The Colorado Springs Switchbacks’ decision to move on from head coach James Chambers and sporting director Stephen Hogan just a year removed from winning a USL Championship title, was based on a mixture of the club’s disappointing 2025 season and dissatisfaction with the coaching staff’s vision for how 2026 would be better.

Team president Brad Estes, who took over for Nick Ragain after Weidner Apartment Homes took full ownership of the team earlier this year, detailed the process in a Thursday interview.  

From a performance standpoint, the obvious black mark on Colorado Springs’ 2025 season came in mid-September when the Switchbacks claimed just one victory out of a four-game home stand.

“First of all, I would want to say that we really appreciate everything that ‘Hoagie’ and ‘Chambo’ have done for this organization and for this city. The championship in 2024 was an awesome moment for this town,” he said. “It’s been a tough season. I think we’ve been up and down all year, and we especially fell off toward the end of the season in September and October. We looked to that period, I think we had five home games out of the last seven, and we looked to that period to when we could make some hay, and we just continued to fall off. And ultimately, didn’t really see the plan for the changes that we were gonna need to make to fix the problem for next season.” 

Estes said the Switchbacks struggled tactically, had issues with roster management and were simply too reactive. 

Part of the club’s tactical issues stemmed from not finding effective replacements for Ronaldo Damus, who was the club’s center forward last season, and Devon “Speedy” Williams, who played defensive midfielder. 

“Those are obviously key positions,” Estes said. “I think that was a challenge out of the gate and I think that feeds some of the tactical issues that we saw. We had a bit of inconsistency just as we tried to find rhythm and tried to make some changes mid-year with lineups and with formations and with tactics and just never seemed to be able to come together the way that we wanted it to.”

The Switchbacks suffered heavy losses in terms of injuries this season. The club’s midfield was devastated with Zack Zandi, Anthony Fontana, Marco Micaletto and Aidan Rocha all missing time. 

Similarly, Estes was not convinced of the former coach and sporting director’s vision for dealing with the problem. 

“We just didn’t see the thought process around what we were going to do differently moving forward. For me, if nothing changes, nothing changes and we have to make sure that to the extent we’re seeing issues, whether it’s with injuries, what can we do to prevent injuries? Is it the way we train? Is it our medical care? What are we going to do to fix that?” he said. 

Through the highs and the lows, the Switchbacks were a close group, particularly the core group of players who came alongside Hogan, Chambers, technical director Alan McCann and former coach Brendan Burke in 2021. Zandi, midfielder Steven Echevarria, and three-year captain and defender Matt Mahoney have been in downtown Colorado Springs for the whole ride with the coaching staff, just completing their fifth season with the Switchbacks. 

The extent to which the club’s decision to part ways with Hogan and Chambers will influence their desire to return to Colorado Springs remains unknown. However, Estes exit interviews with players were positive.

“We’ve gone through exit meetings with the players the last two days and have had great conversations with each player. I wouldn’t want to speculate on whether we will have any losses moving forward, but we have had no unexpected losses to this point, and the conversations would not insinuate that we will moving forward,” he said. 

Finally, the Switchbacks’ announced that Hogan’s position of sporting director would not be filled. Estes said he wanted to get the club’s “house in order,” noting that the sporting director position is much more critical to organizations with multiple clubs and a robust academy.