AV Alta FC Is Bringing the Cool to California’s High Desert | OneFootball

With deep ties to its community and a fresh, creative outlook, AV Alta FC is making it cool to be from the Antelope Valley.

In the early 1990s, Daymond John changed the fashion industry when he founded FUBU, a streetwear company geared toward the Black community that was “For Us By Us.”

Thirty years later, AV Alta FC has entered the USL League One with a similar vision to represent the Antelope Valley —  about an hour north of Los Angeles — and connect with the community in a way that few organizations in the area have before. The club’s media team is foundational to the execution of that.

The team’s branding, via their website, social media and uniforms, is Antelope Valley through and through, with a mission to take ownership of the community’s identity. The AV can get a bad rap because of its desert landscape, drugs, poverty, and violence.

“If you tell someone, ‘Oh, I’m from Palmdale,’ I feel like they have this stigma, of just like ‘Ewww, oh, out there? Oh, where all the crazy stuff is happening?’” Wesley Flores, AV Alta’s head of marketing and brand, told Urban Pitch. “So I think that was a big factor in wanting to bring the club here, is because we want to give the community something to be proud of.”

AV Alta president and founder John Smelzer brought Flores on board after seeing NBA star and Palmdale native Paul George wearing a hat from Flores’ brand, The 661 Shop. The company, named after the Antelope Valley’s area code, had the same intention of giving people from the region something cool to represent.

Flores was a natural fit, being both from the area and knowledgable of the market through his brand.

“I think us all wanting to give back to the community is a big reason why we go so hard and try to make the coolest content,” Flores said. “Because without the community, our club would not survive. We literally will not survive the first year if we don’t get the community support.”

But instead of shying away from the Antelope Valley’s unglamorous image, the club has fully leaned into it to create something authentic.

“Growing up, we’re always seeing desert, sand, dead bushes, boring stuff,” said AV Alta FC creative director Marcos Croskey. “Starting the club and getting a feel for the brand, I think we kinda agreed [that] we should try to make something cool. I feel like a lot of us always say, ‘Oh, there’s nothing cool in the AV.’ Trying to just bring the normal things that you see, the Joshua trees and the desert, how can we just make that look cool?”

An example of this is how AV Alta FC revealed their uniforms. The primary kit, which features the jagged Joshua tree, was unveiled with an avant garde desert campaign in Lake Los Angeles, which hasn’t been filled with water for years. The second kit reveal was done via a one-shot video of a carne asada where family and friends are gathered around for a child’s birthday party. At the end, the kid opens a present and reveals the white jersey, designed with 13 stripes for each of the cities in the region.

According to the 2020 Census, 44.7% of the Antelope Valley area identifies as Hispanic. Besides the carne asada video, the team has social media captions in Spanish and website content posted in both English and Spanish. Along with the design elements of the kits that are signature to the AV, Flores enlisted his friends to pose in the new team merchandise wearing their grills and flashy sunglasses to give the community a sense of ownership and belonging with the club. And it’s working.

Thinking Outside the Box

AV Alta FC is following in the footsteps of USL Championship club Oakland Roots, who built their success by embracing a grassroots approach. For the announcement that hometown hero Miguel Ibarra was AV Alta’s first player signing, Flores enlisted his high school friend Santino McNaughton to direct the teaser video.

“He was the first person I thought of when I wanted to do this,” Flores said. “What better than I have access to a budget and I can actually pay my friends who are from here?”

🔗 Instagram

The video was inspired by Mountain Dew ads, Tyler, The Creator videos and a Pharmacy Boardshop skate contest announcement. McNaughton used a fisheye lens for a sense of surrealism that catches people’s attention and a roundtable format reminiscent of That ‘70s Show. It was filmed at Poppy Pizzeria, a family-run spot on Lancaster Boulevard, whose orange signage the community instantly recognizes.

Rather than the typical player announcement that features hero shots of the new signing in the stadium, juggling a ball or hoisting up a scarf, AV Alta wanted to use this opportunity to do something different.

“The creative vision for that spot was very much so to make it kind of weird first and foremost,” McNaughton said.

Ibarra’s career has spanned multiple leagues and countries including the USL, MLS, and Liga MX, along with a stint with the United States men’s national team, and the fact that he was the team’s first signee is significant. Flores compared it to NBA superstar LeBron James finishing his career back with his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Francisco “Panchito” Ramírez, who is the club’s head of partnerships, has a close relationship with Ibarra, and even before the new club’s proposal was approved by the local city council, he called Ibarra to share his vision for AV Alta. Ibarra was considering retirement, but Ramírez’s pitch was enough to convince him to keep playing.

“It’s just like a dream story,” Flores said. “Making it out of the AV…then coming home and being the first signing for the team in your hometown, and being able to play in front of his parents and end his career here. It’s like the ultimate.”

Getting the team off the ground did take some convincing of the community at large. The vision was to transform Lancaster Municipal Stadium, former home of minor league baseball team the Lancaster JetHawks, into a soccer stadium.

“When we were (promoting) the stadium, everyone would send us DMs like, ‘I drove by and it’s still dirt,’” said AV Alta FC marketing manager Baylee Gossman. “And I’m like, ‘Just wait, just wait.’ So now I’m like, ‘There’s the field, guys! It’s not dirt anymore, I promise.’”

From the team’s founding in 1996 to its folding in 2020, the JetHawks were a minor league affiliate for multiple MLB teams including the Houston Astros and Colorado Rockies. Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, and Carlos Correa — all integral parts of the Astros’ resurgence in the late 2010s — played for the JetHawks at some point in their careers.

Kids growing up in the AV barely remember that the team even existed, however.

“I was kind of young when they were here, but I don’t remember ever seeing an ad or a social media [post],” Flores said. “I just feel like they didn’t really connect with the community as much as we are really trying to.”

Besides perhaps a poor job of marketing, it seems that a soccer team in the AV makes more sense than a baseball team. With 35 fields, Lancaster National Soccer Center is one of the largest soccer complexes in the West and there’s also club teams like California Elite and Lightning Soccer Club. Not to mention how the significant Latino population embraces the beautiful game.

“We had the baseball team before, which was like eh,” McNaughton said. “I think I went maybe once and that was like it. And it’s been abandoned for years, that stadium. So when (AV Alta) came, it was like oh, that’s cool, soccer. We have a very big soccer community out there.”

The club has transformed the formerly abandoned venue into a soccer-specific stadium, including a 500-seat safe-standing supporters’ section, and AV Alta FC’s inaugural home match on April 5 has sold out.

AV Alta FC is For the Kids

For the Ibarra teaser video, the original cast was supposed to be older adults playing chess outside the local pizza parlor and being jaded about how nothing lasts while false promises are abound in the Antelope Valley. The direction changed to feature kids sitting in the restaurant actually excited for the new team and pondering which local hero the first signee was going to be: Sean Franklin, Kiel McClung or someone else?

The switch to the kids in the teaser video actually worked out to reflect the team’s hopefulness and intentionality to connect with the younger generations. The three AV natives on the marketing team are members of Gen Z. Gossman was a special education teacher prior to joining the club. She had cohorts from kindergarten to fifth grade and then sixth to 12th grade, so she has seen how just about every age group operates.

“I had got to see a wide range of kids and everything in our community where they’re actively kids right now and they’re actively going through it,” she said. “What do they actually like to be doing outside of school? What are they talking about in school? What is going to goal-orient them? What is going to get to them? So I think my contribution came from the side of knowing the kids in our community.

“I think that helped drive the target towards the kids and how we are kind of working around, not just social media, but targeting them in other ways as well.”

Gossman got connected to the club through Ramírez, who she went to high school with. She saw him posting about the club on his personal Instagram and was intrigued.

She sent Ramírez a direct message offering to help with anything, and he invited her to the team’s crest reveal. Eventually, she’d start working closely with the club, and after connecting with Flores, she became involved in the team’s social media, which she has a passion for and heralds as the most important marketing tool at the club’s disposal.

A key word that surrounds AV Alta is “opportunity” for both veterans of the game and kids in the community alike. Croskey echoes Gossman by appreciating how AV Alta is helping the youth understand various paths of achievement on and off the pitch.

“Seeing AV Alta go into different communities, high schools and stuff like that shows, ‘Oh, he pursued in the creative field and now look at him, he’s doing cool stuff for the club,’” Croskey said. “It’s just inspiring for sure.”

Croskey grew up in the Antelope Valley thinking he had to make it in Los Angeles to have a successful career as a creative — a common belief in the area.

“It’s funny because I grew up like, man, I’m gonna leave the AV. I’m gonna move to LA,” he said. “But I think now AV Alta is here, it’s like I think it just kinda inspired me, let’s start something cool where I grew up and inspire the younger generation.”

McNaughton understands the sentiment.

“Growing up in the AV, things just seem so far away,” he said. “If you wanted to do anything, like see anything just real, like a Dodgers game, Lakers game, I mean hell, even if you wanted to get some really cool clothes back when Fairfax was popping, you heard of these things, but it’s like how realistically can I go and be a part of that? It just felt like such an obstacle to be a part of these things that people were calling cool.”

Before joining the team, Croskey was working at the local Target while he was trying to get his creative career off the ground. He grew up inspired by many different mediums of art, including animation, painting and videography. One day, he was shooting some videos for EatAnother, a local smash burger catering service, at Lancaster’s The BLVD Farmers Market. Some members of AV Alta’s supporters group stopped by and invited him to the crest reveal to get some content. So Croskey called out of his Target shift and showed up.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many people all together in the Antelope Valley for sure,” Croskey said. “I’ve never seen that many people. So I think just being there and really seeing the potential and how much this club’s gonna bring to the community for not even just soccer players, but even people like me that have different skillsets, giving them an actual opportunity to grow and grow their portfolio and grow professional experience to follow their career.”

The 661 Supporters’ Group is further evidence of how AV Alta FC is making an impact for the community. The group brought together two rival clubs for a higher purpose. Two of their founders include a founding member of LAFC’s 3252 supporters’ group and a rival from the Los Angeles Galaxy’s Angel City Brigade.

“For the AV, everyone drops their colors, drops their clubs, and they’ve come together to now build the 661,” Flores said.

Flores points out another game-changing move for the community is how the city of Palmdale approved and is fully funding the AV Alta FC Academy for young players to develop their skills. He played soccer growing up and recalls driving down to Los Angeles and back to participate in club teams to hope for an opportunity at a higher level. The commute was nearly three hours roundtrip.

“You barely stop at In-N-Out on the 14 and get something quick,” Flores said. “Then, you know, you’re asleep, and then waking up for school the next day. And now kids are doing three, four times a week, so it’s just, it’s insane. I’m glad that we can be something that can help kids just focus on school and give the opportunity to the kids who really deserve it out here.”

The JetHawks came and went without anyone batting an eye. But AV Alta FC is embedding itself into the community to create a legacy with generational impact.

“Every time someone asks me, ‘Are you excited about your job and all these things?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I am excited and I am living in the moment,’” Gossman said. “But I think the main thing that I’m excited for is to be like 70 and I see the kids who grew up in the community, now they’re playing for the team and the marketing director is from here still, and all of the kids funneling into it and being able to have the opportunity. I feel like that’s the end goal for all of us.”