Jordan Ferrell (born 1987) is an American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

coach and technical director with

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a men's professional association football, soccer league in the second tier of the United States soccer league system#Men's leagues, United States league system. It is organized by the United Soccer League (USL) a ...

club

Oakland Roots SC Oakland Roots Sports Club is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in Oakland, California. The club competes in the USL Championship (USLC) as a member of the Western Conference (USL Championship), Western Conference. F ...

Playing career

Ferrell played four years of college soccer at

Cal State East Bay Pioneers The Cal State East Bay Pioneers (also CSU East Bay Pioneers, East Bay Pioneers, and CSUEB Pioneers; formerly Cal State Hayward Pioneers) are the athletic teams that represent California State University, East Bay, located in Hayward, California, i ...

from 2005 to 2008. He was considered a leader for the team and during his final two years with the team he was the captain. After graduating from college, Ferrell went on to play semi-professionally in Germany. While there he played for

SG Quelle Fürth The SG Quelle Fürth is a German football club from the city of Fürth in Bavaria. History The club was formed as the football section of the athletics club TV 1860 Fürth on 1 June 1973. The club's name, SG Quelle, refers to the fact that i ...

in the

Landesliga Bayern-Mitte The Landesliga Bayern-Mitte () was the sixth tier of the German football league system in southern Bavaria. Until the introduction of the 3. Liga in 2008, it was the fifth tier of the league system, until the introduction of the Regionalligas in ...

and

SpVgg Ansbach SpVgg Ansbach is a German football club from the city of Ansbach, Bavaria. The club's greatest league success came in 2001, when it earned promotion to the tier-three Regionalliga Süd, where it lasted for only one season. They returned to th ...

in the

Bayernliga The Bayernliga (English: Bavarian league) is the highest amateur football league and the second highest football league (under the Regionalliga Bayern) in the state of Bavaria () and the Bavarian football league system. It is one of fourteen Ob ...

. While his time in Germany was relatively short, it inspired him to get into coaching.

Coaching career

Amateur and college

Ferrell began his coaching career while he was playing with

in Germany. While he was still playing with the first team he took a job working as an assistant with the U-17 team. Ferrell described it as an eye opening experience and he engrossed himself in the German coaching methods. After he decided to retire from playing soccer professionally, Ferrell had the option to stay on as a coach with Ansbach in their youth academy, however, he decided to return to the United States and became the

technical director A technical director (TD) is usually a senior technical person within e.g. a software company, engineering firm, film studio, theatre company or television studio. They are responsible for overseeing and coordinating all of the technical aspect ...

of Manteca FC in 2011. While still working at Manteca FC, Ferrell became the head coach of the men's soccer program at

San Joaquin Delta College San Joaquin Delta College (Delta College) is a public community college in Stockton, California. It was founded in 1935 as Stockton Junior College. The college serves a district area that includes all of San Joaquin County and parts of Alameda, ...

. In 2013, Ferrell joined the

Pacific Tigers The Pacific Tigers represent the University of the Pacific (United States), University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, in intercollegiate athletics. The Tigers compete in NCAA Division I, and are currently in their second stint as members ...

as an assistant coach for their men's soccer program. During his time as the assistant coach of the Tigers, Ferrell was also the technical director of the Central Valley Monarcas academy. He spent four seasons with the Tigers before moving on to join the

Sacramento Republic Sacramento Republic FC is an American professional soccer team based in Sacramento, California, that competes in the Western Conference of the USL Championship, the second level in US soccer. Co-founded by Warren Smith and Joe Wagoner in 2012, t ...

's youth academy. Among other roles in Sacramento's academy, Ferrell was the head coach of both the U-17 and U-19 sides.

Professional

On July 5, 2019, it was announced that Ferrell would join the

Oakland Roots Oakland Roots Sports Club is an American professional soccer club based in Oakland, California. The club competes in the USL Championship (USLC) as a member of the Western Conference. Founded in 2018 by Edreece Arghandiwal and Benno Nagel, the c ...

a new professional club that would play in

National Independent Soccer Association The National Independent Soccer Association (NISA) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States. The league is previously in the third tier of American soccer and began play in 2019. NISA initially used a fall-to-spring season for ...

, a third-tier professional league. Ferrell joined head coach

Paul Bravo Paul Bravo (born June 19, 1968) is an American former soccer player who was most recently head coach of NISA side Oakland Roots SC. He played six seasons in Major League Soccer, two in the American Professional Soccer League and two in the USI ...

, fellow assistant Larry Jackson,

player-coach A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

Víctor Bernárdez Víctor Salvador Bernárdez Blanco (; born 24 May 1982), also known as Muma, is a Honduran former Association football, footballer who most recently played as a Defender (association football), defender for Oakland Roots SC. Early life Bern ...

, and technical consultant Eric Yamamoto as Oakland's inaugural coaching staff. On December 3, 2019, the Roots announced that Ferrell would serve as the team's new head coach after the team had parted ways with Bravo. In his first campaign in charge of the Roots, Ferrell lead the team to a 1-1-0 record in NISA's fall season. Ferrell further took the Roots to the NISA fall championship game, beating

Chattanooga FC Chattanooga Football Club is an American professional soccer team based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 2009, the team is in MLS Next Pro starting in 2024. Prior to joining MLS Next Pro, the club played in the National Indep ...

3-2 and ultimately falling 2–1 to

Detroit City FC Detroit City FC is an American professional association football, soccer club based in Detroit, Michigan, that competes in the USL Championship. The club played in the National Premier Soccer League from 2012 to 2019 and the National Independen ...

in the championship. On November 16, 2020, Ferrell was named technical director of Oakland Roots and first team assistant Dario Pot named manager. On April 25, 2021, Ferrell took over as interim head coach (while still technical director) after Pot and the club mutually parted ways. On May 20, 2021, the club removed the interim tag for the remainder of the 2021 season. After the signing of Juan Guerra as head coach, Ferrell was solely technical director again.

Personal life

At the time of his appointment to be the head coach of the

, Ferrell was one of two

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

head coaches among the 82 professional soccer teams in the United States. In an article published on

The Players' Tribune ''The Players' Tribune'' is a new media platform that produces daily sports conversation and publishes first-person stories from professional athletes. The platform was founded by former professional Major League Baseball player Derek Jeter in ...

, Ferrell spoke about what it meant to be an American-born black coach in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, a city that "prides itself on the strength and the voice of its black community. He wanted his side to make a positive difference in the aftermath of the

murder of George Floyd On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black American man, was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old White police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk reported that he made a purchase using a c ...

. Ferrell started this by creating a space for his team to "be vulnerable, to be open and honest." He further announced that the entire Oakland Roots organization was joining

Common Goal ''Common Goal'' is the third album by American jazz group the String Trio of New York recorded in 1981 for the Italian Black Saint label.

and would donate 1% of their salaries to organizations that use soccer to combat inequality and justice.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrell, Jordan 1987 births Living people American soccer coaches Cal State East Bay Pioneers men's soccer players Sportspeople from Stockton, California American expatriate men's soccer players in Germany SG Quelle Fürth players SpVgg Ansbach players Pacific Tigers men's soccer coaches American men's soccer players Oakland Roots SC coaches National Independent Soccer Association coaches USL Championship coaches American expatriate men's soccer players Men's association football players not categorized by position San Joaquin Delta College African-American sports coaches