Dirigo Deep Dives: Kate Points

The first profile in our Deep Dives series is DU member Kate Points!

Welcome to Dirigo Deep Dives, a series of DU member profiles that takes us beyond our love for Maine and its professional soccer team. When yours truly, Deep Diver, joined Dirigo Union and witnessed the numbers, enthusiasm, and variety, she thought there must be many diverse personal stories, journeys, and characters behind the blue-green sea and pink smoke emerging from Fitzy’s sections 119 and 120. Dirigo Union has already proved itself USL1’s strongest supporters club by showcasing our collective spirit. Dirigo Deep Dives is a chance to get to know the individual spirits that make us so much more than the sum of our parts. And what parts! Our first installment introduces us to Kate Points, a perfect example of one who might be sitting next to you at Hearts games and whose story is deep and fascinating. So welcome to Deep Dives! If you’d like to volunteer to be profiled in future Newsletter issues, please let Deep Diver know by responding to this email!

DIRIGO DEEP DIVES #1: KATE POINTS

Our inaugural Dirigo Deep Dive introduces us to fellow FC Original Kate Points. You can find her on game days in the Zoo with husband Micah and 10-year-old son, Franklyn. Deep Diver plopped herself down next to Kate and discovered a fan who is friendly and welcoming to a complete stranger. And she remembered that woman and her name at the next game! Kate Points is definitely worthy of the Newsletter’s first deep dive, as she models what drew Deep Diver to Dirigo Union: really friendly people who love soccer, especially the particular brand played by the likes of Evan Southern and Sean Vinberg, Kate’s and Franklyn’s favorite players (more on that later).

What you wouldn’t guess about Kate could fill a dissertation, maybe even the one that she wrote in the field of sociolinguistics. The revelation of her impressive academic roots took us down the rabbit hole of whether split infinitives and sentences starting with object pronouns like “me” deserve jail time (Deep Diver) or represent normal language evolution that language snobs (again, DD) like to judge. In this debate it’s Kate: 1, Deep Diver: 0. She sealed it with this beauty shot from the corner: “I don’t care if it’s ‘less or fewer’ than 10 items in the checkout lane. I just care if you have 12 items.”

Kate’s story is dear to those to whom Maine is dear. A coastal Massachusetts native (before any state-themed insults leap to mind, think of her as a fellow New Englander), she built lives in the Midwest and Texas as an adult. Deep Diver verged on asking something geographically chauvinistic like “How on earth could a New Englander survive in Texas??,” but the Heart gods reminded her that “Bobby is from Texas, so show a little compassion.” Still, we love that Kate and her family fairly engineered their return to the finest state in the Union cause, settling in Sanford and hoping to one day make it closer to the salt water. We are especially impressed that Kate, a longtime teacher, now works at the New Mainers Resource Center in Portland. She assists new Mainers in overcoming barriers to education, employment, and housing. How cool is that?!

Back to what you couldn’t guess about this DU member: She was a competitive figure skater for years, a public-school teacher for years, and a resident of Kuala Lumpur for a year. She and Micah lived just blocks from the famed Petronas twin towers. Fitzy’s architectural value may pale in comparison, but Deep Diver didn’t see anyone in Kate’s family complaining.

Kate enjoys attending matches with her husband Micah and son Franklyn

What about soccer, you ask? Kate and her family deliver. “We’re a soccer family,” she announced with confidence. “Franklyn has been a season ticket holder his whole life.” As soon as he could walk, Micah and Franklyn were at the local park, kicking around a truncated icosahedron. They were thrilled to hear of the Hearts’ founding and bought season tickets as soon as they went on sale. Kate was more discerning when it came to joining Dirigo Union. She learned in Texas (and no doubt from disturbing reports from Europe) that supporters’ clubs are not always the kindest or child-friendly. “We don’t care about cuss words, Franklyn can use the “F” word in appropriate settings,” she explains, but some clubs employ racist and sexist chants, something she and her family sought to avoid. After some research and observation (remember the Ph.D.?). she and the family joined Dirigo Union. Her studied opinion on DU? “It’s been so great how positive it is.”

The choices of Evan Southern and Sean Vinberg as favorite players intrigued Deep Diver, who gushes for the pretty obvious Ollie Wright. Kate’s story is at once beautiful and totally Maine, totally Hearts, and totally Dirigo Union: Franklyn enrolled in an April Seacoast United soccer camp. Southern and Vinberg worked the camp and gained Franklyn’s affection. “Evan and Sean can do no wrong” in the Points household. During the high-fives after games, both players recognize and connect with Franklyn. Vinberg remembers Franklyn’s interest in Pokemon and asks him about it. “That’s why they’re our favorites,” Kate explains, “because they care about the fans.” We’re with you, Points family. The players love us and Dirigo Union loves them back in spades! Or rather, in HEARTS!