I’m not really sure how to write something like this. It’s not something I’ve ever had to do before. Wayne was important. His loss is devastating. That he was no longer part of Louisville City’s ownership group is irrelevant. Without him I’m pretty sure Louisville City doesn’t exist. Professional soccer might have made it to Louisville eventually, but it happened the way it did because of him. He was probably the biggest reason, albeit unwittingly, that the Coopers got started. But the amazing thing about Wayne was, even if he didn’t know about us, he was ready for us before we ever met him.

Part of the story you might know. On September 26, 2013, JC Cissell, Martin French, and John McCullough met me at Vint on Frankfort Avenue and we founded the Coopers. What you might not know is the reason we even got together was because of a comment Wayne had made on Facebook about playing professional soccer in Louisville. This was before anyone knew Facebook was the worst, of course. The four of us had some like-minded responses to that, namely that we knew what MLS was looking for and one of those things was proven support from the community. We messaged each other, and the rest is history.

Another part you probably don’t know is JC had already made contact with Wayne before we ever met, and he was eager to meet us before we were even a thing or had a name. A few days after that first Coopers meeting, Wayne invited us to the lounge at Mockingbird Valley Soccer Club to talk about starting a USL team. He knew a bit about that, having owned PASL club Louisville Lightning and part of the original iteration of the Austin Aztex before they moved to Orlando and became what is now Orlando City SC. He already had a plan for how to fit a soccer field at Slugger, ticket prices, a budget, and the name of a first-time coaching candidate named James O’Connor that then-OCSC manager Adrian Heath had recommended to him. The missing piece, for him, was us. The missing piece for us was him.

We stayed in very close contact from that point until the club officially announced its founding in June the following summer. Y’all have no idea how touch-and-go that period of time was. I nearly pulled all of my hair out over some of our conversations, things seemed so on-edge back then. He was hustling everyone he knew and lot of people he didn’t to become owners. He was hustling the entire Mayor’s office to get a commitment on building the stadium. He was hustling Gary Ulmer to let us play games at Slugger. He was hustling his co-owners at Orlando City to cut us a deal on the USL’s franchise fee. He was hustling us to help him build a ticket base.

Wayne hustled. He expected everyone else to hustle just as hard. Wayne was one of the most driven and passionate people I’ve ever met. He pushed every button he could push to make Louisville City a reality. It’s a real shame he didn’t get to share it its ultimate successes, but there’s little doubt all of us in purple owe something to him. His passing is a giant loss to Louisville and soccer in Louisville. The uplifting part, though, is that because of his contributions to both, the Louisville soccer community will survive and flourish going forward.

Wayne’s hustle may have ended, but it lives on in our club. May it do so forever. Rest easy, Wayne.