A Powderkeg of Potential

Fort Wayne, Indiana is a small city in a flyover state in an often overlooked part of the country. But soccer fans around the USL are about to discover that our city is one of the best kept soccer secrets in the states. Our youth soccer teams compete every year on the national stage. We have sent players, both men and women, to compete for their national teams at the youth and senior levels. And Fort Wayne Football Club has done nothing but win the last three seasons in USL League Two. We know soccer in Fort Wayne and we play to win.

Ollie Gage, Sporting Director, and Head Coach, Mike Avery may very well have assembled the youngest, most inexperienced, and most dangerous team in the league this season. With an average age of barely 24 years (once the final roster spots are announced), this roster is young and hungry and full of fire power. Leading the way on the attack will be Lilian Ricol and Clarence Awoudor, teammates from the University of Central Florida who put up a combined 20 goals and 19 assists last season en route to a Sunbelt Conference Championship and a second round appearance in the NCAA tournament. Add to that attack, Jack Thomas (2025 NAIA Player of the Year), who put up 20 goals and 12 assists of his own last season at LSU Shreveport. Maybe you’ve also heard of Ryan Becher who tucked 9 balls into the back of the net for Union Omaha last season.

By the way, if you’re counting, that’s 49 goals out of just 4 players that would have put them among the best goal scoring teams in the league in 2025. And we haven’t even mentioned Taig Healy (NC State) and Daniel Oyetunde (Arsenal Academy) who have proven to be clutch scorers in their own right.

As potent as that attack could be, true to any Mike Avery coached team, it will start with a stingy back line that won’t give opponents many chances to get in on goal. Returners Tiago Dias and Reid Sproat are good in the air, good with their feet and always looking to break you down with a single pass over the top or straight through the middle. But they have added the height of Columbian defender, Juan Solís (6’8”) and the experience of long time pro, James Musa to shore up any potential gaps that could exist in the middle, thus freeing up outside backs Hernandez, Rempel and Smith to get up field and involved in the goal-scoring party on the other end of the pitch.

Fort Wayne FC may be unproven but they are a powder keg of potential. So if you are searching for a team to support this season, open your map, find Fort Wayne and put a pin in it.