New Glarus resident and Madison’s Millennium Soccer Club president Haley Brisky is one of the five finalists nationwide for the 2026 United Soccer League Hometown Heroes Award presented by Best Western Hotels and Resorts. This award recognizes individuals from across the country who are using soccer to impact their communities.
She was nominated for this award by Forward Madison FC due to her dedication as the president of Millennium Soccer Club. This nonprofit organization makes youth soccer accessible for all children, regardless of financial circumstances.
“[Millennium Soccer Club] has been around since 2001, so we have second-generation players at this point, which is pretty cool. It was started just to try and make organized youth sports more accessible to more people, and has really stuck and become quite the staple in the greater Madison area because there’s a lot of kids that don’t get a chance to play, so we try to make it as accessible as possible, making it inexpensive. We use a ‘pay what you can’ model, so it’s 15 dollars each year, or free, and we don’t ask any questions when it’s people requesting scholarships,” she explained.
The Millennium Soccer Club is all about making sure everyone who wants to can play soccer and have fun, which is something Brisky is very proud of.
“It’s really great. We provide everything for the families; we try and take away transportation, so we figure out which locations need soccer and where the communities are with the greatest need and try to work with elementary schools in the area to figure that out, looking at some free and reduced lunch data, and bringing our sites to them so families don’t have to travel. So really, all our players have to do is get there, which makes it easy to play, and really that’s the point of soccer — to get out and play and be connected,” she said.
She didn’t set out for a leadership position, she really just wanted to help children however she could.
“I actually started as a teacher, and I played in some adult community soccer leagues in Madison, and there I met somebody who was involved with Millennium, and they said, okay, if you like working with kids, come and join us, so I started by just volunteering as a coach, and then I was teaching, so I helped my students connect with the program. I started managing sites, and then eventually joined the board, and now I’m running it,” she said.
Not only does she work as the president of the Millennium Soccer Club, but she also coaches youth soccer in New Glarus, specifically the Sugar River Raiders.
“I live in New Glarus and have been working with the youth teams with the club for the last six years now, just coaching my son and his peers. I also just started working with the boys’ high school program last year, so I’m just coming into my second season with that,” Brisky said.
Her favorite aspects of being a coach and the president of Millennium are the community that is fostered and being able to help as many kids as she can discover who they are, and want to be through sports.
“I like the community aspect of sports in general. I think it’s a great tool to bring people together. When you think about the people you meet and the ways that you connect in the throes of competition or trying to make yourself better in a new skill, I think my favorite part of coaching is really helping kids figure themselves out and help them take charge of what they want to be in general, and set some goals out on the soccer field, and then build teams that really take care of each other and help each other reach those goals. I think that’s a really beautiful part of all this, and that’s my motivation with Millennium — to make sure that all kids get that opportunity because youth sports especially provides such a safe place for kids to try on different things and confront different real-world problems, but in a very safe and low-stakes situation. I really like being involved in that piece about growing yourselves as a human, but I also really like winning,” she laughed.
Getting this recognition of the Hometown Heroes Award is shocking to her, but she ultimately appreciates that it shines a light on Millennium Soccer Club and all they do.
“Kind of odd, honestly. I definitely didn’t expect or need or hope for the recognition. I really like the spotlight it puts on Millennium because I think there’s really great work happening that we can do bigger and better and in more places, so that’s been really wonderful. On a personal end, it’s really nice to be appreciated, so I like how it’s been feeling, and I like the attention for the club,” she said.
Brisky is proud of the communities she’s a part of and the ways in which they help kids connect with soccer.
“We have such a wonderful community in New Glarus and Belleville, and Monticello too, with the youth program. We just have a wonderful youth club that really has excellent values when it comes to making sure all kids get to play, so I’m really grateful to be part of that. It’s nice that it’s happening for families in a very meaningful way,” she said.
