The 2025 U.S. Open Cup will kick off this week with a round of amateur teams taking on lower-division professional sides. As the Seattle Sounders sit on the sidelines for the first time since joining MLS, the Tacoma Defiance of MLS Next Pro will instead take the field in the First Round.
Across the field is a team with experience – under a name most in Seattle will recognize – and is making their Open Cup debut. Enter the Washington Athletic Club of the Seattle Recreational Adult Team Soccer, known better as Seattle RATS. A team based out of the social club established in 1930 on 6th Avenue, which has toiled away in the lower rungs of the city’s soccer scene.
Team co-manager and lawyer by trade, Mark Conrad has seen most of it. The former soccer player, whose career spans the U.S. lower divisions and professionally abroad with teams like Serbian club FK Vojvodina.
“I don't know who doesn't like to root for the underdog ... I'm a big Sounders fan too, but there's no way that I'm gonna be rooting for them in the game versus, you know, my own team,” he said with a laugh in a phone interview with Sounder at Heart.
- Wednesday: Ballard FC vs. Spokane Velocity, at Interbay Stadium
- Thursday: Tacoma Defiance vs. WAC, at Starfire Stadium
The WAC isn’t especially known for soccer. With an initial fee in the thousands of dollars and monthly fees hovering around a couple hundred, Conrad admits he probably wouldn’t be part of WAC if it wasn’t for the team. But after a few former college athletes successfully proposed the team as a branch of the Athletic Club, the opportunity to get athletes involved grew from there.
That included no initial fee, a much discounted monthly fee and full access to the Athletic Club’s facilities. A highly attractive offer when most amateur teams are strung out on resources.
“One of the biggest attractions is showing guys the club,” Conrad explained, noting how this amateur team has a pool, sauna, steam room, and jacuzzi just to name a few things. But he also noted that for younger college-age players, the facilities aren’t the biggest benefit. “(WAC has) all kinds of social events. I work as an attorney and I landed the job that I currently have through soccer. It opens up a lot of networking opportunities.”
Washington Athletic Club entered the U.S. Open Cup Local Qualifying tournament last fall, punching their tournament ticket after their final opponent forfeited in December. While teams like Ballard FC of USL League Two and others have played in the Open Cup before, the WAC men became the first Washington state team to qualify for the tournament proper from local qualifying (i.e. not a national league like the USL or NPSL) in the Modern Era, which began in 1995.
Greg Van Belle
WAC’s first time in the qualifying gauntlet started with them beating UPSL side Bellevue Athletic FC, 4-3, off a brace from former University of Washington star Christian Soto. The team next beat Holac FC, 2-1, in Tukwila before hosting a Portland, Ore. side Deportivo Rose City in the third round. The classic rivalry between the two states produced a high-temper affair, but WAC prevailed 5-0 with two late goals coming from Sounders Academy and first-team player Adeseyi "Seyi" Adekoya.
Adekoya isn’t alone among former Sounder alumni that have played for WAC recently. Former Sounders 2 have found their way to the amateur side including players such as right-back Khai Brisco, defender Kasey French, and goalkeeper Saif Kerawala. There’s also former professionals like defender Luke Hauswirth (Union Omaha) and tons of former Huskies from the University of Washington like Soto, a former NPSL Golden Ball winner.
It’s something Conrad and others in the state have noticed over the last few years. Soccer players that either didn’t make it to MLS or have aged out of it are looking for new chapters of their lives.
“What I'm starting to see within the soccer community recently is some of the Sounders guys that have hung up the boots, you see them at (indoor soccer) on Wednesday or Thursday night,” he said. “When you see guys like that around in the community, you let them know what the WAC is about and see if it attracts them.
"In terms of the pipeline of younger guys, I think the biggest attraction is the ability to kind of network. Make recommendations and referrals to guys who are just out of college trying to find jobs and trying to transition from college life and soccer or maybe ex-pros to what they're doing now, you know, in the business world.”
Conrad also mentioned names like former Sounder Kelyn Rowe and current Sounders radio commentator Brad Evans as players who are still around in the active area, playing soccer somewhat.
For Conrad, he isn’t new to the USOC. In 2009, he suited up for the Kitsap Pumas of the then-named USL PDL when the Bremerton-based club qualified for the tournament in their first year. Against the Portland Timbers, who were then a member of the USL First Division, Conrad started for his team in the 3-0 defeat.
“I hit the crossbar with a header that I'll never forget.”
In this new era of the USOC, where pros and Joes clash in the first round, last year spoiled us with seven upsets and a thriller between Ballard FC and Spokane Velocity FC. That will continue this year and WAC will close out the First Round on Thursday night, in a round that could crown plenty of new lower-division darlings.
Hoping to follow in the footsteps of clubs like El Farolito – the San Francisco burrito shop that knocked off Timbers 2 last year – or Christos FC – the Maryland side sponsored by a liquor store that led against D.C. United nearly a decade ago – Conrad thinks his team can make history and beat the Defiance.
“I think that it's gonna be a difficult task,” he said. “My dad used to tell me that nothing of any value comes easy. I think our guys are putting in work right now… I do believe that we're gonna give (Tacoma) a good run for their money.”
