What's the club's origin story; who started the team and why?
Myself and Dave Taggart started the team. Our sons (Bryce Blair and Jakob Taggart) had played together since kindergarten soccer with Triway Soccer Association thru high school, and a little when on the same club team. Both played on a NOSL team (Wayne Rovers) during the initial season (2019) and they wanted a team of their own, so that they could control who was on the team. Both were headed to college to play so I started taking on a GM role and recruiting players. The shutdown in 2020 kept us from having a team last season, but we jumped right back into it over the winter and into the spring to put together our team. Everyone on the team is connected to Bryce or Jakob in some way, whether it is club, high school, college, or thru another of our players.

Just look at that badge - I love it. What inspired the name and who's responsible for that logo?
The name is one that I have wanted to use since my early teens back in the late 70s. As a young snowmobile racer back then, I wanted to have my own team and have a unique name for it. I decided on the Team Vulpine name back then, even though my dream of my own snowmobile race team never happened. Vulpine means "sly, like a fox". Hence using the fox in the logo. The logo and badge came about based on the fox and the fox colors. The logo and badge was designed by me, as I have owned my own sign company, Blair Signs, since 1981. I am a degreed Industrial Designer, but was always drawing, and that led directly to the sign business. The badge is a little different from most others, as I didn't want a typical shape badge. I like to be a little outside the norm when it comes to things like this. The marketing aspect is a big part of that.

There are a lot of leagues to choose from nowadays, why did you join the NOSL and do you plan on staying a while?
The answer to the first question, as to why we started the team, answers this one. At this time, we do intend to come back again next year, but the league took a different direction since the opening season. The first year was teams. This year, the league has added a lot of actual club teams. We are just a hand picked team, not a club. Our players are scattered out geographically, so regular practices are a hard thing to make happen. And we also do not charge the players as much to join our team as the clubs do, as we don't have the overhead or expenses they do (we aren't a business like they are), so we do it with sponsors.

According to the league website, there are only two teams in the women's division - do you plan on joining? If not, what are the obstacles to running a women's squad as well?
Being as we are just a team, and not a club, that is something that we have no interest in. This team is a personal connection between us and our players.

For a lot of lower league teams in this country, selling kits and scarves is a good way to supplement their league and field costs - where can somebody get some Team Vulpine gear and especially THAT KIT?
Team Vulpine gear is in the works. We already have window decals, bag tags (for your soccer gear bags), and license plates, but we just haven't put them up for sale to the general public yet. As far as the kit, that is another part of the process of being different from the usual soccer kit. The V shape of the graphic is the base of it (V for Vulpine) to tie it together to the team name. And the graphics and colors are also part of the marketing aspect. Kits will be coming at some point to the public, we just aren't there yet.

What does success look like for you this year? Winning it all? Just having fun?
Success vs expectations are two different things. Expectations were to be competitive and win our share of games. Success is meeting a high percentage of those expectations. Being a team playing against clubs is a tough way to go. But we have played very competitively so far, and have lost or tied games we should have won. The amount of wins aren't where we expected, but we can see how close we are. Our players have the same background as the club players, as many of them have played with, or against, those same players at the high school, club, and or college level. It's just a matter of the club teams getting in more regular training sessions.

Check out Team Vulpine on Facebook HERE