Teamwork Keeps Oakland County Football Club Going Through the Crisis

Teamwork Keeps Oakland County Football Club Going Through the COVID Crisis
(Robert Kerr, July 8, 2020)
Despite a cancelled summer soccer season, Oakland County Football Club has continued its mission of community, and fan, engagement in 2020. While unable to embark on their debut voyage into North America’s top pre-professional league, USL League 2, the Clawson based soccer team has pushed ahead with an active approach, on a number of fronts. OCFC entered an e-sports team into a national FIFA soccer tournament, held online panels answering fan questions, supported a fundraiser to donate to Beaumont healthcare workers, and, most recently, volunteered time at a food pantry distribution site in Pontiac.
On June 18th, OCFC Operations and Internship Program Director, Dan Roland, brought out eight volunteers, from his game day team, to spend the day at Trinity Missionary Baptist Church, in Pontiac. The group was able to aide with food distribution efforts for the Fill-A-Bag Feed A Family food pantry. “The community gives so much to OCFC, so we try to give back the best we can, especially during this trying time. We’re all on the same team and need to help each other out” said Roland.
The day of volunteerism was the first opportunity for the game day team to work side-by-side, when, in a normal year, the soccer season would be in full swing. Like so many other ventures, the internship program has had to become remote and more digital. Roland has had to reform the program from executing game night operations at Clawson City Park Stadium, to zoom projects and guest speakers.
The players were able to gather and practice for the first time recently, also. June 23rd marked the first in-person training of Oakland County FC players in 2020. OCFC Head Coach Vinnie Vasilevski’s first training session as the club’s Head Coach, was primarily a bonding, and chemistry building exercise. The voluntary training session was more a way for the team to meet and engage with each other, as most of the team had not seen each other since the conclusion of the 2019 season. The 2020 roster will be invited to return in 2021.
Oakland County Football Club is a semi-professional soccer team founded in 2015. They have been playing in Clawson since 2018, and are Michigan’s only sports team to have adopted a supporter ownership model. Learn more about the team’s endeavor’s by following @oaklandcountyfc on Twitter, or visiting https://www.oaklandcountyfc.com/

Save this post to PDFPrint this post