History

WHO WE ARE.

Club history is often just a boring paragraph stating, “A group of like-minded staff wanted to do good for the game and give back. Blah, blah, blah,” which, while true, is only about 1% of our story. I prefer to use this page to share the full journey—where Pipeline came from, where we are today, and where we’re headed. The real history is what makes the story that much cooler.

I (Sean Rush) was sitting in a recreation office, looking around at coaches who had never played soccer—or even taken a coaching course—and yet believed they were overqualified for the teams they were coaching. This was my first introduction to youth soccer in the USA after returning from playing in Portugal’s 3rd division. I remember sitting there, thinking, “We can do better than this.” The irony is, this was the same environment I grew up in. That club doesn’t exist anymore, and I was grateful for the opportunity to coach, but I knew—for Baltimore—we could and had to do better.

That night, I reached out to my childhood buddy, Santino Quaranta, with a message: “Let’s grab lunch and talk soccer.” At that point, Santino was scoring goals for the USA National Team, leading D.C. United in Washington, and living the dream every kid in youth soccer dreams of. We met at DeSantis for lunch, and instantly knew we were going to do things our way. We didn’t know exactly what that meant, but we were committed. Santino had just started running his own camps, and in December 2010, we rented an office. We had no idea how we were going to pay for it, but we knew we needed to give players the feeling that they were training and playing at a professional level.

​We began the process of shaping our vision—what we wanted to look like, what we wanted to play like, and, most importantly, how we could help players move from Point A to Point B. We wanted to be the Pipeline for players to go from JV to Varsity, from high school to college, and maybe one day, from college to the pro level.

​In 2011, Pipeline was the first club to host co-ed tryouts at one location, at the same time. We knew families and players might be hesitant to trust a club run by two 25-year-olds with no ties to major organizations. Our teams came out of the gate and lost. A lot. Most current players don’t realize this, but Pipeline lost—constantly. We didn’t have great facilities. We had no financial backing. We weren’t attached to ECNL or ECNL RL. We didn’t have an indoor facility, and we were figuring things out as we went. It was an uphill battle from day one, which shaped the "NEVER SAY DIE" mentality that drives us today. That mentality has led to 90 club teams, three National Championships, inclusion in the best leagues and tournaments across the country, and a coaching staff we never could have dreamed of when we started.

​Santino and I talk about the history of this club all the time. It continues to be the motivation behind everything we do for our current and future players. We’ll always remember where we came from, and we’ll continue to evolve and push forward to change the way our players are trained, coached, and perceived.