Monterey Bay Football Club (Monterey Bay F.C.) is expected to enter into its highly-anticipated inaugural campaign with one of the top defensive back lines in the USL Championship this season. Making the move out to the West Coast for the first time in his career, and one of the biggest reasons for the high expectations that have been set by league experts this offseason is veteran center back Hugh Roberts.
Following three seasons with the Charlotte Independence in which he started 80 of his 82 total appearances and cemented himself as one of the USL Championship’s greatest defenders, the 29-year-old now brings his leadership and expertise to Monterey Bay F.C.
“I’m going to bring my experience and help build success in this organization,” said Roberts. “This is our inaugural season, so it’s important for us to have chemistry as a team first and foremost. Of course, there are going to be ups and downs throughout the season, but if we stay strong as a locker room, that is going to carry us the furthest.”
He continued, “I’m trying to win a championship, I’m not going to lie. I’ve been blessed eight out of my nine years so far making the playoffs, but last year was my first time winning in the first round so I know it doesn’t come easy. I want to continue that path of success here and I have high hopes for this team, but it’s not just me. Everyone on this team has high hopes and is expecting to do big things this year. Making the playoffs would be a great feeling for this organization. We’ve had some success this preseason so far and the guys are hungry for more. I think a good playoff run would cap off a great first season for this club.”
While enjoying a successful first campaign is important to Roberts, he has his sights set on more than that. Looking beyond this season, the defender is hoping that the club can create a more permanent stir within the local community.
“I would love for Monterey Bay F.C. to be well known in this area to a point where we can go out, see people who know about the team and see people talking about the team,” explained Roberts. “Normally when you go to a market, a lot of times people don’t even know there’s a pro team in the area. I would love for people to know hands down that Monterey Bay is here. San Jose may be up there, but we have our pro team that is very good here and I want people to get very excited about that and keep that culture strong here.”
On the pitch, the Onley, Maryland native is quite the accomplished defender. He is now entering into his ninth season in the Championship as the 3rd all-time league leader in minutes with 15,937, as well as the 10th all-time leader in league appearances with 203.
“Those numbers are a great achievement,” said Roberts. “I never would’ve imagined that for myself coming into the league. My mindset is always winning first and helping the team out by doing whatever I have to do. It’s been a blessing to even be in this position, it’s definitely an honor. For the past two years I have started training before practice every single day. What really got me to this point in my career is all of the work off the field and all of the time I put in during the offseason. Practice sessions are good, but putting in that work to fix specific areas of your own game is the most important. And going through different organizations and different coaches, I’ve been able to take bits and pieces from each one to elevate my game to a point where I’m a little bit more calm and composed mentally than I was earlier in my career.”
In addition to all of his hard work in training and in the offseason, when it comes to longevity in professional sports it is vital to maintain not only the mental side of the game, but the mental side of life. Roberts knows all about its importance and takes his mental health seriously.
“I think maintaining my mental health throughout my career has been more important than my actual career,” he said. “Sometimes you just need to get away. It’s a long season, it’s a grind, so if on just one day you’re not there mentally, it could mess up your entire psyche and then all of a sudden you lose confidence in your game. The mental side is extremely important because this game is going to throw you a bunch of stuff like contracts not being renewed, having to travel across the country, all of this stuff. It becomes how bad do you want it and how prepared are you for these moments.”
A third key component to staying healthy and playing heavy minutes on the pitch is one of equal importance to mental health; maintaining a strong diet off of it.
“I’m a pescatarian, so I only eat seafood,” Roberts explained. “I’m also a big fruit guy, so I have to make sure I have my smoothie in the morning, then I have to have some protein after that. Really it’s just about making sure I’m full for the most part. I like to eat healthy because a lot of processed food or fast food isn’t the best for us athletes. Our bodies are kind of like an engine so we have to keep it going, and my eating habits have definitely played a role in the longevity of my career and keeping me healthy.”
As successful as Roberts has been in the sport of soccer throughout his career, he has been even more successful outside of it. In 2018, Roberts made the decision to start his own podcast, BackYardFooty, in an attempt to increase the severely-lacking spotlight on soccer within the national media. BackYardFooty provides a unique, behind-the-scenes look into the lives and experiences of professional athletes both on and off the field that will continue here in Seaside.
“I had the idea when I was watching ESPN on the couch and watching these expert analysts talk about every sport besides soccer and I thought, man, soccer needs to get on TV. And I already knew at least one person per team on the East Coast, so I decided whenever they come into town I’m going to interview them on my couch and that’s really how it started,” Roberts noted. “Then once I got to Charlotte it progressed to teaming up with a videographer and photographer, which allowed me to give behind-the-scenes visuals before practice and before game days. And now at this point, BackYardFooty is an entertainment company in all aspects with the idea of elevating the game and bringing more notoriety to the sport. It still isn’t getting enough attention and that is what drives me and is why I’m still doing it now.”
While explaining the idea behind BackYardFooty and the basis of its conception, Roberts also reflected on one of his favorite, most monumental moments of the podcast so far.
“One really great moment on the podcast came on my second Black Lives Matter episode. I had several Black USL and MLS players on the episode, it was about 15-20 players in total,” Roberts shared. “One player specifically, Fatai [Alashe], talked about how several clubs had put out statements to look good on social media, but individually, we were still getting hateful and racial direct messages on our own social media. He said that on my podcast and his club at the time, FC Cincinnati, caught wind of it. It trended for a while in their community and then they ended up donating 250 thousand dollars to local minority communities, all because of my podcast. That was when I learned how impactful it can be to use your platform and speak up. Those types of moments show me that I need to keep going with this.”
And that he did. Throughout his tenure in Charlotte from 2019-2021, Roberts continued to make even more significant strides off the pitch. In 2020, he founded his charity foundation, Footy’s Got You (FGY), and he looks forward to doing more of that here in Monterey County, including providing soccer clinics for children in the local Monterey area this summer.
“It started with another brand reaching out to me wanting to create a Charlotte-specific Black Lives Matter shirt. So I created the shirt and the whole team wore it, the organization was supportive of it, and I was able to sell it in the community as well,” explained Roberts. “Then people started hitting me up asking if they could just donate money instead of buying a shirt, so I started a GoFundMe. In the first year, I was able to raise close to four thousand dollars and that was the start of my foundation right there because I decided I wanted to keep doing this forever. Then I was able to turn it into a 501(c)(3) and it has progressed from there.”
Roberts continued, “Ultimately with this foundation I want to help raise this game in Black and minority communities. Soccer is a pay-to-play sport here in the states, so it’s very expensive and that’s why we typically don’t play it, but I want to make it accessible to everybody. Across the world, if you are good you can play. But that’s not how it is here in America, so that’s my goal is to make it like that here. That’s what fuels me, it’s why I’m going to keep growing this and I hope to effect some change in this community too.”
Also in the midst of a heavy 2020 calendar year, Roberts pioneered the USL Black Players Alliance, an organization led by Black athletes with a mission to educate and empower its members to use their platforms to positively impact their communities.
“It began right around the same time as the Black Lives Matter podcast episodes, we knew we needed to keep this going and keep that same energy,” shared Roberts. “At the same time the whole sports world shut down, the Black Players Coalition in the MLS did their whole thing, and we knew it was the perfect time for us to do something too. It was very last minute. In just two and a half days we contacted the USL, formed the alliance officially, all of that. We were in constant communication with the league, we were on multiple phone calls writing statements and we talked to 100 plus Black players on Zoom to make sure there was synergy going into the first games of the weekend. It was a whirlwind of a year, but it was a great, impactful year. I’m glad we did it.”
He continued, “going into this year, we’re looking to get some donations from the league and then use that money to create scholarship programs for minority kids and donate to local communities that could use it as well. We also want to start creating opportunities for us Black players after our careers as far as coaching, managerial positions, CEO positions, whatever opportunities we can create, that’s a big goal for us. Because we don’t have many coaches in the USL and MLS, only two or three are Black and there’s a bunch of us playing on the field so why aren’t we getting to those positions? We’re aiming to change that.”
Overall, Roberts embraces the opportunity here at Monterey Bay F.C. not only to lead the club into its inaugural season, but to lead and make a positive difference within this community. And he also knows that being here as a part of a new club means a chance to make history each and every day.
“This is special,” said Roberts. “I’m all about history and leaving a legacy and with this being the inaugural season for the club, it’s an important year for us to put our footprint on this community. I feel like this area has been hungry for the soccer scene as well, so I’m looking forward to getting into the community, making a difference and putting Monterey Bay F.C. on the forefront. We’re doing great things here already and for years to come this season can be the template for everyone else to follow if we can continue to do this right.”
