With the departure of Jake Edwards from the top spot at USL HQ and the hiring of Paul McDonough to fill his position, there’s a reasonable amount of uncertainty regarding how the USL will continue to operate moving forward. With Edwards leaving, it seems all the more important to focus on the leaders left in the room, most of which were installed during the Edwards’ administration. Their leadership, from the various USL leagues and programs, will be even more influential as a new era begins in Tampa.

Jeremy Alumbaugh, in early March of this year, was hired into the role of USL Championship senior vice president. Previous to being hired into the front office, Alumbaugh had been the general manager of now-defunct USL Championship club Saint Louis FC for five years, ending in 2019. After that, for the next three years, Alumbaugh served as the CEO of Chattanooga FC, currently a third tier professional club playing in NISA. While that time with CFC might be viewed as a side step for the more USL-aligned fans, he credits his time in Chattanooga as getting him his current position. “I am not sitting here in Tampa today with this opportunity, if it wasn’t for navigating a club into its first year of pro…navigating a club through a pandemic, losing your primary owner because he [Tim Kelly] won the mayor race. A lot of my experiences there are going to impact how I can work with clubs at the Championship level.”

Alumbaugh with current Chattanooga mayor, Tim Kelly.

Certainly Alumbaugh’s time at CFC was overseeing some of the biggest changes in the club’s 15 year history. The transition from amateur to pro, from NPSL to NPSL Pro to NISA, presented challenges that most Championship sides will never face in the same way. While Chattanooga FC was well-funded in comparison to many of their amateur counterparts, it did not possess the kind of funding and support that Championship sides generally have lined up upon entry to the league. Now responsible for USL Championship, Jeremy learned how to make those transitions on a shoestring budget without a safety net. As he describes it, “if I do a good job in my current position, it will be because of the lessons I learned in my two previous positions [CFC and St. Louis FC].

As Edwards’ departure from the USL organization has settled into reality, Alumbaugh highlighted what has been lost in his absence: “His leadership, institutional knowledge, and background were vital to all parts of the company and organization.” But for Jeremy, regardless of who heads the organization, his role as head of the Championship is to “get back to the intimate focus on the pro clubs.”

That intimate focus includes taking some time to “look for gaps” and for what else the organization can do to bolster clubs. When he entered into his role with the USL, Alumbaugh was surprised at the level of support already in place within Championship, but still wants to look for opportunities to expand the front office’s support.

During Jeremy’s transition into his new role with the USL, Edwards, then still President of the organization, encouraged him to put his own spin on how he leads Championship. According to Alumbaugh, Edwards was adamant that he "go out and make relationships…trust your gut, be you.” What that will mean in the long run for the league remains to be seen, but clearly the USL Championship President, now two months in position, has plans to bring his touch to the league he helms. And those plans will be directly impacted by how the league and the organization as a whole responds to the challenge from MLS.

“I can’t speak for MLS, but I know the course we’ve charted. We want to be heavily involved in communities, we want continue to grow the game leading up to 2026…We think that having only independent, non-2 teams in our league is a differentiator for us. When you walk into one of our stadiums, winning is on the front of everyone’s minds - whether thats the ownership group, the coaching staff, the supporters - that’s a huge piece.” Alumbaugh continues, “Our clubs are about being a club. They aren’t necessary looking at that game on Saturday night with a different agenda other than chasing those points…that’s what’s driving us.” At least publicly, the Championship is focused on building itself for the future and ignoring challengers, but MLS’ recent announcement regarding San Diego expansion has to be a big concern. In fact, the new southern Californian club is only the most recent addition to a long list of established USL markets facing MLS encroachment.

Alumbaugh has made the relationship-building portion of his job the priority early on, connecting with the other USL programs, particularly the Academy program, and with the clubs that populate the Championship he now leads. His experience working within previous organizations will shape his tenure at the head of the second tier of the American men’s system. Having a leader who has had to walk the walk will hopefully pay dividends for the clubs of the USL Championship looking to find a sustainable path forward.

- Dan Vaughn