Orange County Soccer Club hit an unusual trifecta last season. The team started the season with Morten Karlsen in charge as coach. He departed in June for a job in Denmark, with Paul Hardyman replacing him. Hardyman didn’t last long and he was replaced by Danny Stone in August.

Three coaches in one season could be the perfect recipe for disaster. However, OCSC was able to turn adversity into a run to the USL Championship Western Conference semifinals.

“It was not an easy task,” Stone said. “It was a very up-and-down season, but credit to the players for banding together and framing that last two or three months of the season as a new challenge.

“Regardless of what happened before, they were outstanding at pulling together in that dressing room and working extremely hard to make sure that we finished the season in a way that we wanted to. I give them immense praise for the mentality they showed, that’s not an easy task to bounce back from adversity, especially going into a playoff situation.”

Stone led OCSC to a 7-4-1 record, the best record in the USL during that 12-game stretch, to secure a spot in the playoffs. The team’s season ended in the conference semifinal for the second consecutive season, this time with a 2-1 loss at Colorado Springs.

In the offseason, the club removed the interim tag and promoted Stone. On Saturday, OCSC kicks off the 2025 season at Championship Stadium in Irvine against Oakland Roots SC at 7 p.m.

“We’re really looking forward to it, we’re looking to build from that foundation,” Stone said.

OCSC returns 11 players, led by midfielders Kyle Scott and Bryce Jamison, goalkeeper Colin Shutler and forward Ethan Zubak.

Shutler is back for his third season and had 97 saves last season and earned USL Championship Player of the Month honor in September. Scott made 25 appearances last season. Zubak, who is heading into his second season with OCSC, scored 11 goals.

“It was a really interesting season,” Zubak said. “Had a lot of ups and downs, but the biggest thing that we can take from it is that we ended really positively as a group. For me, individually, it was good to catch heat the end of the year as well, that’s the time you want to do it.

“Now that we have consistency in the coaching staff, consistency in the group as far as health, it’s going to be an exciting year.”

OCSC again has a wealth of young talent to watch. Aside from Jamison (19), Pedro Guimares (16) is back for his second season. The Aliso Viejo native recently played with the U.S. U-17s in the World Cup qualifiers.

Nico Benalcazar (23) joins from Cincinnati FC 2, former Galaxy Academy product Cameron Dunbar (22) returns for his second season and San Clemente native Tristan Trager (25) signed from Monterey Bay FC.

“We’re building now with some returning players, but also a lot of new players,” Stone said. “There is always a new phase of rebuilding and adding new players into the squad and allowing the necessary time and putting in the necessary work for that to jell together, which is always a process in itself, and what we do this year should never look the same as last year. It’s different people, different players, it’s a different season.

“We’re very pleased with how we finished the season last year, that will certainly give us a good foundation from which to build and confidence moving into the start of the season.”