Defiance add two more former Ballard FC players

The Tacoma Defiance added two more former Sounders Academy players to their roster when they announced the signings of midfielders Charlie Gaffney and Peter Kingston. Both players had most recently played for Ballard FC while attending college. Gaffney spent four years at Penn, while Kingston played three seasons at Seattle University before playing the last two years at the University of Washington.

Kingston, 23, was a bit of a late bloomer and enjoyed a breakout campaign during the summer of 2023 with Ballard FC when he had seven goals and 11 assists in 18 matches to help the Bridges win the USL2 National Championship. He then transferred to UW and had eight goals and nine assists over two seasons.

Gaffney, who played for both the Sounders and Timbers academies as a youth, has not had eye-popping stats but has been successful at each of his stops, which included three seasons with Ballard.

The Defiance roster currently sits at 18 players, which doesn’t include the likely additions of Sounders SuperDraft picks Ryan Baer and Damien Alvarez. Including Alvarez and Homegrown Player Leo Burney, there are now six former Ballard FC players in the Sounders organization. Lars Helleren and Danny Robles were already signed to Defiance.

Tacoma Defiance roster

GOALKEEPERS (2): Lars Helleren, Mo Shour

DEFENDERS (5): Elias Katsaros, Kalani Kossa-Rienzi, Antino Lopez, Birame Diaw, Kaito Yamada

MIDFIELDERS (9): Snyder Brunell, Charlie Gaffney, Sebastian Gomez, Omar Hassan, Antonio Herrera, Jackson Khoury, Peter Kingston, Danny Robles, Rafferty Pedder

FORWARDS (2): Osaze De Rosario, Yu Tsukanome