USL League Two has announced a handful clubs who will be new to the league in 2022, when we saw the beautiful badge and brilliant original kits by Inaria, we knew we had to reach out to Ballard FC, from Seattle, and learn more about them. Sam Zisette answered the call, ran our question past co-founders Lamar Neagle and Chris Kaimmer, and gave us a wonderful interview about their incoming club.

You're a brand-new club starting play in 2022, but when did the concept of Ballard FC begin? Who was in the room and what prompted the founding of the club?
Ballard FC began as an idea around 2017 after I played for AFC Ann Arbor and was kicked around in my mind for a few years as I continued to pursue a playing career. Playing for AFCAA, CD Almunecar City in Spain, Sounders U23, and the Tacoma Stars was an inspiration for me to one day start a club in my community. Ballard is a neighborhood in Seattle with a ton of history and a unique pride of place and it just felt right for Ballard to have a team of its own. I reached out to Lamar to see if he wanted to get involved and we quickly got to work on stadium plans, branding, and everything else. A few months later we were introduced to Chris and then that's where our group of co-founders came together, each of us bringing a unique background to help build the club together. What really has prompted us and inspired us to build Ballard FC is to give players opportunities, fans something positive to engage with, and kids a source of inspiration and joy.

It's been announced that you'll kickoff in USL2 this season; did you consider any local or regional leagues to warm-up in? What helped the front office decide on this league specifically?
We always planned on pursuing USL2. There are other great leagues, but we felt that USL2 is the gold standard of non-professional soccer and the USL in general has built a tremendous structure for soccer clubs at all levels. The league has a solid foundation and professionalism that we thought were crucial for us when thinking about both the short and long term. The USL was also really helpful for us and continues to be a great resource as we build this club from scratch, none of us have ever been a part of something like this so having that support from the league has been crucial.

Sam Zisette, Chris Kaimmer, and former Seattle Sounder, Lamar Neagle

One of the great things about USL2 is the possibility of playing beyond the regular season and meeting up with clubs outside of your division; who are you most looking forward to playing within the regular season and if you could dream, what clubs would you hope to play against in the playoffs?
There are amazing clubs across USL2 that we really look up to and are huge inspirations for us. We're looking forward to playing every club in the NW Division but if I had to pick one, I'd say Timbers U23s because of how great of a season they had last year. For playoffs, AFC Ann Arbor would be one and having played there myself that would be extra special. A few other clubs we would dream of playing in the playoffs would be Minneapolis City, Vermont Green, Flint City, and Project 510 but there are many others.

Are you a part of a youth organization or do you partner with one to provide an adult end of the development funnel? Where else do you draw your talented players from?
We are not part of a youth organization and we do not currently have a youth partner for player development; however, we do have a partnership with Ballard Youth Soccer where we will work together to provide free soccer clinics to youth players in Ballard and amplify the great work they do to increase access to soccer in our community. Our players will be mostly local college players as we have some incredible programs in UW, SU and SPU and many talented players who are from Seattle and play at top schools around the country. We'll also round out our roster with some ex-pros and younger HS players.

Lower league soccer is chock full of clubs playing the merch game; you look like you already got started with your great branding and colorways. What inspired the badge, name, and colors? And what kind of swag do we have to look forward to?
Ballard is a beautiful neighborhood with a rich maritime history, so we always planned for that to be a part of our brand with waves and the Ballard Bridge. Our colorways are inspired by sunsets in Ballard that in the summer are truly amazing, particularly overlooking the Puget Sound and Olympic Mountains. We also wanted our badge and colors to feel timeless, so we went with something a little more retro. We have swag available and lots more to come! Our inaugural home jersey is available for pre-order, and we also have scarves, t-shirts, hats, sweaters and flags. Our away jersey will be coming out soon as well and we'll have a lot of new items coming out before the season kicks off.

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