MI’s Chancellor Tobin is a rising soccer star

Published 4:30 pm Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Just seven years into his soccer journey, Mercer Island’s Chancellor Tobin is playing high-level youth ball that has taken him across the United States and the globe to compete in numerous prestigious tournaments.

The stellar 12-year-old booter recently returned home after participating in the Surf Cup in San Diego, California, and the Rising Stars Cup in Washington, DC. Over the last few years, Tobin has kicked up a storm in Spain, the Netherlands and Mexico City and he recently made it through the regional tryouts for the US Olympic Development Program (ODP) U13 team in Utah in July.

Next up, Tobin will tackle the ODP U13 national tryouts in January in Florida. To get into the ODP realm, Tobin first made the Washington Elite Player Development team and had an impressive showing at a tournament in Arizona last January. He was soon ODP-bound and is ready for the next stage.

Tobin gave the Reporter a run-through about what stokes his soccer fire: “Just going to these tournaments, getting to play super good teams, scoring goals, having assists — it’s great.”

He’s learned about being aware of everything that’s happening on the soccer pitch along with becoming a leader, a quality that he can apply to sports and when he’s at school. On the teamwork front, he said, “It just brings a lot of joy out of me.”

The St. Monica Catholic rising sixth-grader loves to run and wants the ball all the time. In the future, he’d like to play professional soccer and try and make the national team.

In order to continue stepping toward those major goals, “I need to get on an MLS (Major League Soccer) Academy team and I actually need to keep working every day on new things and just keep trying to get better every day,” Tobin said.

Tobin currently plays for Crossfire Premier Soccer in Kirkland in the Elite Club National League and with EJ Futball Training — run by Ebrima Jatta — in West Seattle. While playing for EJ Futball’s B14 team at the DC tournament, Tobin scored two goals and notched three assists during his team’s dominant 3-0 run in group play; they lost, 1-0, in extra time in the quarterfinals.

Soccer entered Tobin’s life at the age of 5 when he attended coach Elliot Fauske’s Mercer Island Soccer Fun Camp.

Third-generation Island resident Charles Tobin, Chance’s dad, recalled finding out about the camp: “I’m like, all right, let’s have a chance to do this, because my kid Chancellor likes to run, and he kicked the ball at a very early age. He’s like 1-and-a-half, kicking the ball. So I was like, ‘Oh, let’s try out soccer and see if he likes it’ — and so he did.”

Charles, who graduated from Mercer Island High School in 1997, has lived on the Island for 30-plus years, played soccer at St. Monica and delved into football and wrestling in high school. Charles and his wife TiAnna’s younger son Dashiell — or Dash — also plays elite soccer at Crossfire at the age-10 level.

Charles said that Chance possesses the drive and work ethic to be a special soccer player.

“He’s fun to watch. He’s really quick and he’s got some really good footwork and he’s really accurate with his passes and shooting. He loves it,” dad said.

As the Reporter kicked the interview ball back over to Chance, he noted that players should focus on improving their game each time they step onto the pitch in matches and practices. He added, “Go out there, have fun, play as a team, and go try and win that game.”

Along with playing soccer in other countries, the traveling and sightseeing aspects of the trips are also cool, said Chance, who visited Spain twice and Mexico City once with EJ Futball and the Netherlands twice when he played for Eastside FC. For example, in Barcelona, they checked out the mammoth Sagrada Família Catholic church along with a Barcelona Champions League match and more; and in the Netherlands, they visited the Van Gogh Museum and toured the Ajax and Feyenoord soccer stadiums and more.

When the 2026 FIFA World Cup came to Seattle earlier this summer, the Tobins attended the Belgium-Senegal and Egypt-Iran matches.

“It was awesome. The Egypt-Iran game, the Egypt supporters were chanting constantly. They were cheering the whole game. They had drums and stuff. We were sitting super close to them, too. That was also a very fun game to watch,” said Chance, who noted that Spain and Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal is his favorite player and that he supports Arsenal and Barcelona.

Aside from soccer, Chance enjoys swimming and playing baseball, basketball, ping-pong and tennis. In school, physical education and math are his preferred subjects.