Atlanta United Unified Head Coach Marty Jelleme on SDH AM 3.31.26

And it's always fun to catch up with our friend Marty

Gellamy, the head coach, the Atlanta Unified team,

when we get the preview, 2026, Marty, what is up?

Hey, how you doing?

Looking forward to it.

Questions more for you than it is for me.

And as you see here, next to the boss, you're right right here.

There's the rolled up scarf because she

had to reinforce the line that

has to hold the drapes up.

I had too many winter scarves up here, Marty.

And the line started to sag.

And so she had to reinforce the line with the curtains.

And so she had to do like a double curtain rod back here.

So not everything fell.

And so she got real imaginative and has put you

front and center here over my left shoulder.

I love it.

Maybe we'll add a few more winter scarves

by the end of the season.

Oh, I dig that.

That's pretty cool.

I like that idea.

We will obviously show them off as well as we can.

When you look back at the 25 season,

so we'll go backward before we come forward.

When you look back at the 25 season,

what sticks in your mind about the experience

and the new frontiers and the new places and the players

and all that kind of stuff that you

got to experience with the unified team

and what everybody got to experience?

What sticks in your mind that you're

carrying with you from 25?

Speed is one.

Our team is super, super competitively fast

compared to almost everybody else.

And we haven't really utilized that in the past.

So a little teaser for going forward.

We'll just lead that for now.

Traveling is stuff like that's been just amazing.

The first team's always great.

They're so open to our players and things

on that line.

So it makes it so, so much better.

And I think Atlanta does such a better job

than a lot of the other clubs.

New places to go, which is great.

A lot of the kids hadn't been places that we were last year.

And especially now, the Houston trip was just what a great week.

I mean, what, five or six games came back with a cup,

the learning that went on at that week,

because we were in a dorm by ourselves.

I mean, I can't even tell you the experiences and the life

skills that a lot of our players learned on that trip.

And let me tell you, it was exhausting by the end of the week.

For some reason, we got stuck with the morning game

every day except the last one.

So we were up at like six or five, 30,

didn't even have breakfast any morning to the last day,

because we were always the first ones on the pitch.

So what a great week.

I mean, it was amazing.

I mean, when you were not, when they knocked on your door

for that tournament, and this was a tournament

that had worldwide participation.

I mean, this was like, you're getting folks from Europe

to be over and be a part of this,

to be a part of the genuine World Cup that happens last July.

And I mean, it's like the Netherlands, it's T,

it's IACs, it's T-Grace, it's Inter Milan.

I mean, it's in, you know, it's...

Rangers, Newcastle.

I mean, who else?

Crazy.

What Terragona, Valencia, Benfica, Sporting Club.

Yeah, Australia was there.

We had a team from Australia who was there.

I mean, the cool, one of the coolest things was we're sitting there.

And we don't, we hear in the United States,

but not as much when you get the chance going, right?

And they're chanting back and forth at the stadiums,

especially down in Mexico and things like that.

The lunchrooms, you would walk in,

and literally you would have three clubs in there.

Lategris, and I can't remember the other two.

And they're screaming at the top of their lungs, chanting,

one with chant, and the next one with chant,

the next one with chant.

I mean, it was like being in a stadium at dinner time.

It was just unbelievable.

And to see the spirit and all that

from some of those other clubs, it was just great.

Great.

When you're in an environment like that,

what's it like for you as someone who has been

at the front of this movement with Atlanta United

to see other unified teams from not just the North America,

but around the world.

You know, when we were growing up, you know,

you'd go to summer camp and you'd have time

where you'd sit there and you spend time in the stereotypic cabin,

you get up at 630, you're learning how to kayak,

and all those kinds of things.

This kind of a summer camp, to me,

seems incredibly invaluable because of what you learn

about yourself as an athlete, as a student athlete,

as a person, and even for the adults in the room,

you get to learn about yourself not just as a coach,

but as an adult.

This seems like one of those multi-three-dimensional

kind of learning experiences for everybody.

Oh, totally.

And especially because MLS kind of has

a different philosophy compared to the other,

most of the other groups around the country.

Like, we primarily play unified.

And the way that MLS looks at unified

is it's the inclusion part going.

You know, we want to bring those high school and college kids

in, get them exposed to our players,

and be able to take that back out into society.

And then when they go to school, they meet the kids

or they're at the mall, and all those interactions

start happening.

Most of the other world, when it comes to this,

it's straight players.

It's not unified.

So their philosophy is, wait a minute,

if you've got 20 kids, they should

be 20 kids with disabilities no matter what.

And so that was one of the things that

was definitely a tug between coaches,

because I particularly like the unified.

I understand both, but I let the unified

because it's the exposure and growing

the influence of sports and things like that in the community,

where if you don't have that unified part,

I think you miss out on a lot of that.

It's just my opinion.

But the rest of the world doesn't think that way

for the most part when it comes to clubs.

They want strictly players.

So that was a big learning experience.

And learning experience as the team,

because now our team had to play without partners,

which took us at least two matches to get the hang of it,

because it's a totally, because now,

they've got to grind a little bit more.

They're the ones getting, not that they're not grinding

and matches that we play, but they've

got to totally make all their own actions,

where now they can rely on the partners a little bit.

So it was great.

I mean, it was an interesting philosophy.

When, and for this is the question where we go,

I guess unified 101, when it comes to playing with partners,

if you would, for those that might just kind of know

casually about Atlanta United Unified,

and they know that matches happen,

they might hang out after a match, a first team match

to watch a unified match, what are some of the differences

in the nuances that are there when it comes to the unified

matches that folks will get to see?

So the way that we play, and it's not the way

that all the MLS teams play, is our unified partners,

which are players without disabilities versus our players

with disabilities, are there to facilitate the game?

They are not there to score.

They are there to get the ball, do the pass,

and then have our other players move the ball forward,

do the scoring and all that.

Our partners don't shoot for the most part

until another team shoots on us and scores.

Our partners are like, we want our players to be the focus,

we want them to have all the glory,

and they'll feed them the whole time.

So that is a little bit of a difference

compared to our team versus other clubs.

But that's kind of what it is.

And what we have seen over time over the last couple of years,

where it used to be end to end.

It used to be east-west.

Now it is north and south.

It is your going for most of the distance of a regulation.

UEFA, MLS soccer pitch.

You're getting these kind of evolutions over time.

What has it been like for you and the staff to see the game

evolve to where it is now, where you're going almost end to end

instead of just doing it like a couple of years ago,

like the matchup at Red Bulls where it was side to side,

and you're now going to end to it.

That was side to side, exactly.

And so what a change, yeah.

I mean, it's watching the progression of the players.

Now we're even looking at like long balls

and bringing it down the middle where,

before, you know, if you're playing quarter pitch or half pitch,

you know, there's not really enough sides

that don't have to know that rule.

You know, your long balls and your cross the fields

to switch sides isn't this problem

because the pitch is so much smaller.

Now that we're on this huge pitch,

it looks just like your regular soccer game.

And we play it that way.

A lot of the teams also park the benches.

We call it on us now.

They put all their partners in the back.

And now we got to figure out how are we going to break that down?

We've added some speed to the team.

So I think you're going to see,

we're going to start doing a few more long balls

to kind of spread it out.

And then if we can do that, then we can drive down the middle

and also maybe send some of our partners

to the side to do some crosses.

So we've got some things to look at, which is great.

You know, it's much more strategy

than if you're on a half a pitch

because on a half a pitch, you can't do a lot of those plays.

So it's been great watching the other teams do it too

because there's a number of teams just like us

who have started at like a 5B5 or a 7B7

and have now progressed to the 11-11 full pitch.

We love the full pitch when we can,

couple of the teams pull it into the 18s,

but then it's still the full width.

So it's as close as it can get.

What was the recruiting season like for you

with tryouts and everything?

How many folks turned up and what was it like

to assemble the 26 squad this year?

Well, the interesting part was we actually had to cancel it

because it was on, was it November last year,

remember that day that it was like,

what was it like 10 degrees or something?

Yes.

That was tryout day starting at 6.30 at night.

So to start with it, we had to change it.

So then we had, and then of course the next day

we did it as close as we could with still another super cold night

but we were able to make it work.

It's pretty exciting to see kids that are trying out

from places that I don't know, which is wonderful.

That means the words getting out about the program

and about unified, not just through the same,

the same I'll call it not feeder,

but the same groups that already know about it.

So we had a couple, we had a couple partners

in a couple of players trying out from teams

that we have never seen before, which was great.

So that was an awesome, and some of them made the team.

So we have a change of about four players this year

and a little bit of a larger squad.

So how big is the squad this year compared to yours preview?

22 versus 20.

So we added one extra player and one extra partner.

Okay.

It's been fun to see the team evolve over time,

to see the game evolve over time.

When it comes to, you mentioned parking the bench,

I mean, when you are like the number one team,

you're like top gun man when it comes to Major League Soccer

and you know about that, but I'll take the compliment.

I mean, everybody's, everybody, I mean,

do you remember when we were growing up?

And I think it's safe to say that you and I are contemporaries

although I'm probably about 108 years old.

So I'm about 106, so don't worry about it.

Do you remember the old commercial when we were growing up

where Robert Conrad had the battery on his shoulder?

You know, I dare you to knock it off?

Oh, yes.

So that's kind of, it's like when you're number one,

everybody's gunning for you and they're trying to take that battery

and knock it off your shoulder.

When you're trying to coach and teach and have the unified players enjoy,

now they're going up against bench parking

and it's another aspect of the game.

I don't think they necessarily anticipated,

but because of success,

that Atlanta United has now with reputation and everything,

you're now getting people parking benches on you.

I mean, that's like rare air, man.

What's that like to handle?

The first time they did it, we were like,

we didn't know, as coaches too, we were really surprised

and we're like, oh my God, what are we going to do?

How are we going to beat this?

And then luckily, our partners who are great stewards of the game,

they come to us and say, hey, we need to try this

and we will always listen to them.

If they have an idea, they're on the pitch,

they know it just as well as we do,

we're watching it from the sidelines, they're in it.

We will take their advice and always at least give it a try.

But yeah, Nashville parked the bus in a big way last year.

It was, I mean, I'm like, what are we going to do?

We finally got a couple of goals,

but it took us all match until we broke it.

So we're actually working on down the middle,

down the sides and long.

We don't have a lot of time this year

because we only have like five practices already.

Oh wow.

Because, you know, we have a match, what, late, early May.

And we started late because World Cup and games

and things like that.

So yeah, we're going to be under the gun, our first match.

Let me tell you, because LA.

And it's four matches this year.

It is the matchup at home against LA.

Then you go on the road to take on Philly and Miami.

Now, are you going to be in the new stadium in Miami?

Do you know that yet?

I don't know, it's funny.

I was, I go to Miami for my other job, a fair amount.

I looked at the stadium and looked before it's open

and I'm like, I don't know how they're going to make it.

So I'm hoping it, it's open.

I'm assuming it is, I hadn't heard anything,

but I'm telling you that that GC had to be working 24-7

the last month.

And for this season open, it had to be just insane.

And they're rolling that thing out now

and so it's going to be, it's going to be fun.

So let's say that we hope you get to be in the new stadium.

And I would think so.

I mean, Miami's pretty good when we played them before.

I think we haven't played them there though.

We've only played them here.

But I would imagine that we'll be in the stadium.

I'd be surprised if we're not, but we don't know for sure.

Actually, Lena was talking to us yesterday.

She hasn't heard exactly how well that's working out,

but we're hoping.

OK.

And then you go from those two, then you finish up at home

against Chicago.

I think the week before Halloween.

Yes, very late this year.

So it is.

So it's May 9th at home against L.A.G.

Then you have August 1st in Philly, September 5th in Miami,

and then the week before Halloween against Chicago.

I mean, you only five practices before you

have to play L.A.G. at the Mercedes Benz, huh?

Yeah, it was just the way it worked out this year

with all the clubs because the training ground gets used

by other clubs.

So the US men's team was up there practicing

and all that kind of stuff.

So it kind of kept us out a little bit, but we'll survive.

We'll probably add, we were talking about it last night

and a couple of practices in, get a couple, actually,

and then I've given some running.

So they've got some homework to do in between practices,

little fitness work.

So two weeks ago, it was signing day.

And now you're like five weeks away from your season

opener here with your clubs.

I don't think we've ever had one this close.

And it's really cool to see how the 17s

have embraced the unified team as well.

Because I mean, the crowds for the home matches

over the last couple of years, it's

been great to see thousands of folks stay

from the first team match, come over

and be behind the benches and be a part of the cheering

section for the unified games.

I just think that that's a really cool aspect of this too.

The 17s stay and they root you on because you're at Lanty

and I did, man, we're staying and we're watching.

They are so loud.

I mean, I don't think you go to any other stadium.

They don't have the 17s stay like we do here.

It's just the supporters are amazing here.

And you're right.

And I think we probably have the biggest crowds

when we play compared to other stadiums.

I can't think of any other one that's had as many.

What about you?

No, honestly, from all the times that we've

got either gone or been calling the games remotely

or what have you, no, it literally

is like the largest crowds we've seen

have been the ones that Mercedes bends for your squad.

It's been really cool to see as a great byproduct

of all of this embracing the unified team

as a part of the larger umbrella.

If you're at Lanty United, your five stripes

we're with you and we're going to come and root for the whole thing.

And also we're the only ones who put the team,

the games on live, which is just another great aspect

that Atlanta live streams the games.

Everybody can see it.

I think we're the only ones who do it.

I mean, it's a great ad keeps everybody interested.

And the other part is, the only negative part

is is everybody can watch our tapes from all the years

past and see what they're doing.

I was going to ask, are you going to get any tape on L.A.G.

before they come over on May the night?

No, but we're the only ones.

Nobody else does any of that that I know of.

As far as I know, we're the only club

that puts their games on live for everyone to watch, so.

And it is a hot ticket.

Thank you for coming in.

I know that we're trying to grab you

in between your real gig and everything

for Atlanta United unified first match about six weeks away.

L.A.G. coming to town on May the ninth, the first team

and then after it's going to be the unified Marty,

it's always great to see you.

And we can't wait for the season to start

and for the big dogs when it comes to MLS Unified

to take another great season and more great strides.

Thanks for dropping by.

As you always do, my friend.

Don't be a stranger.

Thank you.

Don't be a stranger.

Come watch the game.

You know, one's not me.

I'm just there, like, guiding them along.

Yeah, and I'm the one that sticks the microphone

in your face after like time outs and everything.

You're just like, God, here comes Nelson.

What's he going to ask now?

But never bad.

It's always awesome.

Always good to see you, my friend.

We'll see you soon.

Thank you.

There goes Marty, Jeremy, the head coach of the Unified Team.

That's always fun because, look, the Atlanta United Unified

team, there's a zero in that that WL&T column.

One of those columns got a zero to it.

And that's why I meant the comment about the battery

and everybody trying to knock it off.

Because I mean, right now, you're talking about a team

that losing is not a part of the glossary.

And it's fun to see a side from the fact

that they are one of the top teams

in Unified in Major League Soccer and the top teams

in Unified that you get to go to Genuine World Cup

and you get to challenge yourself against the world

when it comes to the sport that you're having the success

as you are on the field yet.

But at the same time that you're an integral part

of the Atlanta United fabric, that to me is just as cool

in all of this, is that they

are, you know, it's Atlanta United.

First team, second team, Academy Unified, all in a row.

You're a part of it.

You've got Atlanta United on the front.

You're a part of it.

And Abby, to your point, about the 17s

and being there to root on Atlanta United's unified squad.

First off, for me to be on the sidelines, it's been a hoot.

It has been an absolute hoot to see.

The first team players, you know, with Brad Gazan

being a part of it, you had Jay Fortune

and Matt Edwards was there.

Will Riley, I think, was there when we were doing games.

But to see the first team players come out,

be there as absolute cheerleaders for the whole thing

and see how they're just as supportive

and they're there acting as coaches

and cheerleaders the entire time.

And but yeah, so 17s, you guys are top notch,

supporting the unified team as much as you are.

And yeah, Marty makes a point.

Everybody else, they're going up against.

They don't have tape for Atlanta United's unified team.

They got tape.

So everybody is learning about Atlanta United's unified.

And the fact that Marty seems to have added speed this year

and it looks like they might be bombin' it long at times,

down the wings.

So you're gonna have speed on turf.

It might be the fastest, it might be the fastest show

on turf this season with Atlanta United's unified team.

That's always fun to catch up with Marty

and see what's going on.

Yeah, May the 9th is the first unified match.

So May the 9th is the first unified match of the season.

They've added the expanded the roster by two.

And so it's May the 9th at home against L.A.G.

Saturday, August 1st in Philly,

Saturday, September 5th in Miami at the new stadium

and then wrapping up the season,

it is October 24th at home against Chicago.

So those are your four matchups this season

for Atlanta United unified and signing day back

on March the 16th.

So articles up from our friend Adam Jasper

over at ATLUTD.com.