unite the community of US soccer fans and bond by watching games together.
“We are at the Crown and Goose for each and every game regardless of whether it’s a meaningless friendly game, an important qualifier, or the World Cup,” Whorley said. “This is our home bar.”
Watching soccer games isn’t all the local chapter does. American Outlaws is a non-profit that participates in community service.
“It’s very important that people see us not just in a soccer light,” Whorley said, “but also that we do care about the community and we’re proud Knoxvillians and we’re very excited to represent the state of Tennessee and, more importantly, the United States of America in a positive light.”
Jason Galat, co-president and senior in supply chain management, agreed.
“We don’t like being the underdog,” Galat said.
“We like being the powerhouse.”
Whorley agreed, and said the role of the underdog is something people in Knoxville can relate to.
“I think in particular in Knoxville, people latch on to that underdog role because Tennessee football fans seem to thrive the most when we’re the underdog,” Whorley said.
The American Outlaws chapter in Knoxville hasn’t just come together over a short period of time. Whorley and Galat, along with several others, have put in a great amount of effort to get the chapter off the ground.
“We’ve worked really hard and we’ve made a lot of strides over the past year to get this going the way that it is,” Whorley said. “Having 500 people in the Crown and Goose for the US-Ghana game was just the epitome of our hard work. We’re excited to see Knoxville so excited about American soccer.”
Galat: “People really want to be patriotic, and this is a great place for them to show it instead of just every four years for the Olympics.”
The United States soccer team will play again this Thursday at noon against Germany and will advance past the group stage to the Round of 16 with either a win or a draw.
“When you can get local events like this going and get everybody excited, it just shows; hopefully we make that deep run where people continue to come because America likes a winner and that’s the bottom line,” Galat said.
Anyone can join online at the American Outlaws website (LINK: www.theamericanoutlaws.com).
There is a $25 annual due that goes to both the benefits from the national organization, which is a t-shirt and a bandanna. Members get discounts on hotels, rental cars, flights, and tickets for every game. Five dollars of each membership comes back to the chapter to help with setting up events, and getting merchandise to help run each chapter.
