Chatting With … Andy McDermott ’86

Andy McDermott’s life story has had a lot of chapters.  

After graduating from Northwestern, McDermott ’98 played professional soccer for several years. Then, following 9/11, he felt inspired to serve and became an officer on the Phoenix police force. He became an actor, appearing in Everything Must Go with Will Ferrell — one of nearly 40 film and TV roles for McDermott. In the soccer world, he’s led several sports organizations and directed multiple youth clubs. 

“My wife teases that my life is like asking a little boy what he wants to be when he grows up — but I’ve actually done all the things,” McDermott says. 

For his latest venture, McDermott is founder and CEO at Intentional Sports, a facility on a former 10-acre brownfield that borders four neighborhoods on Chicago’s northwest side. The facility boasts the only indoor FIFA-sized turf field in Chicago and an indoor Major League Baseball diamond, as well as outdoor turf fields for football, soccer and baseball, indoor basketball and volleyball courts and a state-of-the-art sports performance center. Launched in March 2023, the nonprofit now serves roughly 2,500 kids a week in its free or low-cost after-school programs in collaboration with its nonprofit partners.  

Northwestern Magazine caught up with McDermott to learn more.  

Why did you found Intentional Sports?  

To create a world-class facility for kids who otherwise wouldn’t get the opportunity to play. When we first opened, I had 40 kids sign up for a soccer clinic. I said, “Who’s played soccer before?” And one kid raised his hand. And then I said, “So who’s ever played any sport?” And only four more kids raised their hand.  

It was heartbreaking to me, that so many kids had never had the chance to play an organized sport. That just cemented why we have to do this.  

There are so many life lessons you learn in sports — for one, to be teammates with people who don’t look like you and might not come from the same space as you, but also just the ability to run and fall down and bump into somebody, and it’s OK. You learn conflict resolution. When you fall, you learn how to how to get up and keep running. How else can you learn that other than playing a sport?    

How did you come up with the idea for this nonprofit? 

A soccer ball has opened doors throughout my life. When I finished playing professionally, I knew I was going to serve my country in some capacity. I ended up on the Phoenix police force. I spent a lot of time in the housing projects on the east side with mostly Mexican American families. I’d go out and watch the kids play soccer on the basketball courts, and they would tolerate me because I speak Spanish and could do some tricks with a ball. It became readily apparent to me that 4- and 5-year-old kids are the same all over the world. They are just goofy little humans who want to run around and fall down and play and laugh and kick a ball.  

And then I would see these kids grow up in Phoenix, and it’s the same in some areas in Chicago: By the time they were 10, 11, 12, the older kids would tell them, “You either join our gang, or we’re going to kill you.”  

The kids in these Chicago neighborhoods — Austin, Belmont Cragin, Hermosa and Humboldt Park — they go home after school, and the concerned parents want to keep them in the house and say, “It’s not safe for you to go to the parks. Just stay here.”  

We wanted to create a space for those kids.  

We start our basketball and soccer programs at age 3. We want to reach these kids as young as possible and get them to fall in love with something positive.  

What other programs do you offer? 

We’ve partnered with over 150 local nonprofits and youth sports organizations and 25 schools and hosted over 1,700 events. The Chicago Chess Foundation just asked if we could do a joint project. We said, “Yeah, but we don’t know if any kids will come.” That class sold out in 12 hours! We had 30 kids who just wanted to play chess. We also have an e-sports lab and offer classes in coding and computer programming.  

If there’s an activity that will bring kids into this space, we embrace it.   

Alum Austin Carr, right, is president of Intentional Sports. Credit: Drake White

You have several former Wildcats on your team. How has Northwestern helped get this off the ground? 

One of my closest friends, Brian Musso ’98, was instrumental in bringing me back to Chicago from California at the end of 2020 to take on this project. Austin Carr ’16, ’17 MS was my first hire. He’s the president and runs day-to-day operations. He’s the younger, smarter version of me and has a lot of energy. Tre Demps ’15 is our director of basketball. Bardia Kimiavi ’21, ’22 MA, who had a great soccer career at Northwestern, is the sporting director. My good friend Paul Burton ’96, ’98 MS is on our board along with Lisa Byington ’98, ’99 MS, who is now a sports broadcaster.  

We’ve had so many Northwestern alums support us financially, it’s hard to name them all. One true champion for this mission who really stands out is Steve Wilson ’70, ’74 MBA. Northwestern football coach Dave Braun was here the other day, as well.  

In the early days, when everything was under construction, I needed a playable space to do some soccer clinics. So I reached out to alums from the Northwestern soccer network and said, “Hey, I’m trying to resurface this parking lot …” and those guys helped me raise $35,000 basically overnight.  

We’ve also had a ton of student-athletes volunteer with us. It’s good for them to get out of the Northwestern bubble and see what’s going on in the real world.   

You’ve had some high-profile sports stars visit the facility. How did you make that happen?  

We call in a lot of favors! On the baseball side, Intentional Sports is home to the Jason Heyward Baseball Academy. Last year, when Jason was on the Los Angeles Dodgers, he brought Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman and these soon-to-be World Series winners to visit Intentional Sports.  

Jason joined the San Diego Padres this season, and when they were in Chicago to play against the Cubs, he said, “I think I can bring a couple of the guys,” and then in walks the entire starting lineup for the Padres. To see these kids react around Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado — that’s a life-changing memory. These are their heroes. 

What are some signs of success?  

Growth is a big one. The good news and the bad news is that we were packed this winter. We’d have people call and ask, “Is there any field time this weekend?” And from 6 a.m. to almost midnight on Saturdays and Sundays, we couldn’t fit anyone else in. We were filled to capacity. 

We’ve had people ask us, “Hey, can you do this in Indianapolis? Can we do this in Philadelphia? Can we do this in Detroit, in Washington D.C., in Northern California?” … Never once has anyone looked at me and said, “I think this a bad idea.” The business of youth sports is now $38 billion a year industry, and it’s just getting more expensive and more exclusive instead of inclusive. We’re trying to answer that.    

Are you still making movies?  

We’re actually filming a movie this fall called Chicago Nobodies. It’s a story that’s been in my head for years, and it mirrors the Intentional Sports story a bit. It’s about a ragtag group of boys who are good soccer players on the West Side of Chicago. They try out for the big club, but they can’t afford it. So two of them end up recruiting players and making their own team and enter the big Chicago Cup. It’s a little bit The Sandlot, a little Hoosiers. We’re going to film a lot of it at Intentional Sports this summer. It’ll be an all-local production with a lot of local kids and a couple of big-name actors from my time in Los Angeles. It’s a low-budget film, but I think it’s going to make a big splash. 

Andy McDermott lives in Palatine, Ill. He and his wife have two sons and two daughters.