Building Something That Lasts: Oliver Gage and the Long Game at Fort Wayne FC
- Jason Longshore
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
By the time Oliver Gage arrived in Fort Wayne, he knew exactly what he was looking for.
Not a quick fix.
Not a stepping stone.
Not a logo on a temporary lease.
He was looking for a project with permanence.
After leaving Loudoun United under circumstances he still describes as “very disappointing,” Gage wanted his next stop to offer something rare in the lower divisions of American soccer: stability, integrity, and ownership committed to the long term.
Fort Wayne, led by hometown icons DeMarcus Beasley and Mark Music, offered exactly that.
“This is legacy for the two owners,” Gage said on SDH AM. “This isn’t a team that’s renting a baseball stadium and seeing where it goes. This is a project that’s here to stick around.”
For a sporting director who has built much of his career from blank slates, that mattered.
Gage has a pattern.
He was the first analyst in college soccer at the University of Virginia.
Among the first in MLS at Houston.
Part of the foundational work in the Canadian Premier League.
Then tasked with building infrastructure from scratch at Loudoun.
“I resonate toward blank-slate type projects,” he said. “Setting structures in place that hopefully last.”
Fort Wayne fits that profile.
What surprised him most was not ownership ambition, but the existing supporter base.
For a USL League Two side, Fort Wayne regularly drew crowds north of 2,000.
The culture was forming.
The club was not starting from zero.
“This is a club that’s ready,” Gage said. “It’s not a brand-new expansion club that’s never kicked a ball.”
That foundation shapes how Fort Wayne is building its first professional roster.
The process is modern and relentless.
WhatsApp handles agents.
Data builds the shortlists.
Zoom handles the interviews.
“My phone has flashed five times during this conversation,” Gage said.
But beneath the technology is a philosophy rooted in honesty.
Fort Wayne is not selling a finished product.
The stadium is still an idea.
The roster is new.
The proof does not yet exist.
That, Gage admits, is the hardest part.
“We’re selling an idea versus a reality,” he said. “Players have said, ‘That sounds great, but you’ve got no proof you’re actually going to do this.’ And they’re right.”
Rather than oversell, Gage leans into transparency.
“I tell players, ask me the tough questions,” he said. “I’d rather lose a player now than bring him in and have him realize in April he made a mistake.”
The same balance defines his approach to data and intangibles.
Gage is unapologetically analytical. He believes most things in soccer eventually show up in performance.
“If heart and desire help you, it should show up somewhere,” he said. “More tackles. More goals. Better results.”
Where the human element matters most is personality.
“There are guys we love as players, and we finish the call and say, let’s pause,” he said. “And others where within 30 seconds we’re offering a contract.”
One of those quick decisions was Javier Armas.
“Every single person we spoke to said, stop talking and go get him,” Gage said. “He’s great.”
In a young roster by design, Armas arrives not just as a midfielder, but as a cultural anchor.
“He’s going to be a focal point of the locker room,” Gage said. “Not just on the pitch, but off it.”
As preseason opens, Fort Wayne is ahead of schedule.
Fourteen to fifteen players signed.
Medicals underway.
Training begins Monday.
Around him, construction crews are still building the office space.
The stadium remains a rendering.
The project is, quite literally, unfinished.
Gage seems comfortable there.
“It’s like the day before a concert,” he said. “The stage is still being built, but everything is on track.”
For a sporting director who has spent his career building what did not yet exist, that may be exactly where he works best.
Not chasing headlines.
Not selling illusions.
Just laying foundations that, this time, he believes will last.
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