Iron City FC aims to improve members as players and people

The setting was modest, but the cause was noble.

Mere minutes after England defeated France in an epic World Cup third-place match in Miami Gardens, Florida, fewer than a dozen players took to a soggy practice field under dark clouds at the Schenley Oval in Squirrel Hill.

Some members of Iron City FC might have missed practice to watch the game. But that’s fine. There will be plenty more opportunities because, beginning August 1, the burgeoning travel team will have two dedicated practice fields at the Oval.

Dremar "DJ" Everette, founder of Iron City FC, plans a 36- to 55-game schedule from August to May for its second season. Iron City's recently launched "Dead Air 412 Academy," comprised of three teams for youth ages 7 to 18, won't play its first game until next year. In the meantime, Everette will allow those players to train for free under coach Ilklas “Reggie” Davis. After that, the cost will be a fraction of the thousands of dollars common for travel soccer clubs – Everette has set the number at $600.

“A lot of those kids are kids from the inner city who’ve never even seen or played with a soccer ball before,” said Everette, 27, of Wilkinsburg, who played two years of football, not soccer, at Mercyhurst University as an imposing 6-5, 270-pound defensive lineman before earning his associate’s degree. “So, we have to get them accustomed to soccer.”

In that time, he also needs to bolster the academy’s numbers so he can field U-11 (ages 7-10), U-15 (11-14) and U-19 (15-18) teams. A partnership with Hosanna House in Wilkinsburg, where Everette was involved growing up, is a possibility.

A deeply personal undertaking

To understand what drives Iron City FC, it’s helpful to know its founder and what drives him.

Iron City FC rose from the ashes of despair a year and a half ago after Everette found himself homeless in Indiana, Pa., where he had been working as a pharmacy tech at Rite Aid while also pursuing a career as an amateur boxer on the side.

“I took about three, four fights. … Down-on-your-luck boxers, you know. You get to zero dollars in your bank account, negative dollars in your bank account, and that’s what happened to me,” Everette said.

“I was training and not thinking.”

But this was also when his love for soccer struck him like a Neymar boot. (Neymar is a Brazilian soccer star and Everette’s favorite player.)

“Yeah, my love of football (as soccer is known everywhere except the United States) came from me being homeless, a down-on-my-luck guy, and I was watching Neymar clips that, even to this day, bring a smile to my face that I will never be able to understand.

“And from that point on, I just fell in love with the game.”

It was apparent not only to Everette but also to those around him after moving back home to Wilkinsburg to live with his mom.

“I was working a construction job, and a few guys who were immigrants came over and asked me to coach them. And that’s how Iron City originally started,” he said.

Today, Everette works two jobs as a pharmacy tech and certified nursing assistant in addition to coaching Iron City FC’s first team, which for now is made up mostly of adults with and without previous soccer experience.

Of its 15 members, 12 are immigrants from countries in South America, Africa and the Middle East. Everette and Davis connected with and recruited them through pickup games, social media and advertised tryouts.

It’s not just about soccer

The first thing Everette talks about when discussing Iron City FC with a reporter is his desire to make elite travel soccer more accessible by lowering its costs. A man who once was homeless says he has spent $20,000 to $30,000 of his own money subsidizing the program in the past year and a half.

But Everette doesn’t dream small. If Iron City FC were just about soccer, that wouldn’t be enough.

A spin through Iron City’s social media reveals an all-encompassing approach to how he wants to help people inside and outside the organization while raising awareness in Pittsburgh of injustices around the world.

“At Iron City FC, our badge represents more than competition,” reads a post from just after midnight on July 23. “It represents people. No matter where suffering happens — whether through war, disaster, displacement, poverty, or crisis — we believe every human life has value and dignity.”

It’s not just talk, either. There’s tangible action coming out of Iron City FC.

In June, it sponsored the “Kicks for Lebanon” community soccer tournament featuring eight teams competing in a World Cup format at the Pitt Sports Dome. Nearly $2,000 in proceeds and donations benefited families displaced by fighting in southern Lebanon.

Iron City FC will sponsor regular community pickup games from 8-11 p.m. at its practice fields at the Schenley Oval. The cost is $5 per player, and it benefits the program.

On Aug. 22, a Community Day and night soccer tournament dubbed “Midnight Cup” will be held at a location to be determined.

All players in the youth academy will be required to complete 10 hours of community service during the season.

Then there’s “DeadAir 412,” Iron City’s media arm and the inspiration for Dead Air 412 Academy.

“Dead Air 412 is the 412’s raw media engine — filming, podcasting and tearing into culture with no filters,” its Facebook page says. “This is the home of Dead Air: The Forge Frequency, our gritty dive into media and Iron City FC’s heartbeat.”

The first “Honey Lounge” podcast is scheduled to drop in August, hosted by entrepreneur and podcaster Hugh “Yogi” Walker, a close friend of Davis’, the youth coach and first team’s captain, and Steph Weez, two more characters under Iron City FC’s umbrella.

“The home for everything Iron City FC and beyond,” Dead Air 412 wrote on Instagram in announcing Honey Lounge. “From club news, media updates, transfer talks, match coverage, player stories, culture conversations, artist interviews, and the voices shaping Pittsburgh’s creative scene.”

Yes, Iron City FC is about way more than soccer.

Back to the pitch

Only two players on Iron City FC's roster, including Davis, 20, of Duquesne, return from the club's inaugural campaign, a 20-game schedule of local tournaments and friendlies that saw it win between six and eight games — Everette wasn’t exactly sure how many. The makeup of the schedule depends on whether he is able to get Iron City FC a spot in an American Premier Soccer League conference and how many cash-prize tournaments the club can enter.

The cost for the season will be $360, again a fraction of the thousands of dollars other travel teams cost. Payment plans also are available for those in need.

“The kids that I had last year — amazing kids. Talent was probably even better than this year’s team,” Everette said.

But it also wasn’t a good fit, something for which he took responsibility.

“I don’t think they understood how serious it was,” he said. “I think they thought it was just a rec team. … That is a young person’s and a young coach’s and a young owner’s mistake.

“And it happens, you know?”

Everette has his work cut out for him this year, too. He readily admits he has to mesh experienced and inexperienced players, young players with not-so-young players.

He will lean heavily on Davis, a talented player who has been instrumental in recruiting players for the first team. He started playing in the fourth grade.

“I fell in love with it. I got deeper into football, and I wanted to see where I could go with it. … I wasn’t the best, but I definitely had my moments,” Davis said.

Everette lacked a similar background when he founded Iron City FC, but like everything else in his life, he threw himself full throttle into his new craft.

“I just started doing my due diligence, doing tactics, trying to figure out how the game actually works: zones, formations, everything,” he said.

Jürgen Klopp, the former Liverpool manager, once said he watched 10,000 games to make the transition from player to coach. Everette isn’t logging games but hours and estimates he’s at 8,900 currently.

The United States Soccer Federation offers online and in-person training to certify coaches, a process that Everette said he has nearly completed and expects to finish later this year. Doing so will allow him to serve as a player/coach if he chooses.

It’s fair to question Everette’s experience, just not his effort.

He said he works 40 hours a week as a pharmacy tech and 32 as a CNA in two 16-hour shifts. The latter job has significant downtime that allows him to work on Iron City FC. Otherwise, the club consumes his off hours, even at the expense of sleep — he said he has never needed more than four to six hours a night. In all, he said he spends 80 to 120 hours a week on Iron City FC.

Wow. Is he sure about that?

“Uh, I have a log,” he said.

Finding inspiration in loss

It’s not hyperbole to say Iron City has transformed Everette’s life.

Yes, he got started after some co-workers asked if he would coach them. But talk to him long enough, and he’ll open up about where the motivation to pour untold numbers of hours into it comes from.

It became a vehicle to deal with grief.

“I want this to be understood. Iron City was not created for me to make any kind of profit. … Iron City was created off of just me wanting to honor the people in my life who passed away and [were] dear to me,” he said. “If I could put into words, it was probably the light that I needed at the end of the tunnel.”

Iron City’s Nos. 7 and 9 jerseys honor Everette’s late aunt, Candace Everette, who died from brain cancer in November 2024, two days before her 48th birthday. Many of the team jerseys have “Candy Strong” emblazoned on the back.

“My aunt was the joy of our family. She kept our family together. If it wasn’t for my aunt, half the time, our family would have never come together,” he said.

Iron City’s No. 25 jersey has a patch that honors Everette’s late father, Maurice Lindsay Sr., who went to prison and struggled with addiction but still managed to have an impact on his son.

“I’m not condoning his mistakes. But what I am saying is that man had a strongly profound way of life, a way of thinking that really reflected on me and made the person I am today,” Everette said.

Other jerseys honor a cousin who died in a fire and a 14-year-old who died in a shooting at a house party.

In all, Iron City FC offers six different jerseys for players on the field: one home, one away and four alternates. Goalkeepers have three. Custom patches are available for players who wish to spread a message or honor someone in their lives.

In addition, Iron City FC just landed a sponsorship with a Wilkinsburg company called Emperor Athletics to supply the team with track suits, training gear and one of the goalkeeper uniforms.

The sponsorship is a validation of the work Everette, Davis and all those associated with Iron City FC have put in. Ultimately, it’s not about the game. It's about the power of the game to make people better versions of themselves.

Perhaps a section of the youth academy’s website headlined “Our Approach. Building Players. Building People” says it best.

“Unlike many clubs, we believe success isn’t measured only by wins and trophies — It’s measured by the character our players develop throughout their journey.”

The club’s founder can testify to that.

For more information about Iron City FC, Dead Air 412 Academy and their associated ventures, visit www.ironcityfc.com.

Editor’s Note: An organizer who has done support work to launch the Pittsburgh Progress is a member of Iron City FC, but the organizer did not have any part in the editorial process of this story.

This story originally published on July 27, 2026, at 8 a.m. EDT.