Editor’s Note: This story is a part of a weekly ongoing series, Our People, about the community members who help make Douglas County unique.
Ronnie Bustamante has played soccer his whole life.
Growing up in California’s San Joaquin Valley, he went from playing in youth teams to high school teams, and even continued playing for the marine corps after he joined the military.
After moving to Douglas County with his family following his military service, coaching soccer seemed like a natural way for Bustamante to give back to his community.
“I was in the military as an instructor. I’ve always been coaching, building teams, you know, and providing instruction,” Bustamante said.
Now, along with coaching boys soccer at Roseburg High School, Bustamantes as a coach for Umpqua United Soccer Club, a local club founded in 1974 which provides competitive and recreational soccer volunteers for children under 14.
“He’s a great coach,” said Trevor Baird, a junior at Roseburg High School who first started playing for Umpqua United at age 11, and is now on the boys soccer team at Roseburg High. “He really helped build me up as a player and a person, he’s a great mentor.”
Bustamante joined in 2015, when the club had only two or three teams. Now, there’s upwards of 12 teams, all traveling across the state for competition, representing the Umpqua Valley.
“We’ve got a lot more people involved now with helping, coaching, and the board of directors they’re all volunteers,” Bustamante said. “That’s one of the biggest misconceptions that people don’t understand about our club, I think they’re under the assumption that everyone involved is getting paid, that’s not the case.”
Ryan Sonata, another coach at Umpqua United who joined around the same time as Bustamante, now works alongside Bustamante at both Umpqua United and Roseburg High School.
“He wants to succeed and he puts others first, always,” Sonata said of Bustamante. “He’s an exceptional leader and motivator, I hope we don’t take him for granted.”
Soccer is currently the fastest growing team sport in America, according to a Gallup report conducted between 2012 and 2019, showing its growth has outpaced other team sports like basketball, baseball, and American football. Since 2015, the country’s top professional league, Major League Soccer, has grown from 18 to 28 teams, with an additional team planned for expansion in 2023.
Bustamante says that while the sport has seen tremendous growth nationwide, Douglas County hasn’t yet caught on to the craze. Research from polling company Morning Consult shows that soccer fans are typically younger and more diverse, while census records show Douglas County’s demographics skew older and less diverse.
“Everywhere outside of this community, soccer is blowing up. It’s huge,” Bustamante said. “We don’t have the same amount of opportunities in our rural community as everyone else…We have talent, it’s just a matter of developing that talent. I don’t think our community is fully invested in soccer like it is in a lot of other sports, and I think that will change in the coming years with the rising popularity.”
Bustamante said that the biggest hindrance to soccer in Douglas County is lack of access to sport facilities in the area.
“It’s not just soccer but other sports too,” Bustamante said. “Lights kill us. Once the sun goes down, we’re very restricted. And playing on the grass, if it’s wet, the pitch can get destroyed. I think the biggest thing is facilities, facilities and funding, so that everybody has access to play.”
Umpqua United currently has plans to renovate Fir Grove Park, plans that would bring more parking, along with new multi-sport turf fields, complete with lighting and an indoor practice facility. The Roseburg City Council gave preliminary approval to a conceptual plan for the renovations in 2020.
“As we travel up and down, all over the place, we’re playing at these complexes that have baseball, softball fields integrated into a soccer field, that has a lacrosse field,” Bustamante said. “It’s all multi-sport, and I think that’s something we need here in our community.”
Bustamante says that there’s plenty of soccer potential in the area — former players from Umpqua United have moved on to play for the Portland Timbers academy team, and the academy team for Club Deportivo Guadalajara, known as Chivas, in Mexico’s Liga MX. Players have also gone on to pre-professional teams across Oregon, like OVF Alliance in Albany in the US League 2, the fourth tier of the American soccer pyramid.
Lane United FC, another team in USL 2 which plays in Eugene, recently announced that it had acquired the rights to pursue a USL League 1 franchise in Lane County, meaning that Lane United FC may become a fully professional team in the third tier of American soccer, and the nearest professional soccer club to Roseburg, giving young players an opportunity to sign for a professional team close to home.
With the rise of the sport’s popularity in Oregon, and with the World Cup returning to the United States in 2026, Umpqua United’s future looks bright.
“We’re a growing club,” said Sonata. “Because of our dedication, we’re definitely seen numbers go up, and the excitement around soccer in this area is continuing to grow.”
Bustamante shows no signs of stopping, either — he’s currently pursuing a master’s degree in social work, while balancing family life and coaching. It can get busy and complicated, he says, but the payoff is always worth it.
“He’s the best coach ever,” said Alexa Bachmeier, a freshman at RHS. She was part of an Umpqua United team that Bustamante coached last year, a U-14 girls’ team that went all the way to the final of the Oregon Youth Soccer Association’s President’s Cup in Portland, a state-wide tournament that saw Umpqua United finish as runners-up in their age group.
Bustamante says the run was one of his proudest moments as a coach, not just because of the team’s success, but as a way to represent Douglas County as a whole.
“I think one of the proudest things that our community, our players can go from a small rural town, compete against bigger metro areas, and be successful,” Bustamante said. “I think that was probably one of my proudest moments because I want to show the kids they can do it. We can fight, we can reach those goals, they’re not unattainable. Outside of our community, all the directors, all the coaches, have nothing but positive comments about how the kids from our community have so much grit and fight. I think it’s a testament to who we are as a community.”