Eugene’s upcoming pro soccer club, Sporting Cascades FC, names coach

QuickTake:

Darren Sawatzky, who has for several years been head coach of the Richmond Kickers, in the same league the Sporting Cascades will enter, has deep Northwest ties, including a stint playing for the University of Portland and the Portland Timbers.

Just in time for the World Cup — and nine months before it is scheduled to take the pitch for the first time — Eugene’s new pro soccer club has found its coach.

In the latest step toward the club making its USL League One debut next March, Sporting Cascades FC announced Darren Sawatzky as the team’s manager on Monday.

Sawatzky, 53, has been head coach of USL League One’s Richmond Kickers since 2019 and arrives in Oregon with plenty of northwest ties. He is from Seattle, played at the University of Portland and later for the Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders, and was an assistant coach at Central Catholic High School in Portland in 2001.

“I am grateful to have the opportunity to return home to the Pacific Northwest and lead Sporting Cascades FC into USL League One,” Sawatzky said in a release.

Sawatzky’s familiarity with Oregon’s enthusiasm for soccer could pay dividends for a Sporting Cascades club trying to cultivate a fanbase in the Eugene-Springfield area. His experience in USL League One shouldn’t hurt, either.

Sawatzky played for the Portland Timbers in 2001.

In his time with Richmond, Sawatzky won a regular season title, was named the league’s coach of the year in 2022, oversaw more than 190 roster moves and helped turn City Stadium into one of the league’s best-attended venues. Under Sawatzky, the Kickers led the league in attendance in 2023 and 2024, drawing around 4,500 fans per game after averaging roughly 2,000 in his first season.

He was also the Seattle Sounders director of youth development and spent a year as the head coach of the Guam men’s national team.

“I am thrilled to be finally competing with him instead of against him,” Sporting Cascades President Dave Galas said. Galas recalled Lane United FC — Eugene’s former USL League Two team — battling Sawatzky’s Sounders U-23 side in 2013.

“He came through a rigorous search and interview process, which our owner, Bill Cornog, was embedded in, but Darren’s integrity, passion, competitiveness, and track record of nurturing young talent and winning on the pitch really shone through.”

Cornog was announced as Sporting Cascades’ new owner in April. In May, he told Lookout Eugene-Springfield that on-field success is a major goal for the club as it goes about establishing itself in an expanding league.

“We’re going to have to execute,” Cornog said. “You look at what MLS is doing and what the best USL franchises are doing to survive, we’re going to have to execute and do well. I got to do well on the field. And I have to run a good business.”

The hope is that Sawatzky’s hiring aids in both.

“We plan to win games for Eugene-Springfield and the greater Oregon community while honoring the legacy of my good friend John and his amazing family,” Sawatzky said, referencing Sporting Cascades co-founder and sporting director John Galas, the former Lane United FC coach who died of cancer in March. “Thank you to the club for this amazing new adventure.”

Sporting Cascades FC fans can meet Sawatzky during the club’s USA vs. Australia watch party at noon Friday at The Annex, 1236 Kincaid St., Eugene.