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Fire Squad Carries on Fresno’s PDL Legacy

By CHRIS HOCKMAN - chris.hockman@uslsoccer.com, 07/13/18, 10:20AM EDT

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Fuego supporters group has rallied behind Foxes throughout inaugural season


Photo courtesy Kiel Maddox / Fresno FC

FRESNO, Calif. — Starting in 2014, Fire Squad Fresno has been cheering on soccer in the Northern California city. That fandom began with supporting the Premier Development League’s Fresno Fuego, but this year with the arrival of the USL’s Fresno FC that support has extended to include the city’s first professional club.

“Fresno FC's current director of marketing, Jordan Wiebe, and a few soccer-loving friends founded the group just thinking it would be a fun little thing for them to do,” said Fire Squad leadership member Andrew Ueland. “Soon enough, the creative energy and excitement started attracting more and more folks to the matches. Fire Squad came directly from the Fresno Fuego's name, fuego being Spanish for fire.”

Originally established to support the Fuego, shifting that support to add its new alligience to the Foxes created challenges for the group. Having established an identity that included a logo, scarves, and songs, the group had to work hard to take that identity and update it to incorporate new elements.

“We already had a 200+ member supporters club, but now our team's colors and name had changed,” said Ueland. “We decided to keep our traditional red and black colors as a nod to the history of soccer in Fresno, primarily Fuego, but also embraced the new club with their colors. It creates a wild combination of color in our section for sure. Also rewording all of our songs and chants from the past has been both a joy and difficult at times.

“Aside from the aesthetics, it’s also been a challenge reaching newer members as Fresno FC has a much farther reach marketing wise than Fuego did. It creates a whole new fan base to engage and show how much fun Fire Squad is.”

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Fresno FC supporters - led by Fire Squad Fresno - have provided vociferous support of their new club this season. | Photo courtesy Kiel Maddox / Fresno FC

Having cheered their team on at Chukchansi Park for years with the venue having stood as the longtime home of the Fuego, the local knowledge and relationships Fire Squad Fresno have built has made pregame and postgame around the park easy. With the Tioga-Sequoia Brewing Company across the road from the stadium, both Fire Squad and the local brewers have upped the scale of the pregame festivities.

“We always meet beforehand at Tioga-Sequoia Brewing Company across from the stadium. They've been a wonderful sponsor of Fire Squad and in turn, we show up in droves before the match. We usually have a DJ playing, 2-3 food trucks available, and a great selection of beer,” said Ueland. “About a half hour before kickoff we congregate outside the brewery with our flags and drums and march down the street to the stadium. Once inside we do our march through the stadium concourse to our section, which the fans really seem to enjoy, there’s always cameras out and people cheering us on.”

As with any group there’s always room for improvement and for Fire Squad, Ueland feels that should be doing more for the community. While the group has taken some opportunities to give back through  community work, with larger numbers than the early days, there could be more to come as the group looks to branch out in similar fashion to other supporters groups around the country.

“This is an area where I feel we can be more proactive. We have had charity events, but I feel we can do more,” said Ueland. “I look to other groups and their extensive community and charity work. We definitely need to do more as Fire Squad in that area.”

With the wider visibility the Foxes have brought to the soccer community in Fresno overall, the Fire Squad stand ready to back the club and their city every step of the way.

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