Earlier this month marked the start of preseason for the back-to-back-to-back USL League Two Northwest Division Champions. Led by head coach Mutanda Kwesele, this group of players and staff will look to win a fourth straight division title and complete some unfinished business by returning to and winning the National Final.
A combination of returners and newcomers make up a highly competitive and deep roster that prioritizes local soccer talent both on the pitch and amongst the technical staff.
Ahead of the May 15th home opener against FC Olympia, let’s examine what to look out for as the club begins its division title defense.
Key Returners
The 2026 roster is headlined by a number of returners from last season’s conference-winning side. With heavy turnover from year to year in USL 2 as a whole, it is rare to find a team like Ballard FC which has been able to find continuity in their roster since their inaugural season in 2022. This continuity allows Ballard FC to have a roster filled with USL 2 experience even with the club only going to their fifth season. The roster includes 18 returners, including one player from the 2023 National Championship roster and the inaugural 2022 season (Christian Engmann).
In goal, Stockton Short returns to Interbay after being the starter for much of 2025. In the fall, he was named WAC Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year and got selected by the Seattle Sounders in the third round of the MLS SuperDraft. Trevor Wilson also returns in goal after a stellar season at San Diego State University.
Across the backline, seven of the twelve rostered defenders are returners from last season, and en eighth player, Etienne Veillard, was a training player last summer. The seven returners are Engmann, Luke Hammond, Isaac Ketcham, Andrew Myerson, Omar Grey, Tanner Dutra, and Harrison Bertos. Engmann and Hammond were co-captains in 2025 and will look to lead the defense to another strong campaign.
Sean Sent, Ray Mendez, Beto Apolinar, Juan Alvarez, Cameron Cruz, Connor Tollan, Zach Ramsey, Abeselom Zemenfes and Cristian Chel Lara return to the midfield. Zemenfes was the USL 2 Western Conference Player of the Year in 2025 and will look to star in the middle of Pagliacci Pitch once again. Ramsey and Cruz were both key players for the University of Washington as they won their first-ever National Championship in the fall. After the college season, Ramsey was selected in the first round the MLS SuperDraft by the Vancouver Whitecaps.
In attack, there is a duo of returners with Ray Mendez and Elliot Spatz coming back. Mendez and Spatz are both three year players for Ballard FC. Spatz scored three goals in 2025, including the lone goal in a 1-0 win over the Portland Bangers. Mendez was selected as a USL 2 Top Performer in early June of last year after a great start to the summer.
New additions
Alongside the 18 returners are a host of exciting new players to complete the roster.
With nine players (Richie Aman, Joe Dale, Charlie Kosakoff, Charlie Holmes, Charlie Lanphier, Austin Brummett, Omar Yehya, Nii Engmann and Jackson Buck) from the 2025 roster going pro, there are some positional question marks going into the season. The biggest question mark is in attack as seven players who regularly featured in the front three are now plying their trade professionally. To answer this, Ballard FC have added some high profile attacking talent from the college level. Two local duos highlight the new attacking additions as Alex Bazia and Alex Notzka from Seattle University as well as Emmett Layman and Jordy Dierks from the University of Washington join the offense this summer. Bazia and Notzka were both TopDrawerSoccer WCC Players to Watch heading into the 2025 season. Layman and Dierks are both new to Washington, joining the squad this spring. In addition to the two duos, Anton Hjalmarsson, Joschi Schelb, and Dunes Nielsen make up the rest of the attacking unit. Schelb and Nielsen were both All-Conference players in the Big Ten and Western Athletic Conference respectively this past fall while Hjalmarsson was a key player for one of the best University of Portland teams in school history.
Outside of the attack, some new players to keep an eye on are Cianole Nguepissi in defense and Jack-Ryan Jeremiah in midfield. Nguepissi was named the WAC Preseason Defender of the Year and started alongside Engmann nearly every match for San Diego State University. Jeremiah is a multiple time All-Ivy League player at the University of Pennsylvania and a Sounders Academy product. Defenders Angel Martinez from University of Portland, Victor Cabañas from SPU, and Jackson Farrell, son of Ballard FC’s first head coach Jason Farrell, have also joined the squad.
Local Ties and Collegiate Chemistry
A key part of any roster is team chemistry, and Ballard FC’s 2025 team chemistry is aided by the fact that so many of these players are college teammates. Locally, the roster includes nine players who have played for or will play for the University of Washington, five from Seattle Pacific University, and three from Seattle University. The nine Washington players include returners Short, Ramsey, Cruz, Bertos, Sent (graduated), and Grey (graduated) as well as new additions Layman, Dierks (incoming freshman) and goalkeeper Noah Newman (incoming freshman). The three redhawks are Bazia, Notzka, and Hammond (graduated). For the falcons, returners Mendez (graduated), Ketcham, Chel Lara, and Tollan (graduated) have all played together at Interbay Stadium alongside new addition, Cabañas.
Even farther away this trend continues with groups at an additional four universities. Returners Engmann, Apolinar, and Trevor Wilson played alongside Nguepissi at San Diego State in the fall. Nielsen and Dutra both played at Utah Tech University alongside Short before his transfer to Washington. Hjalmarsson is not the only Portland Pilot on the squad as he’s joined by defender Angel Martinez. Lastly, Schelb and Veillard form the final duo as both play for the University of North Carolina.
Players with Pedigree
Obviously 18 of these players won both division and conference titles last summer, with Engmann also winning the National Title in 2023. But the pedigree does not stop there.
There are four National Champions, six WAC Champions, a Big Ten Champion, Ivy League Champion, and a NESCAC Champion. Over ten players on the roster received either all-conference or all-region honors in the fall. Four players have already made their professional debuts.
This summer, the players will look to pad their resumes even further, and bring more silverware to Ballard FC and the fans. Their first test comes this Friday as they host FC Olympia at 7:30pm. See you there!
The Complete 2026 Ballard FC Roster.
Written by Max Dresbach
