When was the club founded, by whom, and what was the mission?
Soccer has always been a popular sport in Ludlow, MA, especially at soccer specific Lusitano Stadium, which is owned by the Gremio Lusitano Club. Quality soccer is expected and ingrained in the sporting culture here.

In 1997 Club leadership was approached by the USISL to see if we would be interested in fielding a team. Gremio Lusitano Club president Celso Correia (who also has a long history playing for the Club, even representing the Gremio Lusitano for Open Cup games) talked about this call over espresso at the Club with Club players (and future Pioneers players) Steve Scott and Brad Miller. Brad told Celso that “he doesn’t have the cajones to start a team in the USISL”. The challenge was accepted, and the Western Mass Pioneers were created the next day, and started League play in 1998.

While we don’t have an official mission, the goal of the Pioneers is to field a competitive soccer team and give the fans an enjoyable game day experience for all of Western Mass and beyond. We want to show case our players and help them develop to get to the next level.

How has the club and that mission, or purpose, evolved since its inception?
I think our goal has been and is to field the most competitive soccer team we can. All our resources get poured back into the team. Our goal every year is to qualify for the post season, and qualify for the US Open Cup. Of course, things are always changing, so our organization has to be flexible to survive. Next year will be our 25th season playing – which is a testament to our strength as an organization, our standing in our community, and to our faithful fans.

What league(s) do you currently play in and is that where you started? How often does the club re-evaluate their league situation?
We started play in 1998 in the USISL D-3 Pro League, which morphed into the USL Second Division. In 1999, we won the USL D-3 Pro League championship, which was huge for our new team. Our organization is still chasing the next USL championship. 2005 was another good year in the USL Second Division, where we were regular season champions, were finalists, and hosted the National Championship match. It was heartbreaking losing the championship at home in PKs vs. the Charlotte Eagles.

Around 2004 we started losing regional teams, most teams that left joined the pre-professional USL PDL (now USL League Two). In 2009, we had to make an organizational change. Travel, on top of player salaries, became too much. We decided to join the USL PDL in 2010, now the USL League Two. It has been good for our organization – the quality of soccer is high, it is great to have regional rivals, and there is less financial stress than fielding a team with professional players. We are happy competing in the USL League Two, if there is any complaint is that the season is very short (May to July).

What community do you serve and are involved in anything off the pitch?
We try our best to aid our community. We help local charities like Ludlow Cares, we have had fund raiser soccer games, he have partnered with the Jimmy Fund, and we have a new sponsor with the Melha Shriners, to help raise money for the Shriners Children’s New England Hospital, a cause that is also important to me. We have had blood drives. Basically if any charity wants to visit and fund raise, we will do our best to support and accommodate them.

Do you have youth programming or do you work with youth clubs? If so, do those players feel like they are part of a funnel? Do they look at your first team and aspire to play there?
Our youth organization is the Western United Pioneers, which is a non-profit organization. There has been a greater growth between our two organizations over the past several years. At one point in the past, we only had a small connection, and separate uniforms. But that has changed since our longtime head coach Federico Molinari became the Western United Pioneers director of coaching. He has implemented the same coaching philosophies between our League Two team and Western United. It seems we have more players rising from Western United to practice with and join our League Two team. And I have to assume this will continue. We have many fans that played for the youth organization, and came to our games as children with their families, now they are adults, and are enrolling their children with Western United, and bringing them to our League Two games on the weekend. It’s special to see that continuity.

Where does your first team draw its players from; local talent, college, internationals?
To be successful, you need to get lucky with all three. It seems like the quality of players is cyclical, so you have to recruit from all three. We can only house so many players, so we try to get the best young international talent we can take care of. More and more of the best international players also play college in the USA, especially D2 and D3, so it’s identifying them and seeing if they are good fits for our team. Then we rely on strong local college players, they often have housing lined up, and of course any strong local players, including the Western United Pioneers. A team really needs to feed off all of these, and have these pipelines established. Successful players want to play for successful teams, so we have been advantageous in that regard. Coach Molinari has built a culture here, and it’s great to see our most talented players buy into it an return multiple years.

How has this season gone so far? What successes have there been and where can you improve?
We started out our League play a little rocky, losing twice in the first three games. Now we are on a 8 game winning streak, and need only a couple points out of three games to clinch the playoffs. The season is so short you have to win as much as possible to make the post season. We just have to keep scoring goals, protect our box, and listen to Coach Molinari. Last year we lost in the semifinals, which was a little heart breaking, seeing how hard our team played and how hard our game day staff worked. Hopefully another year of hard work pays off, and we can bring the League Two championship back to Western Mass with us.

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