The Board of Directors is excited to share with you that we hired the club’s new Executive Director. Please join us in welcoming Wayne Price to the Bend FC Timbers family!
Wayne was born and raised in Carmarthen, South Wales (UK) into a fanatical soccer family where the sport would shape not just his early years but his entire life to date. His home town club, Carmarthen Town AFC, was one of the founding members of the Nationalized 'Welsh Premier League' back in 1992 and he spent his entire youth career at the club’s Academy before graduating to the 1st team at just 18 years old in 1998 following in the footsteps of his father who was also Captain of the club. Over a 12-year period he also spent time at Haverfordwest County AFC in the same division and still has direct links to both clubs to this day. His playing career gave him the opportunity to play with and against as well as be coached by individuals who had played at the very highest levels of soccer both domestically and internationally.
Wayne started his passion for coaching at 26 years old, while still playing, beginning by taking his UEFA licenses and working within the same Academy system he came through passing on his experience to the next generation of players. Also, during this time, he took the opportunity to complete his higher education in Sports Education & Business before he emigrated to the United States in 2009 to further his coaching resume and eventually ended up starting and operating his own club in 2011. After going through two club mergers as well as being involved in facility development and construction projects, Wayne's most recent role was Regional Director for Princeton Soccer Academy in New Jersey. He was nominated on a four-coach shortlist for the USYS Mid-Atlantic region 'Coach of the Year' for 2021 for teams aged between U13 and U19.
Wayne holds several high-level coaching distinctions, including:
- UEFA 'B' License
- USC 'Premier' Diploma (Distinction Pass)
- USC 'Master Coach' (Candidate)
- USC 'Director of Coaching' Diploma
The board had a clear vision to not just find an Executive Director to operate the club, but to find someone with demonstrated leadership experience and a shared vision of advancing the club in all aspects with particular attention to player experience in the form of advanced programming, college pathways and building community around the beautiful game of soccer.
The hiring committee was comprised of two board members, two parent members and our Director of Coaching, Cole McCool. From a pool of over 400 applicants from all over the United States, the committee then narrowed the field to 26 applicants for initial interviews. The field was further narrowed over several iterations to the final two applicants who came to Bend to meet with board members, club members and staff.
While we found many qualified individuals to fill this position, Wayne was a clear standout in his shared vision for our club and motivation to hit the ground running to address the immediate needs of the club. Wayne’s official start date is January 3, 2022; however, he has already been hard at work meeting with the board and staff and getting up to speed on all things BFCT.
Wayne will report to the Board of Directors, along with our Director of Coaching, Cole McCool. Wayne and Cole had several opportunities to discuss and coordinate their working styles and how they will collaborate to improve and operate the club to best serve our players and members.
“I’m looking forward to having Wayne join us as the new Executive Director. He’s motivated, ambitious and ready to help take Bend Timbers to the next level. The future for the club is bright.” - Cole McCool
"I am absolutely delighted to accept the responsibility of being Bend FC's new Executive Director. What's clear to me thus far is that there are some wonderful people at this club who want us to have a clear vision and culture going forward and I feel I can help with that. Everything is in place here to have a standout soccer club that is inclusive to all and being asked to be a custodian of this organization is a huge honor for myself and my family and one I can't wait to get started. I care a lot about soccer and in particular youth players and my mission is to help them, along with the board, Cole and his coaching staff, succeed. Hopefully I can help really make a difference here and we all must go into 2022 with energy and enthusiasm. I look forward to meeting you all soon." - Wayne
There will be plenty of opportunities to meet Wayne in person when our club resumes programming in January. Please stay tuned as those opportunities will be shared via TeamSnap.
We will also host a club-wide zoom meeting Monday, January 3rd, 2022 at 7pm to give Wayne an opportunity to address the membership at large and answer questions. To submit questions in advance, members can email their questions to [email protected].
Wayne makes the move from East Coast to West with his wife Manuela. They have 4 children, Callum (22) and Lilly (20) who are both in college in the United Kingdom presently, and Fernando (15) and Luciano (7) who will be joining them in Bend. Wayne is a naturalized US Citizen and holds dual nationality. We look forward to welcoming the Price family to Bend and to our BFCT community.