When was the club founded, has it always been OVF Alliance, and what is the mission of the organization?
Oregon Valley Futbol Alliance (OVF Alliance for short) was started in 2014 as TFA Willamette through an affiliation agreement with Total Futbol Academy out of Los Angeles, CA to bring the "total futbol" player development methodologies to the Willamette Valley. I (Logan Hoffman) was hired in 2015 to lead the club, and we've since grown from roughly 90 youth players to over 600 from U3-U23. While we still believe in purposeful possession and "total futbol" as core tenants of our player development curriculum, our club developed its own unique culture, and in March 2020 made the decision to end our affiliation with TFA and rebrand ourselves as OVF Alliance to better reflect our positioning and club culture.

Our vision is to build a soccer community in Oregon's Willamette Valley with the resources, infrastructure, and focus necessary to create an aligned player development pathway (U3-U23 and beyond) which enables all of our players to develop to their maximum potential as players and young adults. OVF Alliance recognizes that every player's level of play and ambition is different, but there should be a place for every player within our Alliance soccer family. A place where each player's development - physical, mental, social, and spiritual - can be nurtured to help him or her grow to full potential.

Oregon is fortunate enough to have a handful of great clubs to play for, why would a player decide to join OVF; are you committed to growing players' on field skills as well as an off the field community presence?
At the youth level in the state there is an extreme focus on winning, even at the youngest age groups. I think we are one of the only clubs that truly makes player development our number one priority. Sure we have teams that are playing in and winning games at the highest youth levels in the state, but we see winning as a by-product of good player development, not as the end goal itself. Our player pool relative to other clubs in large metro areas like Portland, Salem, and Eugene is limited, so we have to do a better job at developing each individual player. We can't just throw them away for the next kid if they aren't good enough, because in our communities (Benton, Linn, and Polk Counties) there often isn't another kid to pull in.

It's not uncommon for us to have a mediocre team results-wise at U11, U12, U13 that by U17, U18, U19 is one of the top teams in the state. This is a product of our long-term focus on player development over winning in the short term, and can be seen in the large number of players we push on to college and our senior level USL L2 team.

At the USL L2 level, players should be looking to play for us because they are proud of their Oregon roots, and are looking for a club that puts its focus on providing a platform to Oregon-based players that don't get that platform elsewhere. While other teams in the league bring in mercenaries from around the country every summer, our player recruitment model for our USL L2 team is 100 percent Oregon. About 50 percent of our roster will be homegrown players who came up through our youth system. The other 50 percent will be players that have a clear connection to the state. They were born here, raised here, go to college here, etc. If you're comparing it to the model of pro clubs around the world, it's very in line with what Athletico Bilbao has always done to build their roster.

I know a lot of people don't view youth soccer clubs in the same way as other nonprofits, but at least for our club we feel we have a critical responsibility to help develop our communities. Currently we partner with the Boys & Girls Club of Albany and the Mid-Willamette YMCA on youth programming, help with after school programming at one of the local high schools, and are even working in partnership with the YMCA to build a sports complex that will be our club's future home. You can learn more about that project here: https://www.ovfalliance.com/facilities. We still have some money to raise, so feel free to donate!

One of our favorite community partners is Jackson Street Youth Services, an organization that works with at-risk youth in preventing youth homelessness. We run a TOPSoccer program in partnership with them for youth with disabilities, and several of our youth players have used their services over the years when things have gotten difficult at home. We're currently featuring Jackson Street on the front of our USL L2 jerseys, and 50% of the proceeds are going directly back to them. Those go on sale next week in the lead-up to our USL L2 season opener.

Alternatively, a couple of teams in Oregon have even started to grow a supporters base - do you have any fans or are you considering trying to make the club attractive to potential fans? Are there scarves and kits, etc... available?
We've got a built in fan base of 600 youth players and their families, but we've also been working to grow a community fan base since becoming a member of USL League Two in 2019, we have a supporters group the Blue Brigade (you can find them on Facebook and join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/449525145965581) who's been great, but unfortunately with COVID and timing of everything, it has been a little limiting in their interactions.

We do have an online fan store (https://winwithnoble.printavo.com/merch/OVFAlliance/) where you can purchase all sorts of swag like scarves, jerseys, etc., and we've got a number of fan engagement events planned at our USL L2 home games throughout the summer. COVID has made it much harder, but we are definitely working to provide a good fan experience at our games.

For 2021 you've joined the USL L2 - has this always been the play or is it temporary? What do you look for in a league?
When I was hired in 2015 the club was really struggling, and I laid out a comprehensive strategic plan for our board to lead the club forward. Part of that plan was creating an end goal - collegiate soccer opportunities and a senior level team in the club - for our youth players as part of our player pathway. In our 2017 and 2018 graduating classes we had a total of 32 boys go on to play collegiate soccer, so we wanted to start the process with them and put together a team over the summer for them to come home to play with. We ran a 10-game exhibition season for the players, and they did remarkably well, finishing 7-3 against USL, NPSL, EPLWA, and UPSL squads and making it all the way to the final of the first Oregon Open Cup.

So having a team in some sort of structured, senior-level league was always the goal, yes. USL L2 wasn't always the vision, but our success in 2018 caught the eye of USL leadership, and I'm so happy that's where we've landed. The professionalism and structure of the league and staff relative to the other options out there, as well as the level of competition, is difficult to beat. Before we were in touch with the USL we reached out to the NPSL and EPLWA about expansion opportunities, and never even got a response.

With our model being focused on homegrown and Oregon players and providing them a platform they wouldn't get otherwise, I think USL L2 is a perfect fit for our club.

Next up for us is finding a league for our senior women's team in 2022, and we're currently exploring options for that.

Putting together a competitive women’s side as well…

Are you associated with, or operate your own, youth soccer club? Are these top men's and women's teams, shown to the youth players as the end of the development funnel? Like, can they earn their way to those top squads through merit?
I think I've probably covered this above, but at our core we are a non-profit youth club that's simply looked for ways to extend our impact for our players, and we landed in USL L2 as part of that. Every year at the youth level our goal is to develop 5-6 players that can step on the field in USL L2 and thrive. We regularly start 4-5 homegrowns every game with the senior team, and we just gave two 17 year olds their senior team debut during our 2-1 preseason win vs. Oregon FC (USASA). Another homegrown player scored the game-winning goal during our 1-0 preseason win over IPS FC (NPSL).

You've been developing a women's squad - what does 2021 look like for the team and where do you see it in the future?
We have been developing a women's squad. It's always been a goal of ours to provide equitable opportunity to both genders, but when I took over the club in 2015 we didn't have any girls teams in the younger age groups. So it's been a real grassroots effort to get to this point. Our girls that are now seniors in high school I actually coached on the very first girls team for the club back in fall 2015. They were a U13 team playing in the OYSA Division 2 league at that point. They finished this year as U18 OYSA Premier League finalists, and OYSA State Cup semi-finalists. That group is the core we are building our future women's team around, but we'll also invite in some girls we've pushed onto college in recent years to give some more experience to the group.

Summer 2021 they'll play in a number of events including the first Women's Oregon Open Cup. It will be a challenge for them against older, experienced players, but that's often the best way to learn. We're hoping to find a formal league for them in summer 2022.

Is there anything I missed? Anything you want to add?
I think you've captured everything. We're excited about the future of our club at the youth and senior levels, as well as the impact we're having in the community. We are proud to be a team and club of Oregonians for Oregonians, and we hope people around the state will rally around this model and the opportunity we are providing to players here.

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