New Port Orchard FC soccer club launches with Leonard at helm

Central Kitsap High School boys soccer coach Patrick Leonard grew up a fan of the Kitsap Pumas, a Bremerton-based men's soccer team that operated as a professional organization upon its inception in 2009.

The Pumas won a national championship in 2011 and played the Seattle Sounders twice in U.S. Open Cup play before the club opted for amateur status in 2016. Two years later, in 2018, the Pumas folded.

Now Leonard is being tasked with leading an amateur men's side of his own, Port Orchard Football Club. The team will make its debut this spring in the Cascadia Premier League, a men's and women's adult league based in Washington and Oregon. The CPL featured 22 men's teams and seven women's teams in 2022. Port Orchard FC is part of the league's expansion efforts in 2023.

"My goal is to make it the highest level of soccer that we've seen since the Pumas," Leonard said.

Port Orchard FC is the brainchild of David Falk, the club's commissioner and long-time Port Orchard resident. Helping found the Cascade Premier League's Snohomish County Football Club in 2017, Falk originally discussed the possibility of forming a Kitsap-based team with Leonard and former Olympic College player Mitch James, who serves as technical director for the CPL.

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily shelved those expansion plans, but Falk said the idea of starting a team in Kitsap reemerged in recent months when James revealed that a CPL team based in Gig Harbor would be folding, and that players from that team were still interested in competing. Falk said further discussions with Leonard gave him confidence to give Port Orchard FC the green light in 2023.

"We're both surprised at how quickly this has fallen into place," Falk said. "But you know, there's a player base, a league that wanted us, a coach that was ready and I had already been planning the soccer team before."

Port Orchard FC already has a logo with a predominately aqua color — "close to aqua," Falk said — that also features a Douglas Fir tree in the middle of the letters "P" and "O," waves signifying Sinclair Inlet and hills signifying the landscape surrounding downtown Port Orchard. Other colors include black with hues of white and green.

"It's an homage a little bit to the original Sounders," Falk said.

Falk said open tryouts for Port Orchard FC will begin in late March/early April and a 10-game regular season would follow starting in late April/early May.

"We're shooting to have our season wrap up by the end of July," Falk said.

The team doesn't have a home venue secured just yet, but Falk plans to discuss usage of Kitsap Bank Stadium with South Kitsap School District officials. He said Sundays would be preferred game days.

With the CPL featuring a two-tiered system (first division/second division) on the men's side with promotion and relegation, Falk anticipates Port Orchard FC starting out in the second division this year.

Leonard said the target age group for players would be anywhere from 18-35 years old. He envisions mixing recent high school graduates and current college players with post-university players who are still active in the game. Between Kitsap County, Pierce County and surrounding areas, Leonard thinks there should be a vast player pool represented at tryouts.

"I want to get a lot of good, young talent that needs more opportunities and spotlight locally," Leonard said, "and mix that with some of those guys that have played in the area that have had a lot of success."

Recalling how the Pumas took Kitsap County by storm in the early years of the club's existence, Leonard believes Port Orchard FC can get people excited again about the sport.

"This could be something really successful for the soccer community in the area," he said.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: New Port Orchard FC soccer club launches with Patrick Leonard at helm