Pioneer Day has been a celebrated holiday in Utah for over a century – yet, for many of the members of Utah Royals FC, this year was the first time they got to celebrate this historic tradition. In the past week, URFC players signed autographs at the “Days of ‘47” float preview, took photos at the annual Family Festival, went to the Days of 47 Rodeo, and even participated as queens in the heralded Pioneer Day Parade in downtown Salt Lake City.
“It was a fun and exciting atmosphere,” said URFC MF Mandy Laddish. “It was especially great to see a bunch of diverse faces celebrating the city. The float was beautiful and made me feel like true royalty riding on it!”
This year the URFC float titled “Pioneering Women’s Sports in Utah” was voted by the public as the best float of the year, donning the “2018 President’s Award” on the parade route. Playing music and waving at fans, hundreds of members of the local community paraded the streets -- with thousands more watching the event.
“It was a lot of fun to be out on the float and see all the people out celebrating Pioneer Day,” said URFC DF Becca Moros. “My favorite part was seeing all the women and moms get up and out of their chairs to wave and cheer for us.”
Each team throughout the RSL family were well represented at the parade today. Joining URFC were players Tony Beltran, David Horst, Alex Horwath, Jordan Allen, Chandler Hoffman, Micheal Gallagher, Konrad Plewa & Kalen Ryden. The brigade of soccer stars were also surrounded by some of the organization’s most loyal supporters & youth academy teams.
“This is a great event – we want to invite everyone to be a part of the family,” said Real Salt Lake and Utah Royals FC owner, Dell Loy Hansen. “I am so proud of everyone here today – they have put so much effort into today, and we are just honored to be a part of the 24th of July…these teams are great for Utah.”
