BROWNS SUMMIT, N.C. — On the field where the late Kirk Urso played semi-professionally in the summers, the North Carolina men's soccer team honored one of its own.
Urso, a four-year letterman for the Tar Heels, made four consecutive College Cups and served as a captain for Coach Carlos Somoano’s first UNC team as a senior. Urso left his mark on the program with a national championship win in 2011, but Urso's impact was far larger on everyone he met.
Assistant coach Grant Porter — who also joined the team in 2011 — said Urso had an effect on people that made you feel like you knew him your entire life, even if, like in Porter’s case, you’d known him for only five months.
Somoano agreed with Porter, but had trouble putting into words how much Urso meant to him as a coach.
“The sad irony is, he was the heart of our team,” Somoano said.
The Columbus Crew drafted Urso in the 2012 MLS Supplemental Draft. He appeared in six games for the Crew before dying on Aug. 5, 2012 from an arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy — a rare genetic heart condition that often results in cardiac arrest in young people.
The Crew created the Kirk Urso Memorial Fund in October 2012 for research and programming on congenital heart defects. The fund raised more than $100,000 in its first year alone, and UNC has contributed to the fund through its annual memorial match.
The Kirk Urso Memorial Match started in 2013 as a friendly game between the Crew and UNC. Porter said the match seemed like a good fit for both organizations.
“It just felt like a great idea to raise awareness and raising any kind of dollars to support (research),” Porter said.
