Well, RootsFam, interesting days are ahead.
Roots announced they officially parted ways with Jordan Ferrell from the technical director role by mutual consent on November 13, truly putting to actualization the murmurs of change being “afoot” within the confines of the club’s facility at Harbor Bay Parkway.
Ferrell’s departure means there will now be a new face among the organization’s technical staff. For the first time, a new personnel executive will address journalists at the club’s annual Media Day in March.
Roots wrote in Thursday’s press release that more announcements are on the way: “The Club is taking a fresh approach to staffing and structure in its technical department for 2026 and will announce additional updates in the coming days and weeks.”
Before the announcement, the blog heard rumors that the organization was unsure how to handle Ferrell’s contract, given that they were still paying off former coaches Noah Delgado and Gavin Glinton’s salaries. The parting of ways results in Ferrell freeing himself of his deal, allowing Oakland to move on unscathed.
Approaching an offseason of self-proclaimed change, Ferrell’s resignation still leaves many questions without clear answers.
If Ferrell decided to keep his contract with Oakland Roots in 2026, does that mean those changes were bound to come to executives around him?
Change certainly isn’t set for the president role and Lindsay Barenz, who wrote her goodbyes to Ferrell in the team’s statement. But what about director of player personnel Nana Attakora and vice president of soccer Eric Yamamoto? How ingrained are those two, for that matter?
Was it one man, Ferrell, pulling the strings behind the organization’s structural woes? Or does Ferrell’s departure start an uncovering of the convoluted mess trickling down from above him?
Let’s dive in.
Roots’ convoluted structure
Multiple sources have informed The Blog about Oakland’s structure, highlighting its executive committee without revealing the exact names of its members or priorities of power. But reading between the lines and studying the organization, the committee is fairly obvious.
We know that co-owners Steven Aldrich and Barney Schauble sign the checks and keep the lights on for Oakland Roots, making their opinions a major factor in coaching and personnel. Benny Feilhaber specifically mentioned “ownership” having a difficult decision to make for its next head coach. Aldrich and Schauble being on a committee isn’t exactly a groundbreaking revelation.
Ferrell was initially hired by Oakland Roots as an assistant coach in 2019 during its days in the National Independent Soccer Association under the club’s very first head coach, Paul Bravo. He eventually took over as head coach in 2020 and transitioned to the technical director job in 2021.
Attakora was one of the organization’s first players on its 2019 roster as a center back. He announced his retirement in November 2020 and joined the technical staff as director of player personnel going into 2021.
Barenz, meanwhile, was hired in January 2022 as the new team president.
Given the timelines of Ferrell, Attakora, and Barenz, it’s fair to say someone had a role that preceded theirs. Was it Aldrich and Schauble’s decision-making all along? Or was someone qualified to make the soccer-specific choices from the very beginning?
That brings us to Yamamoto, the club’s VP of Soccer.
Yamamoto predates each of Ferrell, Attakora, and Barenz at Roots. In fact, he’s the one who hired Ferrell as their assistant coach back in 2019 when he was a “team consultant.” He does not list Oakland Roots on his personal LinkedIn page, nor is he featured on the team site’s technical staff despite being a highly influential member of the organization for nearly its entire lifespan.
It paints a picture of the marquee executive staying completely out of the spotlight by design, knowing Yamamoto held a personnel role above Ferrell.
Nearly exactly a year to the day of Ferrell’s resignation, the club hired Glinton as its full-time head coach on November 12, 2024. At that time, The Blog reported that Ferrell was taking less responsibility with Roots’ first team and assuming a larger role with Project 51O’s player development going into 2025.
After that, Ferrell still took to the podium on Media Day before the regular season to discuss Roots’ roster, casting doubt on whether he was less involved. But was Ferrell just the technical staff’s frontman?
During the recent season, one source familiar with Ferrell told The Blog that the technical director was, in fact, being hamstrung in the first-team decision-making process. Another anonymous source with ties to Oakland’s roster indicated that Ferrell “rarely interacted with the players at all.” Both situations align with our November 2024 report.
When Glinton was under the interim tag in August 2024, one of the club’s executives told The Blog they were keeping options open for their next head coach and stressed wanting to make a splash going into the Coliseum. However, the team ultimately went with Glinton.
It’s worth noting that Yamamoto and Barenz were quoted in Glinton’s head coach announcement, not Ferrell or Attakora. Perhaps this is an example of Oakland’s decision-by-committee approach, and that everyone in that committee isn’t on the same page.
Yamamoto has been an assistant coach at his alma mater, Santa Clara University, since 2002. Some of the roster choices scream, “Yamamoto’s guys,” like former SC Broncos Julian Bravo and Kendall McIntosh. It’s difficult to pinpoint which personnel and coaching decisions are attributed to any one executive, but if Ferrell was being held out of control ahead of an all-time worst regular season with an all-time costliest roster bill, how much blame also falls on the technical staff around him?
Ferrell has largely taken the heat for the club’s revolving door of head coaches since 2021’s arrival in the USL Championship. But if Yamamoto holds precedence over Ferrell and Attakora, does one executive leaving under his own volition truly mean the organization is changing for the better when they are overlooking the other two?
If Ferrell was held back from first-team choices in 2025, Oakland will theoretically keep the same five-headed decision-making approach for 2026. This includes Aldrich, Schauble, Barenz, Attakora, and Yamamoto — barring any sudden changes.
In a conversation with John Morrissey, Louisville City head coach Danny Cruz commented that sustained success requires “clear structure within your organization.”
For Oakland Roots, its structure is anything but clear, even after Ferrell’s departure.