A Night to Remember

Photography by Owain Evans.

In a parking lot in St Petersburg, Florida, Brett Lackey stood, beer in hand, awaiting the biggest game of his year.

“I wanted to come down here and soak it all in,” he said. “I drove down here after drinking an Irn Bru, and I just walked around the stadium to see the crew setting up, to see all the prep from the field to the cameras to the fireworks, just to kind of soak all of that in.”

Lackey spoke with a smile on his face, barely displaying the nerves he admitted to holding. His side, the Tampa Bay Rowdies, are set for their second shot at a championship game. The prior year, it fell victim to the pandemic, with the match against Phoenix Rising cancelled due to an outbreak on the Rowdies team.

“I was dreading seeing a tweet that said the game was cancelled because of COVID,” Lackey added. “I know that the likelihood of that was much less than last year, but that would be so heartbreaking. I feel like the past two years has led up to tonight. There’s so much pressure on the game happening today, it seems.”

He isn’t the only one relieved. Drew Gettman too was in the parking lot, decked out in the attire of Ralph Rowdie: the team’s original mascot from the time of his first games in the 1970s.

“We got robbed of, I believe, a championship.”

The quirky nature of his dress stood out, even in a space featuring yellow-and-green pirates. 

“We went to Vegas for the last away game of the regular season,” Gettman said. “Somebody on their team tweeted that since the game is over Halloween weekend, that somebody better dress up as Ralph Rowdie. So I got stuck with it… well, I kind of wanted to do it. We won the game, and now we’re in the championship, so everyone’s like ‘you can’t stop doing it.’”

But the tailgate was a broad church. Among the others present was Alexis Hoffstadter, who first found the club while riding the trolley around after moving to the area.

“We originally stopped at Tropicana because there was a Rays game, but a lot of people were talking about the Rowdies game instead the same night,” Hoffstadter said. “So we hopped back on, came down here, both of us used to 

play soccer so we figured this was the spot. Obviously once you experience the energy, and you get to see Ralph’s Mob and the Skyway Casuals and you get to be a part of this parking lot tailgate family, I think that’s what sold us. We’ve been coming back ever since.”

The emotional connection to the club, and the people who support it, is a powerful one, and one that at times demands dedication.

“My husband and I were actually just in Costa Rica, and we came back early so we could come to the final,” Tampa Bay fan Jennifer Frost said. “We watched the last game in Costa Rica, and we were like there’s no way we’re going to miss it, especially after last year.”

It wasn’t just Frost travelling, with an Orange County contingent present. Among them was Dylan Allen, who had flown overnight, arriving in St Pete at half-past-six that morning.

“I figured it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said, of the chance to see his club claim its first league title.

Allen was part of a group of Orange County fans, all clustered away in a corner of the stand near midfield.

“Maybe we’re not as small as everyone thinks. Yes, we’re a small club, but the fans do exist,” Allen said. “We do our own thing, and we’re here for the club and here for each other.”

In the end, it was the visiting fans that would go home happy. A first half penalty save from Patrick Rakovsky, followed by a brace from Ronaldo Damus and a curling free kick from Mikko Kuningas were enough to give Orange County a 3-1 victory.

After the match, OC coach Richard Chaplow joked about setting the standard too high. Having taken over just months prior, first as interim coach before being given the job permanently, he now has a league title under his belt - meaning the only way to go from here is down.

Still, for a former Orange County player, it meant just that bit more to succeed as a coach where he couldn’t as a player.

“We’re all in the game to win championships, to win medals, to win promotions or have those special moments,” Chaplow said. “It’s a little bit different here in America than back home [in England] because it’s a playoff structure. You could be, in England, celebrating staying in the league because you’re just out of that relegation spot. The only way to have celebrations here is to win your conference, but to get that opportunity to do it twice back to back by winning the championship is really magnificent. I’m really, really proud of the group, delighted that we got it done and now we celebrate.”

Those celebrations pushed on through the night. And for the Orange County fans - Allen included - that were lucky enough to bump into their captain brandishing the cup in the early hours of the morning, it was a night to never forget.

Photography by Owain Evans.