Fort Wayne Football Club
Fort Wayne FC players, coaches and front-office staff members mingled with season-ticket holders and corporate sponsors at JK O’Donnell’s Irish Ale House on May 8. It was a chance for some of the club’s most passionate fans to meet the new players and ask questions of staff members hired in recent months, as the club prepared for its final season in USL League Two before moving to the professional ranks of USL League One in 2026.
Members of the Fort Wayne FC staff, including the club’s Director of Football Operations DaMarcus Beasley and Head Coach Mike Avery, saw up close Saturday the incredible athletes who take part in power soccer.
At Turnstone’s Plassman Athletic Center, Fort Wayne FC was among those volunteering at the Hoosier Thaw event, which was open to all United States Power Soccer Association teams.
Power soccer is one of the most popular adaptive sports in the world, in which team teams of four players go head-to-head in a wheelchair sport that empowers athletes with diverse disabilities, such as quadriplegia, muscular dystrophy, arthrogryposis or cerebral palsy. Power soccer is played in a gymnasium on a regulation basketball court with a 13-inch soccer ball.
Turnstone has offered power soccer since 2006.
Beasley, a four-time World Cup Participant, and Avery, who guided Fort Wayne FC to Valley Division championships in USL League Two in 2024 and 2025, were joined by Patrick Ventura, Director of Ticketing; Rene Sanchez, Team Administrator; Garrett Martz, Director of Corporate Sponsorships; Lucca Motta, Business Operations and Analytics Specialist; and Carin Avery, the head volleyball coach at Valparaiso University and Mike’s wife.
The Fort Wayne FC representatives were scorers and runners in the Hoosier Thaw, and the amazing adaptive sports athletes got time to talk soccer with Beasley, Mike Avery and the rest of the Fort Wayne staff.
Fort Wayne FC is preparing for its final season in USL League Two – which opens May 11 at Bishop D’Arcy Stadium – and the club will move to the pro ranks of USL League One in 2026.
A new state-of-the-art stadium will open at Bass Road and I-69 for the move to the pros.
Season tickets are currently on sale at fortwaynefc.com, and those who buy for the 2025 campaign will get priority in 2026. Single-game tickets for this season go on sale March 26.
Fort Wayne FC is enthusiastic about giving back to the community, including organizations such as Turnstone, which helps people with disabilities gain confidence and achieve their goals. Check out the Fort Wayne FC community page for more on the club’s outreach efforts in Northeast Indiana.
It was a brisk 28 degrees Saturday amid freezing rain – perfect conditions to take the Polar Plunge into the icy Metea County Park waters.
Fort Wayne FC’s Director of Football Operations, DaMarcus Beasley, and head coach Mike Avery were among seven staff members who jumped in to support Special Olympics Indiana.
The club raised more than $8,300 in its first year participating in the Polar Plunge, a testament to the community support of Fort Wayne FC and Special Olympians around the state.
Fort Wayne FC’s Polar Plungers included assistant coach Keelan Barker, administrators Rene Sanchez and Lucca Motta, sports performance coach Eliana Sommer and trainer Tyler Van Camp. Beasley, a four-time World Cup participant, is well known for his dislike of cold conditions despite being a native of Fort Wayne, but he fully embraced what Fort Wayne FC took to calling the “Beas Freeze.”
“As a player, I did not like even using cold tubs, so this is going to be tough for me,” Beasley said moments before jumping into the water and giving an audible scream. “This is something that’s really important to the club, to support Special Olympics Indiana, and it’s important to the entire community and to Fort Wayne. We’re really excited to be here.”
A group of Fort Wayne FC fans, including the Three Rivers Regiment, braved the conditions to cheer on the club’s Polar Plungers. Fort Wayne FC, which is readying for the 2025 season at Bishop D’Arcy Stadium, is indebted to the support of its fans as the club aligns with terrific charitable organizations such as Special Olympics Indiana.
Fort Wayne FC is passionate about its core values, community, perseverance, respect and growth, and looks forward to more events like Saturday’s Polar Plunge.
“We are incredibly grateful for Fort Wayne FC’s passion and enthusiasm in supporting this event,” said Jake Pickett, chair of the Special Olympics Polar Plunge in Fort Wayne. “It was wonderful to have Fort Wayne FC join us and we congratulate them for being our second highest fundraising team in just their first year participating, having raised more than $8,300 for Special Olympics Indiana.”
Fort Wayne FC will have exciting announcements in the coming weeks, including its 2025 schedule, while plans continue to move forward for a new privately funded state-of-the-art stadium to open in 2026 at Bass Road and I-69.
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About Fort Wayne FC
Fort Wayne FC, founded in 2019, is a soccer team in Fort Wayne, Indiana, that currently plays in the United Soccer League Two (USL2) with home matches at Bishop D’Arcy Stadium. Fort Wayne FC is invested in its community and strives to make a positive impact through the game of soccer. Visit www.fortwaynefc.com to learn more.
FORT WAYNE, Ind. – Fort Wayne FC’s Director of Football Operations, DaMarcus Beasley, has pledged to match every dollar raised by the club’s Polar Plunge team. And Beasley, a four-time World Cup participant, will be among those plunging into the icy waters at Metea County Park on Feb. 8 to support Special Olympics Indiana.
Despite being a native of Fort Wayne, Beasley is no fan of cold weather. Fort Wayne FC staff members have excitedly taken to calling it the “Beas Freeze” as they prepare to watch Beasley brave the elements and take the icy dip to raise money for more than 19,000 Special Olympians around the state.
“Anytime I get to work with or participate in raising awareness for the Special Olympics, I’m all in,” Beasley said. “This is a great cause and I’m looking forward to taking the plunge with my fellow colleagues.”
Fort Wayne FC, a member of USL League Two, is preparing for its 2025 season at Bishop D’Arcy Stadium on the University of Saint Francis campus, while building a state-of-the-art stadium at Bass Road and I-69 that will open in 2026.
The team will have a considerable presence at the Polar Plunge, including head coach Mike Avery, assistant coach Keelan Barker, administrator Rene Sanchez, sports performance coach Eliana Sommer, trainer Tyler Van Camp and staff member Lucca Motta, all of whom having pledged to take the icy dip.
Some of them took an advance look at Metea Park on Friday, along with representative of Special Olympics Indiana, and the water was frozen over. Will it be a run-in or a jump-in plunge? That was a big question of the day.
Fort Wayne FC’s commitment to the Polar Plunge and Special Olympians around the state has been featured already by 21 Alive News, WANE TV, and the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.
Also, register to take part in the beloved annual event yourself.
About Fort Wayne FC
Fort Wayne FC, founded in 2019, is a soccer team in Fort Wayne, Indiana, that currently plays in the United Soccer League Two (USL2) with home matches at Bishop D’Arcy Stadium. Fort Wayne FC is invested in its community and strives to make a positive impact through the game of
soccer. Visit www.fortwaynefc.com to learn more.
NEW HAVEN, Ind. – Fort Wayne FC held a roundtable discussion this month with
representatives of local soccer programs. As Fort Wayne FC enters its fifth season of play, with
construction of a state-of-the-art stadium soon to begin, the purpose of the event was to discuss
the club’s core values, foster a greater level of camaraderie and lay out a vision for the future.
“We want to progress to where our success stories are not just about how cool our stadium is or
what our attendance figures for the season are,” Scott Sproat, Fort Wayne FC’s Chief Operations
Officer, told the crowd at 469 Sports & Spirits. “It’s when that first player makes it to a higher
professional league, after coming through our system, that’s part of what we’re trying to do here.
It’s about development of the entire Fort Wayne area soccer community through our club.”
Fort Wayne FC was also represented at the event by DaMarcus Beasley, Director of Football
Operations, and several members of the team’s newly restructured front-office staff. Beasley, a
former U.S. National Team star who hails from Fort Wayne, spoke at length of the desire to work
with soccer programs throughout northeast Indiana to promote growth of the sport.
“This is what I wanted to do when I retired,” he said. “This is a dream situation to be able to help
build something like this in my hometown.”
Fort Wayne FC encouraged suggestions from attendees on the best ways to structure an academy
system so that players can develop their soccer skills and forge a path to play at elite levels.
“We want to represent Fort Wayne,” Beasley said. “We want to have local players in our club,
and we can’t do that without you. There’s no way we can do that without you, simple as that. We
want to find a way to work together in that aspect, building players, building people if they want
to become professional players in their hometown. We want to work with all of you; we don’t
want to have a situation where it’s our way or the highway.”
Club owner Mark Music, Sproat and Beasley are passionate about Fort Wayne FC’s longtime
core values – community, perseverance, respect and growth – but seek alignment with coaches,
parents, administrators and soccer players from northeast Indiana.
Fort Wayne FC, which opens its USL League Two season in May, plans to hold future
roundtable discussions to further collaboration with the soccer community.
“We want to be involved in the game throughout our community of soccer here in northeast
Indiana,” Sproat said. “The ultimate vision is that kids 3 or 4 years old, boy or girl, start kicking
the soccer ball around and they become a part of a true community that serves them through all
stages of their development … beginner to elite level youth player to professional. We all have a
rare opportunity to work together to reshape what that looks like for generations to come”.
Fort Wayne FC will announce its 2025 schedule in the weeks to come.
About Fort Wayne FC
Fort Wayne FC, founded in 2019, is a soccer team in Fort Wayne, Indiana, that currently plays
in the United Soccer League Two (USL2) with home matches at Bishop D’Arcy Stadium. Fort
Wayne FC is invested in its community and strives to make a positive impact through the game of
soccer. Visit www.fortwaynefc.com to learn more.
Fort Wayne FC hosted a free community youth event with open futsal soccer play at Packard Park. Players from Fort Wayne FC, along with Director of Football Operations DaMarcus Beasley, took part in pickup games and taught youngsters how to play soccer on a futsal court.
Each participant received a sack lunch, snacks and a Fort Wayne FC/Puma sling bag.
Fort Wayne FC partnered with the Fort Wayne Parks Department, which set up additional fun games with their Park & Play program. Campers from several Parks Department daytime locations, as well as Bridge of Grace and Wellspring, plus area residents, participated in this inaugural event.
