Duluth East’s Aiden Olson Continues Family Tradition by Playing for Duluth FC Academy

Aiden Olson's dad Tony was a founding member of Duluth FC back in 2015. Now six years later, Aiden is part of the first-ever Duluth FC Academy team.

DULUTH, Minn. – Growing up in Duluth, Minnesota, soccer was always the passion for defender Aiden Olson.

“It’s the only thing I can remember doing since I was five years old, it’s the only thing I’ve ever really done. Like he said, I’ve played basketball, didn’t really enjoy it, I played baseball, wasn’t really my thing. If you asked me what I wanted to do in a day, it’s play soccer, it’s the only thing I ever really want to do,” Aiden said.

“And I can vouch for that. He has a practice or a game six out of seven days in a week and on his days off, him and his buddies go play soccer,” his dad Tony Olson added.

Once soccer started to stick, his dad decided to learn the sport to play with his son.

“I’m traditionally more into American sports, baseball, basketball, football, and then had Aiden and like most parents, we tried a few different things, baseball, basketball, football, nothing really stuck quite like soccer. So I decided when he was 7 or 8 to learn the game. We’d go for walks in the woods and the story would always go that he would bring a ball and kick it around even through the woods,” Tony said.

Then Tony started to get more into the sport himself.

“I started playing pickup games, got introduced to the community, really loved it,” Tony added.

Which led him to becoming a founding member of Duluth FC, playing as an inaugural member in 2015.

“From the humble origins of just a bunch of old dads that kind of wanted to play soccer and play it with people that we enjoy being around and that was kind of the emphasis,” Tony said.

Once the club joined the NPSL, Tony stopped playing, but the family’s love for the BlueGreens continued on.

“We rarely miss a game. We would come to most home games,” Tony added.

Then when the Duluth FC Academy launched, Aiden decided to try out and is now following Tony’s footsteps sporting the blue and green.

“When they started playing in the UPSL and NPSL, I thought that might be an avenue for him. You can always hope but you never know. And then when they started this academy, it’s a fantastic opportunity for him and for other kids like him,” Tony said.

“To make it to be part of the original team and to be playing under the older kids and learn from them and watch them play and get to see that and see where it goes from there,” Aiden added.

While the two have both played now within the system, the Olsons say the talent level is very different.

“He surpassed my ability at about the age of 12. It wouldn’t even be close. I’d like to talk smack but I can’t even but no it wouldn’t even be close,” Tony said.

“I don’t think it’s been close for six, seven years. I don’t really even have to [try], I can use one foot and still beat him,” Aiden added.

As Aiden prepares for his senior season with the Greyhounds, he’s hoping this isn’t his last time putting on the BlueGreens uniform.

“It was always in the back of my mind when they first started getting competitive but now it’s kind of a reality so I hope in the next year or two when I come back to Duluth from college that I can get called up and play for Sean [Morgan] and play with these guys and that’s the end goal,” Aiden said.

Now, with Duluth FC and the Academy both established, the Olsons hope this is just the continuation of growing soccer in the Northland.

“This is his last year of club soccer and the bridge it supplies kids from being 17, 18 into the next stage and they can continue following their passions. He’s loved this game since he was five and now he has a vision for the future of how to play it. He might be the first but he won’t be the last,” Tony said.