Bay Cities FC embarks on pro soccer journey in Redwood City

This is the team’s final tune-up before starting play in the National Independent Soccer Association — an 18-team league comprised of six teams on the West Coast, with the remainder of the league east of the Mississippi.

BCFC begins league March 26 at Los Angeles Force, the first of a 26-game schedule. It opens its home schedule April 9 against Valley United FC, based out of Phoenix.

In an attempt to limit travel costs, teams will play blocks of games home and away. BCFC will play three of its first four games on the road. In May, they will play three straight road games on an East Coast swing.

NISA is the third tier of the US Soccer system. Major League Soccer is at the top and the Triple-A level, as it is, would be the United Soccer League (USL). USL 2 and NISA would be a tier below that.

“NISA is a … credible level of soccer,” said Matthew Cunningham, marketing director for Bay Cities FC. “It is professional.”

Bay Cities FC is hoping that local ties between front office and coaching staff, along with a roster heavy on local talent, will translate into the community at large embracing the squad.

“The big [aspect] we’re really focusing on is making sure the actual roster and the front office staff are local people. We’re very grassroots, so it bodes well to tap into the community,” Cunningham said. “We really want, off the pitch, to get [involved with] the community.”

Bay Cities FC has certainly lived up to the goal of wanting to make their club as local as possible and have secured the field at Sequoia High School as its home pitch. Anders Perez, team co-founder and president, is well familiar to Peninsula soccer fans as the longtime general manager of the Juventus Soccer Club, based in Redwood City. K.C. Watson, a software entrepreneur who lives in Redwood City, is another co-founder.

BCFC sporting director Eric Bucchere has spent his fair share of time on the Peninsula, previously as coach for the Menlo College men’s soccer team, before becoming coach for the short-lived Burlingame Dragons. He went on to become an assistant coach with Reno 1868 FC of the USL before founding Path2Pro soccer development company.

The roster also has a local presence. While it includes players from around the Bay Area, a couple of local products are listed on the roster — former Half Moon Bay standouts Jacob Penner and Danny Turgeon. Both spent time with the San Jose Earthquakes Academy and had strong collegiate careers. Turgeon is currently the head coach for Half Moon Bay’s soccer team, taking over for his dad, Jeff Turgeon.

Player-coach Christian Dean was raised in East Palo Alto, before starring at Cal and spending four seasons in MLS. Also slated to see playing time is David Kinnear, son of former U.S. National Team member and longtime MLS coach Dominic Kinnear, who himself grew up in Fremont and paired with national team teammate and former San Jose Earthquakes’ boss John Doyle.

David Kinnear was born in Fremont, before spending several years in Texas. He returned to the Bay Area as a teenager and played his college ball at Menlo School.

“We’re a local pro team to give guys a foot in the door. We are expecting a lot of guys to use us as a stepping stone,” Cunningham said. “We have young guys coming from local academy teams. Our goal is to make a pathway to greater teams. … But we have dreams and goals of moving up tiers (in the U.S. Soccer hierarchy).”

Melissa Schmidt, Sequoia High School athletic director as well as the schools’ girls’ soccer coach, has been working fairly closely with the club said it seems to be trying to build things the right way. She said it appears to be well funded and well connected to the soccer community throughout the Bay Area. Schmidt said community turnout was respectable last summer, as the team held a number of exhibition and independent games.

“I went to a couple of games (last summer) and there were fans in the stands,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt believes the timing could be right for a new professional sports option that appeals to families and those who don’t have deep pockets to attend higher-level pro games. She thinks that many people are looking to get out of the house to do things as everyone continues to emerge from COVID lockdowns, but may not be looking to spend a ton of money. She has seen an increase in attendance at Sequoia sporting events and thinks that can carry over to Bay Cities FC.

Go to Baycitiesfc.com for more information. For tickets, go to tickets.baycitiesfc.com.