Santa Ana Winds FC
Southern California is stacked with talented players and have more great teams than we can shake a stick at – however, we were fortunate enough to get a reply to our request for more info from Marco Paniagua, head coach, of the UPSL’s Santa Ana Winds FC. We wanted to know the usual “when did you start” kinda stuff, but we also wanted to know what makes them tick. Winds FC, founded in 2006, started their play in the SoCal Premier League, but moved to NPSL in 2011. They’ve qualified for the US Open Cup (2018) and have even moved a player on to an international professional club (Juan Arellano). However, they left NPSL after only one year and have been in the UPSL ever since.
What is the mission of the club?
To promote, administer, develop, encourage opportunities and foster an environment for the participation of soccer players, staff and faculty to actively be involved in recreational, Social and competitive soccer whilst maintaining a community and family environment through the concept of “soccer for all”
Are you directly linked with youth teams?
Yes, but not in the USA, we are expanding the franchise internationally, we just opened our first soccer academy in Costa Rica and we have close to 100 kids between the age 4-12, additional we have the U13, U15, U17 and PRIMERA DE LINAFA. As of right now we had made the right decision and we are moving in the right direction and great results are showing. We have excellent staffing working and developing the academy.
Santa Ana Winds FC have competed in the SoCal Premier, NPSL, and now in the UPSL.
How many of those players break into the UPSL side?
As of right now, no youth players have broken into the UPSL from Winds FC, but slowly start getting a lot of this players into this league, we have to mention that UPSL has done a tremendous job in all areas and expanding nationally. This league will become one of the most important leagues for USA Soccer.
If the UPSL players don't come through the youth team, where do you draw players from?
Most of Our players come locally. Since 2017 when we became a bigger group and working with Jose Lopez- currently GM, Enrique Rosas- Assistant Head Coach, Jorge Adame,- Goalkeeper Coach, Edgar Barraza- Soccer Operation Coordinator, Leonel Lopez President and myself (Marco Paniagua) as Head Coach and Sport Manager, we changed our model, and we decided to work with young players (18-23) and put a process together for 3 year to became one of the best teams in the area. We decide to focus on an exchange development program for each player. Basically, we develop all our players to become professional, better player and a better person, of course with the option of jumping to the next level and became a professional baller.
Winds FC’s Juan Arellano was recently invited to join Club Sport Cartaginés of the Costa Rican Primera División.
Financing the team is so important for non-MLS teams; how do you do it? Do you have fans coming to the games, buying tickets and shirts, or do you mostly work with local sponsors?
We have a few sponsors that help to cover a portion of the financial situation, but the reality is that is not easy to maintain a soccer team, another portion is cover by all the partners: SCORE and DE LEON TRANSPORT INC.
Yes, we have fans and we have a great sponsor that provides all the equipment that a professional team needs to perform, as right now we don’t sell tickets and t shits but is an ongoing project for next season since we have everything to do it.
Part of the problem with player development in the US is that highly talented kids cannot afford club fees - does Winds FC do anything to reach out to underprivileged players?
Yes, we are aware of this situation, as mentioned before, our model is based on a development program to become a better person and better player and the most important part is become a professional baller, like we did with Juan Arellano back in 2018 when we transfer him to Club Sport Cartagines from COSTA RICA, at the moment they had Paulo Wanchope as Head Coach, one of the international soccer Legends. Something important to mention about our model is that we don’t charge any player and we don’t pay any player; they understand the great opportunity they have at winds FC. Part of this exchange program is that we have the relation with countries like Costa Rica, Denmark, Portugal, South Korea, USA, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Chile, Argentina, Colombia and others.
With Women's Soccer becoming more and more important, do you have any girls’ squads and any interest in having a women's side in the future?
This a great topic and even we don’t have any woman squads yet here, we are working on getting the first girls’ team in Costa Rica. We believe that this a future project for us.
Been there, done that, Santa Ana Winds FC are earning a reputation as a winning organization.